(Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images for Caring Across Generations) |
By Belle Taylor-McGhee | Bre’Jaynae Joiner is a young single mother from Oakland, Calif. A college graduate, Joiner hopes to get a master’s degree in public health. Like millions of other Americans across the country, she worries about how she’s going to take care of her family’s basic needs: keeping a roof over their heads and putting food on the table.
Since President Donald Trump signed the Republican budget and tax bill into law on July 4, Joiner also worries about losing health coverage for her two daughters, ages 7 and 10.
“My children have always had Medi-Cal [California’s Medicaid program],” she says. “I really don’t know what I would do or how I could afford to keep us covered [without it].”
The Trump administration calls the law “the most pro-family legislation ever crafted,” but according to the Congressional Budget Office, an estimated $1 trillion in federal Medicaid spending will be cut from the program over a 10-year period, and 11.8 million Americans—a majority of them women and children—will lose their coverage by 2034.
The Republican budget also cuts $186 billion from SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) through 2034, in what is believed to be the largest cut in the program’s history. SNAP, the federal food stamp program, provides assistance to more than 42 million people nationwide from 22.7 million households—an essential lifeline for millions of children and adults who live with food insecurity.
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