Cuts at the heart of the Massachusetts innovation economy

Washington (March 16, 2017) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released the following statement on the budget released today by the Trump administration. Senator Markey is a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. 

“The real March Madness is President Trump’s budget,” said Senator Markey. “The Trump budget brackets are rigged to make winners out of defense contractors and nuclear bomb makers, while seniors, working families and the environment have no chance to win. The perennial favorite billionaires, special interests and corporate polluters will remain undefeated, and students and the middle class will get left behind.

“Donald Trump’s budget robs the defenseless to pay for defense. The Trump administration would rather bestow billions more to pay for nuclear weapons that we do not need and cannot afford, all while cutting programs like Community Service Block Grants and HUD’s HOME that provide real security to American families. The elimination of the LIHEAP program will leave upwards of 200,000 Massachusetts households literally out in the cold.

“Deep cuts to the National Institutes of Health will have a disproportionate impact on Massachusetts, jeopardizing funding for the 190 universities, hospitals and other institutions in the Commonwealth that receive federal dollars that support more than 36,000 jobs statewide.

“The Trump budget essentially denies the existence of climate change and retreats from America’s position of global leadership on clean energy. By ending federal research and development funding for new and innovative energy technologies, the Trump administration is handing over countless clean energy jobs to China, the European Union, and other global competitors. Massachusetts is at the forefront of our national clean energy revolution, home to more than 100,000 jobs and thousands of companies in one of the fastest growing sectors of our state’s economy.

“Investments in health care, science and innovation are passports to American prosperity. We should be investing in fiscal firewalls for middle-class families, not a border wall boondoggle. We should be cutting Big Oil tax breaks, not saying ‘tough break’ to Grandma and Grandpa.

“Republicans had already declared these ideas ‘dead on arrival’, and it’s time they throw out this tired budget playbook that only benefits the wealthiest. Democrats will continue to fight for a budget that isn’t balanced on the backs of the hardest working and the most vulnerable.”