WASHINGTON — Advocates for minority communities say President Donald Trump’s proposed budget answers the question he famously posed to Black Americans during his campaign: “What the hell do you have to lose?”
His $4.1 trillion spending plan for the budget year beginning Oct. 1 generally makes deep cuts in safety net programs, including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Social Security’s disability program.
“Here is the reality: Many poor black families and brown families and Asian families and indigenous families will be devastated by this budget,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, founder of Philadelphia’s Living Water United Church of Christ.
The White House said its budget would put the country back on track for a healthy economy.
“We’re not going to measure compassion by the amount of money that we spend, but by the number of people that we help,” White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said this past week.
Critics decry the priorities in Trump’s budget, which Congress is unlikely to pass as submitted. Still, it will serve as a guidepost for what the White House wants lawmakers to deliver to the president.
“It is an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us, the youngest, the oldest, the poorest, and hardworking people who need a little help to gain or hang on to a decent middle-class life,” Hillary Clinton said Friday.
