AFSCME members are mobilizing this week to oppose plans by Congress to cut Medicaid. Slashing the program would rip health care insurance away from more than 13 million people, all to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
Anti-union extremists in Congress are trying to shrink the federal program that covers lower-income families — including children, the elderly, veterans and people with disabilities. House lawmakers revealed plans to trim about $715 billion from Medicaid over 10 years by changing Medicaid’s eligibility requirements. That would create hurdles for people to stay covered.
To pay for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for billionaires, these extremists are willing to kick vulnerable Americans off their health insurance.
“Congressional extremists are charging ahead with a plan to shower billionaires with massive tax breaks at the expense of our communities,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said. “Instead of making Medicaid more efficient, they plan to add bureaucracy by imposing strict work reporting requirements that will just make it harder for those most vulnerable to access the care they need.”
Cuts to Medicaid are just the beginning.
The House Agriculture Committee this week also released plans that would endanger the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families. About one in eight Americans relies on SNAP. That includes one in five kids.
The proposal would cut $230 billion from the federally funded program and shift that financial burden onto states. That would force states to find ways to pay for SNAP or cut benefits. Which means more vulnerable Americans will go hungry.
Other federal programs on the chopping block? Social Security, which AFSCME members are standing up for by making their voices heard.
“AFSCME members are watching what happens this week, and we are mobilizing,” Saunders said. “We’ll be in the halls of Congress and holding events in communities across the country to sound the alarm on how damaging these cuts will be. We won’t stand by while families are robbed of lifesaving public services just to line the pockets of billionaires.”
AFSCME members are mobilizing through our union’s Get Organized campaign, or AFSCME GO, which is all about standing up to the extremists in Congress and their billionaire friends. It’s about protecting Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
Join the fight. It’s time to Get Organized – it’s time to GO.