New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Blumenthal calls Trump budget cuts ‘public health suicide’
NEW HAVEN — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal blasted President Trump’s proposed federal budget, which cuts billions from the National Institutes of Health as the world tries to control the spread of the coronavirus.
The state’s senior senator in Washington said the plan represents “public health suicide.”
Blumenthal, a Democrat representing Connecticut, was joined by Mayor Justin Elicker, city Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalai and city
Health Director Maritza Bond at a news conference at City Hall on Friday.
Elicker said the proposed budget “eviscerates” many of the social services that the federal government has provided to communities like New Haven for years.
“This is Valentine’s Day and I think what we have seen from our leadership is a lack of compassion, a lack of caring, a lack of love for so many people in our nation that make our nation strong,” the mayor said.
“People who are coming from places where there is strife and chaos in their countries, people that are living in our cities like New Haven that often times don’t even have enough money to put food on the table. This is not the time to disinvest. It is a time for us to go the other way and invest in communities that are particularly struggling,” Elicker said.
The mayor said the cuts are in housing, food stamps and “basically every social service that sends a lifeline to people looking to get by.”
Blumenthal, in his remarks, concentrated on the $3 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health, and the 16 percent cut to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“A pandemic that engulfs the world in coronavirus is preventable, but only if we invest in vaccines, in the prevention steps, in other measures that make common sense. China may seem like a long way away, but infections and diseases spread rapidly in today’s world,” he said.
The senator said even Republican supporters of the president are expressing dismay at the proposed cuts.
Bond, in answer to a question, said 56 percent of the city’s Health Department budget depends on special funds that come either directly from the federal government or as a pass-through from the state.
“It impacts us significantly,” Bond said.
Blumenthal said the proposal also envisions the end of help to young people who are drowning in student loan debt.
Some of the public health cuts include: a reduction of $35 million for infection disease rapid response teams, $18 million for hospital preparedness and $6.4 million for the World Health Organization.