- yesterday
In remarks on the Senate floor Sunday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke about the GOP reconciliation bill.
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00:00Mr. President, Donald Trump likes to call the bill that Republicans are trying to rush through
00:10this Senate the big, beautiful bill. Well, it's big, all right. It took the Senate clerk nearly
00:1716 hours to speed read through it. But it is only beautiful if you're a billionaire or otherwise
00:25very wealthy in America. For everybody else, this is a big, ugly betrayal of a bill. Betrayal because
00:34tax cuts for billionaires are coming at the expense of virtually everyone else. Now, I agree with many
00:42of the things my colleague from North Carolina, Senator Tillis, just said. But I've also read the
00:47bill. And if you look at the bill, the tax benefits overwhelmingly go to the very highest
00:55income earners in the United States of America. 50 percent of those tax benefits go to just the top
01:045 percent. So this is a choice that is being made by Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress
01:13to give to billionaires additional tax handouts at the expense of the rest of the country.
01:21They are choosing to engage in a huge transfer of wealth from people who are working paycheck
01:28to paycheck to those who are living off their huge inheritances or gigantic stock portfolios.
01:36Now, Mr. President, Americans are going to have to pay for the tax cuts for billionaires in many,
01:42many ways. Millions will lose access to health care. Others will no longer be able to put food
01:51on the table. Others will not be able to afford to pay heating bills on freezing nights. Virtually
01:59every American will see their energy bills increase and their health insurance premiums go up. And
02:08every American is likely to face higher borrowing costs for their home mortgages or car loans. Again,
02:16also billionaires and very wealthy people can get big tax cuts. Let's look at some of the real hits
02:24to American families, starting with the attack on health care. Donald Trump said he would, quote,
02:32love and cherish Medicaid. He said the people won't be affected. That's a lie. What he loves are tax cuts
02:44for his billionaire buddies. So let's just take a look. This bill pays for over a trillion dollars in tax
02:53giveaways to people who make over $500,000 every year by cutting a trillion dollars of health benefits
03:02from those who rely on Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Think about that tradeoff. Indeed, because of
03:12the cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in this bill, 12 million Americans will lose access to
03:20health care coverage. On top of that, another 5 million Americans will lose access to health coverage
03:27because Republicans refuse to extend the tax credits that millions of middle-class Americans use to
03:35purchase coverage through the Affordable Care Act. So while extending tax cuts for the very wealthy,
03:43they are not extending the health care tax credits that middle-class Americans use to help afford health
03:52insurance. The result of these cuts and the refusal to extend those tax credits means that nearly 17 million
04:02of our fellow Americans will lose access to health care coverage. In my state of Maryland, that's 229,000
04:12of my fellow Marylanders. And who are these Americans? Who are these Marylanders? They're babies and
04:22children. Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program covers 38 million children in America.
04:31700,000 children in Maryland. Medicaid covers 40 percent of births in America. Over 40 percent of births
04:41in Maryland. More mothers will die during pregnancy-related deaths as a result of pregnancy-related deaths if this bill passes.
04:53I think we also know that Medicaid is especially important to helping people through the vulnerable stages
05:01of their lives. It covers one in four people with mental health or substance use disorders.
05:08It's the primary payer for long-term health services, covering 60 percent of nursing home residents.
05:17If even a fraction of those residents lose coverage, entire nursing homes can close.
05:26And those families will have to figure out how to care for their expelled loved ones. An analysis that was done
05:33estimates that as many as 500 nursing homes could close because they're on the cusp.
05:43Rural hospitals are also especially vulnerable. And it's estimated that up to 300 rural hospitals could
05:51close if this bill passes. Americans with disabilities. Medicaid is absolutely essential
05:59essential to their lives. It helps them receive home and community-based care so they don't have to choose
06:06between getting the care they need and being separated from their loved ones.
06:13A study by Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania predicts that this bill before the Senate
06:20will result in over 51,000 preventable deaths each year.
06:30Preventable deaths. So officially, the death certificates will say that somebody passed away
06:38because they had late-stage cancer. It was detected too late because they couldn't get the preventative care
06:44they needed. Or an accident occurred at a nursing home because there were not enough nurses on site.
06:52But those reasons, those conditions, will have been set because this bill passed.
07:00And again, making millions of Americans more vulnerable to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy
07:08is unconscionable, but it is the choice being made in this bill. Now, 17 million people who will lose
07:21their health coverage is a very big number to wrap our heads around. So I want to read just a few
07:29stories of Marylanders who rely on Medicaid and who have been watching closely
07:37this whole effort that has unfolded on the floor of the United States Senate.
07:46I had a call from one of my constituents who has a son. Her son takes chemotherapy and it relies
07:58on those chemotherapy treatments to sustain his life.
08:03She wrote to me that if he loses access to his health insurance, that it would be, quote,
08:11a death sentence. Another Marylander wrote to me about his autistic son, who is still able to work,
08:23but who depends entirely on Medicaid for support. He also said, please don't let us, don't let the Senate
08:34pass this bill. And the stories go on and on and on. Just the other day, Senator Ulsterbrooks and I
08:43had a telephone town hall had 12,000 Marylanders joining us. And after that call, we received many more
08:51stories about people who would really be in desperate shape if they lost access to their health coverage.
