Joe Courtney Rails Against 'Reckless Deficit Spending' Set Forth By Trump & GOP's Big Beautiful Bill

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During remarks on the House floor, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) tore into President Trump and the GOP's Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, June 3rd, Congress reconvenes after a 12-day break.

00:07Last time we were here on May, excuse me, yes, on May 22nd, this chamber was involved in a two-day

00:15marathon where H.R. 1, the misnamed one big beautiful bill, was jammed through in the dead

00:22of the night as it was being written in real time by a vote of 215 to 214. During my time home,

00:29I held two town halls, one up in Tallinn, Connecticut, near the border of Massachusetts,

00:34and down along the shoreline in Madison, Connecticut, both well-attended. Last night

00:38in Madison, it was standing room only. People were bursting with questions about how a bill

00:44that can change the tax code for the next 10 years, that can intervene in terms of our health care

00:51system, in terms of taking away people's health coverage, could happen with no transparency,

00:57no public input, as I said, as it was being written in the dead of the night prior to the vote on May

01:0522nd. So this is what we know now as the dust has settled in terms of what the impact of this bill

01:11is. In terms of health care, the bill is going to cut our Medicaid program, America's largest health

01:17care program, and extract roughly $700 billion from the system over the next 10 years. The Affordable Care

01:24Act subsidized premiums, which provides health insurance for millions of Americans. Again,

01:30those premiums are going to be cut, and as a result, people are going to lose their health insurance.

01:35That's not me saying that. That's the Congressional Budget Office, the neutral umpire that calls balls

01:41and strikes around this Congress. And again, they have calculated that 15 million Americans will lose

01:48their health insurance as a result of this measure, which was passed, again, by the majority jammed

01:53through in the dead of the night. In Connecticut, we've already seen what the numbers mean in terms

01:59of this bill, the Kaiser Family Foundation, again, not a partisan group. They have been studying health

02:04care trends in finance for decades. And they determined that 140,000 citizens in the state of

02:10Connecticut will lose their health coverage as a result of this bill. Now, one thing that didn't get a lot of

02:15attention, but again, as the dust has settled, we now know is because of the deficit impact of this bill,

02:21which is going to add trillions of dollars to the national debt, it's going to trigger a sequestration

02:27automatic cut to the Medicare system, the system that provides health insurance for people over 65

02:33and people on disability, $500 billion over the next 10 years. And again, it's going to be a cut

02:39across the board to hospitals, to physicians, to a whole series of medical devices and products,

02:47pharmacy products that are covered by Medicare, again, because of the reckless deficit spending

02:53that this bill created. And again, that's not me saying that. The Joint Committee on Taxation,

02:58their calculation is $3.7 trillion of new debt on top of the $36 trillion of debt that we have today.

03:06Wharton School of Finance, where President Trump went to, he attended school, they calculated $3

03:12trillion as well. And when they added the interest costs that are going to be paid on that additional

03:17deficit, that spending, that's going to push the number closer to $5 trillion. Again, today,

03:23it's $36 trillion is the deficit. We're spending $89 billion a month in terms of interest costs on the

03:30existing debt. That's larger than what we spend in the Department of Defense on a monthly basis.

03:36It's bigger than any other account in the discretionary budget of this government. This bill,

03:41again, accomplishes two harmful, damaging impacts to America, which is number one, people are going to

03:48lose their health insurance, $15 million. We're also going to see the deficit grow by anywhere between

03:54$3 and $5 trillion. And for what? To reward the top 1% whose tax cuts are going to be extended and

04:03enlarged for many over the coming years, leaving working families in the poor and the dust. We can

04:09do better than this as a nation. And again, it is not too late to stop this. The Senate is now going

04:16to be taking this bill up. And the external pressure that is going to rise up with the American

04:20Hospital Association, patient groups like the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association,

04:26Autism Speaks, people who represent disability groups. They are getting, they are rising up now

04:32to stop this bill because of the harm it's going to cause on individuals and families all across this

04:39country. It is time to stop this one big ugly bill that is going to do so much damage to the American

04:46people. I yield back.

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