Joe Biden said many times, “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”
The Republican budget law shows no concern for the health of our citizens. All Americans will suffer. The law cuts Medicaid (insurance for low-income or disabled individuals) by roughly one trillion dollars over 10 years. It also cuts funding for the Affordable Care Act whose health exchanges help low- to middle-income Americans afford health insurance. Together approximately 17 million Americans will lose health insurance. But it gets worse.
Any federal legislation that increases the deficit (which this law does) automatically triggers across-the-board spending cuts (sequestration)—which will cut health care for seniors (Medicare)—by about $500 billion over the next decade.
The law also cuts supplemental nutritional assistance program (SNAP) that helped provide food security and a healthier diet for 42 million Americans in 2024 by almost $200 billion over the next decade.
In case none of the above cuts affected anyone you know, the law’s closure of rural hospitals and cuts to the National Institutes of Health budget inevitably will. Research into heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, suicide, and drug overdose are being cut by 40% from $46 billion to $28 billion.
So, what do the congressional Republicans value? Their budget cuts partially fund a massive tax cut that benefits overwhelming the rich and corporations—where the top 1% get a whopping 20% of the tax benefit. It marks the largest wealth transfer from poor to rich in U.S. legislative history. They don’t care if their fiscal irresponsibility balloons the national debt by $2.8 trillion over 10 years.
The more you know, the sicker it makes you. On July 17, join me at the Utah Capitol to protest the cruelty, short-sightedness, and neo-fascism of the Trump administration.
Justin F. Thulin, Salt Lake City
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