Federal budget impact in Imperial Valley

“This budget proposal is based on utterly bogus economic assumptions,” said California Gov. Jerry Brown in response to the White House Fiscal Year 2018 budget proposal. “It’s unconscionable and un-American.”

Right after our state’s top elected official, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called the proposal as cruel and callous for students, especially those who live in low-income households.

Here in our Valley the President’s proposal would have, if enacted as presented, devastating effects for thousands of residents who depend on welfare programs.

According to the budget, the White House plans to cancel the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that has half a million registered students and forbids tens of millions more from accessing it. At the same time the federal government wants to slash work-study programs, denying benefits and opportunities to 1.6 million students, as well as child care services for college students, while withdrawing support to career and technical education programs.

“The Trump budget introduced today constitutes a massive transfer of wealth from working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor to the top 1 percent,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “This is a budget that is immoral and that will cause an enormous amount of pain for the most vulnerable people in our nation.”

The presidential candidate added that the Walton family — Walmart owners and the wealthiest family in the country — will obtain a $53 billion tax break. For the second richest family in America, the Koch brothers, the tax break would be $34 billion and the Trump family would get $4 billion in tax breaks. At the same time, the Meals on Wheels program that delivers food for elderly and the Children Health Insurance programs are entitled to get cropped. In the latter’s case the federal funding share would be reduced from 88 percent to 65 percent.

A recent analysis by the California Budget and Policy Center said Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program or CalFresh in California — also known as food stamps — would get cut 25 percent.

The proposal also seeks to eliminate emergency food and shelter grants, reduce support for rental assistance programs that serve almost 1 million Californians and to erase the Federal Housing Trust fund to give residents affordable housing. The total — $700 million.

At the same time, 13 million Californians who depend on Medi-Cal for health services are in risk of losing coverage.

In terms of fiscal reform the White House looks to deny Child Tax Credit for households with immigrant members who carry Individual Tax Identification Numbers while preventing people without Social Security numbers from qualifying for the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit that brings several dozens of millions of dollars to Imperial County every year.

Also, a one-tenth cut to welfare-to-work programs translates into the state losing $370 million. Let’s remember thousands of Valley families depend on this program to subsist.

The federal government intends to cut $9 billion from the Supplemental Security Income for low-income seniors and disabled in the next 10 years. The center says SSI does not provide enough resources to pay for rent in most of the counties.

The White House looks as well to cut $64 billion from the Social Security Disability Insurance programs that offers protection to almost 700,000 Californians.

The center estimates about $400 million the state receives yearly for K-12 education programs are also in jeopardy. The impact would strike class reduction in: before-, afterand summer school programs as well as funds to improve school conditions and technology accessibility.

The icing on the budget cake was the denial of Phase II funds for the construction of the new West Port of Entry in Calexico that would have expanded the facilities and expedited entry to our country.

“Tax cuts of this magnitude, combined with unprecedented spending reductions, make the President’s assumptions about economic growth as well +as the budget’s impacts on deficits and the federal debt widely unrealistic,” said the Center on its report.

If Imperial County has been one of the poorest communities in the nation, the budget proposal would almost put us on top of that list.