[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 43 (Monday, March 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1750-S1751]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Budget Proposal

  Mr. President, earlier today, the Trump administration released its 
annual request. In recent years, these budget requests have become 
statements of principles and priorities rather than working documents. 
Purely as a statement of principle, the latest budget proposal from the 
Trump administration is not only extremely disturbing, but it is 
totally against what the President talks about when he talks to his 
supporters.
  The budget request we received today would be a gut punch to the 
middle class and a handout to powerful special interests and the 
wealthiest few. It would dismantle America's healthcare system as we 
know it, and it would dramatically widen the gap in income and wealth 
between our Nation's richest citizens and the rest.
  Now listen to this: The President talks about how he wants to get 
better healthcare for Americans. Certainly our Republican colleagues 
do. By cutting healthcare coverage and increasing healthcare costs for 
millions of Americans, this budget belies those promises. President 
Trump's budget would repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, taking away 
insurance from 32 million Americans and eliminating protections for 
Americans with preexisting conditions. How many Republicans are for 
that?
  How about this: $1.5 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, $845 billion in 
cuts to Medicare, $506 billion in cuts to tax credits that help lower 
income Americans afford insurance. Not only is this cruel, it is 
hypocritical. It is against everything our Republican friends talk 
about. It is against what the President says. He is going to preserve 
Medicare and Medicaid, and then he slashes them. It still befuddles me 
how he can get away with this even in these times.
  Second, the budget slashes domestic programs, including investments 
in infrastructure, housing, education, and the environment--a third of 
the EPA budget and one-fifth of the Department of Transportation 
budget.
  My Republican friends, when your commissioners and Governors come to 
you and say they need more highway funds, are you going to support a 
budget that cuts them by 20 percent?
  On top of all this, it gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few. 
It would permanently extend the Trump tax cuts, costing $1.9 trillion 
over 10 years. Seventy percent of the benefits go to the top one-fifth 
of America. The staggering costs of these tax cuts are the reason for 
all the proposed cuts to healthcare and infrastructure. The Trump 
budget proposes the blind theft of the middle class to line America's 
deepest pockets.
  It is really a disgraceful budget. My guess is that Mr. Mulvaney at 
OMB put it together. He was one of the five most rightwing people in 
the Congress. He wanted to slash everything. The President just green-
stamped it so he can tip his hat to those on the very far right.
  The vast majority of the President's supporters--they are a dwindling 
number; they are now less than a third of America--don't support this. 
They don't support this at all. How many people who count themselves as 
supporters of President Trump support cutting Medicare by close to $1 
trillion? How many of those who consider themselves supporters of Trump 
support cutting Medicaid by $1.5 trillion? How many of the President's 
closest supporters think we should eliminate protections for 
preexisting conditions when people have them? How many of the 
President's supporters want to cut infrastructure by one-fifth or cut 
the clean water and clean air budget by one-third? Hardly any. This 
budget is just sort of an ``Alice in Wonderland'' document.

[[Page S1751]]

  Of course, it wouldn't be a Trump budget if it didn't include the 
fantasy of another $8.6 billion in funding for the border wall. The 
fiction that Mexico would pay for the wall has long been debunked, 
although that is what the President ran on, but it is still amazing 
that the Trump administration proposes year after year that the 
American taxpayer pay billions of dollars for a border wall that 
President Trump said would be completely free.
  It is difficult to overstate the callousness of President Trump's 
budget. The cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and numerous middle-class 
programs are devastating but maybe not surprising. This budget will be 
on the backs of the Republicans. They support President Trump.
  The Republican Party's systematic efforts to rip away Americans' 
healthcare, its continued embrace of the tax cuts for the rich, its 
refusal to accept science, facts, and the urgent need to address 
climate change have made cruel and unthinkable budget proposals like 
this one par for the course with our fellow Republicans. It is sad; it 
is a shame; and it basically is total hypocrisy because not one single 
Republican would campaign on these proposals.