WASHINGTON – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Wednesday condemned the Republicans’ new tax and budget plans for cutting over a trillion dollars in Medicare and Medicaid funding.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent, also chimed in to demand that President Donald Trump live up to a campaign promise to properly fund the programs.
According to a report from the Democrats’ staff on the Senate Budget Committee, the Republican budget plan would make cuts of $470 million to Medicare, $1 trillion to Medicaid and $5 trillion in total cuts over the next 10 years.
“This is deceptive, it is reckless, it is wrong for our country,” Pelosi said, claiming that massive cuts of social programs are in Republicans DNA.
The Democratic leaders said they sent a letter to Trump asking him to veto any legislation that would cut Medicare and Medicaid. They noted that he campaigned on promises to keep these programs adequately funded.
“It would betray every pledge of solidarity with working families for the President to sign GOP legislation that devastates Medicare and Medicaid while handing tax breaks to billionaires,” said Pelosi.
However, Senate Republicans contradict the message delivered by the Democrat Party’s leadership.
According to Republicans on the Senate Budgetary Committee, Medicare funding will not be cut in the fiscal 2018 budget, which was supposed be passed by Oct 1 but is still awaiting debate. The budget proposal would slow the rate of growth for Medicare in order to make it more sustainable, the GOP plan said.
Slowing the growth is meant to extend the life of the Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says will be insolvent by 2025, not to pay for tax breaks, said Republicans on the committee.
In a Sept. 29 news release, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized Democratic attempts to “obstruct” Republican efforts at tax reform. McConnell’s office did not respond to requests for a comment on Wednesday’s Democratic criticisms.
Schumer – who said “this is déjà vu all over again” – said the GOP plan would hurt Americans and is out of touch with Americans’ support for the programs.
He predicted the GOP tax reform proposal will fail if the cuts aren’t taken out.
“Republicans are on the floor and on TV misleading the public about their tax plan,” Schumer said. “If [Republicans] continue on this path, the American people will rise up against this plan as they have against health care.”
Sanders, who gave a passionate speech about the influence of the conservative Koch brothers, said $100 million in cuts would also be made to Pell Grants, which go to low-income college students, if the Republican budget is passed.