Five million people participated in “No Kings Day” last Saturday, gathering in 2,100 towns and cities across America to protest expanded immigration enforcement, looming Medicaid cuts, and other Trump administration policies. Yet what lingers most is what happened the night before: the killing of a Minnesota state senator, described by officials as a political assassination.
Fundamental decency demands that we acknowledge the loss and the tragic circumstances of her death. Instead, once again, it’s partisan vitriol as the GOP-led Senate rushes to pass its version of H.R. 1, the budget reconciliation bill that passed in the House by a single vote just before Memorial Day.
President Trump is pushing to have it on his desk by July 4, but that could slip. While the Senate has made significant changes in some provisions, the core of the bill remains the same: shredding the social safety net and adding trillions of dollars to the deficit to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-rich.
The more people know about the bill, the less they like it. In multiple recent polls—Quinnipiac, KFF, and Washington Post—opponents outnumbered supporters roughly two to one. Twenty percent or more expressed no opinion, presumably a reflection of limited knowledge.
There’s widespread agreement that the most vulnerable will take the biggest hit, and it is by design. Under H.R. 1, the annual incomes of the poorest tenth of the population decline by $1,600 on average while those of the richest tenth increase by $12,000 on average, according to new estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Among other things, the bill weakens public schools by creating a nationwide voucher scheme and slashing support for Medicaid, which covers nearly half our students and 1 in 10 education support professionals.
Cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) threaten school meals while cuts in student loan programs make higher education even more unaffordable.
The bill also provides a lot more money for even more ruthless immigration enforcement.
Tell Congress what you think!
In solidarity,
Kimberly Johnson Trinca
Government Relations Director
National Education Association
The fourth-largest source of support for K-12 public schools, Medicaid now covers nearly half of our students and 1 in 10 education support professionals.
CHEER:Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) led a letter, signed by all 47 Senate Democrats, that calls on the Republican conference to abandon its billionaire tax scam, especially at the expense of health care and food programs, and work with Democrats to pass real tax relief for the American people.
