Miller: GOP Budget Not Bold or Courageous

Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, spoke on the House floor this evening during the debate on the House Republican Budget. Learn how the House Republican budget could affect you. 

We’ve been hearing for days now how the House Republican budget is courageous and bold. But this budget is neither courageous, nor is it bold.

 

It’s not courageous to throw poor kids out of their Head Start classroom, but continue subsidies to Big Oil and their record profits. 

 

It is not bold to slash Pell Grant scholarships to millions of students and then keep incentives for companies to ship our jobs overseas.  

 

It is not bold nor smart to slash funds for new clean energy research, making future generations of Americans more dependent, not less, on dictators and dangerous fossil fuels.

 

And, it is neither bold nor courageous to end Medicare for seniors, shifting thousands of dollars of costs onto the elderly, to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. 

 

For 45 years, seniors have relied on Medicare to provide health care during their retirement years. 

 

The Republican budget would end this guarantee. Seniors would no longer be guaranteed coverage for basic health services like diabetes and cancer screenings.

 

Instead, seniors would have to scrounge to find a higher cost private health policy. What insurance company is going to write an individual policy for a 70 year old that is remotely affordable? 

 

Because of these higher costs, more seniors will go into debt under this plan. They will be forced to sell their homes or rely on their children just to pay for basic medical care.  

 

This is not a dignified retirement. 

 

Yes, we need to ensure that Medicare is sustainable for seniors and sustainable for taxpayers.

 

But one thing is certain:  The Republican budget does not save Medicare, it ends it.

 

Mr. Speaker, this budget is not bold. It is not courageous. 

 

And it might be easy for the GOP to make cuts on the backs of those who can’t afford high-priced lobbyists. 

 

But it’s not easy for the middle class working people and seniors on whose backs this burden is being placed.

 

The Democratic budget is a fair and balances approach that asks ALL Americans to share the burden of reducing the deficit and the debt and strengthening our economy.

 

I urge my colleagues to vote down the Republican plan to end Medicare and vote yes on the Democratic budget that is fair and balanced.