Wyden: Republican Budget Proposal is a Bailout for Billionaires as Trump Wrecks the Economy
Watch a video of Wyden deliver his remarks here
As Prepared for Delivery
All around the country this morning, Americans turned on the news and saw panic. People are wincing as they look at their retirement accounts. Their savings are down. The cost of their morning coffee and eggs are up. The markets are looking bloody, and people are afraid for their jobs and their own personal finances.
Not so for the ultra-wealthy. They may not like what they’re seeing either, but they’ve got nothing to worry about because they’ve got an ace in the hole, right here in Congress. While Donald Trump torches what used to be the world’s strongest economy, Republicans are scrambling to pass a bailout for billionaires and big corporations. So while typical families panic, the billionaires are shopping for yachts and real estate, safe in the knowledge that Republicans have their backs.
That is what this debate is all about.
Trump is taking the United States back to economic policy that predates the light bulb. He’s slapping random tariffs on imports from all over the world -- tariffs that are effectively huge tax increases on products American families and businesses use every day.
Donald J. Hoover says he’s not going to back down, and that’s terrible news for everybody who counts on a steady paycheck to get by. Everything from cars and machinery, right down to tee shirts and your morning cup of coffee. It’s all going to cost a whole lot more because of what he’s doing. Small businesses are going to get clobbered. Parents are going to need to take out second mortgages just to take their kids back-to-school shopping. They’re facing an increase in the cost of living by thousands of dollars per year. And big businesses are panicking too at the prospect of a full-on trade war. The only thing preventing an even larger panic and collapse is the faint hope that somebody will convince Trump to back down. I wouldn’t wager on it. That’s the economic carnage Trump is creating around the country.
Here on Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans are charging forward with this bailout for billionaires and corporations that, according to the joint tax committee, could cost $7 TRILLION. People following along at home are going to hear a lot of sweet-sounding promises from Republicans about what they’re trying to accomplish. They’re going to claim the tax plan is all unicorns and rainbows. They’ll say everybody’s going to benefit from a tax cut, and typical families will get the help they need. They’ll promise rising wages and a booming economy. None of it will be true.
The reality is, unless you’re way out at the upper end of the income scale, any benefit you get from this Republican bill is going to get blown out of the water as Trump’s tariffs continue to hike inflation.
If you’re somebody who punches a timeclock or keeps an eye on the bills every month to make sure you’re getting by, there is no good news for you in what the Republicans are trying to accomplish. Republicans are moving ahead with their $7 trillion tax agenda.
There is no way to cover that cost without taking a wrecking ball to the Medicaid program, and that’s their plan. It will be devastating for tens of millions of Americans, with seniors and kids bearing the brunt. Medicaid pays for two out of three nursing home beds in our country. If Republicans move forward with their nearly 1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, countless families will be forced to make impossible choices between keeping their aging parent or grandparent in a nursing home they can barely afford, or bringing them home to try and care for them on their own. Medicaid covers nearly 38 million kids in America. That includes half of all American kids with special health care needs. These cuts to Medicaid will set those kids back for the rest of their lives. Millions of parents will be left wondering how they’ll pay for the home-based care their children rely on to go to school every morning.
And let’s be clear, these cuts may be partisan in Congress, but their consequences will transcend party lines. Medicaid cuts will hit red and rural parts of the country the hardest. Hospitals, nursing homes and other providers in rural communities all over the country are barely hanging on, and they depend on Medicaid. If these Republican cuts go through, rural America will become even more of a health care desert.
I will be offering an amendment to block these Republican Medicaid cuts and the damage they will do to millions of Americans.
And it’s not only Medicaid that Republicans are targeting. Countless other lifelines that seniors and families rely on are on the chopping block.
Meals on Wheels, which helps seniors get a hot meal.
Head Start, which helps set kids up for success in the future with early learning and development.
Food assistance that helps millions of families stay out of hunger.
Republicans even want to gut our investments in clean energy, which would increase costs for consumers, wipe out potentially hundreds of thousands of jobs, and devastate our energy security.
This is the hardship Republicans are inflicting on America -- and particularly on people who are already struggling to get by -- in order to bail out the billionaires and corporations. This is how Trump is protecting his ultra-wealthy political donors from all the chaos. It’s a one-two punch. Not only are typical American families facing economic ruin as Trump hikes tariffs and increases the cost of living. Not only are they panicking as the market crashes and their retirement savings shrink as a direct result of Trump’s recklessness. Now they’ve got Republicans in Congress coming after their pocketbooks, their health care, the food on their dinner tables.
And as I said at the outset, Trump is completely out of touch. He and his advisors couldn’t give a whit about any of the harm they’re causing.
You don’t have to take it from me, Trump literally says it himself. Talking about auto manufacturers, he said, “I couldn’t care less if they raise prices…”
After yesterday’s market crash, Trump was asked about the tariffs and said, “I think it’s going very well.” Secretary Bessent has been doing his own “all-is-well” media tour. Recently he said, “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream.” I don’t know about billionaire Secretary Bessent’s interpretation, but I’ll tell you what’s NOT part of the American Dream -- getting charged ten bucks for a cup of black coffee because the Trump administration is too incompetent to figure out a smart approach to tariffs. A few days ago, with concerns bubbling up over what tariffs would do to the markets, Secretary Bessent said, “the reason stocks are a safe and great investment is because you’re looking over the long-term.” The long-term spin is as dismissive as it gets. Try telling that to a 65-year-old who scrimped and saved and was planning on retiring this month, only to see their 401k deflate like an old balloon.
Nothing can illustrate how out-of-touch these guys are more clearly than what Trump said this week during his rambling press conference announcing his tariffs. Talking about shopping for food, he said the following:
“It’s an old fashioned term that we use -- groceries. I used it on the campaign. It's such an old fashioned term, but a beautiful term. Groceries. It says a bag with different things in it.”
It’s obvious that Trump hasn’t got the first clue of how the vast majority of Americans live, or the hardship they’re facing in the months and years ahead as he wrecks the economy.
What’s he doing right now? He’s hobnobbing down in Florida at his private country club resort, where the Saudi government is lining his pockets with a splashy golf tournament. All the Trump administration is focused on, along with Republicans here in Congress, is passing this bailout for billionaires and corporations while everybody else fears for what tomorrow will bring.
As this debate moves forward, Democrats will be offering a whole host of amendments to put this morally bankrupt bargain on full display for the American people.
It’s going to be a long debate, but an important one.
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