AFSCME President Lee Saunders said Wednesday the “shameful” budget bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives will cause “millions to lose their health care, increase food insecurity for families, and jeopardize Medicare and Social Security in the long term” if enacted.
“This budget proves that anti-union extremists in Congress are more concerned with giving the wealthy trillions in tax cuts than helping working people,” Saunders said. “Voters across the country are packing town halls to demand no cuts to Medicaid or SNAP. They’re calling representatives asking them to save public services. They want elected leaders who will lower rising costs on everything from rent to food.”
The House plan seeks to cut $2 trillion in federal spending to pay for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for billionaires and wealthy corporations. It also calls for raising the federal debt limit by $4 trillion.
The U.S. Senate approved its own disastrous budget plan last week. That proposal similarly seeks massive cuts to essential public services to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Saunders called it “inhumane.”
AFSCME research shows that on average 33% of all states’ budgets are supported by federal funding. In fact, some states receive as much as 50% of their budgets from Washington.
Anti-union extremists in Congress want to impose large cuts on all public services. In particular, they want to slash as much as $880 billion in federal Medicaid spending, which keeps the doors open at hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and veterans’ homes in communities all over the country. If Medicaid is cut, states will be forced to slash public services and jobs to make up for the shortfall.
Medicaid is the single largest source of funding that states receive from the federal government, accounting for 56% of total federal funding to states.
With smaller budgets, states, cities and towns will be forced to make tough choices about what gets funded. This means all public services and public service jobs held by AFSCME members are on the line — transportation, education, health care, sanitation, environmental protection and beyond.
Most at risk are seniors, people with disabilities and working people who rely on Medicaid for lifesaving care, as well as children and families who will go hungry. In other words, those who will be hurt the most are our nation’s most vulnerable people.
Public services are the backbone of the economy. Public service workers provide child care to working families, health care to individuals, and educational programs to invest in our future, to name a few. Gutting public services will devastate the economy.
Public service workers will continue to organize against these attacks. Through our Get Organized campaign, AFSCME is fighting to stop anti-union extremists and their billionaire friends from destroying the public services we provide and rolling back laws that protect our health and safety at work, our job security and even our freedom to join our union.
It’s time for workers to Get Organized. Let’s GO.