Trump’s Budget Lays Out His Blueprint for Women and Families — And It’s Terrifying

President Trump is cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He is taking food away from kids in the school lunch line, erecting barriers to affordable housing, and rolling back health and safety protections for women and children. And he’s doing all these things to pay for the budget-busting tax cuts he enacted for millionaires and corporations.
Today, the administration released its FY2021 budget proposal, presenting a unique opportunity to look at the President’s priorities and values in one place. And while it’s not surprising, it’s important to note: this budget is bad news for women and their families.
Our new analysis tallies the cuts that Trump proposes in FY2021 to major programs that mostly serve women and families. We found that $114 billion of cuts—ranging from health care to nutrition to education—would take place in the first year, alone. For context, literally ONE provision of the Trump tax scam that slashes corporate tax rates for wealthy companies will cost more this year than the entire cost of the $114 billion in cuts to women and families we calculated.
Some might assume this budget is dead on arrival because a divided Congress is unlikely to enact Trump’s proposals, especially this year. But the vision laid out in the budget is critical because it reinforces unilateral executive actions that harm women and their families and lays out a vision for legislative actions.
So pay attention. Here are 7 ways President Trump’s budget is a disaster for women and their families:

  1. It gives the rich more tax cuts.
  2. It cuts basic supports for women and the families who depend on them.
  3. It reduces access to health care.
  4. It puts personal beliefs before patients’ needs.
  5. It undermines workplace protections for women and proposes “paid leave” that ignores the needs of millions of working women and their families.
  6. It fails to make necessary investments for families to find and afford high-quality child care and promotes policies that compromise children’s health and safety.
  7. It cuts educational opportunities for low- and middle-income students.

There’s no way around it. A budget is a statement of values. However, Trump’s budget pays for his tax cuts and benefits the wealthiest people on the backs of women and families of color. And that is not a value that we should hold.
 

Methodology. Cuts to programs serving women and families: NWLC calculations based on Office of Management and Budget, “A Budget for America’s Future – President’s Budget FY 2021,” Supplemental Materials, Outlays, available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/. 163 programs within the Departments of Agriculture, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Labor were cut in the president’s budget between FY 2020 and 2021. 25 of those programs disproportionately served women and families, totaling $114.6 billion in cuts between FY 2020 and 2021. Cutting the corporate tax rate: Joint Committee on Taxation, “Estimated Budget Effects of the Conference Agreement for HR 1,” the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” available at https://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown&id=5053 Reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent is estimated to cut corporate tax revenue by $131.1 billion in 2021.