Oppose House Budget Bill

I am writing to urge you to vote against the current House budget. It has a number of critical flaws which will severely affect US citizens, especially the most economically vulnerable. I am against cutting the budget for Medicaid, which pays for health care for the economically disadvantaged. They need health care, as do all of us. Cutting Medicaid will also cripple our hospital systems, especially in rural areas, limiting crucial care for all regardless of their insurance. I am against cutting SNAP benefits which assist the poor in getting food and nutrition. It is estimated 3.2 million Americans will be forced off SNAP if this bill passes. The poor need food, as do all of us.  I’m also opposed to work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP — we need food and health care before we can work. In reality, these requirements are a paper tiger: most recipients already work or are exempt because they’re unable to. What they actually do is add red tape. Even the Congressional Budget Office has said these bureaucratic hurdles will push people off critical programs — not because they’re ineligible, but because they can’t navigate the paperwork. Cutting health and food benefits for the poorest amongst us, to provide tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest amongst us, is cruel and immoral. I also oppose the prohibition of Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, and cuts to the National Park Services. Most troubling is a non-budget item in the bill. Section 70302 requires anyone suing the government to post a bond before a federal court can use its contempt power to enforce injunctions. This is a brazen attempt to make the court system available to sue the government only to wealthier plaintiffs. This measure hopes to further the Project 2025 goal of creating a Unitary Executive who is unassailable through the courts. Given the record number of Executive orders the Trump administration has issued, that have been blocked by the courts, stopping Section 70302 is critical to retaining our systems of checks and balances and any semblance of democratic rule. It is unconscionable that the House budget, after bludgeoning the least affluent, and rewarding the wealthiest, will increase the U.S. budget by trillions of dollars. The greed of the powerful is the guiding principle of this document, and must be stopped. The budget deficit can be solved by raising, not lowering, tax rates on the wealthy.  Let’s return to the taxation rates that helped make the middle class be ascendant in the U.S., as opposed to our current situation where 60% of the population struggles to meet basic expenses. Please vote against these cruel and unusual measures that will traumatize the poor, engorge the rich, and penalize all US citizens by ballooning the deficit.