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The Real Cost of the GOP’s Extreme Budget Cuts

March 16, 2016
Blog

This afternoon, the Ways and Means Committee will mark up three bills that will make $100 billion in cuts as part of their effort to gain support from the extreme right-wing of their party for their budget – at the expense of children, seniors, and families working hard to stay out of poverty. The GOP is looking for budget savings – but at what cost?

250,000: The number of low- and middle-income Americans who could lose health insurance if true-up protections in the Affordable Care Act are repealed.

The ACA provides protections for low-income Americans who underestimate their upcoming annual income when applying for health insurance in the exchanges and receiving tax credits to make their health insurance more affordable. This bill would repeal those protections, leading to as many as 250,000 fewer individuals with health coverage and increasing financial uncertainty for millions more.

30 Million: The number of children, seniors, and Americans with disabilities that rely on the Social Services Block Grant.

Republicans have repeatedly proposed replacing effective anti-poverty programs with block grants (Medicaid, SNAP). Yet, today they’re proposing ending a block grant – the Social Services Block Grant – that provides funding for child care for millions of Americans working hard to stay out of poverty, as well as funding critical efforts to prevent child and elder abuse and help seniors and disabled Americans live independently. Ending the Social Services Block Grant – a policy created under President Reagan that had Republican support for years – would harm the nearly 30 million Americans who rely on these programs.

3 Million: The number of children who would be impacted by the proposal to require a Social Security Number for the refundable Child Tax Credit.

This proposal unfairly punishes millions of U.S. citizen children living in low-income, immigrant families. In 2013, 93% of children claimed for the refundable portion of the child tax credit were U.S. citizens. This proposal would decrease the number of families receiving the refundable portion of the child tax credit by 1.5 million and decrease the number of children receiving the credit by 3 million in 2016. Individuals working in the United States are required to pay taxes on their income, no matter what their immigration status. The refundable child tax credit applies to working families and was created to protect children from poverty.

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Issues:Affordable Care ActSocial SecurityTax Reform