Washington, D.C. — Carmel Martin, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement today after President Donald Trump released his budget proposal for fiscal year 2018.
Harsh reality is finally confronting President Trump’s campaign trail bombast. “Insurance for everybody,” “no one will lose coverage,” and “nobody will be worse off financially”? The American people learned this week that the president’s health care plan will give huge tax cuts to the wealthy while driving up the ranks of the uninsured by a whopping 24 million. Today, the president added insult to that injury by proposing a budget that unabashedly favors the wealthy and corporations over working Americans.
Promises of a grand infrastructure plan have been replaced by cuts to existing infrastructure programs and vague reference to a plan that would funnel enormous tax breaks to elite Wall Street equity investors, leaving Americans to foot the bill with higher tolls and other user fees. Trump’s proposal would leave Americans homeless and strips children of critical care and education while severing the ladders into the middle class provided by education and on-the-job training programs. It guts basic health and safety standards for the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food and drugs we consume. It slashes resources for diplomacy and foreign assistance critical to keeping America safe. President Trump can no longer hide behind “alternative facts” and empty rhetoric as he continues to put forth policies that enrich people like him and hurt working families.
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CAP experts are available for comment on the budget. For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.