Washington, D.C. – Today, Michael Linden, former Executive Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget, testified before the House Budget Committee in a hearing on the fiscal state of the United States.
Linden highlighted the hypocrisy of Republicans’ position on federal spending: they want to cut essential services like Medicaid and nutrition assistance because of concerns over the debt, but simultaneously are proposing to explode the debt by giving trillions in tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. Republicans’ Billionaire Tax Scam is the opposite of fiscal responsibility, as Linden made clear in his testimony.
See below for some highlights from the hearing:
- Linden on the Moral and Fiscal Irresponsibility of Republicans’ Tax Agenda:
“Cutting Medicaid, cutting food assistance, raising the costs of everyday goods, all to partially offset yet another round of massive tax cuts for the wealthy is both economically and fiscally reckless, as well as being morally indefensible.”
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“The truth is that far too many Americans are struggling to make ends meet while those at the top continue to get richer and richer. And that’s why most Americans agree that we should be investing more – not less – in supporting the most vulnerable among us. But, right now, this Congress is crafting a budget that would do exactly the opposite. It would take health care away from literally tens of millions of people, and it would mean more hungry children. And, at the same time it would ask struggling families to make do with less, you want to bestow another tax giveaway for the ultra-wealthy.”
- Linden on Republicans Calling Basic Needs Programs “Crumbs:”
“I do think it’s important to zoom out for a moment and remember what we’re talking about here. We are talking about a budget that would take health care away from up to 10 million people as the CBO confirmed this morning, to finance tax cuts for people at the top. [T]he member from Texas just called it ‘crumbs.’ It’s not crumbs to the person who is trying to make their way in the world and relies on Medicaid to feed their family, to take their kids to the doctor. We also talked about, going from 37% to 39%, it was ‘only 300 or 400 billion dollars over ten years’, well that’s more than your budget is proposing to cut from food stamps. So, maybe instead of taking food out of the mouths of hungry children, you could ask millionaires to pay 2% more on their income above $700,000. That’s not crumbs to those families who are relying on food stamps and Medicaid to make ends meet.”
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