SEIU Local 668, representing over 19,000 public service workers across Pennsylvania, stands firmly against the Trump and House Republican budget reconciliation proposals moving through Congress that would gut programs like Medicaid and LIHEAP that our families depend on. These proposals won’t cut waste or limit abuse. But they will take healthcare coverage away from millions of working class Americans.
Let’s be clear: President Trump, his White House team, and any other politician or appointee pushing this plan is trying to balance the budget on the backs of working families to protect tax breaks for billionaires and large corporations. They want to throw up new red tape for people just trying to get by and take away their healthcare as a cost-saving method while pretending it’s about “responsibility.”
Forcing people on Medicaid to jump through redundant work requirement hoops just to see a doctor or afford their prescriptions is unjust. Nearly two-thirds of adults on Medicaid already work. Most of the rest are caregivers, students, or people with disabilities. Many are actively trying to find work. These rules won’t get more people working. They’ll just get more people kicked off their healthcare.
We’ve seen it before. In Arkansas, 18,000 people lost coverage in just seven months when similar schemes were tried. Not because they didn’t qualify, but because they didn’t have a computer, couldn’t get through on the phone, didn’t understand the paperwork, or turned in a form late. That’s the plan Congress wants to expand across the United States. It’s bad policy and deliberate cruelty
In Pennsylvania, the Department of Human Services will have an expectation to deal with considerably more paperwork but the current proposals in Congress actually choke away state funding and threaten more funding cuts if an already exhausted workforce cannot keep up with these new, burdensome regulations proposed by President Trump and House Republican leadership.
Other proposals target programs that serve communities but are being gutted to combat, in the words of President Trump’s proposals, “woke” programs and “DEI.” These culture war terms are mentioned over 40 times across proposals that target programs that support housing, nutrition, job training, and other vital supports that help people survive across America.
It’s the same old playbook: punish the working poor, protect the rich. We’re told there's no money for food or healthcare, but somehow there’s always money for tax giveaways to corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
The workers of SEIU 668 deliver these services every single day. We see the families these programs protect. And we see what happens when the safety net gets ripped away: longer lines, more emergencies, and people falling through the cracks.
