President Trump's budget was released today; there are numerous implications for women, moms, and families. This is my analysis of how the budget is affecting the programs that matter most to families.

This is the single largest reduction in anti-poverty programs we have seen in a generation. Trump’s budget is anti-woman, anti-family, anti-child, and anti-worker. It is mean spirited and turns awful ideas that have proven not to work time and time again (hello! Trickle down economics!) into federal spending policy. Throughout the budget you will find direct attacks on the poor, children, women, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Over two-thirds of the cuts come from non-defense programs—breaking with a long held tradition of at least an attempt of balance for the past 20+ years.

While many Republicans in Congress have already said the budget as a whole is DOA, we need to take this seriously because there are some ideas in here that could be appealing to Paul Ryan and his type and that we could see end up in a House Republican Budget. Just as a reminder—the president’s budget carries zero weight—it is merely a recommendation. The name of the game is the Congressional budget. It is rumored that the House will introduce their budget in mid-June. We have until then to raise enough of a ruckus that they realize that Trump’s proposals are dangerous to our families and our economy---and their voters!

Here is a run down of what we know about so far. Further analysis is continuing to come out so stay tuned. 

Healthcare:

One of the single largest cuts in the budget is an $800 billion cut to Medicaid. This likely includes a conversion into a block grant or per capita caps. More here: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/22/politics/medicaid-budget-cuts/

There is a 20% reduction in CHIP over the next 2 years and reductions in NIH and CDC and other medical research funding (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/05/22/trump-budget-seeks-huge-cuts-to-disease-prevention-and-medical-research-departments/?utm_term=.96de1b0e96fb).

In a totally unprecedented move, the Trump budget bars Planned Parenthood from all federal programs. This means they couldn’t participate in cancer screenings, HIV/AIDS and Zika prevention. They couldn’t receive funds to counsel abused women (and this is separate from the cut to VAWA!) etc etc. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/planned-parenthood-trump-budget_us_59237da5e4b03b485cb454ab

Hunger/Food Programs:

The other VERY large cut comes to SNAP—Trump is proposing $193 billion cut to SNAP over the next ten years. He is inflicting awful work requirements on SNAP recipients—in particular able bodied adults without children in the house. Making work requirements without investing in job training or creating jobs is particularly useless and shows they are making a judgment call on who receives SNAP (who is worthy and who is not). FWIW 60% of families that receive SNAP have at least one working adult in the household. This is a must-read that goes through the reasoning behind Trump’s proposal and the damage it could do (based on a similar proposal in Maine):https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/05/22/trump-to-poor-americans-get-to-work-or-lose-your-benefits/?utm_term=.38631d651326

WIC would see a small decrease (as stated in the Skinny Budget). My understanding is this would not affect enrollment levels.

Meals on Wheels is zeroed out.

The Child Nutrition program actually gets a modest boost—around $644 million. But it does continue the allowance of exceptions for the nutrition standards.

Early Learning/Child care:

The budget would fund the Child Care and Development Block Grant at FY 2016 levels and does not include the increase contained in the FY 2017 final Omnibus Appropriations bill for CCDBG or Head Start. It eliminates the CAMPIS program for mothers enrolled in college and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school program. It also eliminates the Title XX Social Services Block Grant. TANF is cut by $21 billion over a decade which not only could impact families’ basic income supports but could have an impact on child care since 17 percent ($5.4 billion) of federal TANF and state MOE funds were used for child care (including transfers to CCDF), and another 6 percent ($1.9 billion) went to prekindergarten or Head Start programs in FY 2015.(https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ofa/2015_tanf_financial_data_report_factsheet_final.pdf).

Preschool Grants (Part B, Section 619) and Grants for Infants and Families (Part C) under IDEA are level funded at FY 2016 levels.

Funding for Preschool Development Grants ($250 million in FY 2017) appears to be eliminated.

Immigration/Taxes/TheWall: Massive increases to construct the wall on the US-Mexico border are included as expected, as well as an influx in spending to hire more Southern border agents and ICE.

There is a lot of language in the budget around welfare reform (vomit!). SNAP is included in this as well as changes to the Child Tax Credit and EITC. These cuts include creating a second class tax system for undocumented immigrants and anyone without a Social Security number. The language OMB Secretary Mulvaney has been using around this is truly atrocious--he is saying that tax payers shouldn’t have to pay for a tax credit that undocumented people benefit from. The reality is undocumented immigrants pay into the tax system on a yearly basis and are barred from accessing many programs that they could be boosted by. This is a very complicated issue—but what it comes down to is massive cuts are being made to the two programs we know help reduce poverty the most in this country and the Trump Administration is hiding behind false evidence that this is being done all in the name of waste, fraud and abuse by immigrants. More here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trumps-budget-takes-aim-at-illegal-immigrants-by-limiting-tax-credits-2017-05-22