The Trump regime has already cut $660 million nationwide for school lunch programs. Twelve million students are expected to lose food aid with new restrictions on schools accessing funds.
Following is a fact sheet about how Trump’s “big beautiful” budget bill cuts essential services and benefits for workers to give to the wealthy. The fact sheet was put together by the Louisiana Workers Councils. Some examples relate to Louisiana, but most of the statistics are for the U.S. as a whole. A PDF version is available here.
Originally published in Struggle-La Lucha.
Medicaid and ACA subsidized insurance
Medicaid is being ripped to shreds
The MAGA movement claims to support health care for vulnerable Americans, but their budget tells a different story. 13.7 million people will lose Medicaid — nearly 1 in 5 current enrollees. Nationally, 72 million rely on Medicaid, including 1.6 million in Louisiana and 180,000 in New Orleans. Another 500,000 low-income Louisianans get subsidized ACA coverage. Everyone on Medicaid or ACA plans will suffer from these cuts.
Here’s What They’re Really Doing:
- $715 billion slashed from Medicaid — the biggest cut in history.
- 13.7 million kicked off Medicaid immediately, including 304,000 Louisianans.
- States forced to pay double — Washington currently covers 80% of Medicaid costs, but Trump wants a 50-50 split. Killing the provider tax (how states fund their share) means massive cuts — fewer covered, fewer services, more suffering. Louisiana lawmakers will jump at the chance to gut care even further.
- 175,000 Louisianans already lost Medicaid in the past year — not because they didn’t qualify, but because of paperwork traps.
- New costs and fewer benefits:
o Copays for doctor visits
o Fewer covered medications & services
o Lower pay for doctors (so fewer will accept Medicaid)
o Yearly spending caps (once you hit the limit, no more care)
- Rural & urban hospitals / clinics will close as funding dries up.
- Red tape nightmare:Recertification every 6 months with stricter rules — many will lose coverage just from missed paperwork.
- Nursing home disaster:
o Mass closures from funding cuts
o No more minimum staffing rules (elderly left neglected)
o Home health care slashed — forcing disabled & seniors into institutions
- ACA subsidies eliminated — 500,000 low-income Louisianans will lose insurance. Most can’t afford replacements.
- Work requirements = poverty trap:
o Unemployed adults must work 80 hrs / month to keep Medicaid
o Forces desperate people into exploitative low-wage jobs
o 21% of New Orleans youth (16-24) are unemployed — where will they find work?
- Disabled people abandoned: Cuts to in-home care will force many into institutions or homelessness.
- No more food / benefits on Medicare Advantage plans.
- WIC & Meals on Wheels starved: Severe cuts or total shutdowns — hunger will skyrocket.
The Bottom Line:
This isn’t “saving money” — it’s a war on the poor, sick, and vulnerable. Millions will suffer, hospitals will close, and families will be bankrupted — all to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. These cuts are cruelty by design.
Housing Assistance
The Trump administration’s budget slashes billions from critical housing programs. In New Orleans alone, 20,000 people remain on the Section 8 and public housing waiting lists, which are now closed — meaning no new applicants can even get in line for help.
Key Housing Cuts in the Proposed Budget:
- Gutting Section 8 & Federal Rental Assistance
- $26.7 billion cut to federal rental aid, effectively ending Section 8 as we know it.
- Shifts responsibility to cash-strapped states, leaving millions without support.
- Currently, only 1 in 4 eligible families (2.3 million) receive vouchers due to funding shortages (actual need is closer to 10 million people).
- 645,000 fewer people would lose assistance nationwide, including 14,000+ in Louisiana.
- Arbitrary Time Limits on Rental Aid
- Imposes a two-year limit for adults without disabilities, kicking thousands off assistance.
- Thousands of children will also lose housing when their parents are cut off.
- Eliminating Affordable Housing Programs
- Cuts $3.3 billion in Community Development Block Grants, halting construction and repairs nationwide.
- Ends the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, stripping funding from affordable housing providers.
- Consequences:
- More families lose homes due to unaffordable maintenance/insurance costs.
- Due to tax and insurance increases, rents in New Orleans rose 14% in 3 years.
- Slashing Homelessness Assistance
- Caps homeless aid at 2 years and “consolidates” programs, leading to massive job and resource cuts.
- 166,000 permanent supportive housing units for the formerly homeless would lose funding. • Homelessness already rose 18% between 2023 and 2024 — a record increase — yet the budget cuts homelessness prevention grants by 12%.
- Cutting Disaster & Emergency Housing Aid
- Reduces disaster recovery assistance (critical for hurricane survivors in Louisiana).
- Eliminates 70,000 emergency housing vouchers from the American Rescue Plan, hurting people at risk of homelessness and domestic violence survivors.
- Because emergency vouchers under the American Rescue Plan come as a block grant (meaning it has limited funding) funds are already running out more quickly due to soaring rents — now they’ll vanish faster.
SNAP
867,000 Louisianians depend on SNAP benefits
86% are Children, Seniors, and Disabled People
- Nationwide, 1 in 8 people receive SNAP benefits, which are already inadequate. At the maximum benefit, SNAP provides barely more than $2 per person per meal. Trump’s proposed cuts would be the largest cuts to SNAP in history, resulting in millions of people going hungry.
- Congress wants to cut $230 billion from food assistance programs over 10 years.
