In response to Indiana Republican Senators Todd Young and Jim Banks voting for the GOP’s devastating budget, Indiana Democratic Party Chair Karen Tallian released the following statement:
“Todd Young and Jim Banks once again failed Hoosiers by caving and passing Donald Trump’s disastrous billionaire-first budget. This budget is the worst bill to pass the Senate in over 40 years and it will rob Hoosiers of their health insurance, take food off the table, and kill good-paying jobs — all to line the pockets of the GOP’s billionaire donors. This budget is an attack on working families across Indiana. Hoosiers Democrats are mobilizing to hold Republicans accountable everywhere because the stakes have never been higher. This budget is retaliation to against states who expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and will strip healthcare coverage from 230,000 Hoosiers and lead to hospital closures in places like Logansport, Rensselaer, Portland, Sullivan, Washington, Bremen, Winchester, North Vernon, Brazil, Salem, Decatur, and Corydon. It’s shameful.”
NEW: Senate Republicans passed Trump’s disastrous billionaire-first budget to make his tax scam permanent and fund another round of tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy on the backs of Hoosiers.
Axios: “The draft legislation would extend the cuts in the 2017 tax bill, and it adds on some more breaks.”
USA Today: “Low-income families would lose, wealthier ones would gain under GOP tax proposals”
“Low-income families stand to lose hundreds if not thousands of dollars in income while wealthy ones will gain even more, according to a new analysis of Congressional Republican tax and budget proposals. …
“In comparison, families with higher incomes would benefit from the extension of the 2017 tax cuts.”
Republicans are putting Hoosiers health care, food assistance, and jobs on the chopping block…
● Republicans cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid — the largest cut to Medicaid in American history
● The GOP budget rips away health care from 220,000 Hoosiers.
○ With drastic cuts to the Medicaid expansion program, Republicans are also put coverage for 570,000 Hoosiers on the chopping block.
● 12 hospitals are at risk of closing — ripping away access to critical emergency medical care for millions of Americans.
● At least 1 in 4 nursing homes across the country will have to close their doors, and over half of nursing homes will be forced to cut staff
● 615,000 Hoosiers are at risk of losing food assistance, forcing working families and children to go hungry.
● Unions are warning this is the “biggest job-killing bill in the history of the country”.
○ If this bill is signed into law, it will threaten 1.75 million construction jobs and 2 million clean energy jobs, including 5,000 in Indiana.
… all to fund another round of tax handouts for their billionaire donors.
● This bill is nothing short of a direct transfer of wealth from the poorest Americans to the wealthiest
○ This budget is the most regressive budget in 40 years — and possibly every
○ The poorest 20% of Americans will lose 3.8% of their income while the richest 20% will see their incomes increase by 3.7%
○ This bill cuts $1.3 trillion in food assistance and health coverage while giving the wealthy that exact amount in tax breaks
It wasn’t enough for Republicans to rip away health care, food assistance, and jobs — they also voted to make Hoosier lives more expensive and dangerous. This budget also:
● Adds $3.25 trillion to the national debt, while revenues fall by $4.47 trillion
● Increases energy bills by hundreds of dollars across the country.
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