Landis Larson, Bismarck

In the middle of the night, North Dakota Representative Julie Fedorchak voted for a budget that will bring hardship and worse to many working families in North Dakota.

In a time where working families are struggling to pay for the basics of food, housing, childcare, healthcare and prescriptions, Republicans in the House voted against helping working families on these basic issues. Instead, House Republicans voted for a budget that cuts vital programs to pay for Trump’s tax breaks for a few super wealthy families.

Cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs will strip health care away from 13.7 million workers. Not only that, but we will lose nearly half a million healthcare jobs across the country, mostly in rural areas, next year. This will be devastating to our rural communities as healthcare facilities dry up from lack of funding and providers. When people don’t have health insurance, we all pay for it anyway in higher healthcare costs for those with insurance.

Speaking of our rural communities, this budget will cause significant job loss: more than 140,000 jobs in food processing, school cafeterias and retail, by cutting $300 billion in SNAP benefits. That is a devastating loss to not only our farmers and other food producers, but also the 42 million people in this country that rely on these supports for basic nutrition every month. That 13% of the population includes kids. These cuts will impact the school meals program, a program that North Dakotans support consistently at over 70%. We will have more hungry kids because of this budget.

It’s up to the Senate, including and especially Senators Hoeven and Cramer, to bring some common sense to this budget. North Dakota families deserve better than this devastatingly cruel budget that is a hand out to a wealthy few.