- The budget also cuts $425 million from CSFP, which provides food for low-income seniors.
- It raises the age limit for SNAP work requirements from 54 to 64.
- Previously, people with dependents under 18 were exempt from work requirements; now, that age is lowered to seven.
- Their budget transfers SNAP costs to the states, going from 50% federal money to 25%.
- Without funding or support, some states will stop providing SNAP completely. Over the next 10 years, Louisiana would lose $4.7 billion in SNAP funding.
- These cuts will cause significant job losses, with about 143,000 lost nationwide and 78,000 losses in agriculture, grocery, and food processing.
- Over 600,000 students in Louisiana use the free or reduced-price lunch programs, which is 91.9% of students participating in school lunch programs.
- Following the lead of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., many states are restricting what food can be bought with SNAP or other food programs. These restrictions, which include limits on buying products made with flour, would limit food access in areas where “healthier” options aren’t available or affordable.
- The Trump administration is not actually interested in providing healthier food: they already ended two programs in Louisiana that brought fresh, local food to food banks, schools, and childcare centers. This was a cut of $660 million nationwide, about $12 million for Louisiana. They also added extra restrictions on food assistance programs, making it harder for schools to access funds by increasing the percentage of students from low-income families attending the school from 40% to 60% minimum. This will mean 12 million students will lose access to food aid. In Louisiana, 469 schools no longer qualified.
Social Security
Social Security operates independently from the federal budget, funded by its two trust funds, which hold $2.9 trillion in reserves. For 30 years, Social Security ran a surplus. But these funds have been repeatedly drained by the Treasury — often to finance military budgets.
Even after these withdrawals, the trust funds remain solvent — but the situation is getting worse. Under current law, the ultra-wealthy pay just one month of Social Security taxes, while the Treasury and Commerce Department continue siphoning money from the program.
Trump is aiming to sabotage the Social Security Administration, setting the stage to push for privatization. If privatized, Social Security funds could be invested in the stock market or cryptocurrencies instead of secure Treasury bonds — jeopardizing retirees’ financial security. In the recent Wall Street crash, many 401(k) pension funds lost a lot of money. It is worth remembering that billionaires were pre-warned about tariffs that crashed the system and made billions selling stocks in advance.
The proposed budget bill grants $4.2 trillion in tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires — without exempting Social Security from taxation. But the biggest threat is the deliberate sabotage of the system, endangering benefits for current and future recipients.
- No Increase for the Most Vulnerable
o Over 40% of Social Security recipients rely solely on their benefits, with no other income.
o Rising living costs erode real income yearly while poverty-level Social Security payments remain the same.
o The decline of employer pensions has forced more retirees to depend entirely on Social Security.
- Office Closures Despite In-Person Requirements
o The Social Security Administration (SSA) is shutting down offices while forcing new applicants to apply in person, creating barriers to access.
- Sharing Sensitive Data with Elon Musk & DOGE Affiliates
o Private entities, including Elon Musk and DOGE-linked groups, are being granted access to Social Security information, raising serious privacy and security concerns.
- Severe Staffing Shortages
o The SSA has cut thousands of jobs, leaving staffing at historic lows — delaying services and worsening backlogs.
- Political Sabotage of Experienced Leadership
o Qualified administrators are being replaced by Trump loyalists who aim to dismantle and privatize Social Security rather than protect its stability.
- MAGA Takeover
o Howard Lutnick, Trump’s Commerce Secretary overseeing Social Security, mocked beneficiaries, saying only “frauds” would care about missed payments after a court ruling threatened shutdowns.
- Deliberate System Disruptions by DOGE-Linked Groups
o Cyberattacks and system failures — orchestrated by DOGE-affiliated gangsters — have crashed phone and online services, leading to extended outages and wait times.
War Budget
Survival Programs Get Cut, War Profiteers Get Rich
75% of Trump’s proposed budget — our tax dollars — funds war and repression (DOD, DOJ, CIA, DHS, etc.). Total spending on war and repression exceeds $2.5 trillion when including:
- The Department of Energy (which manages nuclear weapons)
- $952 billion in interest payments on debt from past military spending
The U.S. maintains 900 foreign military bases — compared to China’s one overseas base. The U.S. military budget is larger than the next 10 countries combined.
Budget Priorities: Guns Over People
- Pentagon: $1.01 trillion (+13%)
- DHS (Border Patrol, ICE, migrant prisons): $107 billion (+65%)
- HUD (housing): -$34 billion (-43%)
- Health & Human Services: -$33 billion (-26%)
- Education: -$12 billion (-15%)
Who Profits?
The Treasury is looted by:
- Oil / gas corporations
- Weapons manufacturers
- Big Tech
- Wall Street banks
Many war-profiteering corporations pay $0 in taxes. Many even get more in rebates than they pay in taxes. GE, for example, got $423 million in rebates in 2023.
Billionaire Elon Musk Gets Rich By Stealing Our Tax Money
While Trump and Musk’s DOGE slash social programs and lay off thousands, his company SpaceX is set to receive $25 billion for Trump’s “Golden Dome” space weapons program. As of February 2025, Musk has received $38 billion in U.S. government contracts, loans, and subsidies (Washington Post).
Nuclear Madness
Trump demands $12.9 billion more for nukes — despite the U.S. already having 5,000+ nuclear weapons (enough to end human civilization many times over).
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