Trump Budget Inflicts Pain On Everyone Except the Wealthy and Corporations

(Press Release) WASHINGTON, D.C.— President Trump’s spending blueprint for his “America First” agenda “will disappoint everyone, including those who voted for him, unless they are  wealthy,” said Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota.

“Four months into Trump’s administration, the Latino and immigrant communities have learned to push back on regular assaults from the Trump administration. But the full budget released today should wake up all Americans who have been left out of Trumps’s ‘America First,’ agenda, as outlined in his budget,” Monterroso said. 

“The best outcome for his list of budget priorities is that it be trashed by Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, whose constituents would be severely impacted if it is carried out by Congress,” Monterroso added.

Proposed spending cuts would be used to pay for tax cuts benefitting the wealthy and corporations as well as a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that has bipartisan opposition.

The deep budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration include:

• $610 billion cut in Medicaid that provides health care to children, the poor and disabled, as well as nursing home care to millions of elderly who do not have the financial resources to pay for it on their own. This is in addition to the bill recently passed by the Republican-controlled House to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut $800 billion in Medicaid cuts over the coming decade;
• $193 billion over the next decade from the US Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known as food stamps, that serves that serves mostly U.S. citizen children and elderly. The proposed cut is about one-fourth of the current budget;
• $21 billion from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and $40 billion from cuts to the earned income tax credit and child tax credit that go to the working poor;
• $666.2 million annual cuts in EPA grants that are  used to address pollution from lead, clean up toxic sites, and ensure access to clean water and much more. If Congress were to follow Trump’s plan to cut EPA’s budget by almost a third, the result would be more asthma attacks among children, more toxic pollution in our communities, and more lead in our drinking water.

Besides tax cuts for the wealthy, Trump funds his mass deportation force, with $1.6 billion budgeted for the border wall, as well as $300 million for more border patrol and immigration agents that are included in a $4.6 billion increase in spending for border security.

“If members of Congress expect long careers on Capitol Hill, they will look after constituents instead of protecting the hide of a president who already is in deep political trouble. Latinos, immigrants, and all Americans expect government to protect their families and not pull away the safety nets that support their daily lives,” Monterroso said.