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Trump Budget Destroys Jobs, Endangers Hard-Working Families

May 22, 2017
Blog Post
Tomorrow, President Trump will release his 2018 budget – a proposal that guts investments in jobs and hollows out our economy, including $1.7 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other anti-poverty initiatives, children's health insurance and Social Security Disability Insurance.

Washington Post: Trump to propose big cuts to safety net in new budget, slashing Medicaid and opening door to other limits

For Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health care to low-income Americans, Trump's budget plan would follow through on a bill passed by House Republicans to cut more than $800 billion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this could cut off Medicaid benefits for about 10 million people over the next decade.

Vox: Donald Trump's budget proposal breaks his promise to not cut Social Security

Let's be extremely clear about something: SSDI stands for Social Security Disability Insurance. It is part of the Social Security program. While in the public mind, "Social Security" usually connotes payments you receive in retirement based on your prior earnings, Social Security also encompasses a program compensating past workers who develop disabilities that prevent them from participating in the workforce. That's disability insurance, the program that Trump's budget is set to cut.

Associated Press: Huge cuts to food stamps part of Trump's budget proposal

President Donald Trump's budget would drive millions of people off of food stamps, part of a new wave of spending cut proposals that already are getting panned by lawmakers in both parties on Capitol Hill.

Trump's blueprint for the 2018 budget year comes out Tuesday. It includes a wave of cuts to benefit programs such as Medicaid, federal employee pensions, welfare benefits and farm subsidies.

Washington Post: Trump's first full education budget: Deep cuts to public school programs in pursuit of school choice

Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives.

The administration would channel part of the savings into its top priority: school choice. It seeks to spend about $400 million to expand charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools, and another $1 billion to push public schools to adopt choice-friendly policies.

POLITICO: Trump budget reflects White House internal divisions

The budget is expected to go much further than the $54 billion in spending cuts Trump called for in his preliminary "skinny budget" in March, which completely wiped out more than 60 domestic programs, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the document.

A budget is a statement of values.  And with this budget, the values of President Trump and Republicans in Congress are on full display: to endanger the future of hard-working American families.

Rather than continuing to break even more campaign promises, President Trump must work with Democrats to strengthen America with investments in jobs, education, clean energy and lifesaving medical research.