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      coalition on human needs

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      Beware: Vicious Spending Caps by GOP Are Designed to Hurt—Not Help—US Economy

      Over the past decade, federal spending caps limited the nation’s ability to respond to its people’s needs. The House Limit, Save, Grow Act would only make things worse.

      Deborah Weinstein
      May 24, 2023

      Americans are facing problems that need solutions. We have a shortage of workers across employment sectors, and it is holding our economy back. Our children are suffering, with declining performance in school and surging emergency mental health needs. Millions of people struggle to pay for food and rent.

      Over the past decade, federal spending caps limited the nation’s ability to respond to these needs. In a new analysis of 178 federal programs that serve people with low incomes, the Coalition on Human Needs found that more than two-thirds had lost ground from fiscal year 2010 to fiscal year 2023, adjusted for inflation. These included job training, education, nutrition, mental health, and housing programs. These and many more services were constrained by caps approved by Congress that were in effect from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2021. These caps were far less extreme than the one recently passed by the House of Representatives, which they are insisting should be the price of preventing default. But they hurt. They made us less able than we should have been to address the problems we’re facing now.

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