US House Passes Largest Health Care Cut in History to Fund Tax Breaks for the Rich

The US House voted 215-214 along party lines early Thursday morning to pass a budget reconciliation package that includes the largest cuts in history to Medicaid and to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as devastating cuts to retirement and health benefits for federal government employees. We want to thank Congressman Jared Golden and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree for voting against this anti-worker bill.

"Every single member of Congress who voted for this bill chose to write the richest 10 percent a fat check on the backs of working-class families already struggling to pay their bills," said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. "They voted to throw millions off their health care, put millions of American jobs on the chopping block, gut investments in energy jobs, raid federal workers’ pensions, and reverse years of progress to protect workers’ privacy, health, and safety. Even policies that should help keep money in workers’ pockets, like no tax on tips or overtime, are temporary—and will only help people pay the much higher costs of health care and energy bills resulting from this deal if they are fortunate to keep their coverage and jobs at all. The fight to beat this is now in the Senate, but working people won’t give up on tough fights. Our jobs, our health care and our families are on the line."
 

In a statement, Congressman Jared Golden blasted the bill for taking away health care away from millions of Americans, further rigging the tax code in favor of the wealthiest households and corporations and adding $3.1 trillion to the national debt by 2034.  He said his vote against the bill was "one of the easiest ‘no’ votes I’ve ever taken.”

“The House GOP had every opportunity to work across the aisle to write a budget that put middle-class families first. Instead, they’re ramming through an extreme agenda that takes health care away from the working poor and borrows trillions of dollars to fund a package of tax cuts tilted in favor of those at the top,” Golden said. “Mainers want more health care, not less. They want a tax code where everyone pays their fair share. And they want Congress to get its fiscal house in order."
 

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree called the bill the "ultimate betrayal of hardworking families"

"In Maine alone, around 400,000 people—including seniors in nursing homes, children, and working families without job-based health coverage—depend on Medicaid," said Pingree. This bill cruelly strips coverage from an estimated 50,000 Mainers, threatens the survival of health care providers like hospitals and nursing homes, and transfers enormous financial burdens onto our already strained state budget. Additionally, SNAP benefits—which provide a modest $2-per-meal lifeline to our veterans, seniors, and children—will be drastically gutted."

Pingree noted that for all the talk about reducing the deficit, the bill "recklessly adds nearly $4 trillion to our national debt, jeopardizing bond markets, destabilizing our economy, and potentially triggering billions in cuts to Medicare."

The House-passed budget includes:

• Cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs that would strip health care away from 13.7 million workers and slash nearly 500,000 care jobs in 2026 alone, forcing hospitals, clinics and nursing homes—especially in rural and lower-income communities—to close. Such a massive loss of coverage will ultimately force health care costs to rise for everyone.
• Reductions to federal workers’ retirement benefits that impose a monetary penalty on those who choose to retain their rights and then charging them a fee when they try to enforce those rights.
• Slashing more than 140,000 jobs in food processing, school cafeterias, retail, and agriculture by cutting $300 billion to SNAP food assistance that 42 million people, or almost 13% of U.S. residents, use each month.
• Eliminating protections and safeguards for workers and consumers by banning the enforcement of all existing or future state an[d local AI regulations for the next 10 years in an irresponsible gift to Big Tech companies.
• Draining critical funding for energy jobs, destroying good jobs families are depending on and driving up prices at a moment when working-class households are already struggling.
• Failing to extend the premium tax credits that help more than 22 million people, including  63,000 Mainers, buy marketplace plans, and which are set to expire this year.

Senate Republicans are negotiating a Senate version of the budget reconciliation. Please call Senator Susan Collins and tell her to reject this massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the super rich!