Trump budget could mean significant cuts in benefits for Connecticut residents

From dramatic cuts to safety net programs to building fewer submarines, President Trump’s proposed $4.8 trillion budget for the 2021 fiscal year could have a significant, detrimental impact on Connecticut, state leaders and advocates say.

“The cuts President Trump is proposing to Medicaid, nutrition assistance and affordable housing are cruel, almost as if they’re designed to hurt the most vulnerable people in our state," Sen. Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement Tuesday, vowing to fight against the reductions.

Trump’s budget proposes about $300 billion in cuts to Medicaid, federal housing assistance, and food stamp programs, in addition to slashing spending on federal disability insurance benefits by $70 billion. The proposal would cut $170 billion from student loan programs, partly by eliminating subsidized federal student loans and ending the public service loan forgiveness program (both of which appeared in last year’s budget but were not adopted by Congress).

“Connecticut is certainly paying out its fair share of taxes federally and we need to get that money back it to Connecticut to make people’s lives better,” said Deb Polun, the executive director of the Connecticut Association for Community Action, a state association of Connecticut’s nine antipoverty Community Action Agencies, which serve 250,000 residents annually.

Slashes to Medicaid and tweaks to Medicare

Trump’s budget would cut a trillion dollars from Medicaid and subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, partly by instituting work requirements, asset tests and more frequent verification of eligibility.

“At a time when so many hardworking Americans are one medical emergency away from bankruptcy, it is disturbing that the President is so brazenly cutting the healthcare that millions of families rely on," Juan Hernandez, Vice-President of 32BJ SEIU, the country’s largest property services union, with 5,000 members in Connecticut, said in a statement Tuesday.

Though the budget includes a small expansion of Medicaid coverage by allowing states to cover inpatient care for psychiatric care or drug addiction treatment, it would reduce the federal share of spending for all Medicaid patients.

“The pain from these cuts would hurt communities on all ends of the economic spectrum. Not only are millions of children reliant on the Children’s Health Insurance Program, 65% of all nursing home residents are supported by Medicaid,” Hernandez said.

Housing assistance programs would take a hit

The Trump administration’s proposed budget threatens to eliminate a number of crucial antipoverty programs in Connecticut. The Weatherization Assistance Program, which reduces energy costs for low-income households, and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (known in-state as the CT Energy Assistance Program), which provides assistance with home energy bills to 80,000 households annually, would both be cut if the budget passes.

The weatherization program, which provides upgrades to more than 2,000 Connecticut homes annually, “helps people stay in a warmer home and makes sure tax dollars are used most effectively,” Polun said. Connecticut receives roughly $2 million in weatherization funding annually and $82 million in funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), which provides funding to Community Action Agencies that can be used to support a wide range of programs, would also be eliminated under Trump’s budget. The grant -- which provides Connecticut with $6.9 million in funding annually -- supports a wide range of programs and services for low-income individuals.

One program is the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which provides free tax preparation help to Connecticut residents who make under $50,000. The program operates in community centers, libraries, schools, shopping malls and other locations across the state.

Nationally, the proposed budget also includes the elimination of the Choice Neighborhoods Program -- which awards grants to neighborhoods with deteriorating public and federally assisted housing -- and reductions in rental assistance programs like Housing Choice Vouchers, among other cuts.

Reductions in SNAP benefits

Trump’s proposed budget would reduce Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding by $180 billion between 2021 and 2030, through tightening eligibility requirements and providing the benefit partly through food shipments rather than cash.

The administration has long targeted SNAP for spending cuts. A new rule revising work requirements for SNAP eligibility, which goes into effect on April 1, is estimated to eliminate food assistance benefits for roughly 26,000 Connecticut residents, according to the state Department of Social Services. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the cuts will save the government almost $8 billion over five years.

The administration has also previously presented two additional proposals which political leaders and antipoverty advocates in Connecticut have warned could eliminate SNAP eligibility for tens of thousands of state residents.

Threat to Connecticut’s submarine production

The proposed budget would also cut Virginia-class submarine production from two a year to one, a plan which has drawn swift condemnation from state leaders. Gov. Ned Lamont blasted President Donald Trump on Tuesday for the proposed reduction, which he called “inexcusable." In recent years, the Pentagon’s budget has called for two submarines per year – leading to a sharp increase in employment at the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton.

“When they make the pledge of two submarines, I think they have the ability to keep to it," he said. "They should keep to it. It is, by far, in the best interest of the taxpayers because it brings down the cost to have that consistency.’’

During a recent trip to the National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C., Lamont met personally with the U.S. Navy Secretary to talk about the submarines – before Trump’s budget was announced. Lamont said the state cannot be whipsawed into changing its workforce with a major change in the number of submarines.

“If you tell me we’re going to have two Virginia class subs over the foreseeable future, then we line up personnel and workforce to do that. We put in place the pipeline to do that. We gear up to do that," Lamont said. "Then in politics, all of a sudden, you pull the rug, and say we’re going from two to one. That really screws up your production process.’’

Courant reporter Chris Keating contributed to this report. Information from The New York Times was included in this report.

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