Connolly Statement on Trump's Budget Proposal

Statement

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) released the following statement on President Trump's FY2018 Budget proposal:

"The President's FY2018 budget proposal is the most radical policy document to come out of Washington since the failed Ryan Budget. It is a blueprint for social Darwinism and a unilateral retreat from our commitments at home and abroad.

How does slashing Medicaid, Medicare, the Children's Health Insurance Program, Social Security, disability insurance, NIH funding, SNAP, community development block grants, foreign assistance, and public health and safety programs make America Great Again? It won't.

The President's budget makes mindless cuts to so many programs we know work. It cuts $800 billion from Medicaid over the next decade, ripping away health care from millions of low-income Americans. It slashes SNAP by $193 billion, even more than the unconscionable cuts proposed by Republicans in recent years. It guts foreign assistance programs, threatening our security and shirking our global commitments. It disinvests in the National Institutes of Health, crippling our ability to find the cures of tomorrow. The President would begin to hand over public education to private charter schools, and eliminate federal student loan support. And this plan would make many public health and environmental protections obsolete.

The consequences of this budget would be disproportionately harmful to Northern Virginia. While we can take solace that PRIIA funding is included, this budget threatens other funding sources for Metro and could grind to a halt the progress we've made in restoring our nation's transit system. It eliminates funding for the Chesapeake Bay program. It eliminates climate science research. It eliminates community development block grants our localities rely on. And the President's budget is yet another attack on federal employees and retirees by cutting their retirement benefits and pay. In fact, the biggest losers of the President's budget will be the millions of Americans that rely on the federal government to care for our veterans, maintain our national parks, and process Social Security checks each and every day. Cuts of this magnitude will make it impossible to recruit and retain the qualified workforce we need to meet our nation's challenges.

The President's proposal finances tax cuts for the rich, a ramp up in defense spending, and his fantasy border wall with austerity measures on domestic investments in education, infrastructure, and research -- investments we should prioritize, not eliminate. It's a dystopian vision that will inflict the very carnage he described in his inaugural jeremiad."

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