[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 89 (Tuesday, May 23, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S3102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the Trump administration released its 
fiscal year 2018 budget this morning. For all the talk on the campaign 
trail of standing up for the forgotten Americans in this country, the 
President's budget takes aim at the exact programs that many rely on. 
From healthcare and food stamps to student loans and disability, 
President Trump's budget is nothing less than an assault on seniors, 
low-income Americans, children, and the disabled.
  The President's budget calls for more than $3.6 trillion in cuts to 
Federal spending over the next 10 years, with more than $1 trillion of 
these cuts coming from some of the most vital programs in our Nation's 
social safety net. Nothing is more essential to our Nation's low-
income, disabled, and elderly Americans than Medicaid and the 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. But the 
President's budget slashes more than $600 billion from Medicaid, 
despite the President's repeated promises on the campaign trail to 
protect the program. More than 3 million people in my State--20 percent 
of the people who live there--currently depend on the Medicaid Program 
for healthcare, including 1.5 million children and more than 300,000 
seniors and disabled people.
  The budget cuts $193 billion from SNAP by making it harder for people 
to qualify for this assistance in putting food on the table. Forty-four 
million children, disabled, and low-income people around the country 
accessed food through the SNAP program last year.
  Also weakened in the President's budget is the Temporary Assistance 
for Needy Families block grant that helps States provide financial 
assistance to families who are literally struggling to survive. And the 
budget cuts about 20 percent of funding for the Children's Health 
Insurance Program, providing health insurance for poor children. Isn't 
that incredible? The President doesn't believe that is a priority--
health insurance for poor children.
  It is often said that the President's budget reflects our values, and 
this budget shows that President Trump clearly values tax cuts for the 
upper income individuals in America over the lives of poor and middle-
class Americans.
  The President's budget also includes historic cuts in nondefense 
discretionary spending. Over the next 10 years, President Trump 
proposes to cut domestic spending so significantly that spending on 
defense would exceed spending on domestic priorities by almost $300 
billion. To pay for an increase in defense spending and to build his 
big, beautiful wall, the President would slash funding from programs 
essential to hard-working Americans--programs that support affordable 
housing, home heating bills, Meals on Wheels, student loans, clean 
drinking water, preserving the Great Lakes, early childhood education, 
and infrastructure.
  Even medical research is on the Trump chopping block. President Trump 
has proposed cutting one-fifth of the budget for the National 
Institutes of Health, including $1 billion from the National Cancer 
Institute. President Obama, with Vice President Biden, with strong 
bipartisan support, put together a moonshot--a Cancer Moonshot--to do 
something significant in cancer research. President Trump's budget 
virtually eliminates it.
  NIH has helped cut U.S. cancer death rates by 11 percent in women and 
19 percent in men. It has helped ensure HIV/AIDS is no longer a death 
sentence. It contributed to the near eradication of polio and smallpox, 
but make no mistake, these changes didn't just happen. They occurred 
because of sustained Federal investment in medical research.
  I salute my colleague on the other side of the aisle, Roy Blunt, the 
Appropriations subcommittee chair when it comes to NIH. For 2 straight 
years now, 2 fiscal years, he has given more than 5 percent real growth 
in NIH spending. I have praised him on the floor and back home and 
publicly over and over again. That Republican Senator, and many 
Democratic Senators, stood together because we believe in medical 
research. The Trump budget does not.
  We cannot afford these devastating cuts, and we can't afford to sit 
on our hands and face the millions of families across America who count 
on us to have the right priorities. Clearly, the President's budget is 
far from a new foundation for American greatness. This budget would 
have a devastating impact on Americans most in need of a helping hand, 
on everything from healthcare to food access, to quality education and 
affordable housing.
  They always say the President's budget is dead on arrival. This 
budget, I hope, will be dead on arrival. It doesn't deserve the light 
of day or a breath of life.
  We need to come together, as we did in this year's budget, on a 
bipartisan basis, order the priorities that America sent us to 
prioritize, and then work together to pass it. I hope it is done on a 
bipartisan basis. That is what America wants, both parties to work 
together. We can do it. We did it for this fiscal year. We can do it 
for the next, but our first step in reaching an agreement is to make 
sure there is a sound rejection of President Trump's budget. His budget 
will not make America great again.
  I yield the floor.

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