Trump 2019 Budget Roundup

Here are the CBPP posts and papers to date on President Trump’s 2019 budget; we’ll update this list as we issue more analyses:

• Under President’s Budget, TANF Would Likely Provide Fewer Families with Cash Assistance and Work Opportunities, New Details Show. On the heels of enacting tax cuts that will mainly benefit the wealthy, the President has proposed funding cuts and spending requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant that will reduce the federal government’s commitment to providing assistance to our country’s poorest families. . . .
• Health Proposals in President’s Budget Would Reduce Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care. The health policies in the President's fiscal year 2019 budget are a continuation of the Administration’s health care agenda of the past year. Throughout 2017, the President pressed Congress to enact legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and making deep cuts to Medicaid. Meanwhile, the Administration is using waivers and regulatory changes to implement (and allow states to implement) policies that make it harder for eligible people to get health coverage and care. The budget doubles down in both of these areas. . . .
• President’s Budget Would Cut Food Assistance for Millions and Radically Restructure SNAP. President Trump’s 2019 budget proposes to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) by more than $213 billion over the next ten years — nearly a 30 percent cut — through radically restructuring how benefits are delivered, cutting eligibility for at least 4 million people, and reducing benefits for many others. The unemployed, the elderly, and low-income working families with children would bear the brunt of the cuts. These proposals come on the heels of a tax law the President championed that will mainly benefit the wealthy and corporations and that’s expected to add $1.5 trillion to deficits over ten years. . . .
• Welfare to Work Project in Trump Budget Would Unravel Major Federal Programs. The “Welfare to Work Projects” proposal in President Trump’s budget would facilitate the unraveling of major federal programs that help low- and moderate-income people meet basic needs. It appears to let states and localities undertake a large-scale redesign of an unnamed number of basic assistance programs, with apparently few protections for individuals who need the assistance these programs provide to make ends meet. . . .
• Trump Plan to Cut Federal Infrastructure Funding Puts Needed Improvements at Risk. President Trump’s infrastructure plan is a disappointment to states and localities looking for significant help from the federal government to address the country’s crumbling infrastructure. As my colleague Jacob Leibenluft explained, the plan is a mirage that would cut federal support for infrastructure over the long term and shift costs to states and localities. It also relies heavily on private investors, who likely wouldn’t support needed projects that won’t generate investment returns, like school construction. This plan would fail to make necessary investments — and even puts the nation’s future economic growth at risk. . . .
• States Can’t Afford Trump Budget’s Massive Cost Shift. President Trump’s 2019 budget would shift massive new costs to states and localities at a time when many states are already struggling to meet the needs of residents and businesses. . . .
• Trump Budget Would Cut Non-Defense Programs Deeply in 2019 and Beyond. In his 2019 budget, President Trump once again proposes steady and massive cuts to non-defense appropriations (“non-defense discretionary” funding or NDD), which fund a wide range of priorities such as education, job training, infrastructure, housing assistance, and scientific research. These cuts would leave funding substantially below the 2019 level agreed to in the recent bipartisan budget agreement and grow even larger in subsequent years. . . .
• Trump Budget Deeply Cuts Health, Housing, Other Assistance for Low- and Moderate-Income Families. Less than two months after signing massive tax cuts that largely benefit those at the top of the economic ladder, President Trump has put forward a 2019 budget that cuts basic assistance that millions of families struggling to get by need to help pay the rent, put food on the table, and get health care. The cuts would affect a broad range of low- and moderate-income people, including parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities. Taken together, the cuts are far deeper than any ever enacted and would deepen poverty and hardship and swell the ranks of the uninsured. . . .
• Trump “$1.5 Trillion” Infrastructure Plan Is a Mirage. Administration officials claim that the President’s new infrastructure plan will support $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investment, but his 2019 budget reveals that that number’s a mirage: the President would cut annual federal support for infrastructure in the long run and shift costs to states, cities, and private individuals. As we previewed here, it likely would mean cuts to some of the areas in which new infrastructure investment is needed most — while providing a potential windfall for private investors. . . .
• President’s Budget Would Cut and Radically Restructure SNAP Food Benefits. President Trump’s 2019 budget proposes to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) by more than $213 billion over the next ten years — or by nearly 30 percent. It calls for radically restructuring the delivery of benefits, which would cut benefits for the overwhelming majority of households, and other benefit and eligibility changes that would leave at least 4 million people losing SNAP benefits altogether. The cuts would affect every type of SNAP participant, including the unemployed, the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and low-income working families with children. . . .
• Trump 2019 Budget Slashes Aid for Families Struggling to Pay Rent. At a time when a historically high number of low-income households are struggling to pay rent and make ends meet, President Trump’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposes the most radical retrenchment of federal aid for such families since the U.S. Housing Act was first enacted in 1937. . . .
• Greenstein: Trump Budget Offers Stark Vision. A President’s budget reflects his vision for America. From that perspective, President Trump’s vision is stark, with the most affluent individuals and powerful corporations accumulating more wealth — and wielding more power, and facing fewer limits, to treat workers and consumers as they choose — while tens of millions of struggling Americans must reduce their already modest standards of living. . . .