John,

We just learned that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy will hold a vote this Wednesday on a devastating bill that’s a bad deal for the American people and a good deal for corporate polluters and wealthy and corporate tax cheats. It’s supposed to be about preventing default on our obligations, but because its cuts are so extreme, the bill pushes us closer to the brink of default, and instant recession.

Over the weekend, we already sent more than 22,000 letters to members of Congress to reject McCarthy’s plan, which makes an across-the-board 22% cut to virtually every program and service, assuming, as reported, they’ll maintain exorbitant Pentagon spending. The bill targets the poorest people, setting up bureaucratic hurdles to deny Medicaid and SNAP nutrition assistance to millions.

And, while McCarthy and his caucus claim they won’t cut Social Security, the Social Security Administration would be included in the cuts, which would put up barriers between us and our earned benefits -- creating longer wait times for people applying for benefits including people with disabilities.

Rush a donation today to fight back against Kevin McCarthy’s bad deal, which he’s demanding in exchange for raising the country’s debt limit and allowing the federal government to pay bills Congress has already incurred.

In his plan, McCarthy has included HR1, which environmental advocates call the “Polluters over People Act” that would roll back foundational environmental laws and regulations meant to protect vulnerable communities from fast-tracked fossil fuel projects.

And, McCarthy is calling for the repeal of much of the $80 billion IRS investment signed into law by President Biden last year, which would finally allow the IRS to crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats while better serving everyday taxpayers.

McCarthy’s proposed budget cuts would have a chilling effect on programs relied upon by millions of people. If, as expected, they exempt the Pentagon from cuts:

• Head Start funding reductions would eliminate 200,000 slots for children in families with low incomes.

• 101,000 child care slots would be eliminated.

• More than 1 million older adults would lose meals -- in many cases their only meal of the day.

• 640,000 families would lose their housing vouchers out of the 2.3 million households now using vouchers; other cuts in affordable housing programs would affect hundreds of thousands of additional households.

• Anything over a 6% cut in the current budget would be “catastrophic” for the Social Security Administration. For every $100 million cut, 1,000 people would have to be laid off -- the equivalent of closing 40 field offices, at a time when 10,000 baby boomers per day are retiring, and people with disabilities are already forced to wait many months for their applications to be processed.

• The funding reduction for K-12 education in low-income communities would equal the loss of 60,000 teachers.

• Indian Health Services -- which is already severely underfunded -- would see a cut of $327 million.

• And, unspent COVID-19 funding, including the Inflation Reduction Act, would result in billions of dollars in lost investments for communities in need.

McCarthy and his caucus are holding the U.S. economy hostage in exchange for these devastating cuts. Instead of this bad deal for the American people, we’re demanding Congress hold a clean debt ceiling vote to allow the federal government to pay bills Congress has already incurred.

Rush a donation today to fight back against Kevin McCarthy’s hostage taking and fight for critical programs and services for millions of low-income and working people, the aging, and people from vulnerable communities.

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McCarthy can only afford to lose 4 Republican votes―and there are 16 Republicans in the House who have never voted to increase the debt ceiling.

Let’s keep the pressure on Congress to reject McCarthy’s bad deal!

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs