Debt Ceiling Deal Bad News For Latinos

So the big news of the day is that President Barack Obama and House Republicans reached a deal to raise the debt ceiling — but there’s a huge “but.” The “but” in this case is that there’ll be trillions of dollars in cuts now, and then in the immediate future, a bipartisan committee will make trillions more in cuts. Wait, was this the budget battle or the debt ceiling battle? Or the same thing?

Essentially, the budget battle that ended badly for Latinos with cuts to important programs will now continue to be bad with Latinos with the debt ceiling battle, as these cuts and others not made the first time around continue — or get worse.

I’d like to recall, for a moment, that big budget battle and the stories we wrote about the death of the American Dream for Latinos, a list of cuts here and here, and then an exhaustive list here. Then there’s what’s going on with this debt ceiling deal, which according to The Christian Science Monitor after raising the debt limit $900 billion:

A second round of spending cuts would be taken up by a new joint legislative committee, which would identify ways to cut the deficit by another $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. A related $1.2 trillion debt-ceiling hike would be automatic, unless two-thirds of either the House or Senate disapproves.

What types of programs were at risk during the budget battle, which are likely now to come under similar scrutiny with this debt ceiling committee slashing? Let’s review some of our previous posts and parts of the actual bill:

• Women, Infants and Children (WIC) low-income food program (35% of beneficiaries are Latinos).
• Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which would award states who enroll the most uninsured children (1 in 5 Latino children are uninsured).
• Community health centers (39% of Latinos are uninsured).
• Title X family planning and reproductive health services (23% of beneficiaries are Latino).
• Head Start
• Pell Grants and grad student loans
• Veteran’s services
• EPA’s enforcement of the Clean Air Act
• And there’s lots more here.

So Republicans and Democrats took an economic issue during a time of economic uncertainty in this country, turned it into a political football, and then came out of it with even more cuts for an already struggling populace. And, for Latinos, who lost 66% of their wealth in the recession, these cuts can only be more terrible. It’s going to be a tough year, and we are all going to have to stay informed and make our voices heard in the 2012 election. News Taco will be on the case.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD