Trump’s Budget: Savage Attack on Ordinary Folks in Favor of Tax Breaks for the Rich

The President’s just released budget proposes cruel cuts to all basic safety net programs that help struggling families and individuals. This budget – with more details than the “skinny budget” released two months ago – is an outrageous betrayal of the millions of regular Americans who have been struggling to make ends meet and have been left behind in the economic recovery. With $1.7 trillion in cuts to vital programs over 10 years, Trump will take critical assistance from poor and modest income families and give huge tax cuts to the rich.

Over the next 10 years, the Trump budget will devastate the economic security of low and modest-income working families and individuals, seniors, and people with disabilities. With his budget, Trump turns his back on children and their prospects for a good education and future employment. His budget would:

That’s not all. Among a long list of cuts, the President proposes to slash critical programs such as housing assistance, student aid, and job training. Trump’s budget eliminates the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program that helps families and seniors heat their homes. It ends the Legal Services Corporation that provides access to our civil justice system for low-income people who need legal representation to deal with housing, family, consumer, and similar legal issues.

This budget shows yet again that Trump’s vision for the country is fundamentally misguided, cynical, and dark. If these cuts stand, the consequences will be dire. Students will be less able to afford college or to get a decent education; low-wage workers will be threatened with dangerous workplaces, unfair labor practices, and reduced opportunities for job training and advancement; low-income people will find it more difficult to pay their rent, heat their homes, and put food on the table; and community well-being will be undermined.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” Trump’s budget fails this test.

Do not be misled by reports that is budget is “Dead on Arrival”. The simple fact is that this budget is an opening salvo in a fiscal war on this county’s low and middle income families. Some reductions may be restored, but the fight should be for expansion of critical assistance after years of pain— not about the size of the cuts.

The Trump budget must not prevail. Please:

Demand that we invest in our people, our communities, and our future. Let your voice be heard.

Rally your friends and neighbors to oppose cuts that hurt our critical assistance programs.

Contact your representatives to make clear that we need help and not tax cuts.

Support organizations like NCLEJ that will lead the fight against devastating cuts.