Trump’s Budget: A Slash-and-Burn Approach that Will Hurt Americans

Today the president released his first full budget proposal for the fiscal year 2018, and it’s as bad as we expected. Included in the plan are drastic cuts to many of the most successful assistance programs that have helped working and middle-class families move ahead during tough economic times. It would cut $1.7 trillion in funding that provides a lifeline to millions of Americans, and it would gut key programs that help families afford food, housing, and health care.

A budget is a moral document that should reflect our values. The Trump Budget is an assault on children and working families.

“From rural America to the urban streets, from the poor to the middle class, President Trump’s budget is an affront to hardworking American families across this nation,” said NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía in a statement. “This budget clearly shows where his priorities lie and it’s not with the vast majority of Americans.”

Here are just some of the things the president’s budget would do:

• It would rob taxpaying families. It snatches $40 billion from taxpaying families, by taking away eligibility for tax credits they currently qualify for—hitting the livelihood of more than four million Latino children.
• It would squander millions of taxpayer dollars for a deportation machine and wall of intolerance that directly harm millions of American families and go against the immigration solutions supported by the vast majority of the country. With this budget, Trump continues to push an agenda that threatens one of our greatest national assets—the strength of our diversity— by destabilizing America’s working families, blocking the door to opportunity, and literally taking away food from children.
• It would block educational opportunities for children and students. It eliminates funding for after school programs for low-income kids and reduces funding for higher education programs.
• It would endanger families’ health. It cuts $800 billion from Medicaid, which could impact 24 million Americans, the majority low-income families.
• It would threaten family economic stability. It blows a hole in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program), which helps working families make ends meet and stay in the workforce, by slashing food stamps 25 percent.

The massive cuts to the SNAP and the gutting of Medicaid are especially troubling. The administration’s proposal includes $193 billion in cuts to SNAP while calling for increased spending on immigration enforcement, as well as tax cuts for the wealthy. Currently, the government already spends more on immigration enforcement than on all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.

“With this budget, the administration is proposing taking food off the tables of American families, taking health coverage from those who need it most, and relegating education to the bottom of the priorities list, all while helping the wealthy get wealthier and unnecessarily directing billions more to mass deportations designed to split families apart and leave millions of innocent citizen children destitute,” said Murguía.

NCLR roundly rejects this president’s budget, and any budget that would scale back progress for American families.

“We call on Congress to enact a budget that reflects the needs of their constituencies. The budget should prioritize our nation’s workers, families, students, and innocent children, not the one percent,” said Murguía.