'A Big, Beautiful Betrayal Of The Middle Class': Amy Klobuchar Tears Into GOP's Budget

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During a Senate Democratic Leaders press briefing on Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) spoke about the Republicans' budget that narrowly passed the House last month.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator Schumer. And to be very clear, this is not a big,

00:05beautiful bill. It's a big, beautiful betrayal of the middle class and working people in this

00:11country. It's a betrayal of seniors in nursing homes where half of those in assisted living

00:18rely on Medicaid. It's a betrayal of families struggling to put food on the table. And it's

00:24a betrayal of the middle class. Americans know, and I'm going to focus here on something that

00:31I just don't think has gotten enough attention. In addition to the health care cuts that Senator

00:36Schumer so well articulated it, this is the cuts on food assistance. In addition to a nearly

00:45$3,000 Trump tariff tax on every single family in America and food prices going up by more

00:54than $200 because of the tariff tax. This betrayal when it comes to food assistance is going to

01:02be very expensive and very out of reach for a lot of people. 40% of SNAP participants are

01:09kids, almost 20% are seniors and 10% are adults with disabilities. This is a $300 billion, not

01:18million, $300 billion cut. So you've heard about the effect it has on hungry people, but there's

01:27something that's sleight of hand that everyone needs to know. And that is that over half of these cuts

01:33come from a fake shift over to the states, a shift to the states that the states can't pay for

01:40because 40 of them have balanced budget amendments. How much money are we talking about?

01:45$100 million would have to go to Kansas to pay for just like that. $170 million to the state of Kentucky,

01:55$580 million extra to be paid for the state of North Carolina. That is why so many governors are speaking

02:05out. Governor Laura Kelly, who heads up the State Democratic Governors Association out of Kansas,

02:12Texas, a very moderate governor, she says, we don't have the money. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein

02:20says, our state will be forced into perilous budget decisions. Should North Carolinians lose access to

02:28food or should we get rid of other essential services? Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, it's going to leave

02:35more of our kids and seniors going hungry. Farmers will be losing revenue at $35 billion over 10 years.

02:44Look what they're already facing. Markets shrinking because of the Trump tariff, input costs up, weather

02:52issues, cuts to the USDA, veterinarians leaving, and now this. It will also cost jobs and wages for grocers.

03:03I visited a number of grocery stores in my state, independent groceries, because all we need

03:08is to not have more consolidation. We want to have these independent grocers,

03:13and they're the ones that would be literally the roadkill if this goes through, because especially

03:18in rural areas, so many of their customers use SNAP. So this bill is one betrayal of families who are

03:27facing these costs of people who need health care. Either they're on the Affordable Care Act and the

03:32rates are going to go way up, or they're in a nursing home, and I mentioned, and they're on Medicaid.

03:38Instead of rubber stamping the Trump agenda, instead of just raising their hands up in the air and saying,

03:46ah, people will die, it only takes four Republicans in the House, or four in the Senate,

03:52to stand up and say no to this and work with us on a better budget.

03:58Thank you, Senator Klobuchar.

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