League sounds alarm on U.S. Senate budget plan that would harm millions of Michiganders and deepen wage inequalities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2025

CONTACT:
Laura Millard Ross
lauramr@mlpp.org
517-281-1084

League sounds alarm on U.S. Senate budget plan that would harm millions of Michiganders and deepen wage inequalities
Senate expected to vote on harmful plan Saturday morning

LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan League for Public Policy is strongly denouncing the United States Senate’s new budget plan, which is predicted to pass this weekend and would create harmful consequences for Michiganders. The following statement can be attributed to Monique Stanton, President & CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy:

“The Senate’s new budget plan is downright dangerous, and if passed this weekend as planned, will set the stage for a damaging tax and budget bill. It delivers massive tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires, and large corporations — and covers the cost in part by slashing essential programs like Medicaid and SNAP. In Michigan alone, 2.6 million residents rely on Medicaid — including over 1 million children — and more than 1.4 million Michiganders rely on SNAP. These cuts would lead to higher health care and food costs for families, increased financial hardship, and millions potentially losing health coverage. 

Even with deep cuts, the tax breaks are so expensive that they will lead to a significant rise in the national deficit, increasing economic risks tied to unsustainable debt — all to benefit the wealthiest households.

It doesn’t have to be this way. There’s still time for Congress to change course. Lawmakers must honor their commitments to ease the burdens families face, not reshape the budget to serve those at the very top. A responsible plan would lower health care and grocery costs, expand the Child Tax Credit, and invest in working families — and ask corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share through a more balanced tax policy.

Senate Republicans are using misleading tactics to obscure the truth about this budget. They’ve downplayed the cost of these tax cuts and hidden the full scope of planned reductions to Medicaid, food assistance, student loans and other critical programs. In reality, the budget would make college more expensive and take away essential supports from families the President once vowed to protect — all while delivering an average annual tax cut of $62,000 to households earning over $1 million, according to the Tax Policy Center.

The plan includes at least $5.3 trillion in tax breaks over the next nine years — $1.5 trillion more than the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts — and that number could climb even higher with additional program cuts under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee.

What does that mean for Michigan? According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, simply extending the 2017 tax cuts would give the richest 1% of Michiganders an average tax cut of $35,970 while the poorest 20%, who are already struggling to afford the basics, would receive an average tax cut of just $90. What’s worse is that we expect the plan to go beyond this — providing windfall tax breaks for wealthy Michiganders while making it harder for the rest of us to see a doctor, put food on our table and send our kids to school. 

It’s becoming clearer and clearer. Many in Congress are embracing an agenda that threatens public services and undermines democratic processes. Alongside the budget, Republicans are advancing executive actions that unlawfully withhold congressionally approved funding, politicize and weaken the civil service, and erode institutions like the Social Security Administration and the Treasury Department — putting the privacy and stability of millions at risk. On top of this, the administration is pushing new, unilateral tariffs that will raise everyday costs for working families by hundreds or even thousands of dollars — easily wiping out any modest tax relief they might receive.

This budget plan — like so much of the current agenda — is upside down. It breaks promises, deepens the already massive income gap, and puts the interests of the wealthy above the needs of the nation. The American people deserve a plan that builds shared prosperity — not one that leaves families behind.”

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The Michigan League for Public Policy, www.mlpp.org, is a nonprofit policy institute focused on opportunity for all. Its mission is to use data to educate, advocate and fight for policy solutions that undo historic and systemic racial and economic inequities to lift up Michiganders who have been left out of prosperity. It is the only state-level organization that addresses poverty in a comprehensive way.