Earlier today, President Donald Trump released his budget proposal to Congress, which outlines his budget priorities for the coming year. Unsurprisingly, this proposal includes drastic cuts to critical programs that directly benefit low income Americans and communities of color.

Following the release of President Trump’s budget proposal, Jesse Barba, Senior Director of External Affairs for Young Invincibles, released the following statement:

“President Trump lied to the nation in his State of the Union address, and this budget is proof. Despite his promises last week, the President has once again shown his true colors by safeguarding tax cuts for the wealthy rather than investing in programs to make the lives of young Americans better. With this budget, he’s decided to turn his back on young people, communities of color, and low income communities.

Talk is cheap, but a budget is a concrete moral statement of our priorities. The President has shown yet again that he wants to gut our education system, slash programs that keep millions healthy, and make it harder for low income Americans to get by. Despite his promises last week at the State of the Union to make health care more accessible and affordable, he’s proposing devastating cuts both to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program — both of which help low income Americans make ends meet. And rather than working to ensure everyone has a chance at a quality public education, he wants to cut 7.8 percent from the Department of Education.

This budget would be laughable if it wasn’t so nakedly cruel to communities who will be devastated by these cuts. It’s painfully clear that young people do not have an ally anywhere in the Trump Administration.”

President Trump’s budget proposal would include:

• Cutting spending on federal student aid by consolidating student loan repayment plans into a single income-driven repayment plan and eliminating certain loan programs, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and subsidized student loans
• Attempting to broaden Pell to include incarcerated individuals who expect to be released within five years. However, it did not add money to the program, keeping the maximum award flat at $6,345 from fiscal 2020
• Cutting funding for Federal Work-Study to $500 million. This is at odds with the administration’s publicly-stated desire to reinvigorate the initiative by focusing on new, career-oriented opportunities
• Cutting Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program, which provides free on-campus child care to student-parents, by $23 Million
• Cutting Medicaid, CHIP, and the ACA’s premium tax credit by more than $1 trillion in the next decade. The cuts to Medicaid alone total $920 billion over the next decade. 
• Changing Medicaid eligiblity to include mandatory work requirements
• Reducing support for families with children experiencing poverty by cutting the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program by $20 billion over ten years
• Cutting $182 billion from SNAP over the next decade