On May 10, the U.S. House of Representatives approved far-reaching legislation to cut $310 billion from the deficit over the next 10 years.

On May 10, the U.S. House of Representatives approved far-reaching legislation to cut $310 billion from the deficit over the next 10 years.



About 25 percent of that cut, or $77 billion, comes directly from programs that assist poor and working Americans, while the military is protected from reductions, and tax breaks for upper-income people are preserved.

The programs cut include Medicaid and children’s health, hospitals that serve the low-income and uninsured, food stamps, school meals, a child tax credit for working immigrants, social services for the elderly such as Meals on Wheels and programs for abused or neglected children.



The budget-slashing effort is led by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in an attempt to derail $55 billion in automatic “sequestration” military budget cuts scheduled to start Jan. 1, stemming from last year’s deal to save the government from financial default.



The Senate will not support the bill and the White House threatens to veto it. But the harsh content stands to set the tone for the 2012 elections. It legitimizes a punitive public attitude toward those who struggle to survive in the still-difficult American economy.



Why are we balancing the budget on the backs of the poor? We know that investments in programs that give a boost to poor children and working people and provide opportunities for job-training and education have a huge monetary return down the line.



This budget hits hard the people who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads, to put food on their tables, to send their kids to college. Meanwhile oil moguls get subsidies and the 1 percent richest Americans get tax breaks.



The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would push 1.8 million people off food stamps, cost 280,000 children their school lunch subsidies and 300,000 children their health insurance coverage. Elimination of the social services block grant to state and local governments would hit child abuse prevention programs, Meals on Wheels, child care, transportation for the elderly and disabled, and more.



Right now more than one in nine Massachusetts residents and more than one in seven Massachusetts children live in poverty ($23,050 for a family of four in 2012).



In the second half of 2011, more than one in seven Bay Staters answered “yes” when asked by the Gallup organization, “Have there been times in the last 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?”



Between 2009 and 2011, the number of homeless families in Massachusetts increased eight percent.



Americans need to mobilize to prevent the budget cuts from the current House budget as well as the automatic “sequestration” cuts that will be triggered if no alternative budget agreement is reached. We need to make the choices that will protect our children and our future. We cannot let the programs vital to the health, education and well-being of our most vulnerable citizens be decimated while military spending is protected and the very wealthy continue to get tax breaks.



John J. Drew is president/CEO of Action for Boston Community Development, the Boston-area antipoverty and community action agency.For more information about ABCD, contact External Affairs VP Susan Kooperstein at susan.kooperstein@bostonabcd.org.







