Trump’s Latest Budget: End Head Start, Gut Health Care, and Devastate Working Families

In response to Trump pushing to eliminate Head Start and health care services, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement:

“Other than inflicting harm for harm’s sake, there’s no reason to go after preschools and toddlers — but that’s exactly what Donald Trump is doing. With his latest budget, Trump is attacking kids and their families. Trump is calling to destroy affordable health care services, rip away funding from local health clinics, and eliminate rural health programs. And after moving to gut public school funding, Trump is targeting kids again by putting Head Start on the chopping block, forcing parents to shell out an extra $12,000 a year so their kids don’t go hungry or miss out on school readiness. Trump and his billionaire Cabinet may never know what it’s like to have no health care or child care, but hardworking families whose preschools are already shutting down do — and they’ll suffer most under these devastating cuts.”

Donald Trump is pushing to eliminate Head Start — another Project 2025 goal — critical health care programs, and components of the Affordable Care Act.

USA Today: “Trump budget proposal would fully eliminate Head Start”

Axios: “A Trump administration budget proposal calls for eliminating programs like Head Start, funding for community mental health clinics and initiatives aimed at preventing teen pregnancy …
“The document suggests eliminating programs for rural health care providers, HIV treatment efforts, health care workforce initiatives and childhood lead poisoning.”

Washington Post: “[M]any specific programs would be eliminated … including programs focused on preventing childhood lead poisoning, bolstering the health-care workforce, advancing rural health initiatives and maintaining a registry of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. …
“The proposal would cut the CDC’s budget by about 44 percent, from $9.2 billion to about $5.2 billion, and would eliminate all of the agency’s chronic disease programs and domestic HIV work. The chronic disease programs being eliminated include work on heart disease, obesity, diabetes and smoking cessation.”

Fierce Healthcare: “Notably, the budget at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ‘assumes a decline in Federal Exchange enrollment due to the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits.’
“These Affordable Care Act subsidies have been a longtime target of Republicans. … Others estimate 4 million individuals would lose their insurance, and the Congressional Budget Office projects a 4.3% premium increase.”

Eliminating funding for Head Start — an extremely popular program that helps nearly a million Americans annually — would wreak havoc on the economy, rip away meals and health care from hundreds of thousands of kids, and cost hardworking American families an extra $12,000 a year on child care.

Office of Head Start: “Since its inception in 1965, the Head Start program has served about 39 million children and their families.”

Office of Head Start: “This National Services Snapshot [2023-2024] summarizes key data on demographics and services for children from birth to age five and pregnant women served by Head Start …

“Total cumulative enrollment … 805,660 …

“Children total cumulative enrollment … 792,147 …

“Pregnant women total cumulative enrollment … 13,513.”

USA Today: “The National Head Start Association warned on Friday that the administration’s proposal to eliminate the program’s funding would be ‘catastrophic.’ More than 1 million parents who rely on the program wouldn’t be able to go to work, said Yasmina Vinci, the group’s executive director.

“Meals, developmental screenings and health care for nearly 800,000 children would disappear, she said.”

Trump’s latest plans will rip away critical health care programs that save Americans’ lives — and will hit rural folks especially hard.

Washington Post: “Rural programs formerly under the Health Resources and Services Administration appear to be hard-hit. The rural hospital flexibility grants, state offices of rural health, rural residency development program and at-risk rural hospitals program grants are listed as eliminations under AHA. …

“But those who depend on this funding said the cuts would pose an existential threat to some programs. …

“Alan Morgan, chief executive of the National Rural Health Association, said rural residents would suffer if the health initiatives proposed for elimination were cut.

“‘Those are essential to ensuring access to care for rural Americans and critical to keeping rural hospitals open,’ he said.”