Democratic Governors: GOP Budget Bill a “Big Betrayal of the Middle Class”

Democratic Governors: GOP Budget Bill a “Big Betrayal of the Middle Class”

“The GOP is calling it a big, beautiful bill. We’re calling it what it really is—a big betrayal.”

A new op-ed in Newsweek from Gov. Laura Kelly, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer outlines how Donald Trump’s disastrous budget bill is a “big betrayal of the middle class” — taking away health care from working families, jeopardizing food assistance for millions of Americans, posing a massive threat to rural hospitals and farmers, and exploding the national deficit.

The governors warned against shifting these essential costs to states, writing: “As governors who have to balance budgets every single year, we’ll give it to you straight: that’s ridiculous. There’s just no way state budgets can make up the difference.”

While Republicans passed this bill to give tax breaks to the wealthy, Democratic governors “put the people we serve first. If politicians in D.C. did the same, they wouldn’t have let this big betrayal of American families become law.”

Read more from Govs. Kelly, Lujan Grisham, and Whitmer in Newsweek on how Trump’s budget bill puts working families last:

• The GOP is calling it a big, beautiful bill. We’re calling it what it really is—a big betrayal.

• When President Donald Trump said this bill would be “big,” he was right in one sense: this bill will be a big problem for Americans across the country. The whole point of the legislation is to give massive tax handouts to the very wealthy. To do this, the GOP is willing to cut necessities like Medicaid and food assistance that their own constituents rely on. And because those handouts to billionaires are so big, this bill will also explode the national deficit.

• This bill will force families to choose between feeding their children, making sure they have reliable child care to go to work, and paying their other bills. That’s a choice no American should have to make.

• Rural hospitals in red and blue states, already struggling to keep their doors open and provide care, will be at a greater risk of shutting down. Farmers who provide the food that SNAP helps people buy will have fewer buyers for their products.

• The GOP is claiming states will be able to backfill the huge funding gaps we’ve just listed out. As governors who have to balance budgets every single year, we’ll give it to you straight: that’s ridiculous. There’s just no way state budgets can make up the difference.

• Each of us goes to bed each night and wakes up each morning thinking about how to best serve the people of our states—fixing the roads, bringing in more good-paying jobs to make life more affordable, and funding our public schools.

• In other words, we put the people we serve first. If politicians in D.C. did the same, they wouldn’t have let this big betrayal of American families become law.

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