Wyden Statement on House Passage of McCarthy Debt Ransom Bill
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today issued the following statement after House Republicans passed Speaker McCarthy’s Default Ransom Proposal.
“A bill that helps rich people get away with tax cheating and pays for it by cutting health care and increasing child hunger is not a good-faith effort to address our fiscal health, it’s a wish list for the wealthy and far-right extremists.
“Repealing the Inflation Reduction Act’s energy provisions would hand an enormous win to Big Oil and Chinese clean energy companies that would happily grow at our expense. The reality is, most of the private clean energy investment fueled by the IRA is going to redder parts of the country that have more wind and solar, but Republicans are still committed to repeal at any cost.
“This bill resurrects some of the worst elements of Trump’s health care agenda, by forcing states to adopt work reporting requirements that exist only as a back door strategy to kick Americans off their health coverage. Over 90 percent of working age Americans with Medicaid coverage are already working, taking care of a loved one, enrolled in school, or are living with a disability. Work reporting requirements are all about placing a mountain of paperwork between Americans and their health care as a tool to cut Medicaid.
“It’d be hard to overstate the number of ways this bill would raise costs and make life in America more difficult. Costs would go up for housing, education, household utilities, food and more. Budgets for veterans’ health, border security, law enforcement, medical research and national security would get slashed.
“An independent analysis found that his bill would raise the odds of a recession and destroy 780,000 jobs across the country. It’s the equivalent of handing a pink slip to every single worker in New Hampshire or West Virginia. It’s truly shocking to see Republicans eager to inflict that kind of ruin on so many people’s lives.
“The McCarthy bill is dead on arrival in the Senate, and the Republicans must stop threatening to plunge the country into a catastrophic default.”
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