On the recordJuly 19, 2011
This Republican bill cuts, caps, and balances all right--cuts Medicare, caps Medicaid, balances the budget on the backs of seniors. And Republicans like to say that the public supports a balanced budget amendment. But when you ask them if they support balancing the budget by making cuts to Medicare and Social Security, by a 2-1 margin, the American people say ``no.'' And what liberal media outlet conducted that poll? Fox News. There is something very, very wrong and un-American with the Republican proposal that makes it far easier to cut Medicare than to cut subsidies for oil and gas companies, easier to cut Social Security than ask for one penny more from millionaires and billionaires. Of course we need to address our economic challenges, but not by holding our country hostage and threatening to not pay our bills with catastrophic consequences that will hurt every American in order to push an extreme agenda that cuts Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. We have a jobs crisis. We have a disappearing middle class crisis. And this illogical bill, which has no chance of becoming law, will make things much worse.
