Barbara Lee statement on President Trump’s budget proposal

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This Budget Is a Recipe for Greater Instability, Hunger and Hopelessness

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement on the release of President Trump’s budget outline:

Meet my joint session guest, Stacy Amador. Stacy exemplifies the best in our nation: she’s a UC Berkeley student and community college graduate studying to be a public defender, the daughter of immigrants, and has benefited from the Affordable Care Act. Young people like Stacy have so much to lose if President Trump enacts his cruel agenda. Now more than ever, we need their voices to resist the dangerous policies of President Trump. (Barbara Lee Facebookpage)

“As a social worker and a senior member of the House Budget and House Appropriations Committees, I know that the federal budget is a moral document. Sadly, President Trump’s budget outline once again confirms that his priorities and values are deeply out of step with the American people.

“This budget would offer massive handouts to defense contractors while gutting lifesaving programs for the poor and middle class. Despite the rampant waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon, this budget funnels even more taxpayer money into the pockets of defense contractors. Rather than make us safer, this budget outline is a recipe for greater instability, hunger and hopelessness around the world. By cutting the Department of State and USAID by more than $10 billion, the Trump Administration is undermining our global leadership and sentencing families around the world to poverty and illness.

“Finally, by slashing lifesaving programs, including job training, work-study aid, public health research, and housing assistance, the Trump Administration’s plan would wreak havoc on our communities. Turning our backs on working families, seniors, the disabled and the sick is both cruel and counterproductive. Nowhere are President Trump’s misplaced priorities clearer than in this budget’s outrageous request for more than $2 billion to construct his un-American wall on the southern border.

“I urge my colleagues to reject this morally bankrupt budget and invest in the programs that make us safer, healthier and more prosperous.”

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More from Representative Lee’s Facebook page

March 15: “According to the AARP, a 64 year old making $15,000 a year could see their healthcare premiums increase by $8,400 annually under the Republican healthcare plan. This proposal is a disaster for working class Americans, plain and simple.”

March 15: “Jeff Sessions shows the depth of his ignorance on marijuana. I’m supporting bipartisan legislation, H.R. 975, to block him & the Department of Justice from meddling in state marijuana & #MMJ laws.”

Feb. 16: “House Republicans just voted to reinstate brutal, inhumane hunting practices of bear and wolf cubs. This resolution is cruel. I voted NO and will keep raising my voice to protect our planet and the beautiful animals we share it with.”

Top photo, from Rep. Lee’s Facebook page: “I’m wearing suffragette white at President Trump’s #JointSession, in honor of the generations of women who marched and fought for our sacred rights. President Trump needs to know that his sexist, chauvinistic and predatory behavior is unacceptable and un-American. Our rights — and our bodies — are not up for grabs.”

Follow Congresswoman Lee on Twitter.