Press Releases

Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) issued the following statement today on the Trump budget:

“While President Trump’s budget will not pass Congress, it is nonetheless a telling statement of Republican priorities:  cutting taxes for the wealthy while gutting innumerable programs and agencies that protect the most vulnerable.

The Trump budget is rooted in fantasy.  It will not generate the constant three percent growth that is the premise for massive tax cuts, nor does it even account for the cost of those cuts in the first place.

It would gut the safety net needed by millions of Americans.  Despite Trump's campaign promises to the contrary, this budget would kick nearly 14 million Americans out of federal health care programs, ultimately cutting Medicaid in half.  These cuts would hurt millions of American veterans. Trump’s $193 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would leave millions of Americans hungry.

Trump’s proposal to slash Social Security Disability Insurance destroys the household budget millions of hurt, sick, or injured Americans rely on to make ends meet each month. The budget also contains cuts to the Children’s Health Insurance Program which could jeopardize the health care for millions of children in poor and working families.

The budget’s effects on scientific research and environmental protection, ranging from massive cuts to the EPA and NIH to elimination of funds that create clean energy jobs, would hurt our economy, our ability to fight climate change, and efforts to protect clean air and water.

Trump’s proposal for the defense budget is implausible, with ambitious plans to scale down spending in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, despite no concrete military plan to do so and a ‘Commander in Chief’ uninterested in the kind of international diplomacy that avoids future conflicts.

Trump’s plan is an inhumane wish list to Republican lawmakers looking to reward the wealthiest Americans at the expense of everyone else. I encourage my colleagues to work earnestly to improve upon this disaster to reach a budget agreement that funds our investment in American families and keeps the government running past September.”