[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 51 (Friday, March 22, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Republican Study Committee Budget Plan

  Mr. President, now, on the Republican Study Committee's budget. 
Earlier this week, House Republicans released a hard-right wish list 
masquerading as a budget plan. The Republican Study Committee's new 
budget can be summarized in two words: dangerous, disastrous. This 
Republican Study Committee's budget plan is dangerous because it double 
downs on the hard-right's war on women. It endorses a national ban on 
abortion with zero exceptions for rape or incest, which remains the 
ultimate goal of the hard right, should they come to power.
  If anyone is asking what would happen if the Republicans kept the 
House, took the Senate and the Presidency, on abortion, just read this 
Republican Study Committee's budget: A national ban on abortion with 
zero exceptions for rape and incest. That is the goal of the Republican 
Party should they gain power and are able to do it.
  We will do everything we can, of course, to stop them.
  The RSC budget plan also rolls back access to mifepristone, a safe, 
reliable, and widely available medicine that millions of Americans have 
used for over 20 years. The RSC budget plan would critically endanger 
access to IVF. As much as Republicans have tried to recently sound 
moderate on IVF, when they have to put their pen to paper and say what 
their proposals are, their radical agenda is blowing up in their faces.
  And all you have to do is read the RSC budget plan to see they 
haven't moderated one iota on women's health. Whether it is abortion, 
mifepristone, or IVF, the Republican Study Committee, which represents 
the vast majority of House Republicans--it reads like a hard-right, 
radical, anti-women document.
  But that is not all. The RSC budget is disastrous because it proposes 
a stunning $1.5 trillion in cuts to Social Security while raising the 
retirement age for millions of hard-working Americans. That is crazy.
  Remember, the Republican Study Committee isn't some arcane offshoot 
of the Republican Party; it represents 80 percent of the Members in the 
House, including all of their leadership. For all intents and purposes, 
the RSC budget plan represents the Republican agenda.
  And what is the Republican agenda? Aside from cutting back 
dramatically on women's rights, a national ban on abortion with no 
exceptions, it also is cutting Social Security and raising the 
retirement age.
  What is the Republican agenda? It is also repealing $35 insulin for 
seniors on Medicare and repealing its authority to negotiate cheaper 
drug prices.
  What is the Republican agenda? It is trillions of dollars in tax 
breaks for the ultrawealthy and trillions of dollars in budget cuts to 
the Children's Health Insurance Program and the ACA.
  These are just some of the terrible things in the RSC budget plan. It 
is awful. It is cruel. But amazingly, it is what the overwhelming 
majority of House Republicans endorse.