Dem budget chair: Trump 2020 proposal ‘cruel-hearted’

House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) on Tuesday criticized President Trump’s budget proposal for fiscal 2020, calling it “cruel-hearted” and arguing it would add to the deficit and harm lower-income Americans.

The congressman described Trump’s spending blueprint as a “continuation” of Republican budget practices started under former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). 

{mosads}”Cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans, then cry about the ensuing deficits, then ask for deep cuts in programs that help middle- and lower-income Americans,” Yarmuth said. “That’s exactly what this budget does.”

“It’s a very, very cruel-hearted budget,” he added. “Again, it’s not very much different from what was proposed last year, except it did extend those tax cuts.”

Budget Committee Chairman @RepJohnYarmuth calls President Trump’s 2020 budget “cruel-hearted.”

It slashes “just about everything that, again, the vulnerable populations of this country rely on, as well as middle-income Americans.” https://t.co/krKmpK7NDo pic.twitter.com/yMbG1gLnY8

— New Day (@NewDay) March 12, 2019

The Trump administration released its budget proposal on Monday for fiscal 2020, which outlined the president’s priorities ahead of the coming year. 

It called for steep domestic spending cuts, and included a plan to require more stringent work requirements for Americans to receive government benefits such as Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food benefits and housing vouchers.

The budget proposal additionally requests $8.6 billion to be put toward construction of roughly 700 miles of new or reinforced barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border as Trump seeks to follow through on one of his signature campaign pledges. 

Democrats panned the proposal as “dead on arrival,” arguing that it would add to the country’s deficits and disproportionately harm government programs tailored toward lower- and middle-income Americans.