{"id":22464,"date":"2025-06-28T18:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T18:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/22464\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T18:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T18:25:12","slug":"san-diegos-families-will-pay-the-price-for-the-big-beautiful-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/22464\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego’s families will pay the price for the ‘big beautiful bill’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.<\/a>The U.S. Capitol building in Washington. (File photo courtesy of the National Park Service)<\/p>\n

In San Diego County, we believe in dignity for all, especially for hardworking families like Juan and Roberta\u2019s. With four children and an income of just $15,000 a year from Juan\u2019s Uber driving, every dollar counts.<\/p>\n

They once paid $350 for tax preparation \u2014 money they couldn\u2019t spare. However, after discovering the San Diego County EITC Coalition<\/a>\u2019s free tax preparation services, they received a $4,300 refund, including credits from the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. That refund was transformative: it paid for a desktop computer so their daughters could do homework and for car repairs that kept Juan on the road. For families like theirs, free tax help and refundable credits aren\u2019t just helpful \u2014 they\u2019re life-changing.<\/p>\n

\"Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

But right now, Congress is pushing through a bill that will erase almost all of Juan and Roberta\u2019s gains and cut their family off from the financial support they need to survive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For more than 100 years, our goal at United Way of San Diego County<\/a> has been to ensure\u00a0every child gets the education they need to succeed and every family \u2014 no matter their income \u2014 has a fair shot at stability. We do this through community partnerships that help families access the financial resources they need, such as\u00a0the EITC coalition<\/a>\u00a0and financial education workshops through our\u00a0SparkPoint program<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This mission is more critical than ever, especially in light of new data showing that San Diego currently has\u00a0the highest inflation rate in the country<\/a>. The average San Diego County family\u00a0makes $46,000 less than what they need in order to survive<\/a> \u2014 and many of the hardworking families we serve make less than that.<\/p>\n

It harms us all when the federal government threatens the health, safety, and dignity of millions of Americans, including our struggling families and neighbors right here in San Diego, with drastic cuts to social services. The pandemic strained our already fraying social safety net, and we cannot let these protections for families erode further. That\u2019s why I\u2019m calling on everyone in our community to take action to halt H.R. 1, the \u201cBig Beautiful Bill Act<\/a>,\u201d currently under debate in Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This bill will not balance the budget or reduce the national deficit, but it will take food and healthcare from children and tax credits from working families. It substantially decreases SNAP, Medicaid, and the Child Tax Credit, which\u00a0are\u00a0lifelines that thousands of San Diego County residents like Juan and Roberta rely on every day.<\/p>\n

According to the Congressional Budget Office,\u00a013.7 million Americans will lose health care.\u00a0Research from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania estimates\u00a0more than 51,000 additional people will die each year\u00a0if these cuts go through.<\/p>\n

Programs like Medicaid and SNAP prevent homelessness, hunger, and health emergencies, giving San Diego families the stability they need for their children to thrive in school and life. In San Diego County alone:<\/p>\n

H.R. 1 will gut these supports, and many members of Congress are aiming to push this bill through to President Trump\u2019s desk in less than a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a better way. Congress should work for us, not pull the rug out from families as the cost of essentials steadily rises. After all, we know that SNAP puts food in children\u2019s mouths before, during, and after school. Medicaid funds our hospitals, gives grandparents the health and dignity they deserve, and keeps people healthy enough to go to work. Tax credits, like the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, help working parents afford childcare, transportation, and school supplies. <\/p>\n

If H.R. 1 passes, we at\u00a0United Way of San Diego County expect a sharp increase in calls for emergency rent, food, and healthcare assistance. Our community safety nets are already strained. This bill would tear more holes in that net \u2014 and leave thousands of our family members and neighbors to fall through, which is why I urge every reader to call or email their Congressional representative and Senators today and urge them to reject this bill. Find your representative<\/a>\u00a0and tell them:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am concerned that H.R. 1 will harm my neighbors, my family, and my community in San Diego. These cuts, particularly to SNAP, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit, are too deep, too fast, and too dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

United Way of San Diego County mobilizes communities to take action so that all can thrive and will not waver in our commitment to families like Juan and Roberta\u2019s. We\u2019re working toward a future where every person in every community can reach their full potential. We will treat everyone \u2014 all members of our community, whoever they are, wherever they come from \u2014 with respect, dignity, and compassion in all that we do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To keep doing this work, we need your voice. Please join us in calling on our representatives to reject this bill and help us keep our communities strong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nancy L. Sasaki is president and CEO of United Way of San Diego County and lives in Clairemont.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Capitol building in Washington. (File photo courtesy of the National Park Service) In San Diego County,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,327,20585,3170,9703,3549,7264,6974,20586,67,586,20587,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-22464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-congress","12":"tag-earned-income-tax-credit","13":"tag-medicaid","14":"tag-one-big-beautiful-bill","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-snap","18":"tag-social-safety-net","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-united-way-of-san-diego-county","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114762398179140922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}