Tag Archives: GOP budget cuts

Biden Administration, Federal Budget, federal budget-spending

House Republicans Release Budget Plan Targeting Medicare, Social Security, and Affordable Care Act, Raising Costs While Cutting Taxes for Wealthy; Biden Vows to Protect Social Safety Net

The House Republican Study Committee – which represents 100% of House Republican leadership and nearly 80% of their members – just proposed yet another budget that would cut Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act , as well as increase prescription drug, energy, and housing costs – all while forcing tax giveaways for the very rich onto the country. Their plan would even raise the Social Security retirement age.  © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

This fact sheet analyzing the House Republicans’ proposed 2025 budget that would target Medicare, Social Security, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), repeal caps on drugs and cut taxes for the wealthy, is provided by the White House:

In his State of the Union Less than two weeks ago, President Biden laid out his vision for an economy that gives the middle class a fair shot. He also warned that congressional Republicans “will cut Social Security and give more tax cuts to the wealthy,” that they continue to oppose the Affordable Care Act, and that they are siding with Big Pharma over hardworking families.     
 
On Wednesday, Republican Study Committee – which represents 100% of House Republican leadership and nearly 80% of their members – just proposed yet another budget that would cut Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act , as well as increase prescription drug, energy, and housing costs – all while forcing tax giveaways for the very rich onto the country. Their plan would even raise the Social Security retirement age.
 
Like President Biden promised in the Capitol, “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age I will stop them.”
 
He’s keeping that promise by standing against this new House Republican budget. He knows the last thing we should do is raid Medicare and Social Security while giving more giant tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations.
 
What’s more, House Republicans’ plan would raise energy costs and send our new manufacturing jobs back overseas by gutting other crucial elements of the Inflation Reduction Act, raise housing costs, and allow big companies to rip off consumers with junk fees.  
 
President Biden has a different vision for how we move into the future: make the wealthy, big corporations, and special interests pay their fair share while protecting and strengthening Medicare and Social Security. Extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits he delivered to lower health care costs and cover more Americans than any time in history. Making the economy work for the middle class by investing in America and the industries of the future, while lowering key costs that working families face. And expanding Medicare’s ability to negotiate lower drug costs.
 
80% of House Republicans released a Budget that:
 
Cuts Medicare and Social Security while putting health care at risk for millions
 

  1. Calls for over $1.5 trillion in cuts to Social Security, including an increase in the retirement age to 69 and cutting disability benefits.
  2. Raises Medicare costs for seniors by taking away Medicare’s authority to negotiate prescription drug costs, repealing $35 insulin, and the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap in the Inflation Reduction Act
  3. Transitions Medicare to a premium support system that CBO has found would raise premiums for many seniors.
  4. Cuts Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program by $4.5 trillion over ten years, taking coverage away from millions of people, eroding care for seniors, children, and people with disabilities, and taking us back to the days where people could be denied care for pre-existing conditions and charged more for health insurance simply for being a woman.   

 
Rigs the economy for the wealthy and large corporations against middle class families
 

  1. Passes $5.5 trillion in tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and large corporations, including permanently extending tax cuts in the Trump tax law, repealing the minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations the President signed into law, eliminating the estate tax for the wealthiest Americans, providing a massive tax cut for billionaire investors, and making it easier for the wealthy and large corporations to get away with cheating on their taxes.
  2. Kills jobs and investment in communities throughout the country – including Red States – by eliminating the clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.
  3. Makes it easier for companies and banks to rip consumers off with unfair and hidden junk fees by eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
  4. Raises housing costs by cutting funding for rental assistance, cutting funding for programs that help build housing, and raising mortgage costs for first-time homebuyers.

In response to the Republican budget plan, President Biden issued a statement : “My dad had an expression, ‘Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.’ The Republican Study Committee budget shows what Republicans value. This extreme budget will cut Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act. It endorses a national abortion ban. The Republican budget will raise housing costs and prescription drugs costs for families. And it will shower giveaways on the wealthy and biggest corporations. Let me be clear: I will stop them.
 
“My budget represents a different future. One where the days of trickle-down economics are over and the wealthy and biggest corporations no longer get all the breaks. A future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms, not take them away. A future where the middle class finally has a fair shot, and we protect Social Security so the working people who built this country can retire with dignity. I see a future for all Americans and I will never stop fighting for that future.”

See:

FACT SHEET: PRESIDENT BIDEN’S PROPOSED 2025 BUDGET PROTECTS PROGRESS, SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, INVESTS IN AMERICA, REDUCES DEFICIT

BIDEN LAYS OUT VISION FOR FUTURE, BATTLE TO SAVE DEMOCRACY AND SOUL OF NATION & DRAWS CONTRASTS TO ‘MY PREDECESSOR” IN FIERY STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Federal Budget, Government spending

State by State: House Republicans Renege on Budget Deal, Push Funding Bills that Would Have Devastating Impact Across America

Congressional Republicans are holding the nation hostage, threatening a government shutdown unless the Biden Administration makes massive cuts that will impact every state. The White House produced a report detailing the impact by state. In New York, for example, the Republicans want to slash funding for schools with low-income students. House Republicans’ 80 percent cut to Title I funding would impact 1,535,500 students in schools that teach low income students by forcing a reduction of up to 18,500 teachers, aides or other key staff © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

House Republicans’ are proposing appropriations bills would raise a host of costs for families, hurt students, seniors, and rural communities, slash support for law enforcement, and undermine our economy—while Congressional Republicans fight separately for multi-millionaires and big corporations to get massive tax cuts. Basically going back on the deal that was negotiated just months ago, with Biden saved the nation from its first ever credit default, they are now using extortion, threatening a government shutdown, if they don’t get these cuts, along with policy changes to undermine women’s rights. This fact sheet from the White House details the impacts on individual states.–Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

See also: Speaker McCarthy Capitulates to MAGA, Orders Baseless Biden Impeachment Inquiry as Shutdown Looms

Earlier this year, the President and Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan budget agreement that averted a first-ever default and protected our historic economic progress. The President, House Democrats, Senate Democrats, and Senate Republicans all stand by this promise. Unfortunately, Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans are ignoring the bipartisan budget agreement they passed and instead advancing extreme, partisan appropriations bills that break their public promise and gut key investments in the American people.

