How the Trump Administration Budget Would Affect Crucial Government Programs

Yesterday, the Trump administration released its budget proposal for FY 2018. Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner issued a statement on behalf of the Reform Movement, condemning the drastic cuts in the budget, and urging Congress to protect programs so crucial for millions of Americans. The budget slashes funding for many agencies and institutions that serve the public in a variety of ways. Here are a few news articles, analyses, and studies that help explain the consequences of the administration’s budget:  

Cuts to Social Safety Net Programs:

• Learn how the budget would affect Medicaid, a government sponsored health insurance program that covers over 70 million people, on top of the already draconian proposal to cut Medicaid by $839 billion in the American Health Care Act. Read about how schools and their students would be harmed by Medicaid cuts, or watch a PBS segment that discusses Medicaid’s role in special education. The budget recommendation from the administration would also decrease funding for science and disease prevention research.
• The Center of Budget and Policy Priorities explains how cuts to food assistance programs, which help tens of millions of Americans eat every day, would leave states to shoulder the financial burden and reduce benefits for beneficiaries. Here’s an in-depth analysis of the purpose of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and more sensible approaches to reforming it.
• Low-income housing programs will face serious reduction in the administration’s budget; compare how this budget would fall short of the past few years’ levels of funding. Experts believe the changes to affordable housing funding would increase homelessness and economic hardship across the country.
• Consider how people with disabilities would be harmed by the dramatic loss of funding to Social Security Disability insurance. 
• The budget would eliminate numerous programs for K-12 education, harming students in and out of the classroom.
• Despite the claims made by the administration’s budget, evidence suggests that social safety net programs are efficiently meeting the needs of millions of Americans.

Other Issue Areas, Agencies and Programs Impacted by the Budget:

• The Environmental Protection Agency is the target of substantial cuts in the new budget, which would harm the Agency’s ability to perform vital functions, including researching and addressing the effects of climate change. A New York Times analysis from last month discusses many of the public health crises that major EPA cuts would leave underfunded. The budget also would harm beneficiaries of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps people pay for utility bills that are much needed in hotter summers.
• Immigration enforcement is a major focus of the budget, and one of the only areas that would have an increase in funding; see how the budget would fund border security efforts and force local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. 
• A joint analysis from CBPP and Center for Global Development explains how the budget would leave the United States’ contribution to foreign aid woefully short of what is needed to fulfill important commitments, partially due to a nearly 1/3 reduction of funding for the State Department.
• The administration’s proposal aims to balance the budget, but many believe relies on highly optimistic thinking about its positive effects on economic growth.