John Bel Edwards: “If being fiscally irresponsible and unfair to middle class American families were crimes, passing this bill would be a…”

“If being fiscally irresponsible and unfair to middle class American families were crimes, passing this bill would be a felony. Under this bill, 90 percent of American families will get nothing, not one dime, except for a larger national debt. But one-thousandth of 1 percent of America's richest will get billions in tax cuts. Republicans are saying on one hand, we cannot afford to get soldiers off of food stamps, but let us give billionaires a massive tax cut. They are saying, we cannot afford to keep our health care promises to veterans and military retirees, but we can afford a $50 billion tax cut to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Republicans say, we cannot afford decent Medicare prescription drug programs for seniors, we cannot afford to enforce nursing home standards, we cannot afford to protect struggling rural hospitals from Medicare cuts in this Congress, but we can afford to give Bill Gates, Ted Turner, and Steve Forbes millions or billions in tax cuts. The Democratic substitute values all Americans, not just a privileged few, by protecting family farms and businesses while paying down the national debt. Those are America's values.”