Congresswoman Corrine Brown Strongly Denounces Republican Party Cut, Cap and End Medicare and Social Security” bill
(Washington, DC) Congresswoman Corrine Brown made the following statement:
“Today on the House Floor the Republican Party is once again wasting time with the bill we have before us: the so called “Cut, Cap and End Social Security and Medicare” bill. Indeed, they have brought this bill before us today for a mere symbolic vote, despite the fact that it is guaranteed to fail in the Senate, and that President Obama has assured a veto. While my Democratic colleagues and I are calling on Republicans to act quickly to enact an agreement to raise the debt limit, the Republican leadership is pressing forward with an extreme proposal that increases our chances of default. Moreover, the bill before us today is a repeat of the reverse Robin Hood-Republican budget resolution all over again: it ends Medicare and drastically cuts Medicaid, while making sure to preserve tax breaks for the rich.
It would also manipulate the Constitution to permanently graft the extreme Republican budget into it. And this plan changes the Constitution to make it easier to cut Medicare than to close special interest tax loopholes to reduce the deficit. It is hard to make the case that decapitating food inspection, air traffic control, scientific research, Head Start, childhood nutrition programs would lead to a healthier economy.
This plan is nothing more than another attempt to enact their extreme budget policies. It will inevitably result in ending the Medicare guarantee and will shred the social safety net, as well as the loss of 700,000 jobs in our struggling economy. Not surprisingly, their plan protects special interest tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthy.
This legislation is nothing more than political theater, and increases the chances of a United States default, while enshrining Republican policy goals into the Constitution. This bill, along with the Republican budget proposals, should be declared Dead on Arrival.”
Just last December, the Republicans forced a vote on extending the Bush Tax Cuts for millionaires and billionaires, adding billions of dollars to our nation’s deficit. In reality, it was not that long ago, during the Clinton years, when our budget had a surplus. Yet eight years of horribly reckless spending and excessive tax cuts for the rich under President Bush and the Republican leadership has left America trillions of dollars in debt. The Republican plan to balance our budget ends Medicare as we know it, transforming a system of guaranteed health care into a system that provides seniors with less coverage every year. It also dismantles Medicaid, putting seniors’ nursing home care at risk, and cutting off care for disabled and poor Americans.
We have been down that reverse Robin Hood path before, and it always leads to higher and higher debt levels, stagnation for working Americans, and, most recently, an economic implosion. We must not choose that dead end again. Time is quickly running out and I implore my Republican colleagues to agree to increase the debt limit for the good of America and the world. I repeat: we, as members of Congress, should not gamble with the full credit of the United States government.”