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Guest Opinion
The House-passed budget reconciliation package in Washington, D.C., will strip away basic health care and food assistance from hundreds of thousands of Nebraskans and their families.
Nebraska’s three House members voted to advance this destructive plan that fails the people of this state, prioritizing funding for sweeping deportations of everyday working people that will separate families, and for tax breaks that benefit billionaires.
The way this package is being discussed, however, might make you think Nebraskans won’t suffer any harm from its passage. This could not be further from the truth.
The bill increases the debt to fund tax cuts for the extremely wealthy and finances the single biggest increase in history in funding for sweeping and extreme enforcement of long-outdated immigration laws.
We saw the devastating impact of harsh enforcement just last week in Omaha — with raids in Nebraska that destabilize our communities, damage our economy and, more importantly, spread unnecessary and toxic fear.
The House bill would provide funds to expand these types of actions, which result in separating families and harming our longtime neighbors who have been part of the fabric of local communities throughout Nebraska for years, but are stuck in immigration limbo because Congress hasn’t meaningfully updated our immigration laws in nearly 40 years. This, in turn, creates destabilizing ripple effects on whole communities.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the House tax plan would give the wealthiest 1% of Nebraskans an annual tax cut of over $100,000 while the lowest-income Nebraskans would only receive $170, while that same vulnerable population also feels the hardest impacts of Congress’ food and health care cuts.
The legislation also actually adds $2.4 trillion to the deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
So much for fiscal responsibility. The bill includes unprecedented cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, which nearly 1 in 4 Nebraskans rely on to get health care. The budget office estimates the bill would cut Medicaid spending alone by $723 billion, the biggest cut to Medicaid in its 60-year history. These are not savings. These are cuts to coverage for people, families, and children.
Some of the reasons for this loss in coverage include harsh new work requirements, as well as new barriers and red tape, resulting in an estimated 45,000 Nebraskans losing Medicaid.
The bill also would require Nebraska to pay for a portion of the cost of SNAP for the first time, which means new costs ranging from $16 million to $82 million in the state budget.
Nebraska would be forced to find a way to pay the cost, cut food supports dramatically or opt out of SNAP entirely.
At least 29,000 Nebraskans are at risk of losing at least some of their food assistance, including children and families who would have to follow strict and unnecessary work requirements.
These are examples of how the bill passes the buck to Nebraska to make the hard decisions.
But make no mistake: The legislation passed by the House would lead to losses in health care access and food assistance.
Congress is simply shifting the responsibility to state lawmakers to decide who gets thrown from the lifeboat.
In short, we are being told a story that the legislation passed by the House harms no one, when the truth is that the bill turns our values upside down: tax breaks for those who don’t need them, separating families and cutting from health care and food supports.
Our Nebraska leaders in Congress should make better choices for all constituents.
James Goddard, as senior director of programs for Nebraska Appleseed, coordinates and supervises the anti-poverty group’s programmatic work.
