Schatz, Senators: Republican Tax Plan Will Help Billionaires By Ripping Off Working People
Republicans Have Proposed Dramatic Cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act Subsidies, Other Vital Assistance
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today joined Senate Democratic colleagues to highlight Republicans’ disastrous plan to cut taxes for billionaires by making enormous cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and other critical assistance that everyday Americans rely on. Schatz underscored the wide range of cuts being proposed to pay for the tax bill, including nearly $500 billion from Medicare and $150 billion from Affordable Care Act funding.
“After months of swearing up and down that they were focused on lowering the price of eggs, the price of groceries, the price of gas, the price of insurance, the very first thing that Donald Trump and the Republicans have decided to do is to cut taxes for billionaire corporations, and they're going to pay for it by ripping off working Americans,” said Senator Schatz.
Senator Schatz continued, “They are literally cutting Medicare, Medicaid, possibly Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act. And they're going to take all these resources – these are their pay-fors – and shovel it to people so that they can continue their private jet subsidies, pay a lower tax rate, eliminate the 15 percent minimum billion-dollar corporation tax. I don't know anybody who thinks the solution to people paying too much out-of-pocket is to make them pay more out-of-pocket.”
Schatz was joined on the floor by U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jacky Rosen (D- Nev.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
A transcript of Senator Schatz’s remarks is available below. Video is available here.
After months of swearing up and down that they were focused on lowering the price of eggs, the price of groceries, the price of gas, the price of insurance. That was what the last election was about, right? It was about inflation. It was about the amount that people were paying. That's what the last election was about. Interestingly, the very first thing that Donald Trump and the Republicans have decided to do is to cut taxes for billionaire corporations, and they're going to pay for it by ripping off working Americans.
Now, that might sound like a political talking point. It sounds too convenient, too absurd. How can you spend four years pounding on the party in power about how much people are getting hit in the pocketbook? The price of eggs, the price of utilities, the price of gasoline…which is still in Hawai‘i around $4.59 a gallon. People are still paying too much. And yet the first order of business is not to do anything about that. It's not to do anything about that. It is to cut taxes for the wealthiest international corporations in human history.
I'm here today with my Senate Democratic colleagues, and I want to make a sort of broader point. As Democrats struggle through, learn about, argue about what went wrong over the last 2 to 4 years politically, one of the things that we did not do well enough is stay on the same theme. This place gets crazy, and it's especially crazy with Donald Trump president. I remember. And it's distracting.
And even in the best of circumstances, people fly home and then they arrive on Monday. There's a 5:30 vote. And oftentimes the last vote is on Thursday at 1:45. And so we talk about one thing from Monday at 5:30 until Thursday at 1:45. And the thing we talk about is often whatever is on the floor or whatever is in committee. We're going to do that. We have to do that. We have to comment on what we're working on. But we're also going to talk about this rip-off tax bill, because that illustrates the difference between the parties. It is going to illustrate in three dimensions that all of this talk about lowering costs was a lie.
I'm here with Senate Democratic colleagues, including members of the Senate Finance Committee, led by Senator Wyden on the Democratic side, who will be on the forefront of this particular fight. And we're not here because we're surprised that Republicans are going to raise and not lower costs, because we know that was the plan all along. We're not here because we're shocked that Republicans want to cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy. They do that like clockwork every time they win the House and the Senate and the presidency. We're here because nothing can distract us from the reality of what is about to happen. This will be a giveaway of the worst kind at a time when people can least afford it.
So how do they plan to do it? And this is a little technical, so bear with me. So House Republicans are saying you got to pay for these tax cuts, right? You reduce revenue to the government. In order to pay for it, you have to find savings. You have to either get new revenue. That's kind of off the table for Republicans. They don't like new revenue unless it's tariffs, which Americans pay or you got to cut something.
And so last Friday this document was released. And I understand if you're watching this on your phone or even on C-SPAN, it’s kind of small, right? I get it. But this document listed these so-called pay-fors. In other words, how are they going to pay for these massive tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals, the wealthiest privately held and publicly held corporations in human history? And here are just a couple of the things that they're using as so-called pay-fors.
$700 billion in cuts, kicking millions of people off of Medicaid. $500 billion out of Medicare, reducing access to care for seniors everywhere. More than $150 billion in cuts to the Affordable Care Act subsidies. And what does that mean? If you're on ACA, if you get your health care through ACA, the subsidy goes away, your monthly insurance bill is about to skyrocket. Tens of millions of Americans who pay for their health insurance through the ACA exchange and receive that subsidy are going to have to pay more. And what happens with that money? It doesn't go for roads. It doesn't go for fire houses. It doesn't go for public health. It goes to this tax cut.
I am not exaggerating. This is not a rhetorical flourish. This is not a political talking point. They are literally cutting Medicare, Medicaid, possibly Social Security, the Affordable Care Act. And they're going to take all these resources, these are their pay-fors, and shovel it to people so that they can continue their private jet subsidies, pay a lower tax rate, eliminate the 15 percent minimum billion-dollar corporation tax.
When we were in charge, there were lots of the wealthiest corporations, international corporations in the history of the planet that paid zero taxes. Zero taxes. And so what did we do both to generate money – but also because it's a question of basic fairness – we established a minimum rate for these wealthy corporations. And they want to eliminate that too. Why? Because this is what they do. Because that is actually their governing philosophy.
You know, they say campaign in poetry govern in prose. That's not what's happening here. They campaigned on misleading people. That they're abiding concern – their main concern – was, gosh, people are paying too much for a dozen eggs. And I don't mean to diminish that. People were paying too much for a dozen eggs. But right now, and, inflation is 2.7 percent, and gas in a lot of places across the country is below three bucks. And so people were paying too much and people were rightly pissed off, by the way at Democrats too, for not recognizing how acute this problem was for a lot of American families. I get it. But I don't know anybody who thinks the solution to people paying too much out of pocket is to make them pay more out of pocket.
There's not a single voter that I know, not a single voter that I know, that I've interacted with, who says, ‘You know what? Gosh, I wish the highest corporate tax rate were just a little bit lower. Gosh, I wish the 15 percent minimum billion-dollar corporation tax were rescinded. Gosh, I wish people who are being subsidized that they can afford health care, I wish we would eliminate that. And gosh, I wish we would use all that money and shovel it back to the wealthiest people in the world.’
And so we're not going to stop talking about this. I just had two hearings with Sean Duffy and Marco Rubio. I know Pam Bondi was today. Lots of very exciting and interesting things are happening, and we're going to have to comment on that. We're going to have to engage in that. But every week, we're going to be talking about this rip-off. Every opportunity we get, we are going to be talking about this. Because this is the difference between the two political parties.
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