WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) released the following statement on the Trump Administration’s FY 2018 budget:

“The Trump Administration’s budget exacts cruel and unusual punishment on millions of hardworking families in order to fund massive new tax cuts for millionaires, real estate moguls, and wealthy corporations. But tax cuts for the wealthy won’t close our skills gap, or train the long-term unemployed, or build the cutting-edge infrastructure our businesses deserve.

“Rather than put forward a plan to revitalize our cities, create better-paying jobs, or help more Americans get ahead, this budget adds billions of dollars to our bloated defense budget while sacrificing the very things that make America worth fighting for.

“The answer to the financial insecurity that many working families feel is not to make college more expensive, or to kick poor people off Medicaid, or zero-out job-creating investments in our communities.

“We cannot be the great land of opportunity or the world’s most innovative economy if we slash funding for lifesaving medical research, zero-out programs that bring capital to underserved communities, or abandon big-thinking infrastructure projects like Gateway.

“Time and time again, the American people have overwhelmingly rejected this kind of right-wing, trickle-down economics in the past because they know it will not deliver for their families and it won’t now.”

###

Additional quotes:

On transportation cuts and Gateway:

“At a time when frustrated and weary New Jersey commuters have been forced to endure incessant transit delays and disruptions, the Trump Administration is basically saying, ‘Suck it up and get used to it.’ The budget slashes funding to Amtrak and zeroes-out the New Starts program, threatening to derail the Gateway Project to build new Hudson River rail tunnels and replace the aging Portal Bridge. Motorists may be greeted with expanded toll booths on our interstates, while the budget attempts to crash the federal Highway Trust Fund with deep funding cuts to repair our roads and bridges.”

On cuts to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP):

“The administration’s budget sends NFIP policyholders up a river without a paddle. One-in-five—or one million—policyholders could see premiums skyrocket. And funding for scientific mapping to determine risk levels would be eliminated leaving homeowners either completely in the dark over their potential flood hazards, or forced to foot the bill entirely. The result would undermine the flood insurance marketplace, force people from homes they could no longer afford, drive down property values, and destroy communities. We’ve seen this movie before; it was called Biggert-Waters and it took my Homeowners Flood Insurance Affordability Act to right this doomed ship. New Jerseyans survived Sandy, and we can’t allow this manmade storm to wipe out what they have left.”

On immigration:

“Not only does this draconian budget fail to represent who we are as a nation by putting millionaires above the well-being of working families and our most vulnerable, it would also unravel America’s proud tradition as a nation of immigrants. This request for taxpayers to pay $2.6 billion dollars to further militarize our border and construct President Trump’s offensive and ineffective border wall is a betrayal of what makes America great and should be stripped out in favor of policies that will actually fix our nation’s broken immigration system.”

On Medicaid

“This budget punishes the working class, children, people with disabilities, and seniors by eviscerating Medicaid funding over the next ten years. The fact that our kids are singled out through cuts and new restrictions on CHIP funding is unconscionable and especially cruel.”

###