Priorities

Budgets are about priorities, and Trump’s first full budget submission makes clear that he puts the interests of the wealthy — like the billionaires he has appointed to his cabinet — over working families.  Trump’s budget plan makes massive cuts to Medicaid, college loans, public schools, middle and working class tax credits and more to fund his massive tax giveaway to the wealthy. Details:

• Imperils the health of working families.  Trump’s budget cuts hundreds of billions from Medicaid over the next 10 years. But he doesn’t stop there — Trump wants to cut hundreds of millions from children’s health insurance, medical research, disease prevention, Planned Parenthood, and other critical programs.
• Decimates public schools & student loans.  Trump’s budget betrays working families, students, and teachers by cutting billions from public school funding and student loan support. Instead, he wants to shift $1.4 billion to promote so-called “school choice.”
• Massively cuts safety net programs.  In addition to its massive Medicaid cuts, Trump’s budget attacks programs that support working families — especially children — including SNAP food stamps, benefits for the disabled, children’s health insurance, and even the child tax credit and earned-income tax credit.
• Relies on unrealistic growth projections. The White House is trying to say this plan puts us on a path to a balanced budget. Newsflash: it doesn’t. Trump is relying on entirely unrealistic GDP projections that assume the economy will grow 1.1% above the Congressional Budget Office’s projections over the next 10 years. If you take those impossible projections out, his plan would put us $500 billion in the red.
• Betrays working Americans, including Trump’s voters. Trump’s budget guts programs that support the middle class and working families — including millions of people who voted for him. The budget makes deep cuts to farm subsidies, student loan assistance, rural development programs, and a slew of other crucial support programs.
• Makes us less safe. Trump’s budget slashes critical funding for U.S. diplomacy and aid programs, reducing America’s ability to support peace abroad and in turn making us less safe at home.

Democrats, on the other hand, are fighting for middle-out economic policies. Good jobs that pay good wages, paid family leave, world-class public education, and economic opportunity for all. And, Democrats are ready to make improvements to our health care system. The good news — there are positive signs that we are moving in the right direction, thanks to the Affordable Care Act:

• We’re diagnosing cancer earlier, meaning more lives will be saved.
• Low-income patients have increased access to better and more affordable health insurance.
• Medicaid expansion states have seen plummeting rates of uninsured residents as far more people gain access to insurance.

There are ways to improve the ACA — like giving insurance companies authorization to negotiate drug prices and moving toward a Medicare for All system of health insurance. Democrats want to work to improve the ways in which we deliver healthcare and the ways we pay for it. But Trump and the Republicans just seem to want to tear things down.