Political Quotes

“first, let me say that the people of Michigan and our country deserve a better deal than what is in this budget. There are a number of concerns I have, but I want to mention three big ones, and I am proud to join with colleagues on amendments that would address them in votes that will be coming up. The first is the fact that this budget would take $473 billion out of Medicare. I offered an amendment in committee to make sure that would include privatizing Medicare, but that was voted down. That is certainly something that could happen. There is $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts as well. In Michigan, three out of five seniors in nursing homes are there with the help of Medicaid health insurance. This is children, families, and senior citizens. There will be an amendment offered that Senator Nelson, Senator Sanders, and I offered to take out this cut from Medicare. There will be one offered for Medicaid, with Senator Sanders, Senator Casey, and me, to strike that. Second, 80 percent of the tax cuts built into the assumptions of the budget go to the top 1 percent. What does that mean? Well, it is $1.5 trillion that goes to folks making $700,000 or more. That is at least a $200,000 tax cut per person. We commonly call this trickle-down economics. So far it has never worked. People in my State are still waiting for it to trickle down. We have an amendment, as well, to remove this provision and to put the tax cuts into the pockets of middle-class taxpayers.…”