U.S. Poverty Weekly Update May 23, 2017
U.S. Poverty Campaigns
Weekly Update | May 23, 2017
“The AHCA means that so many of our country's children, elderly and people with disabilities would lose health coverage because Medicaid as we know it would be gutted.”
—RESULTS Burlington (VT) volunteer Sara Buckingham in a May 11 letter to the editor in the Baltimore Sun
- Got Two Minutes? Tell Your Members of Congress to Reject the Trump Budget
- Got Ten Minutes? Keep Up Those Medicaid Calls to Senate Aides; Recess Next Week (May Action)
- Got Twenty Minutes? Write Your Own Letter to the Editor about Protecting Medicaid and SNAP
- Help with Our “Speak Up” Fundraising Campaign
- Quick News
- Upcoming Events
Got Two Minutes? Tell Your Members of Congress to Reject the Trump Budget
The White House released its official budget request, and it’s filled with bad news. It slashes programs that help millions of Americans put food on the table, get access to medical care, and make ends meet. The budget proposes gutting funding for SNAP (formerly Food Stamps) by almost $200 billion. It rolls back refundable tax credits for many low-income workers. It goes even further than the devastating health care bill passed by the House this spring, cutting additional hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid.
These budget cuts would mean millions more Americans go to bed hungry or can’t get access to the health care they need. And it doesn't stop there: confirming what we heard earlier this year, the budget also slashes funding for the fight against poverty around the world.
They say our federal budget is a moral document. Stripping basic assistance from people facing poverty to fund more large tax cuts for millionaires? We must let Congress know that these are not our morals.
TAKE ACTION: Take two minutes to send a letter to the editor urging your members of Congress by name to reject President Trump’s budget proposal. Use our online media alert to let them know that the Trump budget is wrong for America. When you get published, please send a link to or copy of your letter to Jos Linn ([email protected]).
Got Ten Minutes? Keep Up Those Medicaid Calls to Senate Aides; Recess Next Week (May Action)
In lieu of today’s budget news, your work to protect Medicaid is even more important now. The American Health Car Act (AHCA, H.R. 1628) would end Medicaid as we know it and now the President’s budget would cut the program even further. We cannot let these cuts and changes become law – the health care for millions of low-income Americans is at stake.
This month, RESULTS volunteers are calling Senate health aides to tell them to protect Medicaid and urge their bosses to oppose any legislation that cuts or restructures Medicaid, ends the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, or takes away health coverage for millions of Americans. Passage of a Senate health care bill will hinge on the votes of three senators. Your senator could be one of those votes.
An additional way to influence senators (and House members) on this issue is during next week’s congressional recess. Be sure to request face-to-face meetings with your senators and representatives or follow up on outstanding requests you’ve already submitted. Ask about town halls next week. Make sure no senator is uninformed about the importance of protecting Medicaid.
TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to set up calls with Senate health aides to talk about protecting Medicaid. Whether it is with your entire local RESULTS group or your group’s point person for each senator, make those calls as soon as you can. The May Action has talking points and a link to Medicaid state face sheets. In addition, our May Laser Talk is a role play of a conversation with an aide about Medicaid, which we did live on the May National Webinar.
Also request face-to-face meetings with your senators and ask about town halls next week’s Memorial Day recess (May 29-June 2). You can find aide and scheduler names under the “Staff” tab on the RESULTS Elected Officials page. Once you get a meeting, please contact Meredith Dodson ([email protected]) to help get you ready.
Got Twenty Minutes? Write Your Own Letter to the Editor about Protecting Medicaid and SNAP
The President’s budget released today is astonishing in its disdain for children, seniors, persons with disabilities, and hard-working Americans just trying to make ends meet. President Trump’s new FY 2018 budget betrays working Americans with massive cuts to programs that create jobs, raise wages, and maintain basic living standards. Here are just a few of the troubling provisions (the cuts listed are the total amount over the next ten years):
- $610 billion in Medicaid cuts on top of the $839 billion in cuts to Medicaid under the American Health Care Act, essentially cutting Medicaid in half by 2017
- $190 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), including $100 billion in costs states would have to start covering themselves. According to Feeding America, this would result in 45 billion fewer meals for hungry Americans.
- $40 billion in cuts to the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit by requiring adult claimants to have a Social Security Number
- $72 billion in cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, which provides support to those who are disabled and low-income seniors
The proposal would also allow states to implement harsh work requirements for anti-poverty programs and assumes Congress will deeply cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations.
TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes to write your own letter to the editor urging Congress to unequivocally reject this reckless and dangerous budget. Lawmakers need to know right now that their constituents are staunchly against this budget’s attack on low-income Americans. They need to know that attacking the poor in rhetoric and policy must stop now. Use our online media alert to get started, then add your own words to describe your outrage and concern for what this budget will do to people in your community – this is what newspapers want to hear from their readers.
