Maloney leads Joint Economic Committee Democrats against Republican budget

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the Ranking House Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee, today led an hour of floor debate in opposition to the Republican budget plan proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). Maloney and her colleagues drew contrast between the Democratic and Republican budget proposals.

“Democrats understand that in order to maintain our leadership in the world economy, America needs to continually sharpen its competitive edge,” Maloney said. “And we understand that while investing in the future may carry some risk –refusing to do so carries an iron bound certainty – the certainty of a slow decline and crippling decay. But instead of investing in the future – in the next generation – the Ryan budget guts funding for education, workforce training, critical infrastructure, scientific research, public health, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and public safety. All the investments needed to make the American economy of tomorrow competitive and put us on the cutting edge.”

The Republican budget will have a devastating impact on job creation, and gut critical investments in our future global competitiveness. According to the Economic Policy Institute, it would cause the loss of 3 million jobs and decrease GDP by 2.5 percent over the next two years.

Ryan’s budget cuts SNAP, which provides food security for millions of American children, by more than $135 billion. And 200,000 fewer women and children would receive vital nutrition assistance from the WIC nutrition program. In 2015 alone, the budget cuts $52 billion from efforts to update crumbling transportation infrastructure. The so called “Path to Prosperity” virtually eliminates the guarantee of Medicare by privatizing the program, would raise the age to qualify for the program to 67, and bring back the dreaded doughnut hole that forces seniors to choose between paying for their medication and putting food on the table. The budget also denies healthcare to over 40 million people by repealing the Affordable Care Act and block-granting the Medicaid program.

Maloney was joined by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Rep. John Delaney (D-MD) who spoke in strong opposition to the Republican budget plan.

“Sadly, instead of a proposal that would help us expand the middle class, the Ryan Budget seeks to help the wealthy at the expense of the many,” Cummings said. “Republicans fail to understand that we simply cannot cut our way to prosperity.  Expanding opportunity and investing in America today will increase government revenues in the years to come and put our economy back on the path to prosperity.”

Delaney concurred, noting that “the Ryan Budget sets the wrong goals for the country and executes them poorly. Instead of reducing the deficit in an economically responsible way, the Ryan Budget reduces our investments in infrastructure, education, science and research to historically low levels and hurts our ability to help the least fortunate. We can’t compete globally on this model and we shouldn’t endorse this approach morally. Instead of initiating a serious – and much needed discussion – about how we can move towards a bipartisan framework to stabilize our nation’s finances and respond to the demographic challenges facing us – the Ryan Budget is merely a partisan document.”