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How Trump’s budget impacts Georgia

Considering that almost a third of Georgia’s annual budget comes from the federal government ($13.9 billion of $49 billion), Trump’s proposed budget cuts would have a huge impact on Georgia.

The first half of the federal contribution to Georgia’s budget (about $7.6 billion) pays for Medicaid. The second half pays for other state programs like free and reduced school lunches, community development block grants, environmental protection, university research, legal aid for people who cannot afford their own attorneys and visa programs that help connect farmers to migrant workers.

According to the AJC,One senior Georgia staffer on Capitol Hill, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said several of Trump’s proposed cuts would disproportionately hurt rural Georgians.”

This is because cuts to the Department of Labor’s budget could negatively affect the office that distributes H2-A visas, which helps connect farmers with foreign migrant workers at harvest time. Georgia farmers have already suffered revenue losses due to workflow issues at the Department of Labor.

Trump’s budget would also get rid of the Legal Services Corp., which provides legal aid to people who cannot afford their own. According to the president of the American Bar Association, Atlanta lawyer Linda Klein, legal aid is used to help people like veterans, domestic violence victims and the elderly. “This would cause a crisis in access to justice,” Klein said. “Courthouse doors will slam in the faces of millions of Americans.”

In Georgia, as well as the rest of the United States, “the deepest cuts in President Trump’s budget would be in the programs that spend more on women than on men,” the New York Times reported.President Trump’s first budget proposes cuts that disproportionately affect women, according to our examination of 12 safety net and entitlement programs. Proposed cuts in Medicaid, housing assistance and low-income energy assistance would hit women particularly hard.”

Handel’s support of Trump shows her lack of support for Georgians. She’s willing to support a president who doesn’t support academic research, environmental protection, community development, farmers or women. Trump’s budget made a $2 trillion math error and his team stood by it, and Handel is willing to stand by Trump and his broken budget. But voters in the 6th Congressional District are too smart to stand by Handel.

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