Do you guys know what Satan did to avoid a government shutdown? They hurt the most vulnerable among us. They orchestrated defunding and major cuts to programs that would help poor and underserved communities, all under the guise of avoiding a government shutdown.
These devils cut Education for the Disadvantaged by $4.7 billion, a program that provides support to schools serving low-income kids K through 12. They also slashed two other student-aid programs by half, making it harder for low- and moderate-income students to attend college. To add to their Black ephebiphobia, they cut funding for Preschool Development by $65 million.
You think we have a housing issue now? The Housing Choice Voucher Program, better known as Section 8, was cut by $597 million. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they also cut $750 million from the Home Investment Partnerships Program, which funds affordable housing development and rehabilitation. They reduced State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STAG) by $739 million.
STAG funding supports state, tribal, and local efforts to improve environmental and public health. Most of the cuts in STAG come in appropriations for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which will also be reduced by $679 million. During the negotiations, I can almost hear that orange turd say, “Why are we spending millions on these people? Let them get a Britta filter for the house.”
Anybody having business with the Social Security Administration (SSA), please don’t be shocked the next time you call and find yourself on hold. Customer service funding for SSA was cut by $473 million. Did you know that SSA is understaffed and at its lowest level of employees in more than 50 years?
Why would you cut money from SSA when the number of beneficiaries has increased by 25%? The logjam of disability claims has reached 1.1 million, and the wait time for disability determination is at a record high of eight months. And if that’s not bad enough, there’s an additional seven months for those trying to appeal.
Here’s where I’d argue that the cuts in Public Health and Health Care are the sickest of all.
These heartless bastards eliminated $286 million from family planning programs—funding that would have gone to public and private nonprofit organizations to help improve access to reproductive health care for people with low or modest incomes.
These cuts will hurt 2.8 million poor people, people who receive services at 3,853 clinical service sites. These are families that live below the poverty line, people with a yearly income of just $15,060.
They also cut $152 million from Maternal and Child Health, eliminating money for the Healthy Start program. The purpose of the Healthy Start program is to improve infant health outcomes in communities with high rates of infant mortality. I know they took great delight thinking they were only going to hurt Black and Brown children but get ready, Billie Joe Bob and Mary Beth up there in Appalachia — y’all are going to feel the pain, too.
You would think, after the devastating effects COVID-19 had on this country that they would have added a billion or two to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be prepared for the next pandemic, right? Wrong. They cut the CDC’s funding by $1.8 billion, disregarding programs that are most needed in our communities.
Funding for tobacco use reduction was cut by $247 million when Black people are disproportionately impacted by lung cancer. Environmental health funding was cut by $97 million when Black people lived in the most toxic neighborhoods.
HIV prevention and research dollars were cut by $220 million when Black people bear the greatest burden of HIV infections in this country. And $721 million was eliminated from programs that address domestic violence, sexual violence, suicide, overdose, and firearms injuries — that’s us, y’all.
As you can see, these cuts will have a devastating effect on those who need them most — Black people. These cuts aren’t going to make America great. If anything, they will expose this nation for what it really is.
My faith teaches me that God will judge us all by the way we treat the most vulnerable among us. Which makes me ask, in the words of Reverend C.T. Vivian, “What kind of people are these?”
