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House GOP Balances Budget on Backs of Working Americans

Families across the nation face difficult challenges providing for themselves and their loved ones. Earlier this year, President Trump released his FY2018 budget proposal that would severely worsen these challenges for working Americans. This week, the House Budget Committee passed a budget resolution that doubles down on Trump’s most harmful proposals and goes further by cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations while slashing funding for proven programs on which millions of Americans rely.

The House budget resolution cuts $4.4 trillion from federal safety net programs (“mandatory”) like Medicare and Medicaid and an additional $1.3 trillion from investments outside of defense (“non-defense discretionary or NDD”) like infrastructure grants and housing rental assistance. While Congress has intensely debated the long-term sustainability of our safety net programs, Republicans have aggressively reduced spending for non-defense programs since 2010.

As the figure below indicates, the swift decline of NDD spending beginning in FY2010 would continue through FY2027 under the House budget resolution. By FY2027, this proposal would put NDD at 1.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—significantly lower than anything experienced in decades.

The proposed cuts would slice deeper into public investments in education, infrastructure, biomedical research, clean energy, and other areas essential investments in the future of our economy for American families. For example, by freezing the maximum Pell Grant award at $5,920, future eligible college students would only have 23 percent of their tuition covered, compared to almost 60 percent in 1981. This budget’s failure to support our most vulnerable or strengthen tomorrow’s economy puts America on a path working families cannot afford.