House Vote Tomorrow on Large Cuts to Basic Assistance -- Call Congress NOW

Tomorrow in Washington, the House of Representatives will vote on their proposed FY 2018 budget resolution. In this proposal, the House wants to enact huge tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and big corporations and cut basic assistance like SNAP (formerly Food Stamps), Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), to pay for these tax breaks for the wealthy, including “reconciliation instructions” that would fast track cuts to these programs.

Sadly, it doesn’t get much better in the Senate. This week, the Senate Budget Committee will vote on their budget resolution (with a full Senate vote later in the month). While the Senate budget does not include large spending cuts via reconciliation, it paves the way for trillions in deficit-increasing tax cuts that again mostly benefit millionaires, billionaires, and wealthy corporations. In fact, fiscal irresponsibility is built into the plan: they assume $1.5 trillion of their tax cuts will not be paid for, and you can be sure that the resulting deficits will be used justify cuts to basic assistance programs.

You stopped them from gutting health care. Now it’s time to stop them from blowing up the deficit and hurting low- and moderate-income Americans with cuts to vital services.

TAKE ACTION: Call your representatives and both senators TODAY and tell them to vote NO on these reckless and dangerous budget proposals. Call 888-516-5820 and when connected to an office, say:

My name is ______________ and I am a constituent from _____________________ and a RESULTS volunteer. I urge Rep./Sen. _____________________ to vote NO on the upcoming budget resolution. This budget uses cuts to vital programs such as SNAP, and Medicaid to pay for wasteful tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. Rep./Sen. _________________ should not be asking struggling families in our state to sacrifice to finance a tax cut for those at the top. Will you tell him/her to vote NO on the budget resolution when it comes up for a vote?

If you have the opportunity to talk directly with a specific policy aide in the office, you can adapt our “laser talks” for your calls. Also, remember that Congress will be on recess in October (Senate: Oct. 9-14; House: Oct 16-20). Request face-to-face meetings with them to talk about the budget and look for town halls where you can ask them questions about it. Please contact Jos Linn ([email protected]) for assistance.