Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.
[Pages S1750-S1751]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Budget Proposal
Mr. President, earlier today, the Trump administration released its
annual request. In recent years, these budget requests have become
statements of principles and priorities rather than working documents.
Purely as a statement of principle, the latest budget proposal from the
Trump administration is not only extremely disturbing, but it is
totally against what the President talks about when he talks to his
supporters.
The budget request we received today would be a gut punch to the
middle class and a handout to powerful special interests and the
wealthiest few. It would dismantle America's healthcare system as we
know it, and it would dramatically widen the gap in income and wealth
between our Nation's richest citizens and the rest.
Now listen to this: The President talks about how he wants to get
better healthcare for Americans. Certainly our Republican colleagues
do. By cutting healthcare coverage and increasing healthcare costs for
millions of Americans, this budget belies those promises. President
Trump's budget would repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, taking away
insurance from 32 million Americans and eliminating protections for
Americans with preexisting conditions. How many Republicans are for
that?
How about this: $1.5 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, $845 billion in
cuts to Medicare, $506 billion in cuts to tax credits that help lower
income Americans afford insurance. Not only is this cruel, it is
hypocritical. It is against everything our Republican friends talk
about. It is against what the President says. He is going to preserve
Medicare and Medicaid, and then he slashes them. It still befuddles me
how he can get away with this even in these times.
Second, the budget slashes domestic programs, including investments
in infrastructure, housing, education, and the environment--a third of
the EPA budget and one-fifth of the Department of Transportation
budget.
My Republican friends, when your commissioners and Governors come to
you and say they need more highway funds, are you going to support a
budget that cuts them by 20 percent?
On top of all this, it gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few.
It would permanently extend the Trump tax cuts, costing $1.9 trillion
over 10 years. Seventy percent of the benefits go to the top one-fifth
of America. The staggering costs of these tax cuts are the reason for
all the proposed cuts to healthcare and infrastructure. The Trump
budget proposes the blind theft of the middle class to line America's
deepest pockets.
It is really a disgraceful budget. My guess is that Mr. Mulvaney at
OMB put it together. He was one of the five most rightwing people in
the Congress. He wanted to slash everything. The President just green-
stamped it so he can tip his hat to those on the very far right.
The vast majority of the President's supporters--they are a dwindling
number; they are now less than a third of America--don't support this.
They don't support this at all. How many people who count themselves as
supporters of President Trump support cutting Medicare by close to $1
trillion? How many of those who consider themselves supporters of Trump
support cutting Medicaid by $1.5 trillion? How many of the President's
closest supporters think we should eliminate protections for
preexisting conditions when people have them? How many of the
President's supporters want to cut infrastructure by one-fifth or cut
the clean water and clean air budget by one-third? Hardly any. This
budget is just sort of an ``Alice in Wonderland'' document.
[[Page S1751]]
Of course, it wouldn't be a Trump budget if it didn't include the
fantasy of another $8.6 billion in funding for the border wall. The
fiction that Mexico would pay for the wall has long been debunked,
although that is what the President ran on, but it is still amazing
that the Trump administration proposes year after year that the
American taxpayer pay billions of dollars for a border wall that
President Trump said would be completely free.
It is difficult to overstate the callousness of President Trump's
budget. The cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and numerous middle-class
programs are devastating but maybe not surprising. This budget will be
on the backs of the Republicans. They support President Trump.
The Republican Party's systematic efforts to rip away Americans'
healthcare, its continued embrace of the tax cuts for the rich, its
refusal to accept science, facts, and the urgent need to address
climate change have made cruel and unthinkable budget proposals like
this one par for the course with our fellow Republicans. It is sad; it
is a shame; and it basically is total hypocrisy because not one single
Republican would campaign on these proposals.
