St. Louis, MO (KTRS) A coalition of local faith, organized labor, and student groups is speaking out against President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to healthcare.
During a Thursday afternoon news conference in the south St. Louis neighborhood of Tower Grove, representatives from these groups voiced their concerns. Cody Burleson, an organizer for Missouri Jobs With Justice, said the goal of this effort is to put people’s welfare over corporate wealth.
“President Trump just released a budget that dramatically cuts healthcare funding across the board and this is in response to a tax cut that was passed in December.That cut billions and billions of dollars to the federal budget and now they’re trying to patch those holes by cutting Medicaid and Medicare.” Burleson explained.
Dylan Kriegshauser of Saint Louis University School of Law, said these cuts would negatively impact these most vulnerable, “The President has built this as a way to save money on Medicaid, but in reality it seems like a pretty good way to kick off workers and low income folks who need the funding and that’s really scary especially when baby boomers are retiring at a rate of ten thousand a day and they’re going to be needing that funding for nursing homes and other healthcare needs.”
The coalition is calling on Missouri members of Congress to reject Trump’s budget, which proposes more than
$1.6 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and other programs.
In addition, organizers stressed the urgency for Missourians to voice their concerns about these proposed cuts by contacting their U.S. Representatives and Senators.
