The budget includes more than $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid—and significant cuts to SNAP programs.
On Tuesday, House Republicans passed a budget resolution—and it does not bode well for women and their families.
As the Democratic Women’s Caucus reported, the resolution includes more than $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid—which, by the way, covers 40 percent of births that happen in America. The budget also includes significant cuts to SNAP programs that support nutrition for poor families, and helps feed over 13 million American children. We’re already in a care crisis—and Republicans are hell bent on making it worse.
Why is this happening? Well, it’s so that the massive 2017 Trump-spearheaded tax breaks that went to billionaires and corporations can be renewed—and even expanded. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), “The resolution also authorizes the Ways and Means Committee to increase the deficit by $4.5 trillion over the same time period”—that’s $900 billion more than what’s needed to preserve Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, and allows for even more tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy that Republicans have been shamelessly pushing. Trump’s promises that he won’t touch Medicaid are empty—to achieve these kinds of spending cuts, according to the CBPP, it’s also likely Republicans in Congress will go after things like Medicare, Supplemental Security Income, Unemployment Insurance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and more.
Put simply, in the words of Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03): “Women cannot afford the Republican budget.”
What Republicans are doing here is, predictably, deeply unpopular with the American people. Three in five are “broadly concerned” about the budget cuts, with even larger percentages expressing concern about the “specific cuts to health care for women and veterans,” “medical research to fight diseases,” and more, per Navigator. And nearly two thirds are “concerned that Trump will give tax cuts to his billionaire friends at the expense of programs Americans rely on, and that billionaires are gaining too much power under his administration.” Meanwhile, the fight goes on in the courts to stop the massive firings and cuts to vital programs that have already been executed.
And in the midst of this, the White House is increasing pressure on the press corps—announcing this week that it will determine which reporters and news outlets will have access to the president and press pool, clearly to minimize criticism and control messaging. The move comes in the wake of the Associated Press’s being banned from White House events (all because they continued to use the term “Gulf of Mexico.”) Not to mention the ongoing retreat of the so-called mainstream media we saw this week, with owner Jeff Bezos’s announcement that the Washington Post’s opinions section would only focus on coverage supporting “personal liberties and free markets.” Just what we need in the face of an administration that’s already committed to twisting truths!
But when Republicans prioritize billionaires and their corporations, Americans fight back. On Friday, a nationwide “24-hour economic boycott” called on Americans to avoid online or in-store purchases from corporations like Amazon, Wal-Mart, and others—the very same corporations that benefit from the Republican tax breaks the budget bill enables.
Organizers are promising to continue holding boycotts as long as necessary. They know what we know—this is a long-haul fight. But we’re in it together.
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