Lawmakers should not hurt people who are struggling to help people who are already doing well. But Congress is considering cuts to health coverage, food assistance and other human services that would do exactly that. These proposals would increase hunger and hardship for hundreds of thousands of Alabamians.
The U.S. House last month approved a budget resolution that could set the stage for more than $1 trillion of cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade. Congressional leaders are weighing these cuts to offset the cost of renewing huge tax breaks for wealthy people. Among those breaks are higher estate tax exemptions and a cut to the top marginal income tax rate.
The contrast is stark. The amount of potential Medicaid and SNAP cuts in the House resolution would be roughly equal to the cost of extending tax breaks for just the wealthiest 1% of households, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found.
These funding cuts would increase suffering across Alabama. As many as 1 in 5 Alabamians enrolled in Medicaid could lose coverage due to cuts or work reporting requirements, CBPP estimated. Many other people could see SNAP assistance reduced or eliminated. Other potential targets include school meals, student loan assistance and tax credits for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
“Our lawmakers should reject harmful service cuts for working people and tax giveaways to wealthy households,” Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden said. “They should focus instead on building an economy that works for everyone in Alabama and across our country.”
Arise is speaking out against harmful cuts
The proposed cuts are not a done deal. The House and Senate still must agree on an identical budget resolution. After that, lawmakers would have to identify specific cuts to meet the resolution’s numerical targets. Then the House and Senate would have to pass budget legislation to enact those cuts.
Arise and our partners have spoken out repeatedly against these harmful proposals. We joined 55 other groups in January to urge Alabama’s congressional delegation to reject additional tax breaks for wealthy households. The joint letter asked Congress to provide tax reductions for working families instead by expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. Arise also joined 111 groups in February in another letter urging Alabama’s delegation to reject cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
Read the January letter here and the February letter here.
Arise and our members will continue opposing service cuts that would hurt families who struggle to make ends meet. As we wrote to Congress in January: “Americans want you to meet the moment and put the future and well-being of all of us ahead of tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected.”