House Republicans claim these cuts are about fiscal responsibility—but they aren’t. Not only would their bills add at least $100 billion to deficits over 10 years by making it easier for the wealthy and big corporations to cheat on their taxes, but House Republicans are separately pushing corporate tax giveaways that would cost over $500 billion if made permanent—including at least $30 billion in retroactive tax breaks for investments companies made last year. These retroactive tax cuts alone would erase the savings from their deep cuts to education, health, and labor programs.1

Today, the Office of Management and Budget released 51 fact sheets highlighting the devastating impacts of these extreme cuts on states and the District of Columbia. Below are some of the most harmful elements of House Republicans’ appropriations bills that they will begin to consider this week.

The cuts in the House appropriations bills would:

  • Slash Funding for Schools with Low-Income Students: House Republicans’ 80 percent cut to Title I funding would impact 26 million students in schools that teach low-income students by forcing a reduction of up to 226,000 teachers, aides or other key staff. 
    • Eliminate Tens of Thousands of Preschool Slots: House Republicans’ cut to Head Start would mean as many as 82,000 children would lose access to high-quality preschool—undermining their education, leaving fewer children ready to enter kindergarten ready to learn, and making it more difficult for parents to join the workforce.
    • Slash Funding for Law Enforcement: The proposed cut to the FBI would eliminate up to 1,850 personnel, including up to 673 agents, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be forced to eliminate approximately 400 positions, including more than 200 agents. The House bill also cuts funding for U.S. Attorneys by roughly 12 percent, which would eliminate approximately 1,400 positions. 
    • Raise Housing Costs for Tens of Thousands: The proposed cuts would raise housing costs by eliminating funding for Housing Choice Vouchers for 20,000 households, including approximately 6,000 households headed by seniors. In addition, a nearly 70 percent cut to the HOME Investment Partnerships Program would result in 20,000 fewer affordable homes being constructed, rehabbed, or purchased in communities across the country.
    • Slash Critical Job Training and Workforce Development Programs: The proposal would result in half a million fewer people receiving job training and employment services. These harmful cuts would deprive businesses of the skilled workforce they need to thrive, and would cut off workers’ pathways to good jobs.
    • Undermine Critical Health Research: House Republicans’ cuts would undermine critical research efforts to find treatments and cures for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s by cutting $3.8 billion for the National Institutes of Health. They would also eliminate funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which would end the Long COVID research at the agency and delay other priority health services research.

In addition to demanding these draconian cuts, House Republicans are also fighting to rescind vital funding that is helping make our tax code fairer, rebuilding America’s infrastructure, lowering costs for families, and tackling the climate crisis. Their proposals would:

  • Increase Risks of Lead Exposure: The proposal would rescind over $564 million in funding for programs that mitigate housing-related risks of lead poisoning and other illnesses and hazards to lower income families, especially children, resulting in 55,000 fewer homes safe of hazards and adversely impacting approximately 78,000 children.
    • Protect Wealthy Tax Cheats: While House Republicans separately lay the groundwork for more than $3 trillion in tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and big corporations, they are also fighting to make it easier for wealthy tax cheats to avoid paying what they owe—proposing to rescind $67 billion dollars in funding for the IRS enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act, which would increase the deficit by more than $100 billion.
    • Increase Energy Costs for Rural Americans: Rescinding $2 billion in funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for programs at USDA would undermine programs that help agricultural producers and rural small businesses convert to renewable energy systems, and that help rural Americans to build clean, affordable, and reliable energy by working with approximately 900 electric cooperatives in 47 States.
    • Shortchange Home Electrification Projects: Rescinding $4.5 billion in funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program would impact at least 250,000 home electrification and appliance upgrade projects in low- and medium-income homes across all States, territories, and tribes.
    • Undermine Clean Technology Investments and Pollution Reduction: Rescinding $20 billion in funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for programs at EPA would take away funds designed to help communities access grant opportunities to reduce pollution and mobilize private capital into clean technology projects, especially in low-income and disadvantaged communities. These programs will spur investment in clean technology projects and expand economic opportunities in communities, helping to cut harmful pollution and protect people’s health while tackling the climate crisis.
    • Slash Support for Teachers: Rescinding $1.7 billion—or 77 percent—in the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants (Title II) program would severely undermine the program’s ability to improve the effectiveness of teachers in the classroom.

A deal is a deal. The President and the Speaker already made a bipartisan budget agreement—one that would result in $1 trillion of deficit reduction over the next decade. Every party to that agreement except House Republicans—House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, and President Biden—are honoring their word. It is a balanced deal that protects critical investments while ensuring fiscal responsibility. We urge House Republicans to follow the law they helped enact and the Senate’s bipartisan approach to funding the government according to the deal.

State Fact Sheets: