5.23.17 The President’s FY 18 proposed budget released today includes staggering cuts to vital safety net programs including SNAP/CalFresh, SSI, and Medicaid/Medi-Cal. These drastic cuts to programs that serve low-income Californians would force seniors, people with serious disabilities, veterans, and working families already struggling to make ends meet to make impossible choices between basic needs like housing, health care, and food. Rather than protect and strengthen proven programs that help those that have fallen on hard times, the President is proposing to push struggling families deeper into hunger and poverty in order to provide gratuitous tax cuts to the most fortunate Americans.
The proposed cuts to SNAP/CalFresh include massive shifts in benefit costs from the federal government to the states. If enacted, California would face an annual budget shortfall of at least $1.8 billion in order to fully fund CalFresh and continue to provide essential nutrition assistance to Californians who rely on CalFresh to help put food on the table. The President’s proposal is not only cruel, but short-sighted. Slashing federal funding for nutrition assistance will increase long-term health care costs, decrease economic activity in the agriculture and retail sectors, and stunt students’ academic futures.
By shredding the safety net, the President and his administration are making their priorities and values clear: low-income Americans do not have a seat at their table. These are not our California values of respect, inclusion, equity, and empathy. We concur with Governor Brown’s assessment of these proposals as “unconscionable and un-American,” and strongly urge every member of California’s Congressional delegation, state legislature, and all those concerned about this shameful attack on our shared values to unequivocally reject these harmful proposals and renew their commitment to protect the nutrition assistance programs and the social safety net by opposing this budget proposal that would deepen poverty and hunger.
Take action today!
Call your Representative in Congress today by dialing the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to reject this budget proposal and support real solutions that provide low-income Californians the opportunity to lead healthy, successful lives with the dignity and security we all deserve.
Stay tuned for further calls to action
The President’s budget is only one avenue of attack on the safety net and our values. House Republicans are preparing their own budget proposal to be released in June, which reportedly will also include dangerous cuts to programs that help low-income Americans. Stay up to date and ready to take action by signing up for CFPA’s Nutrition Action Alerts. link
Questions? Contact: Jared Call at 213.482.8200 ext 201
