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
It is Juneteenth. On June 19, 1865, the U.S. Army reached Galveston, TX to tell enslaved Black Americans that they were free, 2 months after the Civil War had ended with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. We celebrate freedom today, but we also must confront that we are not two months late, but 155 years late in ridding the nation of the scourge of racism. That scourge is killing Black Americans ages 45-54 at 7 times the rate of white Americans from COVID-19. It means more Blacks and Latinx are losing income from work during the pandemic than whites, more work in frontline jobs and cannot work safely at home, more Blacks and Latinx are poor, more do not have enough to eat, and more are falling behind in their rent.
We celebrate the Supreme Court’s ruling, but know that the real celebration of justice and human decency awaits Congress’ enactment of legislation to provide legal status and a path to citizenship for 700,000 DACA recipients and other immigrants who every day make essential contributions to our communities. That should happen with no delay and the Trump Administration should abandon its inhumane attempts to tear our neighbors from their homes and families.
At a time when millions of Americans are marching in support of black lives and to dismantle systemic racism, the Supreme Court Monday took an important step toward reversing another form of discrimination. The Court’s landmark 6-3 ruling banning discrimination against LGBTQ people in the workplace is a major step toward equality.
These last few days and weeks have reminded me of the importance of actions and not just words. Many of my well-meaning colleagues at other non-profit organizations and past work colleagues reached out to see how I was doing and let me know they were thinking of me. My initial reaction was why? Why are you reaching out to me now when the killing of Black people did not start with George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery or Breonna Taylor. The killing of Black people and racism are deeply rooted in this nation’s history, and we have been living with that for more than 400 years. So, thanks for your nice words and prayers, but it’s time for you to do the work!
States are allowing businesses and other facilities to reopen, usually with some restrictions. COVID-19 is not done, though. We have passed the 2 million mark for cases in the U.S. and half the states plus Puerto Rico have seen cases trending up in the past two weeks. While some people are going back to work, close to half of all households (nearly 120 million people) include someone who lost income from work, with Latinx almost 1.5 times as likely to experience lost earnings as White households. 12 million of the poorest among us have not gotten help they are eligible for, and growing numbers have not had enough to eat or been able to pay their rent.
Anyone following the news knows the calamities that have come to characterize 2020: a coronavirus pandemic, a Great Depression-like economic collapse, and police violence born of systemic racism. On top of all this, election observers say Nov. 3, 2020 – Election Day in the U.S.America – could result in the largest mass voter disenfranchisement than at any time since the era of poll taxes and literacy tests in the 1960s and before.
With the arrival of hurricane season, local emergency responders as well as public health officials are asking, how can people practice responsible social distancing if they find themselves suddenly ordered to evacuate to high ground? The question is by no means academic. When Tropical Storm Cristobal first achieved tropical storm status in the Gulf of Mexico’s Bay of Campeche on June 2, it marked the first time in recorded history that three storms had achieved tropical status this early in the hurricane season.
Needless death afflicts this nation. As racism caused the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others, so are death, sickness, and hardship from the pandemic disproportionately inflicted by race. Black Americans are dying from COVID-19 at more than twice the rate of Whites. Blacks and Latinx are more likely to be unemployed, more likely to go without food, and more likely to be unable to pay rent. With levels of joblessness far higher than during the Great Recession, and those without jobs far more likely to be uninsured, federal solutions and investments remain essential.
The number of U.S. households suffering from food insecurity has nearly doubled since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, and food insecurity among children has more than quadrupled. Those sobering conclusions are among the findings of a panel of experts who shared their research on a webinar this week sponsored by The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institute, the Urban Institute, and Share Our Strength.
Last week, we cited an analysis showing that if black Americans died from COVID-19 at the same rate as whites, 13,000 more black Americans would be alive today. Another survey showed that 56 percent of black Americans had lost income from employment since mid-March, and that close to one-quarter of blacks reported sometimes or often not having enough to eat in the previous 7 days, more than three times the proportion of whites. Then, amid the tensions over sickness and want, another crisis. George Floyd was killed by homicidal police in plain view of the world. The outrage of this crime, after so many other injustices, sent thousands of people into the streets.
As the nation mourned 100,000 lives lost to the coronavirus, it was necessary to understand that there would be many thousands more deaths over the coming months, and hundreds of thousands more cases, with the numbers dependent on the ways in which reopenings are achieved. This week’s data show how much some of us have been hit harder: African Americans and the Navajo Nation, and families with children prime examples. Especially shocking: nearly one-third of those jobless because they are sick with coronavirus symptoms are going without food, or close to one-quarter of those home because they must care for their children. The Senate must join the House in enacting COVID recovery legislation similar to the House’s HEROES act.
CHN supporter Dale Wisely of Birmingham, Alabama is worried that “the worst is yet to come” in terms of COVID-19 infections. He worries that his own state — and others — are opening up too quickly for normal activities. “Our polarization is at work,” Dale posted on Facebook. “We’re to believe we either are in the stay-closed-and-destroy-the-economy group or the open-up-and-party group. We could have opened up cautiously and effectively if more would be willing to wear masks and practice social distancing. Instead, some decided to go with conspiracy theories, to scoff at science, to whine about their individual rights, and to politicize what should have been seen as common sense,”