09:02Now, Mr. President, on top of the 17 million Americans who stand to lose their health coverage,
09:10all other Americans are likely to see higher premiums. Because what happens when you have
09:16uncompensated care is more people go to the emergency rooms at the hospital. And those hospitals
09:23can't just eat all those additional costs. And at the end of the day, those additional costs cycle
09:30through the system in the form of higher premiums for others. And we are already seeing that impact
09:37in Maryland as insurance companies today look at the possible liability that they will have
09:45going forward as a result of this legislation. Now, beyond the 17 million who will lose access to
09:54affordable health care, you also have millions of Americans who are going to be hit as a result of
10:02the cuts to the food nutrition programs, the SNAP programs. We're going to see a whopping 20% cut,
10:10$200 billion to the SNAP program. Over 40 million Americans get some kind of help from that food and
10:21nutrition program. And over 3 million of them will lose their SNAP benefits entirely. Others will see
10:30rising costs. In Maryland, it's going to impact 684,000 people, most of whom are families with kids.
10:40Now, Mr. President, in addition to 17 million Americans losing access to health care coverage,
10:48in addition to the 40 million Americans who will be impacted by cuts to food and nutrition programs,
10:56I want to just focus for a moment on another hit to American households. Some of us have discussed
11:04that on this Senate floor before, but it hasn't gotten as much attention.
11:09And it relates to the energy bills Americans pay, including their electric bills, because this bill
11:16will drive them up because it directly attacks the production of more clean energy. And less energy
11:25with rising demand means higher costs for households. I don't know if folks remember about a year ago when
11:34Donald Trump had a steak dinner at Mar-a-Lago where he begged 20 fossil fuel CEOs for campaign cash. It
11:44was reported on at the time. Well, he succeeded in raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in
11:51campaign donations. And now we see the payoff in this bill to those powerful special interests. And that
12:00payoff comes in two forms. First, this bill gives big oil companies a new $1 billion tax break. As a result,
12:10some of the fossil fuel companies will pay zero dollars, zero dollars in federal income tax. Second,
12:19this bill, and the Senate from North Carolina referred to some of the provisions that will have this impact.
12:27This bill sabotages the production of more clean energy. It does so by slashing production and
12:33investment tax credits for clean energy and scuttling new clean energy projects. And it continues the Trump
12:40administration's baseless attacks on the greenhouse gas reduction fund, a program we established that
12:47will be a win-win-win for our environment, for our economy, and for family pocketbooks.
12:54By cutting these clean energy incentives and initiatives, this bill will reduce the overall amount of energy
13:05to be added to our electric grids by at least 50% by 2035. Think about that. So this bill is going to result in a dramatic
13:17reduction in the amount of new energy produced that goes on the electric grids. And with less energy generated
13:25and higher demand, household energy costs and bills are going to go up.
13:32In fact, it's predicted that household electricity bills will go up by $110 on average as soon as next year,
13:41and by up to $400 per year for families over the next decade. This will serve the interests of big oil and gas
13:51producers and utility companies who benefit from the higher prices that consumers will have to shell out.
13:58This will also do something else, Mr. President. It will surrender entirely the clean energy playing field to China,
14:08who already has a big head start on us in the area of clean energy deployment. So this is not America first.
14:16This is very much America in retreat. I don't often agree with Elon Musk, but he is absolutely right when he said just a few days ago,
14:28that, and I quote, the latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm
14:37to our country. Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past,
14:45while severely damaging industries of the future. That's the Republican Senate bill.
14:54Looking in the rearview mirror rather than ahead. And again, what is the driving purpose? What's the North Star of this bill?
15:05To give very, very wealthy people tax cuts at the expense of everybody else. Everything else is sacrificed.
15:13As a result of those tax cuts, the top one-tenth of one percent highest income earners
15:18will get an average tax break of $255,000. Top one-tenth of one percent tax break of $255,000.
15:30Individuals making over a million dollars a year will get a $35,000 tax break. And as I said earlier,
15:40almost 50 percent of all of the tax benefits, all the tax monies go to the top one, top five percent
15:48of income earners. And to make that happen, as I've said, everything else gets sacrificed. Cuts to Medicaid,
15:57cuts to food nutrition programs, cuts to clean energy that result in higher costs for consumers.
16:04But even after making all of those cuts and imposing all of that pain on so many Americans,
16:14this Republican bill is still going to add over $4 trillion to our deficit over the next 10 years.
16:25And an estimated $35 trillion over the next 30 years.
16:35So despite paying for part of those additional costs through cuts to Medicaid and food nutrition
16:44programs, they're going to blow the roof off of our deficits and debt. And make no mistake, when you do
16:52that, you cost every American. Because it will generate upward pressure on interest rates, which raises
17:01costs for Americans who want to take out a mortgage to buy a home, or want to get a car loan, or for small
17:07businesses. In fact, the Yale Budget Lab projects that the House Pass bill would add over $1,000 a year
17:17to the cost of a mortgage, and over $800 a year to the cost of a small business loan.
