Russ Feingold: “this budget reconciliation package that arrived from the House-Senate conference will leave our country's budget and the…”

“this budget reconciliation package that arrived from the House-Senate conference will leave our country's budget and the American people in a far worse state of affairs than they are today. I am disappointed that congressional leaders have chosen to use the budget reconciliation process to achieve controversial goals that will make life harder for those Americans in greatest need of help, and I will oppose this legislation. As I stated when this bill passed the Senate, using reconciliation to push through legislation that will worsen our budget deficit and add billions more to the mountain of debt our children and grandchildren will have to pay is a perversion of a process designed to expedite measures to reduce the deficit. Reconciliation was intended to help facilitate the enactment of measures to reduce the deficit and therefore secure the Nation's financial stability. It is ironic that it should be used to enact measures that not only aggravate our budget deficits and increase our massive debt, but also makes cuts to programs that help many Americans maintain their financial security. There are substantial and unprecedented changes to the Medicaid program included in this bill. Rather than cut the wasteful, $10 billion Medicare Advantage slush fund that gives superfluous payments to insurance companies, conferees have chosen to cut benefits and shift costs onto the poorest in America.…”