Jay Rockefeller: “I oppose the legislation the Senate is considering today. This bill does not reflect American values. Although…”

“I oppose the legislation the Senate is considering today. This bill does not reflect American values. Although proponents of the bill try to claim that this is a deficit reduction bill, it is transparently not so. This bill is only the first half of their budget policy. The second half, which we will see in a couple of weeks, provides tax cuts almost double the size of these spending cuts. In the end, the policy advanced by this reconciliation process is to increase the deficit by more than $30 billion in order to provide additional tax cuts while shortchanging valuable programs. I am extremely concerned about how this legislation will affect the people in my State of West Virginia. I believe that the effect will be very painful indeed. This bill cuts $10 billion from Medicaid, on which our most vulnerable members of society depend for basic health care. I have fought very hard to improve the provisions of this bill related to Medicare and Medicaid, but I am sorry to say that in the end, this bill will deal a terrible blow to those programs. And the effects will certainly be felt by our neediest and sickest citizens.…”