Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Becca Balint (VT-AL) released the following statement on the passage of the Republican tax and spending bill that guts Medicaid, food assistance and other critical programs that Americans rely on. The Republican budget includes over $800 billion in cuts that will decimate Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. These cuts put rural hospitals at risk of immediate closure. It will kick nearly 17 million Americans off their health insurance and throw at least 4 million people off food assistance, all to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and massive corporations. All Democrats voted no.

“This Republican budget is far and away the cruelest piece of legislation I’ve seen in my career. It’s an utter moral failure,” saidRep. Becca Balint. “This bill will leave people without food, without healthcare, without options to keep their families afloat. That’s the painful reality of this bill. It comes after the poorest among us to give to the richest, while Americans are already struggling to put food on the table, afford medications, and pay rent in an economy rigged against working people.” 

“I’m horrified to see the Republican party almost unanimously support propping up billionaires at the expense of their own communities. It’s sickening and speaks to their vision for America. But I’m not giving up hope. It’s going to take all of us fighting together to work to reverse some of the worst policies passed today.”

Republicans’ reckless tax and spending bill will:

• Add over $3.9 trillion to the national debt, a $1 trillion increase over the House-passed bill.
• Kick nearly 20 million people off their health insurance and increase health care insurance costs for everyone.
  • Medicaid is the largest single-payer of maternity care in the United States, covering an estimated 40% of births. One in five women, and nearly half the country’s children, are covered by Medicaid. 
• Defund Planned Parenthood. The bill prohibits health clinics from accepting Medicaid funds for family planning and reproductive health care services if they provide abortions. The destruction of Planned Parenthood’s critical family planning and reproductive health care clinics will cost taxpayers $52 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and close 200 clinics. 

• Cut to nutritional assistance jeopardizing SNAP for 40 million people including 16 million children, 8 million seniors, 4 million people with disabilities and 1.2 million veterans.   
  • Block future increases to the Thrifty Food Plan, which determines SNAP benefits.
• Increases household energy costs by an average of $400 and will lead to millions of jobs lost and $197 billion in lost wages.
• Cut clean energy incentives and add a tax to wind and solar energy. 
• Spend more than $150 billion in funding for Trump’s cruel immigration enforcement agenda which breaks down our legal immigration system, deports people without due process and has turned its back on asylum seekers and refugees.

Rep. Becca Balint is a member of the House Budget Committee. Throughout the budget process, Rep. Balint has offered amendments to protect Social Security and reduce health insurance costs. Her amendments to prevent the House of Representatives from considering legislation that would cut Social Security benefits, increase the retirement age, or privatize Social Security were all rejected by Republicans in the House Budget and Rules Committees. This week, Rep. Balint filed amendments to: 

• Prohibit funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain individuals on the basis of their protected speech, 

• Stop cuts to Medicaid funding that would close rural hospitals and community health centers,
• Increase funding for the Rural Hospital Transformation Program to $100 billion to keep hospital doors open,  
• Remove red tape and protect access to care for individuals seeking substance use treatment or mental health care.