Adriano Espaillat: “Today the Congressional Hispanic Caucus comes to the floor united as one unit against this Republican budget resolution…”

“Today the Congressional Hispanic Caucus comes to the floor united as one unit against this Republican budget resolution that slashes at least 1 trillion--that is right, 1 trillion with a capital T--dollars from Medicaid and other essential programs to the American people, to working-class families, to seniors, and to children, threatening 80 million individuals. This is a matter of life and death, Mr. Speaker. It is a matter of life and death for our communities. At the very least, 20 million Latinos, about one-third of our folks, rely on Medicaid. More than one- half of the Latinos on Medicaid are children. They depend on it. Many of them are Hispanic, and they will now have to face a precarious situation where they may get an asthma attack at school and maybe that school-based clinic is not open for those critical first minutes of aid. Many of them are diabetics, and they rely heavily on insulin, and they may not have the Medicaid coverage for insulin to save their lives. So this is a matter of life and death, Mr. Speaker. This is not just a regular bill that we do in this august body to feel good or to maybe take care of a specific issue in a particular State. This is a matter of life and death. You have Latinos with renal problems, and cardiovascular problems. High blood pressure is at epidemic levels in the Latino community.…”