Rep. Deutch Statement on "Callous" House Republican Budget

Ted Deutch (FL-22) issued the following statement immediately after voting against the "callous" House Republican budget, which would impose severe cuts on essential programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP benefits:

"The House Republican budget is a callous proposal to shut down essential programs like Medicare, steal billions of dollars from middle class Americans’ wallets and funnel it to billionaires, and undermine key national priorities by cutting infrastructure funding and wreaking havoc on our healthcare system.

"The Republican budget threatens the most vulnerable among us by cutting Medicaid by $1.1 trillion and Medicare by $487 billion over the next ten years. It proposes $50 billion in cuts to veterans’ benefits and $154 billion in SNAP benefits over the same period. And as we face dire international threats from North Korea and terrorist groups like ISIS, House Republicans want to slash our diplomatic and foreign aid budgets by $11 billion.

"This partisan budget ignores so many of the nation’s priorities. We should be working to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which ensures nearly 9 million kids get access to care. We should be setting up a bipartisan Select Committee on Gun Violence to come up with sensible, bipartisan solutions to our gun violence epidemic. And we should be working together - Democrats and Republicans - to improve our healthcare system, not take away essential health benefits like protections for people with pre-existing conditions. 

"This budget, for the fiscal year that began a week ago, is being rammed through the House just so Republicans can move forward with their tax plan that could save President Trump up to $1.1 billion while making middle class families pay more. The trillions of dollars in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest Americans will be paid for on the backs of millions of hard-working Americans. Tens of millions of American families could see higher taxes from this plan. When 80 percent of the tax benefits go to the top one percent of earners, it was clearly written without the required concern for the other 99 percent of Americans.

"This House Republican budget is removed from the reality in cities and towns across the country. It does not reflect American values. I am strongly opposed to this budget, and I voted against it."