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Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), the senior House Democrat on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, delivered the following remarks to open debate against H. Con. Res. 14, the House budget resolution setting up Republicans’ reconciliation legislation to cut Medicaid and lower taxes for the rich. The Joint Economic Committee controlled the final hour of floor debate on the measure.

Beyer’s remarks as delivered follow below, and video is available here:

Mr. Speaker, This budget will be disastrous for the American economy.

It will ballon our deficits, leading to higher interest rates and making the things Americans buy every day even more expensive.

It will slash critical investments that make us healthier, safer and more productive: things like those in cancer research, aviation security, and our national park system.

And it will decimate critical programs that support the people we represent – stripping health care from millions, and making it harder for families to put food on the table and make ends meet. 

All of this for billionaires and corporations to get tax cuts that they do not need, and our country cannot afford.

I’m pleased to do this with my friend, Chairman Schweikert, I also believe in math, and I rarely brag but I am good at it.

Americans have been clear – they want lower prices and an economy that works for them. 

Yet instead of focusing on making life easier for American families, at every turn, this Administration and my Republican colleagues have engaged in a scorched earth policy. A policy that creates chaos across the country as the richest person on the planet eliminates services that our nation depends on. 

My friend from South Carolina earlier said the policies would “bankrupt our country.”

What does he mean? Health care for our families? Food for the working poor – who overwhelmingly live in Republican districts?

Sure – get rid of any identified bloat, as every president does.

But this is a budget about billionaires, not about the everyday American women, men and children we represent. 

Yes, I want to move towards a much lower budget deficit. I listen to David Schweikert every closing afternoon during his special order hours. I hate the higher interest costs.

But who pays? Our families – or the one thousand billionaires, that small percentage, one percent or less, of the American population that has more wealth than they could ever spend in lifetimes to come.

My Republican friends have long sung from the altar of fiscal responsibility; yet the plan they put in front of us today is a fiscal sacrilege. 

It depends on fantasy math and ignores that their deficit-busting tax breaks will add at least another $4.6 trillion onto our nation’s credit card, adding even more interest that our families must pay.

And this interest expense has real costs. 

It slows economic growth. It depresses the standard of living. It leads to higher inflation and higher interest rates. And it makes it even harder for families already faced with high prices and borrowing costs to make ends meet. 

“Wasteful, woke, and weaponized policies,” my friend from Texas said. That’s a very small percentage of the federal budget, you’re never going to achieve what’s in this budget resolution on “wasteful, woke, and weaponized policies.”

So what is the Republican plan to address this? 

They are doubling down on their policies that will widen the growing wealth gap facing this nation by giving billionaires trillions in hand outs, while providing pennies to the middle class. 

According to the Treasury Department, the top 1 percent of Americans — those making over $750,000 a year – can expect to get an annual tax cut of over $32,000. Working families will see a tiny fraction of that.

Of course, the other main beneficiaries will be the wealthiest executives of the wealthiest corporations, at a time when corporate profits are at an all time high. Americans who rely on government services are being told they need to make sacrifices to pad those profit margins even further. How does that make any sense?  

To pay for these tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, the Republican budget proposes to cut programs Americans rely on to afford health care and put food on the table. 

Almost 100 million people – including seniors, children, families, and those from every corner of this country – depend on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to afford medical care. Yet this budget would slash almost $900 billion from these critical programs, ripping away life-saving coverage and raising healthcare costs for those who rely on them.

And at a time when prices at the grocery store continue to climb, this budget would make it even harder for the 40 million Americans who rely on SNAP to put food on the table.  

The budget we are considering today will do nothing to support the economic growth of this nation. It will benefit the wealthiest at the expense of those who make this country work, and I urge my colleagues to reject it.