On Tuesday, President Trump released his 2018 budget proposal. It makes deep cuts across many anti-poverty programs, slashing food stamps by more than a quarter and children’s health insurance by 19 percent.
[Graphic: What Trump cut from executive agencies in his budget]
The proposal — the first of what is expected to be many deep cuts to programs aimed at reducing poverty — comes two months after Trump released his “skinny budget” proposing changes to the operating budgets for executive agencies and national defense. The biggest cuts were to the arts, scientific research and foreign aid.
-29%
SNAP
-19%
CHIP
-17%
Medicaid
-13%
TANF
Unemployment
Insurance
-12%
EITC
-8%
Supplemental
Security Income
-3%
Disability
Insurance
-2%
-0.6%
Medicare
+3%
Social Security Old-Age
-29%
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
-19%
Children’s Health Insurance Program
Medicaid
-17%
-13%
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
-12%
Unemployment Insurance
-8%
Earned Income Tax Credit
-3%
Supplemental Security Income
-2%
Social Security Disability Insurance
-0.6%
Medicare
+3%
Social Security Old-Age Insurance
This new budget includes proposed changes to the other three-quarters of the budget, which is largely composed of anti-poverty programs.
See below what Trump plans to spend on some of these programs over the next 10 years, compared with what the Office of Management and Budget and Congressional Budget Office project they would cost without policy changes. For some programs, namely CHIP and the EITC, only a one- or four-year budget has been released.
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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
SNAP, more commonly known as food stamps, helps more than 40 million low-income people afford food.
$193.3B less than projection without policy change (-28.8% difference)
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Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
CHIP provides about 6 million low-income children with health insurance. The new budget only specifies the CHIP budget for 2018, not for the next decade.
$3.2B less than 2017 spending (-19.4% difference)
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Medicaid
Medicaid helps about 77 million low-income people afford medical care. Trump's deep cuts to the program fly in the face of his campaign promise to leave it untouched. One big driver of the cuts, the American Health Care Act which recently passed the House, proposed slashing benefits by over $800 billion over 10 years. $250 billion of those reforms are not broken out by year, and are not reflected in the line chart below.
$877.0B less than projection without policy change (-16.5% difference)
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Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
TANF gives financial support to extremely low-income parents and children.
$21.7B less than projection without policy change (-13.1% difference)
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Unemployment insurance
Unemployment insurance provides people who are out of work with temporary monthly benefits while they're actively looking for a job.
$53.2B less than projection without policy change (-11.5% difference)
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Earned Income Tax Credit
The Earned Income Tax Credit, one of the country's largest welfare programs, gives low-income working people a significant tax break. Though Trump budgeted the EITC out to 2027, baseline projections are only available through 2021.
$22.9B less than projection without policy change (-8.3% difference)
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Supplemental Security Income
SSI pays monthly benefits to about 8 million elderly or disabled low-income people.
$20.8B less than projection without policy change (-3.2% difference)
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Social Security Disability Insurance
SSDI pays monthly benefits to over 10 million disabled people below retirement age.
$31.4B less than projection without policy change (-1.8% difference)
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Medicare
Medicare provides health insurance to about 60 million primarily elderly Americans. Trump said he would not cut these benefits.
$56.0B less than projection without policy change (-0.6% difference)
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Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance
Social Security gives monthly benefits to over 50 million retirees and dependants of deceased wage-earners. Trump has said he would not cut these benefits.
$317.7B more than projection without policy change (2.8% difference)
Correction May 23, 2017: A previous version of this graphic did not include the ‘Allowance for Obamacare repeal and replace’ as part of the Medicaid budget. The cut is $877 billion, not $627 billion, over 10 years.
About this story
Historical program expenditures for Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, EITC and Social Security from the Office of Management and Budget. Projected baseline for Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security from the Trump administration budget proposal. Historical and projected spending for other programs from the Congressional Budget Office. All proposed budgets from the Trump administration budget proposal.
Originally published May 22, 2017.
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