Embedded Files
Post date: Apr 3, 2017 4:13:58 AM
My List of Ten TERRIBLE things to cut in our Federal Budget
I spent a number of years in poverty as a young Minister's wife in a small church, and then as a single mom after our divorce. Several wonderful women helped me navigate the network of agencies and organizations that help people become more self-sufficient. I have seen the value of these programs and was appalled to hear the man who is in charge of the Trump Budget blather on about not funding this program or that program because they don't work. He sounded like a high school kid who forgot to write his speech: unprepared, flustered at being challenged, and forgetting that he was to use DATA from sources, not just make stuff up!
First, Meals on Wheels. Volunteers taking meals to the elderly, the disabled, the low income. This program keeps people in their homes, saving THOUSANDS of dollars. It connects volunteers with people who need a little help and often there is a sense of bonding. These volunteers notice when things are not right and can alert folks when someone needs more help. It is a win/win in every way: economically and socially alike. I saw my elderly father and his wife benefit from this program: I lived an hour away and was thankful that Hazel’s daughter had signed them up. Fund it!
Second, Reduced and Free breakfast and lunch for school children. Ask any teacher how well children learn when they are hungry. They don’t. These programs provide vital nourishment to growing children. Why would anyone want to look at a small child and deny them these meals? I challenge hard hearted Republicans to go to a neighborhood school and see how children are benefitting from these lunches. MY CHILDREN did! As a young single mom, subbing in several school districts and teaching part time at several colleges, my children qualified for reduced lunches. Fund it!
Third, Heat Assistance – designed to help low-income families literally stay WARM during the winter, these funds are not at all frivolous but not glamorous either. However, we cannot call ourselves a civilized nation and have people shivering in their houses once the Utilities have been shut off. Fund it!
Fourth, Head Start – designed to help low-income children catch up to their more affluent peers, children not only get a safe place to play and learn, they get meals, instruction on basic hygiene like washing your hands and brushing your teeth, and engage in play that prepares them for Kindergarten. When my son was enrolled, I visited with the teachers: as an Education major I knew all too well the value of teaching children their letters, numbers, right and left, tying shoes, etc. I was astonished when the teachers told me that some children had not handled crayons, scissors, play doh, or pencils prior to coming to Head Start. It is an invaluable program! Fund it!
Fifth, Public Radio and Public TV – Even if I had not been addicted to Downton Abbey, I would still be a fan of public TV. My children grew up with Sesame Street, Dr. Who, and the Electric Company. I once sang “Conjunction Junction, What’s your Function?” to a class at Iowa State University. I married a man who listened to NPR every day and I came to love it too. I had college students who became jaded about the media who told me that they appreciated NPR and the BBC for news. Public Radio and TV are FREE, so rich and poor alike can use them and benefit. They provide quality programs for children, the elderly, college students, shut-ins, and everyone else! Fund them!
Sixth, Planned Parenthood.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/04/health/planned-parenthood-by-the-numbers/
- Forget about abortion for a moment: we should be able to agree that we want FEWER unplanned pregnancies (thereby reducing the need for abortions). We should all want healthy babies and healthy families, and if so, we should support Planned Parenthood, which has over 650 health centers across the nation.
· Each year, more than 2.5 million women and men in the US visit its health centers for services and information, and its website receives 60 million visits annually.
· According to a Government Accountability Office report in March 2015, 83% of its patients were 20 or older. Nearly 80% had incomes at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, according to the report.
· With a focus on prevention, Planned Parenthood said that 80% of its patients receive services to prevent unintended pregnancy. FUND IT!
Seventh, The EPA – our environment needs protection from the TRUMP administration, which seems eager to gut an agency that has worked hard to make our air, water and soil cleaner. I found a list of the top ten accomplishments and it is impressive!
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-epa-first-40-years/
List of accomplishments: The home runs on the list—which was compiled by a group of more than 20 environmental leaders, including several former EPA officials—include:
--banning the widespread use of the pesticide DDT, which was decimating bald eagles and other birds and threatening public health;
--achieving significant reductions in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions that were polluting water sources via acid rain;
--changing public perceptions of waste, leading to innovations that make use of waste for energy creation and making new products;
--getting lead out of gasoline;
--classifying secondhand smoke as a known cause of cancer, leading to smoking bans in indoor public places;
--establishing stringent emission standards for pollutants emitted by cars and trucks;
--regulating toxic chemicals and encouraging the development of more benign chemicals;
--establishing a national commitment to restore and maintain the safety of fresh water, via the Clean Water Act;
--promoting equitable environmental protection for minority and low-income citizens;
--and increasing public information and communities’ “right to know” what chemicals and/or pollutants they may be exposed to in their daily lives.
We have made tremendous progress: don’t take us back to the smokestacks indoors and out! Fund it.
Eighth, Scientific RESEARCH into health topics—the kind of stuff the National Institute of Health does.
“And even though Trump himself tweeted up a storm about the Ebola virus back in 2014, his budget would slash $5.8 billion from the National Institutes of Health that led the global fight to contain Ebola, while zeroing out the Fogarty International Center at the NIH, which was right in the middle of that fight.”
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/donald-trump-budget-cuts-214926
Ninth, Medicaid
https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/downloads/accomplishments-report.pdf
· “Medicaid provides vital health insurance coverage to over 70 million people, including more than 32 million low income children, over 20 million non-elderly adults (including parents), nearly 7 million elderly adults, and more than 10 million Americans with disabilities.
· Since implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act)’s Medicaid expansion, the number of people covered by Medicaid has grown by about 17 million, helping drive the nation’s uninsured rate to the lowest level in history, below 9 percent.
· States, the federal government, and stakeholders have partnered to make Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) the bedrock of the nation’s system of health coverage by strengthening and expanding coverage, improving the delivery of care, enhancing quality, and fostering innovation.”
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/donald-trump-budget-cuts-214926
Finally, Education, both K-12 and Higher Ed.
If our economy is to grow, we need workers with SKILLS—so why is Education such a very small slice of the budget pie?
In Iowa, our governor has come dangerously close to bankrupting the state in his failed experiment to turn our Medicaid system over to three for-profit companies, who keep demanding more money and he keeps handing it over. In contrast, Education has been cut multiple times. He has also given away tax credits and breaks to an alarming number of big companies: some of them pay NO taxes. Who is ACTUALLY paying for these breaks: it is our children and grandchildren, our schools, and our teachers and administrators and staff.
Pie chart of spending -- someone posted a pie chart on Facebook that sort of exaggerated the categories. Here is the article debunking it on Politifact.com, along with a more realistic pie chart.
Note on Meals for Wheels—Community Development Block Grants fund the 5,000 Meals on Wheels groups across the country.
The truth: Trump's budget calls for the elimination of one program that some of the nation's 5,000 Meals on Wheels groups rely on: Community development block grants, a $3 billion program that started in the Ford administration to give states and cities more flexibility in how they combat poverty.
Last Updated April 3, 2017
Page updated
Report abuse