BETRAYAL OF THE AMERICAN DREAM: THE DEVASTATING IMPACT OF THE BUDGET RECONCILIATION BILL

WASHINGTON – AFSCME President Lee Saunders released a scathing statement after Congress passed the budget reconciliation bill, which massively defunds public services and devastates communities nationwide to give billionaires tax cuts. This is a betrayal of working families nationwide. It is a slap in the face to nurses, care providers, school bus drivers, special needs educators and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to serving our communities. To satisfy the greed of their mega-donors, anti-worker elected officials voted to rob working families of their health care and life-sustaining public services to hand over trillions in tax cuts to the richest people on earth.

Because of this bill, children will go hungry. Seniors will lose access to long-term care. 17 million people, including veterans and their families, will lose their health care. People will die from preventable causes, and hundreds of thousands of workers will lose their jobs. This is a debt-exploding budget that will wreak havoc. States, cities, towns and schools will face a fiscal crisis due to these extreme cuts, putting all public services on the chopping block. Hospitals and nursing homes will close, depriving entire communities of care, especially in rural areas. The price of health care for workers with employer coverage will rise by nearly $2,000 annually for families. Cuts to clean energy investments will kill good union jobs and raise energy bills. During a time of rising costs, this budget doesn’t just fail the middle class; it pushes families out of it, trapping millions in cycles of poverty.

We will not sit back while Congress sells our futures to billionaires. Income inequality has continued to skyrocket. CEOs are paid nearly 300 times what the average worker is paid, and billionaires’ wealth is already growing exponentially. To unrig the system and build a country that rewards work over wealth, working people will keep organizing. We will organize to defend our jobs, our dignity and our safety at work. We will organize to protect our retirement and Social Security. And we will organize to hold every elected official accountable who voted to betray working families and hurt our communities.

We face tough times ahead, but when working people stand together, we have the power to reclaim what was stolen and build a better future for our families.