Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) said the proposed FY 2012 budget by the House Republicans’ is a repeat of the failed attempt in 2003 by President Bush, and the Newt Gingrich-led Republicans in 1995, to destroy Medicaid and Medicare.  He said the proposal contains massive cuts to the social safety net while substantially lowering corporate taxes. 

“The House Republican Majority is continuing their ‘Greatest Hits’ of political issues to start the 112^th Congress.  Attack Medicare and turn it into a voucher system – check.  Cut taxes for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, while trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, disabled, and middle class Americans – check.  Oppose a woman’s right to access affordable healthcare– check.  Take away funding for PBS and children’s programming – check.  Vote to take away health coverage for over 30 million Americans – check.  They have gone back in time and dusted off President Bush’s and Newt Gingrich’s 2003 and 1995 plan on how to destroy Medicare and Medicaid. 

“The FY 2012 budget released today by House Republicans is chock full of deceptive numbers and disingenuous claims.  During the health care debate, Republicans and their corporate allies frightened seniors to the point where they were fearful for their Medicare, and urged Democrats to ‘keep their hands off of Medicare.’  This, of course was just a political ploy, because the fact is that the Affordable Care Act bolsters Medicare, and protects its guaranteed benefits.   How did Republicans reward seniors for their votes – by proposing the largest attack on Medicare since its creation.

“The Republican budget privatizes Medicare and turns it into a voucher system, thus denying those currently in the workforce, who are paying into Medicare, the chance to actually benefit from the program.  It dismantles Medicaid, turning it into a system of block grants, leading up to the point in the future where the cost of the program will dwarf the amount of grants provided to states. The goal here is to end Medicaid as we know it by setting it up to fail.  Medicaid benefits the poor and the disabled, two groups who should not carry the load of balancing the budget.

“They are doing all of this while actually cutting corporate taxes and leaving tax breaks for Big Oil untouched.  It opens up oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve and in the Eastern Rockies.  This is a return to the erroneous ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ mantra, recently showcased by BP’s work in the Gulf.  We are approaching the one-year anniversary of that disaster.  The Republicans claim their budget will cut $4 trillion over the next ten years, which I doubt, since over a quarter of it comes from their repeal of the Affordable Care Act.  That is despite the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reporting that repeal would actually add $230 billion to the deficit.  Second, that $4 trillion could have been saved with just one move – allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. 

“The Republican budget also contains $1.8 trillion in cuts from mandatory spending unrelated to health care and Social Security.  Of course, it does not offer specifics, but these cuts are likely to come from unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs that benefit working families and low-income households.  The budget claims to produce an unemployment rate of 4% by 2015 and to lead to lofty numbers in GDP and wages.  The analysis which provides these figures comes from the conservative Heritage Center for Data Analysis.  This is the same organization which predicted the 2001 Bush Tax Cuts would provide almost two million jobs by 2011.  Despite population growth, employment in 2009 was back down to 2001 levels.  Household income also dropped during the Bush Administration for the first time in the past five economic cycles dating back to 1970.  Let me just say we should be very suspicious of these numbers.

“There are only two good things about this budget.   First, as written, it has no chance of becoming law.  Second, it does provide an opening to a real bipartisan discussion on how to provide a blueprint for the financial future of our country.  Reforms are needed to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, defense spending, and the corporate tax rate.  However, we cannot accomplish this goal by playing to the dreams of the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party.  I encourage House Republicans to take us away from the brink of a government shutdown over the 2011 budget, and to halt the march to a larger battle over the 2012 budget.  We were elected to govern, not pontificate.  The time is now to do our job.”

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