17:25That's the House Pass bill. The Senate bill will be worse, because the Senate bill is about $1 trillion
17:33more to the deficit over 10 years than the House bill.
17:37Now, Mr. President, I do want to just focus on a final aspect of the deficit and debt impact of the
17:47Senate Republican bill. And that is this very deliberate effort to use fraudulent accounting to
17:57hide the deficit impact of this bill from the American people. Let me give you an example.
18:04Let's say you signed a contract to rent an apartment for $2,000 a month. You know that's going to cost
18:13you $24,000 for the full year. Now, at the end of the year, if you want to keep renting that apartment
18:24at that rate, any normal person would say, well, that's going to cost them another $24,000.
18:30Senate Republicans want to tell the American people that the cost of continuing to rent
18:40that apartment for another year is zero, zero, because the amount of rent they have to pay in
18:48year two is the same rent they had to pay in year one. In other words, Republicans want to say that
18:58because they've been giving billionaires and wealthy people tax cuts for 10 years, it will cost nothing
19:06to extend them for another 10 years. That's the so-called, quote, current policy baseline.
19:15In other words, if you just keep in place for another 10 years the same tax breaks for billionaires
19:20and others, we don't have to count the lost revenue. And we don't have to count
19:29the amount the deficit will increase as a result of that lost revenue.
19:35Now, Mr. President, a third grader can see that this is bogus math.
19:38Let me read my colleagues a statement made this year by somebody and I quote,
19:46anyone who says that about the, here's what he said, anybody that says the current policy baseline
19:57is the way to go is engaging in intellectual and economic fraud, end of quote.
20:03I wanted to make sure I got that quote correct because it was made by a Republican congressman
20:12from Arizona, Congressman Schweighart. Here's another quote. This is fairy dust and they are all full of
20:24crap and I'm going to call them out on it. Who said that? Congressman Chip Roy, Republican from Texas.
20:33And I think it's worth quoting those Republican members of Congress because while I
20:42dramatically disagree with what they did in their House bill, at least they used honest accounting.
20:51At least they didn't try to perpetrate this budget fraud that we're witnessing here
20:57in the United States Senate. A budget fraud that would, I dare say, make the Enron scammers blush.
21:07And if you go through the numbers, it's dramatic. For example, honest scoring of the bill shows that
21:15extending the individual tax rates from Trump 2017 will cost 2.2 trillion. That's what the House
21:23of Representatives said. 2.2 trillion. When you use the fraudulent budget math that Senate Republicans
21:30want to use, all of a sudden that's $83 billion. If you look at the cost of extending key deductions
21:41for businesses, the House used accurate accounting, it comes to $820 billion over 10 years. Under the Senate
21:49plan, $6 billion. So I'm not going to spend a ton of time, Mr. President, going over this chart,
21:59but I do want to put it up here. This is from the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget. And the blue
22:09shade in each of these years shows what Senate Republicans say their bill will cost in each of
22:17those years. This is the so-called current policy baseline. This is what those House Republican
22:23member has called fraudulent accounting. And it is. And if you add up all of those blue deficits over
22:31those 10 years, they claim it's $441 billion additional debt over 10 years. But if you use
22:40the honest accounting that we've always used in the United States Senate for the purpose of budget
22:45reconciliation, you get the full bar, including the orange numbers, which is $4.2 trillion in debt over
22:57those 10 years. I do want to point out to my colleagues something interesting because you have these dashed
23:05orange lines. What this is representing is that some of these costs from lost revenues in some of these
23:13out years go down. That's because under this House Republican plan, the tax cuts for
23:24people with the no tax on tips, they go away. They vanish. They vanish right here in 2029.
23:34But the tax cuts for very wealthy people, for billionaires and others, they go on for the 10 years.
23:39In fact, they go on forever. And the last point I'm going to make is by letting them go on forever,
23:47tax cuts for very wealthy people, Senate Republicans are violating the entire structure of the budget
23:53reconciliation process. Because when it was first devised, the entire purpose of it was to reduce
24:00our deficits and reduce the debt.
24:02And Republican senators are perverting the entire purpose of that special procedure that allows
24:10things to pass in the United States Senate with 51 votes and not having to secure the 60 vote
24:18threshold to overcome a filibuster. They are violating that entire structure. And again, why?
24:25Because they're hell-bent on making sure those tax cuts for very wealthy people go on forever.
24:34And again, at the expense of everybody else. And I'll just close,
24:38Mr. President, by pointing out that it wasn't that long ago that just down this hall here in the Senate
24:44rotunda, Donald Trump took the oath of office. He looked at the cameras and he said he wanted a new golden age
24:54for America. But this is not a golden age for America. It is a gilded age for the wealthiest people
25:02in America. And those are the people he was really speaking to because they're the ones who were sitting
25:07right behind him on inauguration day. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Zuckerberg, the tech titans, the billionaire
25:16cabinet, more billionaires than any cabinet by far in American history. That's who this bill serves.
25:24It serves very wealthy and powerful people. And it does so at the expense of everybody else in America
25:31in one form or another. And I hope our Senate on a bipartisan basis will give it a big thumbs down.
25:41And I yield the floor.