Vox Sentences: Why Trump’s budget matters

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The Trump administration proposes a budget; the Philippines’ President Duterte offends women everywhere.

The White House budget proposal for 2019 is out

Win McNamee/Getty Images

• The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget released its proposal for the fiscal year 2019 budget Monday morning, and it’s a doozy. [NBC / Ali Vitali]
• The budget proposes “repealing and replacing” Obamacare, cutting more than $200 billion from to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps), and making $266 billion in cost reduction in Medicare, among many other program cuts over 10 years. [Vox / Dylan Matthews]
• Meanwhile, spending would skyrocket for the military and infrastructure, including a $777 billion boost to defense spending over 10 years, $199 billion over 10 years for a new infrastructure program, and $550 billion in new tax cuts. [Vox / Dylan Matthews]
• The bill also includes a proposal to cut federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which includes PBS and National Public Radio (NPR) stations. [The Hill / Joe Concha]
• Funding for the International Space Station would be under the knife as well. [The Verge / Loren Grush]
• Democrats, unsurprisingly, hate the plan, saying it confirms their long-held belief that Trump would pivot from large tax cuts for corporations to a push to scale back government benefits for low-income Americans. [Washington Post / Damian Paletta and Erica Werner]
• Presidents’ budgets are rarely enacted as written. They are a window into the administration’s priorities, however, and can set the table for future policymaking — especially if Republicans expand their Senate majority in 2019. [Vox / Dylan Scott]

“We will just shoot your [genitals]”

• Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is facing widespread criticism after bragging that he had ordered soldiers to shoot female communist guerrillas in the genitals. (Yes, really.) [NYT / Felipe Villamor]
• According to a government transcript of a speech he delivered on Wednesday, February 7, where the word “vagina” was replaced with a series of dashes, Duterte said Philippine soldiers should not kill women rebel fighters; instead, “We will just shoot your [genitals], so that if there are no more [genitals], you would be useless.” [Presidential Communications Desk]
• In a statement sent to Al Jazeera, Human Rights Watch said Duterte’s declaration “is just the latest in a series of misogynist, derogatory and demeaning statements he has made about women.” [Al Jazeera]
• Duterte also has a tendency to insist that his remarks were “just a joke” when called out for them, and this incident was no exception. His spokesperson Harry Roque apparently accused women of “overreacting” to the president’s comments. “I mean, that’s funny. Come on. Just laugh,” Harry Roque said. According to the official transcript, the crowd did, in fact, laugh at Duterte’s remarks. [Washington Post / Emily Rauhala]

Miscellaneous

• DC tattoo artists are protesting what they say is a costly and unnecessary health regulation. Their grievance? The ratio of bathrooms to artists. [Washington Post / Jessica Contrera]
• More than 70 years ago, a bomb was dropped on London during World War II; now its discovery has prompted authorities to cancel flights at London City Airport all day Monday. But the delay shouldn’t last much longer, with the bomb set to be “exploded underwater” overnight, according to the Royal Navy. [NPR / Merrit Kennedy]
• The once-ubiquitous water bed has almost entirely disappeared from American homes and consciousnesses, but the strange sleeping apparatus need not be forgotten. [Apartment Therapy / Nancy Mitchell]
• Wondering why Olympic medalists stand on the podium gnawing on their medals? Wonder no more. [Mental Floss / Jake Rossen]

Verbatim

“I want to go over to the judges and say, ‘Can I just have a Xanax? And a quick drink? I’ll be fine.’” [Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon to an NBC reporter on what’s going through his mind while he’s on the ice / Caroline Praderio]

Watch this: Why the triple axel is such a big deal

Triple axels can turn skaters into legends. This is why. [YouTube / Phil Edwards]

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