[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 104 (Tuesday, June 17, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3414-S3415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         One Big Beautiful Bill

  Mr. HICKENLOOPER. Mr. President, this month, my fellow colleagues in 
the Senate--the Republican Senate Members--are working to pass a budget 
proposal that I feel can best be described as dangerous.
  Their plans are going to dramatically reduce--even gut--services like 
Medicaid and SNAP, which give food to hungry, low-income workers. It 
will strip healthcare away from, most likely, more than 16 million 
Americans and threaten millions of seniors living in nursing homes.
  All of this is focused, really, on just trying to give larger tax 
breaks to very wealthy people--who don't, really, in most cases, want 
them--or to the largest corporations. This lavish--and I think 
``lavish'' is the only word that describes it fairly. This lavish tax 
bill gives more to the top earners while taking away from Americans 
with the least.
  But it really doesn't have to be that way. If Republicans could focus 
on extending tax cuts for working families rather than on the 
wealthiest--that one effort, in and of itself, that one initiative--
they could avoid ripping away healthcare from more than 15 or 16 
million Americans; gutting our much needed investments in climate 
change--in fighting climate change--and making sure we have lower 
energy prices. Instead, they are going full steam ahead with really 
what is a god-awful bill.
  I want to focus today on another dangerous part of this plan: how it 
explodes our national debt and really risks our economic future.
  Many proponents of the bill love to hem and haw about being 
financially responsible. Like a few people in here,

[[Page S3415]]

I have managed budgets before. It was back when I started Colorado's 
first brewpub and then as mayor of Denver and as Governor of Colorado. 
So I know something about fiscal responsibility, and it is not 
partisan. At its best, fiscal responsibility should be bipartisan. I 
can definitely say this bill that we are looking at is the opposite of 
fiscal responsibility. It is fiscal madness. This is a massive spending 
bill that is going to create the largest national debt in American 
history.
  You don't have to take my word for it. You can look at the numbers.
  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the House 
Republican plan--so this is the plan coming over from the House--would 
add $2.7 trillion--that is trillion with a ``t,'' $2.7 trillion--to the 
deficit over the next decade.
  The Penn Wharton model, which includes something like north of $500 
billion in additional interest payments from that accumulated debt year 
after year after year, over 10 years, suggests it would add up to not 
just $2.7 trillion but more like $3.2 trillion or $3.3 trillion.
  The bill our Senate colleagues are putting together makes many of the 
same mistakes, and I think, by most measures that a small 
businessperson would look at, it is reckless.
  The bottom line is that more American tax dollars would go toward tax 
cuts for the ultrawealthy. Again, at least in Colorado, the very 
wealthy people I have talked to aren't asking for and aren't seeking 
these tax cuts. You know, under this tax plan that is coming over to us 
right now, those tax cuts for the very wealthy are coming instead of 
expanding access to healthcare or building roads or improving our 
schools, and more tax dollars would go to paying off the massive debt--
to paying the interest on the massive debt--than all of our defense 
spending combined. It will become more than 25 percent of our Federal 
budget just to pay the interest on the debt.
  Now, if that sounds like a bad idea to you, it is because it is, and 
the markets agree. Moody's, which is the last major credit rating 
agency to maintain the U.S. at its highest rating--at its highest, you 
know, designation as being a safe place to invest your money--just 
downgraded our credit rating. It is the first time that happened, and 
it shook investors that Moody's would downgrade our credit rating. 
Investors aren't confident that the United States will be able to pay 
its debts. At least in terms of Moody's, that has never happened 
before.
  It is really just going to lead to more trouble. Those investors who 
buy those tenured bonds and help pay for our national debt are 
demanding higher returns because they view it as a riskier investment; 
that they will need a higher return if they are going to hold U.S. 
debt. Since you have got to attract that investment, it means you have 
got to offer higher interest rates, which means you have got higher 
borrowing costs. That means that Coloradans and Americans are going to 
pay higher interest rates when they want to buy a house or expand their 
business or if they want to pay off their credit cards. They are going 
to have to pay more because the interest rates are going to be higher.
  Americans are already plenty concerned about rising prices and for 
good reason. This whole system could lead to the dreaded stagflation. 
This could all become a one-two punch to working families, all the 
while the wealthiest families will end up being better off.
  But we don't need to do this. We can certainly grow our economy. We 
can help working families, and we can cut the deficit. We were able to 
balance the budget all 8 years I was mayor of Denver and all 8 years I 
was Governor and still grow our investments in our roads, in our 
education system, and in our healthcare system. We also did this with 
the Inflation Reduction Act, which will reduce the deficit by over $175 
billion over the next 10 years. It has already, dramatically, lowered a 
number of prescription drug costs, has expanded healthcare access, and 
in the process, has created hundreds of thousands of good jobs. The 
Republicans' budget, I think, does the opposite.
  We also can't forget that this budget comes in the midst of the 
Trump administration's efforts around tariffs and what our good friend, 
the Senator from Washington, was just talking about when she described 
the consequences of Smoot-Hawley and how those tariffs, just at 20 
percent, led to a global slowdown in the overall economy. We all know 
that these tariff taxes are really not so hidden; they are taxes on the 
American people. They raise prices on everything from groceries to 
kitchen appliances. None of this is a growth strategy. It really is a 
recipe for a recession, at best, and stagflation, at worst. We can't 
borrow millions, we can't borrow billions, we can't borrow trillions 
just to hand out tax cuts to the top when working families are 
struggling to afford everyday goods. It doesn't add up. It never has. 
It never will.

  There are many issues that may be partisan but being financially 
responsible doesn't need to be one of them, neither should good, strong 
economies, neither should economic fairness, neither should protecting 
working families. They don't have to do it this way. Now, I am always 
game to roll up my sleeves and dig into a balance sheet, but we haven't 
seen from the other side that they are willing to negotiate or really 
invest in long-term economic growth. I would suggest that we write a 
budget that reflects our values and puts tax cuts toward working 
families first, a budget that strengthens the middle class, one that 
keeps our economy strong and will keep it growing for generations to 
come. This bill is not any of that.
  I urge my Republican colleagues in the House and the Senate not to 
temporarily put a pass on their values and to support, again, what I 
think is a truly reckless fiscal bill. I hope that we can come together 
and negotiate a better bill that does more for economic growth and puts 
a far, far lesser penalty on the working people of America.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.