Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) rejected the House Republican Leadership budget on Thursday, for the pain it inflicts on low- and middle-income families.  The GOP budget proposed cuts for scores of programs affecting working families and low-income communities, while ignoring the need for a balanced approach to deficit reduction through the raising of revenues.

“It’s almost as if the Republican Majority is living in a fiscal fantasy world.  In this magical place, the richest Americans get all of the breaks, while the most vulnerable Americans make all of the sacrifices.  In this magical world, they think this aggressively one-sided budget has a mythical chance to pass the Senate.  Once again, we are playing politics, while the American people are asking for action.  That has been the game plan since they took office in 2011 – no glimmer of bipartisanship and governing, only marking the long-standing Republican shopping list of political points.  While hard choices need to be made to balance the budget – the door swings both ways, and they seem to think this door must constantly be slammed in the faces of the poor, the elderly and our most needy,” said Rep. Engel.

Rep. Engel called the House Republican budget a broken record, repeating the same thing over and over again.  “Their budget ends the Medicare guarantee, giving seniors a voucher with an artificial price cap to purchase insurance causing health costs to rise for seniors, and killing off Medicare.  It also re-opens the prescription drug donut hole closed by the Affordable Care Act – increasing costs for Medicare beneficiaries who need vital medication.  It does nothing to add jobs; it actually manages to lose jobs – estimated by independent analysts to be more than two million lost jobs.  It fails to invest in our crumbling infrastructure while increasing tax incentives which lead to outsourcing jobs.  The list goes on and on – slashed social safety net, fewer block grants, less college assistance, and so on and so on.  The only people who benefit from this budget are outsourcers, Big Oil and the richest Americans.  This is just unacceptable,” said Rep. Engel.

The 12-term Congressman added, “To balance the budget, we need to look beyond cutting programs to help the poor, and to put more of a focus on eliminating the free ride for the richest Americans.  We enjoy the lowest tax rate since the Korean War, while more and more Americans are forced into poverty.  Balancing the budget on their backs is both harmful and impossible.  It is time we had a real conversation about our national economy and come together – Democrats and Republicans – with a plan that takes the focus away from NPR, PBS, grandma’s heating bill and inner city revitalization, and places it more in the hands of those who can already afford it.”

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