STATEMENT: Share Our Strength’s Duke Storen on White House Budget

Storen: “This catastrophic budget flies in the face of family values.”

Contacts: Christy Felling at 202.320.4483 or cfelling@strength.org  

03/16/17, Washington, D.C. – This morning, the Trump administration released its FY 2018 budget proposal, which includes the largest domestic spending cuts to the United States budget in more than fifty years. The budget would eliminate or cut critical programs which fight hunger and lift American families across the country out of poverty.   

The following is a statement from Share Our Strength Senior Director Duke Storen about the impact of this budget.

“This morning, the White House released a dangerous budget proposal that would hurt children where they live, learn, and play. Instead of ‘putting the needs of its own people first’ as the proposal states, these cuts would cause serious hardship to millions of American families living in poverty. Together, these cuts are catastrophic and fly in the face of family values, taking more away from the average American family than any budget in recent history. From resources as basic as heat and nutrition, to job training and service opportunities for our youth, it’s a budget that says ‘you are on your own.’

You can tell our nation’s values by where we choose to invest. Historically, anti-poverty programs have had strong, bipartisan support because they are an investment in our nation’s greatest resource: its people. This budget reverses that support, cutting the very programs that make us strong.

Among other things, this budget would:

• Reduce funding for WIC, the program that provides critical nutrition to pregnant mothers and their newborns and young children;
• Eliminate the Community Development Block Grant which, among other things, provides funding for the home delivered meals program (Meals on Wheels);
• Eliminate the Low-income Home Energy Assistance program, which helps the poor heat their homes in winter;
• Eliminate the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, which supports after-school and summer programs for low-income students;
• Eliminate the U.S. Inter-Agency Council on Homelessness, which provides services around housing options, education, jobs, and health care;
• Eliminate the Corporation for National and Community Service which includes AmeriCorps, VISTA, Senior Volunteer Corps, and the Social Innovation Fund which provides funding for innovative public/private partnerships at the local level.

This budget comes just days after the introduction of legislation that would repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would roll back Medicaid expansion and take medical benefits away from Americans who need them most, leaving millions of children, families, seniors, and people with disabilities in jeopardy. In addition to eliminating important services and supports for low-income families and communities, these cuts will also eliminate thousands of jobs, driving even more families into poverty.  

Instead of putting America first, this budget puts American people last. This budget would make us poorer, hungrier, sicker, colder, and less secure. It would make it harder for kids to get an education and adults to get good jobs.

We will never have a strong America if we do not have strong Americans, so today we have a choice. We can stand by and allow the destruction of programs that give a more level playing field to children, making sure they get the basic food, care and skills they desperately need. Or we can stand up and fight for our values, demanding that decisions are made based on evidence, not ideology. Congress must reject this budget proposal. America’s children are counting on you.”

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To speak to Mr. Storen about childhood hunger in America, contact Christy Felling at cfelling@strength.org or 202.320.4483.