ICYMI: Catholic Charities Criticizes Congressman Tom Reed On The Budget
AM 1480 WLEA News
April 28, 2015
http://wlea.net/catholic-charities-criticizes-congressman-tom-reed-on-the-budget/
Andy Mazella of Catholic Charities of Steuben County, is criticizing Congressional Budget plans. Mazella says food stamps will be cut by 35 percent, medicaid will be cut by over 900 billion, and end the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Children’s Tax Credit. In the letter, Mazella quotes Congressman Tom Reed as saying that it is wrong to claim that the poorest are being victimized by these budget plans.
We attempted to reach Congressman Tom Reed’s office early today on another issue, and were told that Reed was on a plane. As soon as we hear back from the congressman, we will post his response.
See letter below:
Last week Catholic Charities of Steuben County, The Food Bank of the Southern Tier and members of the faith community of Bath, led by Father Brad Benson of St. Thomas Episcopal church held a news conference to heighten awareness of the Congressional Budget Plans and to express our alarm over the effects these plans would have on the poor and middle class in our community.
The House and Senate budgets both attempt to balance the Budget within ten years. This would be accomplished by drastically cutting funding for programs providing critical assistance to low income and middle class Americans. It is estimated that 69% of the budgets non-defense cuts are from these programs. Cuts in low-income discretionary and entitlement programs likely account for about $3.7 trillion of the $5.3 trillion in non-defense cuts in the House Budget Committee’s plan, and at least $3.2 trillion of the $4.7 trillion in non-defense budget cuts in the Senate Budget Committee’s plan.
SNAP (Food Stamps) will be cut for the third time in three years, this time by 35%. If these cuts come entirely from lower benefits it would cut $55 per person per month or about 40 meals a month.
Pell Grants to college students would be frozen at today’s maximum grant levels even as tuition and room and board cost continue to rise significantly every year.
Medicaid is estimated to be cut by over $900 Billion in the next 10 years while this will affect the health care of millions of low income people the elderly would be affected even more. The elderly account for 25% of the Medicaid participants but utilize 75% of the programs funds, mostly for long term care. The poor account for 75% of participants but only utilize 25% of the Medicaid dollars.
The House Budget Plan would change Medicare by offering “Premium Support” payments for the elderly to purchase private insurance, Seniors would have the option of staying with traditional Medicare.
The proposed budget plans would raise taxes on working families by ending the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Children’s Tax Credit. This would affect 13 million working Americans.
The list goes on and on, space does not permit a full disclosure of the extent of the cuts contained in these budget plans. Suffice it to say that the SNAP and Pell Grant cuts a part of a $1.1 trillion package of cuts to unspecified spending programs that may include child nutrition programs, Supplemental Security Income for elderly and disabled poor, to name a few.
Separate from the Budget Plans the House voted to give tax breaks to the wealthiest two tenth of 1 percent of Americans. The House passed “Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015”, this is a tax cut costing the treasury $269 Billion over a decade, that would exclusively benefit individuals with wealth of more than $5.4 million and couples with wealth of more than $10.9 million. That’s a tax break for the 5,500 wealthiest households in America. The tax cut averages $3 million per households. Will money lost from these tax cuts have to be made up for with more budget cuts?
Congressman Tom Reed responded to our press conference by saying it is wrong to claim that the poorest are being victimized by these budget plans. I would ask Congressman Reed, is it right to propose cuts of hundreds of billions of dollars from Food Stamps, Pell Grants, Medicaid and other programs for those who are struggling to make ends meet and to give a $269 Billion tax cut to the few who already have the most? Is it right to take 40 meals a month off the table of needy neighbors while adding $358 Billion to the Defense Budget over the next 10 years?
We all agree that there is a need to reduce the deficit. But not all of us agree that pushing an estimated sixteen million Americans into poverty or deeper into poverty after 2017 is the way to do it.