Scott: Republican Budget is a Big, Bad Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C.:  Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03) delivered the following statement at the House Budget Committee's failed markup of Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025, H. Con. Res. 14, President Trump's so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act":  
 

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's hard to take my colleagues on the other side of the aisle seriously when they come here and give speech after speech after speech, complaining about the deficit and then support this reconciliation plan that INCREASES the deficit. But this should not come as a surprise because every single Democratic president and presidential administration since Kennedy has left for their Republican successors a better deficit situation than the one they inherited. And every single Republican presidential administration since Nixon has left a WORSE deficit situation for the Democrats than the one they inherited. All without exception. 

"So here we go again. A Republican president following a Democratic president. The Republicans are here to make speeches about deficits and debts, and then again set to increase the deficit and national debt just like clockwork. So, the reason we have all this debt is because Democrats have not been able to clean up the Republican messes as quickly as they make them.

"This bill not only increases the deficit, it makes working families pay a price. As the Ranking Member of the Committee on Education and Workforce, I am particularly outraged Republicans want to fund tax cuts for corporations and billionaires by making cuts in educational and nutritional programs. This bill uses taxpayers’ money to take resources from public schools, which serve 90% of students, and divert them to private schools. The bill also harms children’s access to school meal programs and makes it harder for students to afford a college education. 

"So, there's nothing fiscally responsible about this budget and working families and middle-class families will pay the price.

"Programs that keep kids, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities from going hungry and ensure that students receive a quality education should not be on the chopping block. And after weeks of statements from Republican members that the budget they voted for twice does not cut Medicaid, this bill will rip away health care away from millions of Americans using Medicaid and makes health care more expensive for everyone else.

"This Big, Bad Bill is a collection of bad policies. It kicks millions of people off their health care, threatens food security for millions of families, makes it harder for students to afford education, and diverts taxpayer resources from public schools. It does all of this to give corporations and wealthy billionaires a tax cut and then it makes our debt worse. I urge my colleagues to vote no on this legislation."