Dear Friends:
Last week, the United State woke up to a new and extraordinary era in American political history.
We will not know for weeks or even months the actual policies and priorities that the Trump Administration will pursue. But based upon his rhetoric during the campaign, and the people being considered for senior government positions, all of us have every reason to be deeply troubled about the new Administration's commitment to civil and human rights -- and to the protection of our nation's social safety net, which is critical to the lives and well-being of low income people and working families.
For this reason, we are turning to you for your help.
Appleseed has fought for decades, in Washington and across the country, for reforms that help people build better lives. But generations of progress are now under siege:
- Proposed spending cuts would devastate the public housing and rental assistance programs that help the poorest families, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Some of President-Elect Trump's most vocal supporters want to undo rules that require localities receiving federal housing assistance to eliminate residential segregation.
- As part of his vows to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the President-Elect has called for Medicaid funding to be relegated to a block grant program.
- The president-elect wants Congress to vote separately for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, which is widely expected to lead to a cut in benefits. And his supporters want to cut funding for school lunches through block grants, undo rules that allow poor school districts to provide meals to students without red tape, and cancel a crackdown on junk food sales in schools.
- Describing himself as the "law and order candidate," the President-Elect has called for nationwide use of stop-and-frisk laws.
Any one of these proposals would sabotage the progress that has been achieved on behalf of low-income people and minority communities in the last sixty years. Taken together, they would constitute a mind-boggling assault on the most vulnerable among us.
With your help, Appleseed will fight back. We will redouble our efforts to defeat any proposal that threatens to weaken civil rights protections or the social safety net.
Meanwhile, there are victories to be won around the country.
As you know, Appleseed knows how to deliver big wins in political environments where people say it can't be done. Overhauling punitive juvenile codes in Georgia and Kansas. Ending the criminal prosecution of Texas kids for truancy, and weakening the "school to prison" pipelines in several states. Helping schoolchildren in New Mexico and elsewhere get the food they need to succeed in school. Helping thousands of flood victims keep their houses.
Appleseed knows how to help low-income people and working families escape poverty and inequality.
We need your help to do it.
