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Statement

‘An Affront to Our Values and Our Families’: MomsRising Leader Castigates Callous House Budget

October 5, 2017

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising, a national online and on-the-ground organization of more than 1 million mothers and their families, on the FY2018 budget the House of Representatives passed today
“The budget the House of Representatives passed today is both callous and irresponsible. It rewards our country’s wealthiest people and corporations, while devastating essential programs that boost our economy and our families, including health care, nutrition assistance, early learning, education and poverty relief.
 
“This budget is an affront to our values and our families because it makes deep, painful cuts to programs that help the most vulnerable among us, while at the same time giving away more than a trillion dollars in tax cuts to millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations. This budget would have long lasting effects on our national economy and force struggling families into impossible situations. That is not what moms want or what America needs.
 
“After spending the better part of this year attempting to take away the health care our families rely on, and losing because outraged moms organized across the country, this budget once again rejects the promise to protect and defend America’s families by slashing Medicaid and repealing the ACA, leading to the loss of health care to 23 million people. Compounding the harm this budget does to our families it would also slash funding for SNAP, job training, housing assistance and higher education. By 2027, programs for low- and moderate-income people would shrink by 36 percent, on average.
 
“We must reduce, not exacerbate, the income inequality that is plaguing our country. We need a budget that helps struggling and working families make ends meet – not one that helps the rich get richer and leaves the rest of us to suffer. 
 
“We urge the Senate to reject the House budget out of hand and instead pass one that prioritizes anti-hunger, housing, health, education, disaster relief and other vitally important social service programs that make life better for all those who struggle to make ends meet. We need a budget that would leave our economy healthier, not worse off.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.