FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 10, 2014
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards (MD-4) released the following statement regarding the Ryan Republican Budget, which passed the House 219-205.
“A budget is a reflection of our priorities. Republican’s priorities are clear once again with the passage of the Ryan Republican budget. Our country is strongest when our economy grows from the middle out, not the top down, but this budget takes the opposite approach. It benefits those at the top by showering tax breaks on millionaires and corporate special interests, while shifting the burden of the federal budget to middle-class families. It taxes working families with children by an average of $2,000 in order to cut taxes for millionaires. A new analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice found that, ‘taxpayers with income exceeding $1 million in 2015 would receive an average net tax decrease of over $200,000 that year.’ Yet, at the same time, the Ryan budget would cost 1.1 million jobs in FY15, rising to 3 million the next year.
“We can and must do better. That is why my Democratic colleagues and I are focused on our priorities; creating jobs, strengthening the economy, improving education, passing ‘When Women Succeed, America Succeeds: An Economic Agenda for Women and Families,’ and investing in the nation’s infrastructure. These are the steps that must be taken to strengthen working families and ensure shared prosperity for generations to come.”
The Republican passed Ryan budget harms women and families by:
- Slashing Medicaid by $732 billion over 10 years or by nearly 25 percent in 2024 – with the largest impact on women as 70 percent of Medicaid’s adult beneficiaries are women.
- Cutting food stamps by $137 billion over the next 10 years, 62 percent of adult food stamp recipients are women.
- Dropping at least 200,000 women and children from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, if the 15 percent cut in 2016 non-defense appropriations was applied across-the-board.
- Cutting at least $500 billion to income support programs, like the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, unemployment insurance, low-income housing and energy assistance, Supplementary Security Income (SSI), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and child nutrition programs, including school lunches.
- Forcing up to 170,000 children to lose access to Head Start and up to 3.4 million disadvantaged children at 8,000 schools to lose vital Title I education funding.
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