Washington, D.C. – Bread for the World today condemned President Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget, calling it an “unprecedented assault on people living in hunger and poverty.”
“There are no two ways about it. President Trump’s budget is an unprecedented assault on people living in hunger and poverty,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “Together with his recent health care cuts, especially to Medicaid, this is a double whammy on vulnerable people.”
President Trump is expected to release his fiscal year 2018 budget tomorrow. The budget is said to contain massive cuts to or completely defund programs that help poor and hungry people in the United States and around the world.
According to reports, Trump’s budget drastically cuts funding for global nutrition and food security assistance programs in a time of unprecedented crisis. Twenty million people, including 1.4 million children, are at risk of starvation in famine or near-famine conditions in Africa and the Middle East.
“This is a time for the United States to show its global leadership,” Beckmann said, “But Trump’s unconscionable budget eliminates funding for global maternal and child nutrition, such as McGovern-Dole, Food for Peace, and most of Feed the Future, among other lifesaving programs.”
Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget also contains $800 billion in cuts to programs that are critical to helping poor and hungry people in the U.S. These include SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), refundable tax credits, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Medicaid, which would get even deeper cuts beyond the $880 billion axed in the American Health Care Act. Deeper Medicaid cuts would add many more millions to the 14 million men, women, and children who would lose their Medicaid coverage under the American Health Care Act.
“Candidate Trump talked about the ‘forgotten man and woman,’ but President Trump’s policies are a huge threat to struggling people in our country and around the world,” Beckmann said. “I urge all people of conscience to call on their members of Congress to vigorously resist these cuts.”
Yesterday, Bread and its faith partners launched a nationwide, monthly fast to ask God’s help with their advocacy for hungry and poor people.
