Statement on President Trump's 2018 budget request

Today, Congressman John Garamendi (D-Davis, Fairfield, Yuba City), released the following statement on President Trump’s 2018 budget request:

“The draconian budget proposal unveiled today by the Trump Administration does not reflect American values. It is a cruel departure from the solid, bipartisan approach Congress took in passing the omnibus bill just three weeks ago—a bill that preserved funding for science, supported the search for cures, and protected our nation’s most vulnerable people.

“This new proposal takes this Administration’s attack on America’s most vulnerable to new heights. It includes a 20% cut to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides affordable health care to America’s poorest children. It cuts Medicaid by an additional $610 billion on top of the $880 billion included in the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. It also harms public health. This proposal would cut NIH funding by $7 billion, severely damaging our ability to find cures to diseases like Alzheimers. It would also hurt our efforts to build a clean energy economy, gutting $1.4 billion from the DoE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program.”

“But even as this budget causes direct harm to the poor, the vulnerable, and the middle class, it provides massive tax giveaways for America’s wealthiest that will blow a massive hole in the deficit—a hallmark of the Trump Administration. But they simply assume the math will add up by making wildly unrealistic assumptions about economic growth. Here’s the bottom line in the real world: Under this budget, Trump’s billionaire friends win, and the American people lose.”