It is worth repeating — over and over and over — that the sweeping budget bill passed last night in the House doesn’t just harm, but actively targets, children and their families, especially lower income kids. The bill will cost more than 10 million people health care coverage — including an untold number of children — and will let millions of others go hungry.
These cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have received an appropriate amount of attention. But several of the bill’s other provisions are nearly as cruel and demand much more notice. For instance:
Children in poverty are punching bags: Sure, the bill increases the amount of the Child Tax Credit, at least a little. But it also denies that credit to 20 million children whose parents make too little to quality. It also denies the credit to 4.5 million babies and children who are U.S. citizens because they had the temerity to be born into a mixed-status household. These are the same children who will lose Medicaid coverage. And food provided by SNAP. And access to the other support programs triggered when children are enrolled in these two programs. So, the bill actively, deliberately, drives more children into poverty. And then grinds them even further down.
Public schools raided for tax breaks: The bill aims to decimate public education by promoting a federal voucher program that is specifically designed to help wealthy people avoid capital gains taxes. The proposal — which will spend $5 billion a year in taxpayer funds, totaling at least $20 billion over a four-year period — prioritizes wealthy donors over the 90% of U.S. students attending public schools. Research shows that private school vouchers undermine public schools, particularly those in rural areas. Vouchers do not increase academic achievement, mostly benefit students already attending private schools, and lack accountability.
It’s also important to stay focused on one of the bill’s big lies: Politicians keep saying that the cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other programs won’t affect kids. That they’re just coming after lazy, able-bodied adults. It’s Just. Not. True.
As noted in the new report Children Under Attack, led by UnidosUS and coauthored by First Focus on Children and the AFL-CIO, nearly 45% of the country’s kids, or 34 million, rely on Medicaid for health insurance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for food, or both. Children are the ones disproportionately covered by these programs. Regardless of what disingenuous politicians say, it is mathematically impossible to cut a combined $1.1 trillion from these programs and not touch kids.
The final kicker: Gun violence is currently the leading cause of death among all U.S. children. What better time to pass a budget bill that reduces fees on gun silencers?