On the recordFebruary 25, 2025
Let me just respond to my good friend from Arizona. No, that is not what Democrats want. We don't want to see taxes go up for average, middle-class Americans at all. This is what our budget experts say, based on the budget resolution before us, as my friend Mr. Schweikert knows well: To achieve significant cuts, the kind of cuts that you are talking about, inevitably we have to look at Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. We look at the fact that in Virginia, just eliminating Medicaid Advantage is 660,000 Virginians. We see that 46 percent of the children in America receive their healthcare through Medicaid. When we look at Medicare, it is beyond belief what that would do. I am looking forward to somehow seeing how you achieve the massive budget cuts that are in this resolution without touching those. That is why you have heard so much concern today about what this will do to the average American people. It is not that we don't want to revisit not raising taxes on the American public. We also just don't want to cut away their healthcare, their SNAP benefits, their ability to put food on the table, and the like. Mr. Chair, I am ready to close when the distinguished chair of the Joint Economic Committee tells me it is time. I reserve the balance of my time.
