Keep Fighting to Protect Essential Programs

Late last week, the Senate passed a budget resolution that proposes cutting essential programs including food assistance, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security Income, and others by more than $4.3 trillion. The vote was passed mostly along party lines in a vote of 51-49.

Now that the Senate has passed their budget resolution, the House and the Senate will begin negotiations to hammer out a final budget agreement that both chambers will need to pass. They are motivated to find an agreement in order to have the ability to use reconciliation orders that will allow them to pass a tax plan that will primarily provide tax relief for the wealthiest individuals and corporations with just 51 votes in the Senate.

The tax plan calls for $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that will lose revenue for spending on essential programs that primarily help low and middle-income Americans and will raise the nation’s deficit. With a rising deficit, this sets the stage to call for additional cuts to programs, cuts that struggling families cannot afford because they help provide basic necessities.

When it comes to hunger, the SNAP cuts alone are monumental: the House budget resolution proposes cutting more than $150 billion from SNAP. Such a cut would be disastrous for the nearly 1 in 7 Washingtonians who rely on SNAP to make healthy foods more affordable. It’d also be detrimental for our state’s economy, potentially losing $1.5 billion in jobs and economic activity. Additionally, cuts to assistance for health care and income support will also drive up hunger as struggling individuals feel little choice but to skip meals in order to pay for these other necessities.

But we can’t lose hope: now is the time to keep up the pressure on Congress to reject the harmful programmatic cuts, prioritizing investments in all Americans over such heavily skewed tax cuts. Read more in our official response to the Senate budget vote and get ready to take action.

WHAT YOU CAN DO