Merkley to Senate Colleagues: Reject Paul’s Disastrous Budget Proposal

Merkley to Senate Colleagues: Reject Paul's Disastrous Budget Proposal

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, urged his Senate colleagues to reject the budget proposal put forth by U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). The Paul budget proposes cutting $22 trillion from vital programs and services like Medicare, border security, law enforcement, and federal prisons - while enshrining $4.8 trillion of tax cuts for the wealthy from the recently passed Big, Ugly Betrayal bill.

Merkley's remarks, as prepared for delivery, follow.

M. President:

At the beginning of July, Senate Republicans passed President Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill."

I call it a "Big, Ugly Betrayal" because it: kicks 15 million Americans off their health insurance, slashes nutrition assistance for millions of children, and explodes the debt by $5 trillion over the next ten years.

Why? To fund even more massive tax giveaways for billionaires. Families Lose, Billionaires Win.

Now, Senator Paul has introduced a budget resolution to slash $22 trillion more from the budget.

But his budget plan doesn't say where those $22 trillion in cuts will come from.

Instead, he just invents a new budget category out of thin air called "New Efficiencies, Consolidations, and Other Savings," then cuts that by $22 trillion. Very convenient!

This is a replay of what we saw in the reconciliation debate when our Republican colleagues used "magic math" and budget gimmicks to slash programs for families and explode the debt. We need to be honest

with ourselves and with the American people.

So, I'll tell you where those cuts will come from: Medicare, Medicaid, child nutrition, border security, law enforcement, national defense, veterans care, environmental protection - everything the government does slashed by 38 percent!

If my colleagues have a problem voting for a 38 percent cut to the Departments of Defense or Veterans Affairs, then they'll need to slash everything else - like Medicare and Medicaid - by 48 percent!

Colleagues, do your constituents want you to cut their Medicare in half while asking nothing of billionaires?

Our Republican colleagues will claim they're simply cutting waste, like silly-sounding federal grants to study gila monster venom - which sounds laughable until you learn that it brought us Ozempic.

Or the grant to study bird songs that led to advances in hearing aid technology that allows people to distinguish sounds from background noise, so they can have a conversation in a crowded room.

Even if those grants have funny names, they aren't wasteful - and they certainly don't justify slashing $22 trillion dollars from Medicare, Medicaid, and programs to help families thrive.

I agree that we need to get serious about getting deficits and debt under control.

So, let's start by joining together to repeal the "Big, Ugly Betrayal" that explodes the debt by $30 trillion over 30 years and slashes programs for families to fund massive tax giveaways for billionaires.

Instead of doubling-down on the vision of Families Lose, Billionaires Win, let's invest in the vision of Families Thrive, and Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share!

I urge my colleagues to vote NO on this budget resolution.

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