[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 19, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S1023]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Budget Reconciliation

  Tomorrow, we are going to begin to consider a budget resolution that 
creates the framework for providing those tax cuts to the very wealthy 
at the expense of all Americans. I serve on the Senate Budget 
Committee, and last week, we had a preview of all of this. We 
considered the budget resolution.
  Those of us on the committee had an opportunity to propose amendments 
that would at least put up guardrails to protect the American people 
from deep cuts to services that are important to them to pay for tax 
cuts for the wealthy. And so I offered a number of those amendments. 
And we will have a chance on this full Senate floor to consider these 
amendments in the coming days.
  One amendment I offered is very straightforward. It says:

       It shall not be in order in the Senate to consider any 
     bill, joint resolution, motion, amendment, [or] amendment 
     between the Houses . . . that cuts funding to Medicare or 
     Medicaid benefits.

  So if there is abuse going on in the Medicare or Medicaid Programs, 
absolutely go for it. But that is not what we are talking about here.
  We said: Don't cut benefits to the American people. We had a vote on 
this in the Senate Budget Committee, and it was party line. Every 
Democratic Senator voted to protect Medicare and Medicaid. Every 
Republican Senator voted against it. I am sure we are going to have a 
chance to vote on this again on the Senate floor.
  I would point out, I think it was this morning or last night, 
President Trump said that Medicaid would not be cut. He said Medicare 
would not be cut. I hope since the time my Republican colleagues voted 
against this in the committee and the vote we will have in the next 
couple of days, we will have a unanimous consent vote on this bill to 
protect Medicare and Medicaid because President Trump just said he has 
absolutely no intention of doing that. Let's see what happens.
  I also offered an amendment in the Budget Committee to make sure that 
Medicare continued to have the authority to negotiate lower drug prices 
for people on Medicare. We had a fight for decades to allow the 
Medicare Program to negotiate lower drug prices for the American 
people. The pharmaceutical companies have fought it tooth and nail, but 
we got it done a few years ago.

  As a result of what we did, this year, Americans on Medicare, seniors 
on Medicare, will have no more than $2,000 of out-of-pocket costs for 
prescription drugs because we finally gave Medicare the authority to 
negotiate drug prices, just like insurance companies have that power. 
Medicare is a big insurance entity in one way. Yet they were prohibited 
by law from negotiating lower drug prices for the Medicare Program and 
the American people.
  But we changed that. We gave them the authority to negotiate those 
lower drug prices. And guess what. It saved the Medicare Program money 
and it saved American seniors money because they now have lower drug 
prices on a couple of classes of drugs and they are continuing to move 
forward on that.
  I had an amendment in the Budget Committee simply to say it shall not 
be in order in the Senate to consider any proposal that undermines and 
undoes and destroys the power of Medicare to negotiate for lower drug 
prices.
  Again, the vote was all Democrats in the Senate Budget Committee 
voting yes to protect the ability of Medicare to negotiate lower drug 
prices. Every Republican Senator voted no.
  I had a couple of other amendments as well. Another one was an 
amendment to prohibit cutting. Again, these are cuts that a lot of us 
don't want to make because they are important to many working families, 
and we certainly don't want to make these cuts to clear the way for tax 
cuts for the very wealthy.
  So I also proposed an amendment that it not be in order to consider 
any legislative vehicle that would cut funding from the National School 
Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program. These are very 
important programs to make sure that every child in the classroom has 
the nutrition they need in order to succeed.
  It is pretty basic: Let's make sure every kid in the school has the 
nutritious meal they need simply to sustain themselves and be able to, 
therefore, pay attention to what the teacher is saying rather than pay 
attention to an empty stomach.
  So I thought, surely, our colleagues would agree that we shouldn't 
cut that program to make way for tax cuts for the very wealthy, but, 
unfortunately, the result on the vote was the same. Every Democratic 
Senator voted to prohibit these cuts, and every Republican Senator 
voted to green-light these cuts going forward.
  I know our colleagues will have a chance to vote on this on the 
Senate floor in a couple of days because Senator Hirono and I will be 
offering that amendment.
  Just to close and summarize, it was 30 days ago that just down this 
hall, President Trump was sworn in. He said he was going to usher in a 
great golden age for America. Of course, sitting right behind him were 
the people he was talking about providing a golden age for--Elon Musk, 
already the richest man in the world, and other billionaire tech 
titans. And what we have seen in the 30 days since is that great 
betrayal.
  President Trump is not focused on reducing prices or costs for the 
American people. No, he is focused on implementing the plan that he 
disavowed on the campaign trail--Project 2025. That is what he is 
focused on, the plan he knew would be very unpopular. And what that 
plan does is call for very deep cuts and slashing very important 
services that matter to the American people, including Medicaid, in 
order to make room for tax cuts for the very wealthy.
  So this is what the Elon Musk operation is all about, and it is all 
about the great betrayal. People around the country from all parties 
are waking up to this--not just Democrats, Republicans, Independents, 
people who voted against Donald Trump, and also those who voted for him 
thinking that he was going to deliver on those promises to cut costs--
only to wake up and realize for the last 30 days that something very 
different is happening in America; that he is slashing and illegally 
slashing all of these important investments for the American people in 
order to take care of those people who were sitting right behind him on 
Inauguration Day--Elon Musk and the billionaires.
  That is a betrayal.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.