People need to be aware of what Trump and Musk are doing

Dear Editor,

House Republicans have introduced their budget, which is a direct attack on vulnerable communities―laying out clearly their plan to take food assistance and health care away from millions in order to fund more tax cuts for the rich and power Trump’s anti-immigrant mass deportation agenda.

Not only does the budget proposal include over $1.5 trillion in cuts to human needs programs―it also lays out how those cuts will be used for a $90 billion increase to the Department of Homeland Security and $110 billion to the Judiciary Committee to fund Trump’s mass deportation machine that rips families and communities apart and subjects detainees to unsanitary, horrid conditions that put their health and safety at risk. Trump and congressional Republicans are asking communities to accept a devastating trade-off: families lose food and health care in exchange for immigration raids in schools, churches, and hospitals and having the military in their neighborhoods.

Many people continue to struggle with high costs, from food to housing to child care to health care. As of 2023 (the most recent Census Bureau data) 16%—or 11.4 million of all children in the United States—lived in poverty.  In 2023, the poverty rate for all ages was 12.5%.

House Republicans have laid out a plan to increase poverty and hardship further in order to fuel his mass deportations and tax cuts for the rich. It’s absolutely unconscionable and they need to be held to account.

Call your congressman. Tell them to oppose this terrible budget.

Pallas Brabant

Montfort, WI