A report released Tuesday by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee details how US President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are waging a multifront war on children by targeting healthcare programs, education, and nutrition assistance as part of their scorched-earth assault on the nation’s safety net and redistribution of wealth to the very top.
“In just months, the Trump administration has gutted access to healthcare for millions of children, slashed funding for school meals and nutrition assistance, fired thousands of workers dedicated to advancing child welfare and protecting children, and unleashed policies that traumatize and harm immigrant families and LGBTQ+ youth,” reads the report. “These actions are not isolated—they reflect a coordinated agenda that will leave a generation of children sicker, hungrier, and less safe.”
As part of the sprawling budget reconciliation package that Trump signed into law over the summer, Republicans enacted the largest-ever cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), slashing more than $1 trillion combined from the two programs.
Roughly half of all kids in the US are covered by either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and around 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children, meaning cuts to those programs will have far-reaching impacts on the nation’s youth in the coming years.
“By making the largest cuts to healthcare and food assistance in the nation’s history, Donald Trump and Republicans have left children and their families poorer and worse off in ways that will be felt for generations,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“By dismantling the very systems that safeguard children’s health and future, Trump and Republicans are condemning a generation to poorer health, deeper poverty, and diminished opportunity.”
In addition to denouncing cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, the new report outlines how the Trump administration is imperiling mental health programs by canceling grants and other funding, harming children’s education by throttling Head Start funds, and inflicting deadly cuts to programs that aid kids overseas—all while delivering massive tax cuts to the richest Americans and largest corporations.
“Trump’s cuts to healthcare access, food assistance, and education have stripped millions of kids of the care, nutrition, and protection they need to thrive,” the report states. “By dismantling the very systems that safeguard children’s health and future, Trump and Republicans are condemning a generation to poorer health, deeper poverty, and diminished opportunity.”
“Unless stopped,” the report concludes, “Trump’s war on kids will leave lasting scars on millions of children and weaken the nation for decades to come.”
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