Scarlett Johansson, Zayn Malik, and Sheryl Crow have signed an open letter urging Congress to not decimate funding for meals and medical help packages that assist hundreds of thousands “stay extra healthily and with dignity.”
The letter, spearheaded by Feeding America, particularly addresses huge cuts to packages like Medicaid and the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program (SNAP) baked into Donald Trump’s One Huge Lovely Act. The invoice has already handed the Home of Representatives, and it’s anticipated to be voted on within the Senate quickly.
Feeding America’s letter famous that if the BBB is accredited by the Senate and signed into regulation as is, it may take “9.5 billions of meals a 12 months via SNAP off the desk” and boot “a whole lot of hundreds of individuals off Medicaid and into meals insecurity.”
The letter continues, “That is unacceptable and flawed. It’s not how individuals on this nation deal with one another when going through laborious occasions. We name on Congress to reject cuts to those important packages that assist hundreds of thousands put meals on their tables and supply entry to well being care.”
The Home model of the BBB, which handed in Might, instantly cuts $128 billion in state funding for SNAP, and will doubtlessly trim one other $92 billion via the implementation of pink tape and work necessities that might knock individuals out of eligibility. Moreover, the almost $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid may deprive greater than 10 million Individuals of medical insurance and common entry to docs.
Of their letter, Feeding America mentioned that an estimated 15.5 million kids and seven.2 million seniors depend on SNAP and Medicaid to “make ends meet.”
(These cuts are a part of the BBB’s bigger efforts to cowl the associated fee of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks, primarily for the rich, whereas extra money is pumped to issues just like the military-industrial complicated, Huge Tech, immigration enforcement, and personal prisons.)
“Meals is a gorgeous method people present care, compassion and like to these round us,” Feeding America mentioned. “It’s a basic a part of the human expertise and a fundamental proper all of us deserve. Ongoing excessive grocery prices imply meals is out of attain for therefore many households, and lots of of our neighbors merely wouldn’t have sufficient to eat. They don’t know the place their subsequent meal is coming from or if that meal can be sufficient to nourish and maintain them.”
Together with Johansson, Malik, and Crow, the letter was signed by Matt Damon, Michelle Williams, Liev Schreiber, Kristin Chenoweth, Don Johnson, David Arquette, Connie Britton, Alan Cumming, Liza Colón-Zayas, Rosario Dawson, and Minka Kelly.
