Chris Van Hollen: “It does not strengthen Medicare to reopen the prescription drug doughnut hole, which is exactly what this Republican…”

“It does not strengthen Medicare to reopen the prescription drug doughnut hole, which is exactly what this Republican congressional budget does. If you are a senior with high prescription drug costs under this budget, it will cost you $1,200 more per year. The whole reason we closed the prescription drug doughnut hole was to prevent seniors in that position from having to undergo such economic hardship. But this Republican budget reopens that doughnut hole now. With respect to tax reform and picking winners and losers, the reality is that this Republican budget does pick winners and losers. The big winners are people at the very top of the income scale because millionaires will see their top tax rate cut by a full one-third. The result of that is that middle-income taxpayers are going to have to finance that in order to maintain what they call the deficit neutrality of it. That means that middle-income taxpayers with kids are going to pay an average of $2,000 more to finance the tax cuts for millionaires. {time} 1345 So millionaires are the winners, and middle class taxpayers are the losers. As I said just a moment ago, we gave our Republican colleagues an opportunity in the committee to say no, that is not their intention, but they voted against the amendment to protect American middle class taxpayers. I am now pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.…”