In response to House Republicans moving forward with their disastrous budget resolution that puts working families last, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement:

“Who does the Republican Party care about? Clearly not working families. Donald Trump and House Republicans just voted to move forward with a budget resolution that could rip away health care from 22 million Americans and will make life harder for kids, seniors, and people just trying to make ends meet. Trump is taking money out of the pockets of families who need it to prepare massive tax handouts to billionaires. If just two more House Republicans grew a spine they could put a stop to this corruption.” 

NEW: Republicans (barely) pushed through their disastrous funding agenda, putting health care on the chopping block to fund Trump’s tax handouts to the ultra wealthy. 

Jake Sherman, Punchbowl News: “THE HOUSE GOP BUDGET RESOLUTION has passed

“Vote was 217-215.”

Politico: “Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that he isn’t planning to make any changes to his budget plan to placate Republicans concerned about possible Medicaid cuts. …

“The budget blueprint sets out a minimum of $880 billion in cuts from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and a group of vulnerable House Republicans is arguing that the bulk of those reductions will have to come out of Medicaid given that the panel has virtually no other options to make cuts of that magnitude.”

New York Times: “House Republicans hunting for ways to pay for President Trump’s tax cuts have called for cutting the federal government’s share of Medicaid spending, including a proposal that would effectively gut the Affordable Care Act’s 2014 expansion of the program. …

“A move to lower federal spending on the Medicaid expansion population could effectively gut the program. Around 10 states that have expanded their programs have so-called trigger laws that reverse the Medicaid expansion if the federal government decreases funding for the population. … More than 21 million adults who were not eligible for Medicaid under pre-expansion guidelines received coverage last year.”

Donald Trump – and House Republicans – have repeatedly proposed gutting Medicaid to pay for their billionaire tax handouts, even as this program serves 79 million Americans, including many families in rural communities. 

Sarah Ferris: “House budget plan is out. Besides 2 years of debt limit + $4.5T in tax cuts and $200B in border, there’s BIG news for fiscal hawks 

“It calls for $2T in *mandatory* cuts, aka Medicaid”

KFF Health News: “Republicans in Washington say they plan to use funding cuts and regulatory changes to dramatically shrink Medicaid, the nearly $900-billion-a-year government health insurance program that, along with the related Children’s Health Insurance Program, serves about 79 million mostly low-income or disabled Americans. …

“Advocates for poor people fear GOP funding cuts will leave more Americans without insurance, making it harder for them to get care.

“If the GOP’s plans to shrink Medicaid are realized, Democrats and health experts say, low-income people forced to buy private insurance would face challenges paying monthly premiums and the large copayments and deductibles common to commercial plans that typically don’t exist in Medicaid.”

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “President Trump has made clear that his goal remains to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including its expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults, and to impose rigid caps on the federal government’s Medicaid spending.”

In his FY18, FY19, FY20, and FY21 budgets, Trump repeatedly proposed hundreds of billions in cuts to Medicaid.

Georgetown University Center for Children and Families: “Cuts to Medicaid Will Shift Costs to Families, Providers and Will Be Especially Harmful to Rural Communities”

“Medicaid covers almost 80 million people in total – roughly four times as many people as covered by the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces and considerably more than the roughly 48 million seniors covered by Medicare.”

Republicans’ Medicaid cuts would be a disaster for our seniors, and could “force retirees out of nursing homes.”

New York Times: “Medicaid Cuts May Force Retirees Out of Nursing Homes”

Skilled Nursing News: “‘Devastating’: Medicaid Cuts in Republican Crosshairs, With Nursing Homes Seen as Bearing Major Pain”

“‘Any serious Medicaid cuts will have a major impact on long-term supports and services, broadly defined to include nursing homes, home health and personal care,’ [Brian] Ellsworth told Skilled Nursing News. ‘Those services comprise over a third of Medicaid spending nationally and would certainly be under the chopping block at the state level if serious cuts were made to Medicaid in Washington.’”

Republicans’ budget plan also targets SNAP cuts, which would prevent millions of Americans from putting food on the table. 

Politico: “House GOP budget plan targets deep SNAP cuts”

“But the new plan to be marked up by the House Budget Committee on Thursday contains instructions for the Agriculture Committee to slash $230 billion across programs under its purview, meaning work requirements and changes to state waivers alone won’t reach that target number, said the lawmakers with knowledge about the ongoing talks.”

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Millions of Low-Income Households Would Lose Food Aid Under Proposed House Republican SNAP Cuts”

“The budget resolution that the House plans to take up this week directs the House Agriculture Committee to cut programs in its jurisdiction by at least $230 billion through 2034, with these cuts expected to come largely or entirely from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and to be used to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest business owners and households.”

REMINDER: Trump’s tax scam gave massive handouts to the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working families and created new incentives for companies to ship jobs overseas.

Forbes: “Trump Tax Cuts Helped Billionaires Pay Less Taxes Than The Working Class In 2018”

Washington Post: “For the first time in history, U.S. billionaires paid a lower tax rate than the working class last year”

CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”

Washington Post Analysis: “One of President Donald Trump’s lesser-known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he’s inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt. The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. …

“The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.”

Washington Post: “Trump promised ‘America First’ would keep jobs here. But the tax plan might push them overseas.”

###