Congress has enacted the Big Brutal Bill and Donald Trump has signed it into law.
This bill is deadly.
According to researchers from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts plus other health care cuts—the largest in history—will result in the deaths of 51,000 people per year. Those deaths include 18,200 people who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare, 20,000 people who will lose health care coverage due to the elimination of the premium tax credit for the Affordable Care Act, and 13,000 deaths due to staffing cuts at nursing homes.
At a time when so many are struggling to afford the basic costs of living including groceries, new data from the Urban Institute shows that 5.3 million families will lose $25 or more per month in SNAP benefits, with the average such family losing $146 a month in help paying for food. Sixty-two percent of the families experiencing these very large SNAP losses include children.
All of this is being done in order to pay for extending the Trump tax scam—making tax breaks for the rich permanent—and funding Trump’s mass immigration detention and removal machine.
Congress needs to hear from you. Send a message thanking those who stood up and voted against this monstrosity of a bill, or send a message to your members of Congress who voted for it, admonishing them for their vote.
An archive of this webinar is available here.
A special webinar with authors Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaefer, whose book $2 a Day describes in depth the lives of families living in extreme poverty in America. $2.00 a Day has been included in theNew York Times Book Review list of 100 Notable Books of 2015. When he reviewed the book in September, respected Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson wrote, “This essential book is a call to action, and one hopes it will accomplish what Michael Harrington’s “The Other America” achieved in the 1960s, arousing both the nation’s consciousness and conscience about the plight of a growing number of invisible citizens.”
Kathy and Luke will be joined by a panel of experts: people who have lived in such deep poverty. Their comments and questions,and yours, will be moderated by CHN’s executive director, Deborah Weinstein.
At a time when some are intent on feeding divisiveness and hatred, please join us in this call to conscience.
Special thanks to our co-sponsors:
Children’s Leadership Council
Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Food Research & Action Center (FRAC)
National Women’s Law Center
MomsRising