Rep. George Miller Against the Republican Budget That Ends Medicare
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee, issued the following statement after the House passed the Republican budget for the upcoming fiscal year that would, among other harmful cuts, end Medicare and reduce the Pell Grant to its lowest level since 1998.
“Here’s why I voted against the Republican budget and for the Democratic budget alternative.
“The Republican budget ends Medicare, raises the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, and cuts nursing home care for seniors and the disabled. It makes college more expensive for America’s students, kicks children out of Head Start, and makes us more dependent on foreign oil. It then takes all the money it ‘saves’ from those lopsided cuts to the middle class and the poor and shovels it to the biggest oil companies in the world, the wealthiest American taxpayers, and corporations that ship our jobs overseas.
“The Republican budget is unfair and unbalanced and makes the wrong choices for our economy and our future.
“The Republican budget ends Medicare and gives tax cuts to oil companies and the wealthy. Taking money and resources from middle class and low-income seniors, from children, and from the disabled and giving it to the wealthiest citizens and corporations in our country is obscene and must be rejected.
“The Democratic budget’s priorities are balanced, and they are fair. Our budget makes smarter choices while calling on all Americans to share the sacrifice of reducing America’s deficit and debt. Our budget shows courage by not just including domestic discretionary cuts, but by making real and smart cuts in Pentagon spending, by reforming entitlement programs, and by calling on the wealthy to pay taxes at the rates they did under President Clinton, a time when our economy did very well and we created a historic budget surplus that tragically was squandered under President Bush and the Republican-dominated Congress. And the Democratic budget reins in the tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies that oil giants have no need to, nor any right to, receive.”
For more information about the Republican budget, click here.
For more information about the Pell cuts, click here.
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