Trump’s budget for the next fiscal year was released on Monday, and it’s just as bad as you can imagine.
In it, Trump proposes gutting social safety-net programs, like food stamps, while at the same time working to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with the same health care bill Republicans failed to pass in 2017, which would kick 21 million Americans off the insurance rolls.
Trump’s budget also proposes further health care cuts, including nixing zero-premium plans on the ACA exchanges and demanding that all Americans “contribute something.” That could raise costs for millions of poorer Americans who currently pay $0 in health care subsidies in the ACA exchange.
Health care advocates have panned Trump’s proposals, including the Federation of American Hospitals, which said Trump’s proposed changes would have a “devastating” impact on seniors.
On top of health care cuts, Trump also proposed slashing $220 billion over the next 10 years from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — better known as food stamps.
That’s a huge cut from a program that helps the poorest Americans eat.
Because the admin has withheld information, we can't yet calculate percent cuts, but as you can see, those SNAP cuts are large and immediate. We're talking on the order of a 1/4 cut to SNAP. How disgusting. I don't care who you are or what you've done. No one should go hungry. pic.twitter.com/2bBfKKt4y0
— Bobby Kogan (@BBKogan) March 11, 2019
In all, Trump’s budget proposes cutting $327 billion from social safety net programs over the next 10 years.
Of course, because Democrats have control of the House, a repeal of the ACA and massive cuts to the social safety net won’t happen in the next two years.
But Trump’s budget makes his priorities clear: He wants to spend billions on his needless border wall and jails for immigrants, all while cutting health care and other vital benefits to millions of Americans.
“The president’s budget is a continuation of the administration’s years-long war on Americans’ health care and a return to the failed policy of repeal – exactly what Americans voted against in 2018,” Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, said in a statement.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
