Did you catch President Trump’s recent federal budget proposal? It’s not great.
The budget is filled with deep cuts to healthcare, education, housing, and other government programs that support working families.
The excuse to slash funding is that power should be given back to the states. But here in Arkansas, we’re already living with the consequences of bad policy, and it sure as hell is not working for us.
Arkansas unfortunately had a head start with Trumpism. Under Governor Sanders, his former protégé, we’ve become an unfortunate test case for what happens when government throws its people overboard.
- Public schools are under constant threat as tax dollars are siphoned into a universal voucher scheme that benefits the few and undercuts the many.
- Say buh-bye to Arkansas having a surplus. Corporate tax cuts have drained public resources, giving the wealthiest Arkansans a break while working families are told to make do with less.
- More than 420,000 Arkansans, including one in five kids, lost Medicaid coverage in the last few years, many because of red tape, not eligibility. Lawmakers also tacked on new work requirements for those in the program, adding more bureaucratic maneuvering so people can maintain coverage.
- The state once again failed to extend postpartum coverage for new moms, leaving families without critical care during a very vulnerable time.
- Basic needs like housing, mental health care, and early childhood education are underfunded, if they’re funded at all. This will create negative ripples in the economy for Arkansas, which always hurts our state.
Now we’re seeing this play out on a national scale, and it’s rightfully terrifying.
The president’s proposed budget slashes billions from programs that help people get by and get ahead. Federal support for schools, healthcare, food access, housing, and community development would all be on the chopping block, all in the name of “returning control to the states.”
But we know better. In the Natural State, unilateral control by politicians has been used to strip our rights, slash critical public services, and silence communities that stand up and speak out. It sure seems like Arkansas’s governor and her legislative supermajority want indefinite and absolute power while the rest of us struggle to get ahead.
Friends, we simply cannot afford more of the same government shenanigans at the state level or from D.C.
We need federal and state policies that strengthen our communities, our schools, and our jobs. We deserve leaders who invest in regular people like you and me. It’s past time we see those in charge for who they really are: con artists posing as public servants who sell tax cuts and culture-war cruelty as “freedom.” They do this while rigging the rules to benefit themselves.
Arkansas sure as hell deserves better. Let’s fight until we get it.
