For Immediate Release: Monday, February 12, 2018
Contact: Morgan Williams Grogan, morgan.williams@
Trump’s New Budget is a Nightmare for Seniors, Children, Working Families
The Budget Cuts Medicaid, Nutrition Benefits to Pay for Tax Breaks for the Wealthy and Wall Street
Washington, DC – In response to President Donald Trump announcing his 2019 budget plan today, Health Care for America Now Co-Directors Ethan Rome and Margarida Jorge released the following statement:
“President Trump’s 2019 budget proposal is even more extreme than last year’s horrific blueprint. He once again lays out a dark vision for America that ends Medicaid as we know it and severely cuts or eliminates other essential services that help working families and seniors make ends meet. After signing a tax giveaway to the very wealthy and corporations that will add $1.4 trillion to the deficit, President Trump is now forcing working families, seniors, kids, and people with disabilities to pay for it with deep cuts to programs that help them get by.
“And while Trump continues to talk a big game on fighting the opioid crisis, his budget cuts the legs out from underneath the country’s first defense against addiction: Medicaid. Rather than investing in treatment and programs that work, Trump’s budget takes our country backward and uses ineffective, punitive policies that will only further hinder communities struggling with the opioid crisis. The budget also includes cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps millions of working Americans put food on the table. Another supposed priority for the administration gets short shrift: lowering drug prices. His budget does nothing to help Medicare negotiate lower drug prices, a move that could save as much as $16 billion per year.
“This is also a nightmare for the millions of immigrants seeking a better life in our country. Rather than fixing the broken immigration system and addressing the crisis he created by ending the DREAM Act, Trump’s budget doubles down on detention and deportation to tear apart families and put immigrants behind bars. Congress should reject this backward vision for the country and develop a budget that invests in programs that help lift Americans out of poverty, grow the economy, protect families, and strengthen America’s health care.”
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Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is the national grassroots coalition that ran a $60 million five-and-a-half year campaign from 2008-2013 to pass, protect, and promote the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and protect Medicare and Medicaid. HCAN has come back together to fight the Republicans’ all-out effort to take away America’s health care and put people at the mercy of the health insurance companies again.
