Senate Panel Weighs Devastating Republican Budget
The Senate Budget Committee on Thursday debated amendments to a Republican-drafted budget. It would throw millions of Americans off health insurance. It would cut $4.3 trillion from programs like Medicare, food stamps and Medicaid. The plan also would scale back education programs, freeze Pell Grants for college, skin back Wall Street regulations passed after the financial crisis and more.
What it doesn’t do may be even worse. It doesn’t create any jobs. It doesn’t address the 11 percent real unemployment rate in the United States. It doesn’t fix crumbling roads and bridges. It doesn’t make college more affordable. It doesn’t raise the minimum wage. It does nothing, despite Republicans’ professed worries about deficits, to close tax loopholes that help the rich and profitable corporations avoid paying their fair share of taxes and make deficits worse.
“The rich get much richer and the Republicans think they need more help. The middle class and working families of this country become poorer and the Republicans think we need to cut programs they desperately need. I do not believe that these are the priorities of the American people,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said. As the ranking member on the committee, Sanders said he and others will try to address the most serious flaws in the proposal. On party-line votes on Thursday, however, the committee rejected a Sanders amendment on jobs and a Sanders amendment to raise the minimum wage. Sanders and others will renew efforts to improve the budget when the debate moves next week to the Senate floor.
