Trump's budget is just the first attack on Medicaid and food stamps

Center on Budget & Policy Priorities - The deep cuts that President Trump’s budget proposes to low- and moderate-income programs — the deepest such cuts that any modern President has ever proposed — not only would have severe consequences for health care, housing, job training, and other programs in their first year. The cuts also would grow considerably with each passing year, ultimately chopping the nation’s key low-income health program (Medicaid) nearly in half and federal spending on the nation’s key food assistance program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) by nearly one-third.

The budget would cut low- and moderate-income programs by 6 percent, or $52 billion, in 2018 alone. For next year, that would leave 14 million more people uninsured (because the budget embraces the House bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act); eliminate 250,000 housing vouchers for rental assistance; and end entire programs such as the Social Services Block Grant (which funds a range of services for low-income people) and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (which helps poor households, particularly seniors and families with children, pay high heating bills), among other consequences.

The cuts then would grow far worse. As the chart below shows, in 2027, the budget would cut overall spending on low- and moderate-income programs by 33 percent or $440 billion — that is, more than five times larger than the 6 percent cut in 2018. Further, the cuts would continue to grow after the first decade.