Education secretary Betsy DeVos appeared before a House education appropriations subcommittee Tuesday to defend the Trump administration's 2020 budget request, which includes substantial cuts to programs like the Special Olympics.
If passed by Congress, the proposed budget for the next fiscal year would cut almost $7 billion, the equivalent of 10 percent of total spending from the department. It would effectively gut the roughly $18 million set aside for the Special Olympics while allocating $60 million more to charter school funding.
When asked by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) whether she know how many children the cuts would affect, DeVos told the subcommittee, "I don't know the number of kids." Pocan then asserted that roughly 272,000 would be impacted.
"We had to make some difficult decisions," DeVos responded. "I think Special Olympics is an awesome organization, one that is well supported by the philanthropic sector as well."
When news broke of the proposed budget cuts, Americans took to Twitter to voice their frustrations with DeVos and her decision to back Trump's proposal to end all funding for the Special Olympics.
Editor's note: Some tweets contain vulgarity.
"Plutocracy in a nutshell. Billionaire Betsy DeVos parlays her money and charity, which undercuts public education, into a cabinet post. She makes a show of donating her salary to the Special Olympics," Time editor at large Anand Giridharadas tweeted. "And she uses her position to cut funding for it on a vastly greater scale."
Liz Plank added: "Betsy DeVos donating a portion of her salary to the Special Olympics only to turn around and decimate the entirety of its funding is a special kind of plutocrat savior ableist bulls***t."
"Apparently, harming the lives of disabled children is less tough to Betsy than, say, dipping into $2 trillion in tax cuts she and 1% got from Trump," author Kurt Eichenwald tweeted.
Democratic Coalition co-founder Scott Dworkin wrote: "Betsy DeVos cut funding from the Special Olympics. Because she's Betsy DeVos, and she's f***ing terrible."
"Betsy DeVos? More like Betsy DeVoid of basic human empathy. Amirite?," television writer Sarah Watson tweeted.
Read some other tweets below:
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