Media Tip: If you use the RESULTS media alert to draft your letter, copy and paste the letter text into your own personal e-mail, finalize it, and send it. Some papers will not publish LTEs if they detect come from an organization’s website. You can also check to see if your paper has an online form on its website and paste and send your letter there.
Help with Our “Speak Up” Fundraising Campaign
Today’s budget news is a sobering reminder that advocating to protect anti-poverty programs is more important now more than ever. RESULTS is right in the middle of this fight. But we could not do it without the financial support of our volunteer fundraisers and donors. Right now, RESULTS is doing its spring 2017 Speak Up Friends and Family Fundraising Campaign. Already, we’ve raised $5,000 since the campaign began last week. These funds will support our work and help to spread the word about the great work we do at RESULTS and grow our network of advocates and supporters.
It’s not too late to participate. If you’d like to do your own online Speak Up campaign, go to our campaign page to learn the quick and easy steps to get started. In just a few minutes, you can be on your way to helping raise vital funds in our work to end poverty. In addition, you can get one-on-one coaching from Grassroots Fundraising Manager, Mea Geizhals ([email protected] or 202-783-4800 x131). If you don’t have time to do your own campaign, please consider donating to a fellow volunteer’s Speak Up campaign.
Quick News
Join Outreach Training Call Tonight at 9:00 pm ET. Building on our successful training webinar last month, RESULTS will be hosting a webinar, It's Go Time, Part 2 – Next Steps and Best Practices for Engaging Your Community in Advocacy tonight, May 23 at 9:00 pm ET. All RESULTS volunteers who want to build the number of volunteers taking advocacy actions in their communities are welcome attend this interactive webinar where we'll share best practices, coach and learn from each other. To join, login at http://fuze.me/34577774 or dial in at (201) 479-4595, meeting ID# 34577774#.
Join CHN’s Budget Webinar on Thursday. If you want to learn more details about how President Trump’s budget will impact human needs programs – and how you can fight back – join our friends at the Coalition on Human Needs for their Budget Webinar this Thursday, May 25 at 1:00 pm ET. Register today on the CHN website.
Please Complete and Submit Your New Group Plans. Meet with your group in May to complete your 2017 Group Plans. Use our new Group Planning Guide and Group Plan Summary form to do your planning and then submit your final plan online at: www.tinyurl.com/RESULTS2017Plans. Use planning to make the rest of your 2017 productive and inspiring. Please submit iyour 2017 Group Plan Summary online no later than May 31, 2017. If you have questions, please contact Jos Linn at [email protected].
Register for the RESULTS International Conference Today. We’re only two months from RESULTS’ biggest event of the year – the RESULTS International Conference (July 22-25 in Washington, DC). With anti-poverty programs both here and abroad under threat, we need you there getting trained, feeling inspired, and talking face-to-face with your members of Congress about ending poverty. Your voice is needed in DC this summer – register today!
Last Week to Nominate a Grassroots Board Member. Nominate yourself or another grassroots volunteer whom you think would be a strong voice representing volunteers on the RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund Board. Send nominations to Jesse Marsden ([email protected]) no later than this Sunday, May 28. Read more on the RESULTS Blog.
Upcoming Events
Go to the RESULTS Events Calendar to see a full list of RESULTS events. Also, find a list of the RESULTS U.S. Poverty staff with contact information on the RESULTS website.
Upcoming Congressional Recesses: House and Senate: May 29-June 2.
It's Go Time, Part 2 – Next Steps and Best Practices for Engaging Your Community in Advocacy, Tuesday, May 23 at 9:00 pm ET. This is a RESULTS training webinar. To join, login at http://fuze.me/34577774 or dial in at (201) 479-4595, meeting ID# 34577774#.
RESULTS Introductory Call, Wednesday, May 26 at 1:00 pm ET. If you want to learn more about RESULTS, register for an Intro Call on the RESULTS website.
Memorial Day Holiday, Monday, May 29. All RESULTS offices are closed.
RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar, Tuesday, June 13 at 8:00 pm ET. Participate at http://fuze.me/32255914 or (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32255914#. Listen to previous webinars on our National Webinars page.
RESULTS U.S. Poverty Free Agents Calls, Tuesday, June 20 at 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm ET. To participate, login at http://fuze.me/32256018 or dial by phone at (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32256018#.
RESULTS International Conference, Saturday, July 22 – Tuesday, July 25, 2017. Washington Court Hotel, Washington, DC. Register today!
If you have a question, comment or suggestion for the RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund Board, please e-mail them to RESULTS Grassroots Board Member Vanessa Garcia at [email protected]. You can view the most recently published minutes from Board meetings on the RESULTS website, as well as download RESULTS’ most recent Annual Report.