WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) released the following statement after House Republicans jammed their second MAGA tax heist through Congress after Vice President J.D. Vance advanced the Senate’s party-line vote:
“Every Member of Congress knows that this disastrous bill will pay for giant and unnecessary tax breaks for billionaires by throwing 17 million Americans off their health care coverage and millions of Americans off their SNAP food benefits.
“These terrible decisions will lead to the closure of hundreds of mostly rural hospitals and nursing homes. Other provisions, which entrench the power of the carbon kings and the carbon industry, will destroy hundreds of thousands of clean and renewable energy jobs.
“These reckless priorities will add a whopping $4 trillion to the national debt, saddling future generations with an unmanageable burden to pay for the bacchanalia of the tech bros. Yet nearly every Republican in Congress just voted for the largest transfer of wealth in our history from the working poor to billionaires and CEOs.
“As Independence Day approaches, Trump and his foot soldiers have just passed a law that threatens the lives and liberties of Americans and our pursuit of happiness. This monstrous bill will strip nearly 246,000 Marylanders of the health insurance they need to live with basic security and dignity.
“Marylanders covered under the Affordable Care Act will see their premiums, copays and deductibles balloon by an average of $2,730 per year. Nationwide, 300 rural hospitals and 500 nursing homes face steep cuts or closures, taking health care and good jobs away from communities that need more resources, not fewer. At least five million Americans will lose SNAP while tens of millions of kids risk losing school breakfast and lunch. Republicans are robbing the American people to give the wealthiest among us an average of $308,000 in tax giveaways each year.
“As Republicans send this epically cruel and irresponsible bill to President Trump for his signature, I’m thinking about my constituent who told me she relies on Medicaid for her oxygen. She can’t breathe without her health insurance, but the GOP just voted to throw 246,000 Marylanders off Medicaid. I’m thinking about the families who have relied on the Affordable Care Act marketplace to afford doctor’s visits and who are about to face a steep increase in annual premiums. I’m thinking about the kids and families who will be forced to miss meals and go hungry without SNAP.
“Democracies use government as an instrument for the common good. Using a tax bill to destroy and deny health care for 17 million of our people, to take food from the mouths of the hungry, to make poor and middle-class Americans hand over their hard-earned money to billionaires and big corporations—that has nothing to do with democracy. It is a sign of political authoritarianism and violence against the social contract.”
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