The Senate is expected to vote on its version of the Big Brutal Bill this week and—like its House counterpart—it’s devastating for nutrition and health care programs for vulnerable communities.
The Senate proposal includes the largest cut to SNAP in history, as part of a budget package that guts basic needs programs.
The bill also contains the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, and will result in 16 million people losing their health insurance. A recent analysis of the House-passed bill found that because of the cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and reduced staffing requirements at nursing homes, 51,000 people will die each year.
Additionally, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as many as 330 rural hospitals nationwide could close or reduce services as a result of this bill. And, new research shows that cuts to Medicaid along with SNAP will reduce jobs by 1.2 million nationwide, equivalent to about a 0.8% increase in the unemployment rate.
Cutting the heart out of basic needs programs including SNAP and Medicaid doesn’t save states or the federal government money—it denies care and creates bigger problems down the road, shifting the burden to service providers, local governments, and taxpayers. This will lead to higher costs and more strain on budgets—household and state budgets alike. And it will cost lives.
It’s not too late to change course. Now more than ever, it’s critical that the Senate act to protect health care, nutrition, and other essential services that help millions of families meet their basic needs. We should strengthen support for these programs—not take them away
Take Action
Subscribe
Donate
“If you aint cheating, you aint trying.” That’s what a currency trader at Barclays Bank shared in an online chat room about criminal currency manipulation. Those words to live by have resulted in four mammoth banks pleading guilty to federal collusion charges. They will pay fines of $5.6 billion. That’s…
Head Start is celebrating its 50th birthday! Join us and other advocates for the weekly #EarlyEdChat to celebrate this important milestone for the Head Start program. On May 21st at 2pm ET, MomsRising and special guest National Head Start Association will kick off a tweetchat via the #EarlyEdChat hashtag. Come and share your questions, stories, resources,…
In Idaho, the proportion of children relying on Child Support Services is even higher – 28 percent. Many in the state learned that the hard way this week, as Idaho’s state legislature held an unusual special session to take up legislation to prevent the state from losing access to federal child…
CHN just released our latest edition of the Human Needs Report, our regular newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. This edition includes articles on looming appropriations showdowns and proposals to reform TANF that would help (and hurt) recipients. See below for the full analysis and links to each…
This post was originally published by The Huffington Post on May 14, 2015. That is the question President Obama posed at a Georgetown University Catholic-Evangelical Summit on Overcoming Poverty on May 12. It was a fascinating discussion – not least because it was a discussion, with the President exchanging views…
No one who works full-time should live in poverty. And no one should have to choose between providing for their family and being a good parent. To raise awareness and inform the debate around these and other important issues, MoveOn and Robert Reich recently launched a new campaign,”The Big Picture: 10…
The odds were stacked against Shilo Valle. Born into poverty with parents who struggled with drug and alcohol addictions, Shilo was placed in foster care. He changed foster care placements 9 times, including stays at treatment centers, group homes, and juvenile detention facilities because they were the only beds available…
Mother’s Day is just around the corner. It’s a day when we honor moms all around the country with cards, flowers, and small tokens of our thanks for all they do. A more practical way to show appreciation for millions of low-income moms, however, would be to make sure they’re economically…
“These budgets massively disinvest in the country, and then they shred the social safety net… That is actually a recipe for putting a lot more people into poverty and eliminating opportunity.” – House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) I listened to Rep. Van Hollen make this comment…
This post was originally published on The Fiscal Times on April 26. We’re supposed to be enjoying an economic recovery since the Great Recession of 2008-2009 – yet many economists have questioned whether the last five years have been much of a “recovery.” Judging from the mood of the American…
Below is the Coalition on Human Needs’ statement supporting the Murray-Scott legislation to increase the minimum wage to $12 an hour. For sample tweets (with key facts) and graphics you can share with your networks to show support for this legislation, see this related blog post. Coalition on Human Needs Celebrates Introduction of Raise…
[Editor’s Note: Today, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources is holding a hearing about Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Below you’ll find a very timely post by Indi Dutta-Gupta and Kali Grant, both of Georgetown University’s Project on Deep Poverty. The hearing is titled “Ideas for Improve Welfare…