MEDIA ADVISORY: Republicans Put West Virginia Millionaires Over State’s Workers, Children & Seniors

     

 

For Immediate Release:

Wednesday, May 24th, 2023

Press Contacts:

ATF: Maura Quint, maura@americansfortaxfairness.org; 310-409-3841

WVCAG: Gary Zuckett, garyz@wvcag.org; 304-437-370

Download PDF of this press release here:
https://wvcag.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/REPUBLICANS-PUT-WEST-VIRGINIA-MILLIONAIRES-OVER-STATES-WORKERS-CHILDREN-SENIORS-002.pdf

 

REPUBLICANS PUT WEST VIRGINIA MILLIONAIRES
OVER STATE’S WORKERS, CHILDREN & SENIORS

U.S. House Republicans Voted to Strip $8.3 billion of Federal Funding from West Virginia To Give Corporations and the Ultra-Wealthy Another Tax Cut

Charleston, WV – The current federal budget fight that is nearing a possible June 1st deadline comes on the heels of Congressional Republicans’ recent vote to cut up to $8.3 billion in federal funding for West Virginia in order to fund more tax cuts for the richest and big corporations. It was the latest example of the Republican Party’s “tax cuts for the rich, service cuts for the rest” policy that President Biden and congressional Democrats are resisting in the current negotiations over raising the federal debt limit and avoiding financial disaster. New analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness details exactly what full passage of the Republican budget would cost West Virginia families. 

“Our working families already know federal tax-and-spending policies favor the wealthy, but now Republicans in the U.S. House are making this  painfully clear,” said Gary Zuckett, Executive Director of West Virginia Citizen Action Group, “By cutting services West Virginia families rely on to get by and get ahead, then planning to give away practically all the money saved in the form of tax cuts heavily slanted towards the wealthy, House Republicans–including West Virginia’s GOP contingent–are demonstrating whose side they’re on, and it’s not the side of working people.”

“Republicans have continued to perpetuate the same cycle: give huge tax cuts to the richest and big corporations that run up the national debt and then turn around and demand that the rest of us pay for these tax handouts by slashing services that families depend on,” said David Kass, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness. “West Virginia families should not be made to suffer in order to line the pockets of billionaires, but that is exactly what Congressional Republicans are advocating.” 

The Republican-passed budget would require at least a 22% cut in federally funded public services next year. This would reduce federal aid to West Virginia by $518 million in 2024, and up to $8.3 billion over the next decade. The Republican budget will kill 784,000 jobs nationwide, according to Moody’s, which would mean an estimated 3,530 job losses in West Virginia, based on the state’s proportion of national employment.

The cut in federal aid to West Virginia was part of the total $3.6 trillion reduction in federal investments over 10 years voted by the House GOP in April as the price of lifting the debt ceiling so America can pay its bills and forestall a global economic meltdown. Even as they’re cutting services by $3.6 trillion, House Republicans want to make permanent expired and expiring tax cuts from their 2017 tax law that mostly benefit the wealthy and will cost an almost identical $3.5 trillion over 10 years. 

While countless West Virginian families will suffer from these extensive cuts, the big winners are the handful of millionaires and billionaires that benefit disproportionately from Republican tax cuts. In West Virginia the 2017 Trump Tax cuts gave the top 1% of households in the state each a $26,500 annual tax cut, while the bottom 60% of West Virginian families got only $280. Now Republicans are proposing giving millionaires in West Virginia another yearly $26,500 tax cut and paying for it by stripping West Virginia of vital federal programs that benefit millions of families.

How Republicans would Harm West Virginia Children:

The Republican budget would mean nationally  200,000 children would lose access to the vital Head Start program and 180,000 children would lose access to childcare programs. In West Virginia alone it would eliminate 2,000 head start slots and 1,200 childcare slots. The McCarthy budget would also mean that 11,000 West Virginian mothers and children would lose nutritional support through the WIC program. Children’s primary education would also suffer cuts as the Republican plan would strip at least $22 million of funding from the West Virginia school system, removing up to 700 teachers from state classrooms.

How Republicans would Harm West Virginia Infrastructure:

The Republicans would cut federal transportation funding to West Virginia by $3 million. There would be 130 fewer railroad inspections in West Virginia. Additionally, access to infrastructure employment would suffer as 5,500 people would lose access to West Virginia job training programs.

How Republicans would Harm West Virginia Healthcare:

The Republican budget makes one of the largest rollbacks to publicly funded healthcare by inserting costly red-tape requirements to the Medicaid program and terminating federal funding to any states that do not comply. This jeopardizes healthcare coverage for up to 21 million Americans, including 220,000 West Virginians who are currently enrolled in Medicaid. Additionally these cuts would affect healthcare access to our veterans, by cutting 81,000 jobs across the VA, which would lead to 94,700 fewer hospital visits for West Virginia veterans. And while Republicans claim their budget cuts won’t impact West Virginia’s 518,000 seniors on Social Security and Medicare, it would close as many as 240 Social Security field offices across the country, leading to higher waiting times for benefits.

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