Older Americans & Seniors
While Democrats are committed to reducing the deficit in a balanced way, the Republican budget makes the wrong choices and is not a serious attempt at deficit reduction.
This week, Republicans will continue to outline additional details of their extreme budget that ends the Medicare guarantee, destroys jobs, and cuts taxes for the wealthy. In Committee hearings this week, Republicans are expected to lay out cuts that undermine health care coverage and target our federal employees in order to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy.
Today’s report by the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees demonstrates that both programs will continue to serve seniors and disabled Americans who rely on them well into the next decade. Because of the Affordable Care Act, which took significant steps to strengthen Medicare through cost savings and reforms that will improve quality and efficiency, the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund was extended by eight years. Further, as evidenced by a report released this morning by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act has also translated into savings and lower costs for Medicare beneficiaries and taxpayers that will total $200 billion in savings through 2016. However, Congress must do more, and it has an obligation to protect Social Security and Medicare to ensure they remain strong for generations to come.
This week, Republicans are rolling out more specific details of their extreme budget that ends the Medicare guarantee, destroys jobs, and cuts taxes for the wealthy. Committees are holding hearings on the specific spending cuts to critical programs that Republicans want to make in order to keep funding tax cuts for the wealthy.
This week, House Republicans will vote again for their budget that ends the Medicare guarantee and puts our economic recovery at risk, while cutting taxes for the wealthy. Back in their districts, it was poorly received by voters who are concerned about the impact of the budget.
But there is no balance in this proposal. Seniors, middle class, vulnerable, working Americans are asked to pay the price of this agreement. And, indeed, not only are they asked to pay the price, but the best-off among us is asked to do the least. That's not the America of which we are all proud that has worked together, sacrificed together at times, to come together to make a joint contribution to the welfare of this country.
The Democratic Whip’s office has created the following online quiz to show how the Republican budget will impact seniors, the middle class, working families, and the most vulnerable by refusing to ask the wealthiest among us to contribute.
The Chairman of the Budget Committee has spoken of a choice between two futures. He is correct in framing it this way. The budget he proposes would end the Medicare guarantee, cut taxes for the wealthiest, and place our economic recovery at risk.
Last week, House Republicans put forward a more-of-the-same budget that ends the Medicare guarantee while protecting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and puts our economic recovery and jobs at risk. While Republicans were clear that they want to protect tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and place the burden of deficit reduction onto seniors, the middle class, working families, and the most vulnerable, their budget left several questions unanswered.
They have offered a budget that is somewhat a reprise of last year's. It savages Medicare, turns the guarantee into a higher cost, problematic benefit. We don't think that's what the American people want. Secondly, it makes again the tax disparities between our people even greater. It shifts resources from the middle class and poor to the wealthiest in America. It gives $150,000 additional tax cut to millionaires and doesn't say how you're going to pay for that, $10 trillion in additional tax cuts, which clearly means you're going to explode the deficit even more. They pretend they will cut out preference items. They also in that process severely undermine investments in our future, investments in education, investments in research, investments in growing jobs, investments in infrastructure. Clearly, with the result of diminishing the quality of our society in the long run, and don't get to balance.