Petition · Policy Action
STOP THE BUDGET CUTS
They cut your care to cut their taxes.
They cut healthcare, food, and college access to fund tax cuts for the richest. The harm is already scheduled, and the next budget goes further. We can still stop the next round.
TAKE ACTION★ WHAT'S COMING, AND WHEN
Dec 2025 – 2026
SNAP work requirements phase in; food aid begins shrinking
2026
States start absorbing Medicaid cost shifts; coverage tightens
Apr 3, 2026
FY2027 budget released, eliminates TRIO & GEAR UP, deeper cuts proposed
Oct 1, 2026
FY2027 begins, the appropriations fight where Congress can still say no
Jan 1, 2027
Medicaid work requirements take effect, the largest coverage losses begin
★ WHAT'S HAPPENING
THE SITUATION
Two things are happening at once.
It is already law. On July 4, 2025 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21) cut ~$911 billion from Medicaid and ~$295 billion from SNAP to help pay for ~$3.4 trillion in tax cuts. Those cuts phase in through 2027.
And the next round is here. On April 3, 2026 the President released his FY2027 budget, which doubles down: it eliminates TRIO, GEAR UP, and other college-access programs, calling race-conscious programs "unconstitutional," and continues the Medicaid and SNAP cuts. A budget request is a proposal, not a law, so Congress can still stop it, if we make them.
★ WHAT'S AT RISK
- ~11 million people projected to lose health coverage by 2034 (KFF / CBO)
- First-generation and Black students — and the HBCUs whose pipelines they feed — TRIO and GEAR UP are how many get in and graduate
- Rural hospitals that survive on Medicaid funding
- Children, seniors, and disabled Americans on Medicaid and SNAP
- Researchers project the Medicaid cuts alone could cost ~42,500 lives a year (Yale / Penn analysis)
★ IN PLAIN TERMS
Reconciliation — A fast-track budget process that lets a bill pass the Senate with a simple majority — how P.L. 119-21 became law without 60 votes.
Appropriations — Congress’s yearly spending bills. The FY2027 cuts are a request — appropriations is where they can still be blocked.
TRIO / GEAR UP — Federal college-access programs that help first-generation and low-income students get into and through college — targeted for elimination.
★ WHY IT MATTERS
11M
people projected to lose health coverage by 2034 under the enacted cuts (KFF/CBO)
A budget is a moral document, it says who a country is willing to let fall.
These cuts fall hardest on the people already carrying the most: kids on Medicaid, families on SNAP, rural hospitals, and the first-generation and Black students who only reach college because programs like TRIO and GEAR UP exist. Calling those programs "unconstitutional" is how you erase a generation’s shot at the middle class and call it neutral. Defending this budget is defending people’s lives and futures.
★ WHO'S CARRYING THIS FIGHT
From the Capitol to the streets, this is the line of power behind the bill.
★ RUBRIC SCORES
How we score every fight in our Campaign Lab — so we put power where it changes lives.
Viability
Medium
Recommendation
Launch Now
Justice & Freedom Agenda
Economic Justice & Wealth Equity
Democracy
Protecting
Repair
Non-Repair
Public health
Critical
Why this viability: The enacted cuts are hard to repeal now, but the FY2027 round is a proposal — blocking it in appropriations and mitigating at the state level are winnable.
★ WIN PATH · Slow it / message
Chokepoint: House + Senate Appropriations · The play: Blunt the FY2027 cuts in appropriations + protect people through state Medicaid action · Leverage: The FY2027 round is a proposal, not law · documented racial harm · 2026 accountability
Eight-systems impact
Historical pattern: Austerity that lands hardest on Black, Brown, and working families — cutting the safety net to fund tax cuts for the top.
★ WHAT WE'RE DEMANDING
Reject the FY2027 cuts. Protect Medicaid, SNAP, and college-access programs like TRIO and GEAR UP, and reverse the cuts already signed into law before they hit families.
★ THE RECEIPTS
$911B
cut from Medicaid (One Big Beautiful Bill Act)
Source: KFF / CBO, 2025
~11M
projected to lose health coverage by 2034
Source: KFF / CBO
$295B
cut from SNAP food assistance
Source: CBO, 2025
$2.7B
cut from higher education in the FY2027 request
Source: White House FY2027 Budget, Apr 3 2026
TAKE ACTION NOW
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