The authors write that sequestration is particularly damaging for those living in poverty. GOP budget's war on the poor

As we approach the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” Republicans are holding a hearing Wednesday in the House Budget Committee for a “progress report.”

Democrats believe that the War on Poverty is a war worth fighting, and a war we can win. In 1964, Johnson proposed a set of policies that were a continuation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s the New Deal. Americans decided as a nation that children should not go hungry, that seniors shouldn’t retire in squalor, and that job training empowered people better than any other avenue.


The country came together to tackle poverty in 1964, but that was then. Today, things look very different. Republicans are making it harder and harder for the economic gains our country has achieved to reach everyone. The GOP’s budget isn’t waging a war on poverty, it’s waging a war against the poor.

Just three weeks ago, House Republicans passed a bill to provide taxpayer subsidies to agribusinesses, but totally dropped measures to provide vulnerable families with food and nutrition assistance. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called Food Stamps, is a vital lifeline that currently helps keep food on the table for 48 million Americans. This program and other initiatives lifted 18 million people out of poverty in 2011, and yet the Republican budget would devastate these programs – so much for “compassionate conservatism.”

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House Republicans would also betray the work we’ve done to protect Americans as they retire. In addition to ending the Medicare guarantee, the Republican budget cuts $810 billion from Medicaid – despite the fact that even after the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the vast majority of federal Medicaid spending will cover health care for the aged, blind, disabled, and children. There is no way to make these cuts without hurting this vulnerable population.

The GOP budget does all this without asking millionaires to contribute one more dime to reducing our deficit. Their plan would provide millionaires with an average net tax cut of $330,000, while shredding the social safety net. It seeks to balance the budget on the backs of everyone else – and not just the poor. The middle class, seniors, and kids will all be hit hard.

Time and time again, Republicans ask drowning Americans to stay afloat without a life raft. This budget hearing is but one more tactic to grandstand and push vulnerable Americans aside. Democrats in Congress are committed to fighting this destructive agenda, forging ahead, and looking for solutions.

First and foremost, we are working to put Americans back to work and replace the across-the-board budget cuts, known as sequestration, that are a drag on our economic recovery. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated last week that failing to replace these damaging cuts will cost up to 1.6 million American jobs by the end of FY 2014.

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Sequestration is particularly damaging for the poor. We’ve already seen children turned away from Head Start, seniors losing home-delivered meals, and people being told they won’t get housing assistance.

And all this will only get worse under the Republican plan. The GOP’s budget more than doubles the automatic cuts to non-defense discretionary programs, putting important initiatives at risk. For example, their plan would cut the Labor-HHS appropriations bill, which funds NIH, mental health, and education, by about 20 percent below the FY 2013 level under sequestration.

Democrats have introduced legislation to replace sequestration with a balanced approach. And not only have Republicans failed to offer their own solution this year, they have blocked a vote in the House seven times.

We need to immediately negotiate a final budget that replaces sequestration, boosts job growth, and protects the millions who are struggling to make ends meet. House Republicans are instead voting to undermine and repeal the Affordable Care Act – which will help provide health insurance to millions and give much-needed assistance to our nation’s most vulnerable – for the 40th time.

We can win the war on poverty, but only if we stop playing political games and work together. American families are counting on us.

Chris Van Hollen represents Maryland’s 8th congressional district and Barbara Lee represents California’s 13th congressional district.