“It Is Those Who Can Least Afford It Who Are Going To Be Hit The Hardest”-- In Speech on Senate Floor, Cantwell Shows How GOP’s Budget Sells Out the American People
Cantwell: From kicking 17 million Americans off Medicaid & other health insurance to effectively cancelling state AI protections, the budget proposed by Congressional Republicans is a cash grab for corporations & the rich -- at the expense of everyone else
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, as the Senate prepares to vote on a new budget that would gut $930 billion from Medicaid, funnel resources to special interests via massive corporate tax breaks, and add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) delivered a speech on the Senate floor to highlight how various provisions included in the 940-page document ultimately sell out the American people.
“This bill would make the entire health care system less responsive and more expensive for everyone by dismantling Medicaid and shifting more of the cost burden on to states -- and threatening the very existence of rural hospitals. This bill also sells spectrum out from under our national defense and safety agencies and forces states to choose between protecting their citizens from dangerous AI or providing broadband service, and just gives away big breaks to companies like Meta -- that's Facebook -- or Google, who I'm sure at this point in time don't really need that additional tax break. Clearly, though, the most [egregious] and certainly most destructive part of the bill, of this reconciliation, is the changes to health care,” Sen. Cantwell said.
“You're going to increase the cost of uncompensated care. You're going to make people wait to go to emergency rooms and then they're going to be sicker,” she said. “It's ten times more expensive to deal with somebody at an emergency room than just get health insurance and get covered.”
“Yes, extending the 2017 tax cuts does help some middle-class families, and we would support that. But all the hits in other areas -- like health insurance -- mean they will lose money overall. The lowest 20% of income brackets are hit even harder. In this massive bill, it is those who can least afford it who are going to be hit the hardest,” Sen. Cantwell concluded.
Her speech can be watched in full HERE; a transcript is HERE.
Sen. Cantwell, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, has been fighting this proposed budget every step of the way.
To sound the alarm on proposed Medicaid cuts, Sen. Cantwell hosted a virtual press conference on Friday with Republican leaders from red states – Utah, North Carolina, and Missouri. On Monday, she delivered another speech on the Senate floor highlighting the story of the Winterrose family in Richland, WA, who rely on Medicaid to ensure their 5-year-old daughter can live at home. Last month, she convened a group of health care providers across Washington state for a virtual press conference to highlight statewide opposition to the cuts. The same day, 23 Republican members of the Washington state legislature sent a letter to the entire Washington state federal congressional delegation, urging the delegation to “protect Medicaid funding for Washington State.”
When details of her Republican colleagues’ plan to slash Medicaid were made public earlier this year, Sen. Cantwell toured the state to hear from folks who would be directly impacted by the cuts. Doctors, patients, and health care providers in Seattle, Spokane, the Tri-Cities, and Wenatchee warned that such cuts would devastate Washington state’s health care system and limit access to lifesaving care.
Sen. Cantwell also released a snapshot report highlighting the impact that Medicaid cuts would have on Washington state's highly-ranked long-term care system for seniors and people with disabilities. In February, she released a snapshot report that demonstrated how cuts would harm health care access in Washington state, and she followed up with a report in March that dove into impacts on the Puget Sound region. Last week, the Senator released a fact sheet that warned of dire consequences for reproductive health care in Washington state if the Republican reconciliation bill is passed.
In her remarks today, Sen. Cantwell also discussed new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), available here, of the impact of the Republican plan’s cuts to Medicaid. In addition, a Joint Economic Committee (JEC) fact sheet, available here, provides updated estimates for all 50 states and D.C. of the estimated number of people losing their health insurance. The JEC data broken down by Congressional District is available here.
A previous version of the bill included a provision that would have required the federal government to sell off millions of acres of public land. On Tuesday, Sen. Cantwell held a virtual press conference with the mayor of Boise, professional climbers, a leader from outdoor gear retailer REI, and a spokesperson for a hunting and angling advocacy group to fight back – yesterday, the provision was dropped.
Earlier this week, Sen. Cantwell criticized new reconciliation bill language released by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) which forces states receiving Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding to choose between expanding broadband or protecting consumers from harms caused by artificial intelligence for ten years. Cruz’s new language would also auction spectrum critical to national defense: “The newly released language by Chair Cruz continues to hold $42 billion in BEAD funding hostage, forcing states to choose between protecting consumers and expanding critical broadband infrastructure to rural communities,” Sen. Cantwell said earlier this week. “Forty state attorneys general oppose the AI moratorium that would leave every American vulnerable to AI-assisted fraud, theft, and abuse at a time when we should be strengthening consumer protections. This bill would auction off spectrum essential for military drone operations and risk grounding both civilian and military aircraft due to interference with airplane altimeters. It would jeopardize our weather tracking radar systems and the bands we rely on for WiFi connectivity. And for what? So telecommunications companies—the same ones that failed to protect Americans from Salt Typhoon—can profit and Trump can hawk more of his $47.45 phone plans. This is a fundamental threat to our national defense and a massive giveaway to China." Sen. Cruz claims that the ten-year moratorium on states’ enforcement of AI laws applies only to a new $500 million appropriation. However, concerns remain that the bill’s text still leverages broadband funding to deny states the ability to protect their citizens from AI-assisted fraud, theft, and abuse.
The Senate is currently scheduled to vote on the budget bill late tonight or early tomorrow morning. If the bill passes the Senate, it will go back to the House for at least 72 hours of consideration before a House vote.
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