[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 81 (Thursday, May 17, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2769]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            S. CON. RES. 36

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, as a member of the Senate Budget 
Committee, I am disappointed that Republican leaders have not even 
begun the process of debating a budget for the upcoming year in our 
committee. The United States needs a budget that addresses our national 
debt, which is increasing significantly faster due to a Republican tax 
plan that delivers huge windfalls to millionaires, billionaires, and 
multinational corporations.
  Unfortunately, the budget proposal we considered today would take 
health coverage from tens of millions of Americans because its massive 
spending cuts would almost certainly mean huge reductions in Medicare 
and Medicaid. This budget would also make it harder for struggling 
families to afford food, housing, and childcare, and it would slash 
vital economic investments in infrastructure, education, and scientific 
research.
  At the same time, this budget does not achieve even one penny of 
deficit reduction from reducing the tax cuts that Republicans just 
provided to those at the top. I will not support a budget that is 
balanced on the backs of working families and the middle class.
  We need a budget that invests in our future, supports a basic 
standard of living for all Americans, and safeguards our health and 
safety. This budget proposal fails to do so, which is why I voted 
against the motion to proceed to its consideration.

                          ____________________