“If Congress were to adopt President Trump’s FY2020 budget proposal, America’s moms, families and especially children would suffer terribly. There would be more poverty in America. More hunger and homelessness. Fewer children would get a good education and the child care they need. Fewer people would get the health care they need. Our country would become harsher and more xenophobic -- much like our President.

“Our nation’s moms will not accept that. This budget proposal contains cruel cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, child nutrition, housing and other essential programs that would exact a terrible toll; and work requirements designed to deny Medicaid, food and housing assistance and other supports to those who need them most. It contains two false promises that Congress must reject:

• Its paid family and medical leave plan is fatally flawed; leaves out the majority of people who currently use the unpaid Family and Medical Leave Act; and makes wage discrimination against moms worse, not better, which a comprehensive plan would do. Any plan that covers parental (maternity/paternity) leave only would deny paid leave to those who need paid time off to care for seriously ill family members or to recover from illness. This is unacceptable, particularly when there is comprehensive, fiscally responsible national legislation already gaining momentum in Congress -- the FAMILY Act, which is modeled on already proven paid family and medical leave insurance plans and covers leave to care for your own serious medical issue or that of a family member. And funding a paid leave program through cuts to unemployment insurance is unsustainable and sets up families and states to fail; and
• Its proposal for a one-time, $1 billion increase in child care funding over five years that sacrifices child safety is wholly unacceptable. Child care safety protections are in place for a reason and America’s moms will never agree to trade away the standards necessary to protect their children.

“The country does not want to spend $8.6 billion on a wasteful, unnecessary wall that we neither want nor need. We do not want our hard-earned tax dollars wasted on President Trump’s politically-motivated obsession, or on programs that jail immigrants and migrants and separate asylum-seeking families -- especially at the cost of investments to nutrition, health care, and education for our children.

“Similarly, offering trillions more dollars in tax cuts to further enrich the wealthiest individuals and corporations at a time when income inequality is the worst it’s ever been is appalling.

“This budget proposal is one more painful reminder that this President’s priorities are not the country’s priorities.  We need a federal budget that allows mothers, families, communities, businesses and our economy to thrive. America’s moms demand that Congress reject Trump’s budget proposal out-of-hand.”