Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy released his right-wing wish list that’s supposed to be the price of continuing to pay the debts the federal government owes — and it’s as bad as we expected.

Just like the ultra-conservative Republican Study Committee proposal released earlier this year, McCarthy is calling for a decade of deep reductions in spending. If, as expected, they exempt the Pentagon from the cuts, it will be an across-the-board 22% cut on virtually everything else in the first year. 

In his plan, he’s also included HR1, which environmental advocates call the “Polluters over People Act,” that would roll back foundational environmental laws and regulations meant to protect vulnerable communities from fast-tracked fossil fuel projects.

And McCarthy is calling for the repeal of much of the $80 billion IRS investment signed into law by President Biden last year, which would finally allow the IRS to crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats while better serving everyday taxpayers.

McCarthy’s proposed budget cuts would have a chilling effect on programs relied upon by millions of people. If, as expected, they exempt the Pentagon from cuts:

• Head Start funding reductions would eliminate 200,000 slots for children in families with low incomes.
• 101,000 child care slots would be eliminated.
• More than 1 million older adults would lose meals — in many cases their only meal of the day.
• 640,000 families would lose their housing vouchers out of the 2.3 million households now using vouchers; other cuts in affordable housing programs would affect hundreds of thousands of additional households.
• Anything over a 6% cut in the current budget would be “catastrophic” for the Social Security Administration. For every $100 million cut, 1,000 people would have to be laid off — the equivalent of closing 40 field offices — at a time when 10,000 baby boomers per day are retiring, and people with disabilities are already forced to wait many months for their applications to be processed.
• The funding reduction for K-12 education in low-income communities would equal the loss of 60,000 teachers.
• Indian Health Services — which is already severely underfunded — would see a cut of $327 million.
• And unspent COVID-19 funding, including the Inflation Reduction Act, would result in billions of dollars in lost investments for communities in need.

While Speaker McCarthy and his caucus claim they won’t cut Social Security, cuts to the Social Security Administration would put up barriers between us and our earned benefits — creating longer wait times for people applying for benefits, including people with disabilities.

His additional, stringent restrictions on Medicaid and SNAP food benefits would hurt millions of people with low and no incomes.

Sign now and tell Congress to vote NO on this budget.