The GOP's Budget 'Calls For Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars In Medicaid Cuts': Brendan Boyle

2 days ago

During debate on the House floor, Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) spoke in opposition to the Senate GOP's budget proposal.

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Transcript

00:00Well thank you Mr. Speaker and thank the Budget Committee Chairman. I have to say

00:07it's like deja vu all over again because we were last on the House floor about a

00:14month ago to have a debate about the House Republican budget reconciliation

00:21resolution which included trillions of dollars in big giveaways that mostly

00:29benefit the top 1% paid for in part by the biggest Medicaid cuts in American

00:37history combined with trillions of dollars in new debt here we are again a

00:44month later and after the Senate Republicans made their changes we have

00:50even more in tax cut giveaways instead of four and a half trillion it's now seven

00:56trillion most of which one penny doesn't even pay for it except again for cuts

01:06to Medicaid as well as cuts to other programs now there's a little bit of

01:13confusion here in a couple aspects and I want to quickly address them first on tax

01:18cuts there is no question that there will not be a tax increase on working

01:24Americans there is widespread agreement on both sides of the aisle when it comes

01:28to tax cuts on those making under a million dollars a year in fact in the

01:33Rules Committee a few weeks ago a Democratic member offered an amendment to

01:38say we agree it's where the disagreement lies is in those who make more than a

01:45million dollars a year the top 1% in fact the top one-half of 1% every

01:52Democratic member voted in favor of that amendment that would make clear we'd be

01:56extending the tax cuts for everyone who makes up to a million dollars a massive

02:00amount of money every Democrat voted for it every Republican voted against it so

02:06don't be confused and don't be scared by this care tactic if you were a

02:10middle-class American if you are in the 99% you will not see your taxes go up next

02:16year there's no question about that what is at issue is the tax cuts for

02:22multi-millionaires billionaires and big corporations now there's another part that

02:29has gotten confused or obscured and that's with respect to the Medicaid cuts

02:33as CBO confirmed in a letter they sent to mr. Pallone and to me there is no

02:39question that this piece of legislation before us calls for hundreds of billions of

02:45dollars in Medicaid cuts the largest in American history there are some on the

02:51other hot on the other side who have said well the word Medicaid technically

02:56doesn't exist in the bill therefore these cuts don't exist give me a break the

03:01instruction in this piece of legislation directs the energy and

03:05Commerce Committee to identify at least 880 billion dollars of cuts in those

03:12programs where they have jurisdiction well guess what 93 percent of their

03:19jurisdiction is Medicare and Medicaid you can literally cut everything else that

03:26they have jurisdiction over and that only gets you about 380 billion dollars so at

03:31least 500 billion dollars by definition in order to follow and carry out these

03:37instructions have to come from Medicaid now finally because I know we got a lot of

03:43speakers on on this side there is something additional in this new version of the

03:51reconciliation resolution it's called quote current policy baseline it is a

03:59fraud and to house Republicans credit actually in their proposal they didn't rely on

04:04on this fraud current policy baseline with a straight face wants you to believe

04:11that permanent extension of the tax cuts won't cost one dime this would

04:18establish a dangerous new precedent here for 51 years we've operated under the

04:24Budget and Empoundment Control Act for 51 years we've had the

04:29Congressional Budget Office and we've had these rules as imperfect as they may be

04:33that we have to follow that things have to be paid for within a 10-year window

04:37current policy baseline means that rule goes out goes out the window and if we

04:44think that establishing this new precedent that this will be the only time it's

04:48ever used that's crazy and if we think that we have a national debt issue right now

04:55which we both agree on it will get far far worse if the new standard becomes this

05:02phony fraud of current policy baseline so mr. speaker i look forward to the rest of

05:09the debate and with that i reserve gentlemen reserves gentlemen

The GOP's Budget 'Calls For Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars In Medicaid Cuts': Brendan Boyle

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