Barbara Lee: Republican Budget Plan Undercuts Economic Recovery with Reckless Spending Cuts
Contact: Kristal DeKleer (202) 225-1882
Washington, DC- Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) released the following statement today in reaction to the budget plan introduced by Chairman Paul Ryan and Republicans that would threaten Medicare and Medicaid and hurt our nation’s most vulnerable communities:
“Our nation’s budget is a moral document that should serve as a blueprint for how we build our communities. The Republican budget unveiled today is morally bankrupt and is a blueprint for leaving our country, and especially our seniors, out in the cold. Unfortunately, the Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposed today by Chairman Ryan and Republicans ends the Medicare guarantee, raises health care costs for seniors, favors the richest one percent of Americans, and undercuts the economic recovery with dramatic austerity policy and drastic and immediate cuts. It fails to include a single measure to help the unemployed get a job and it raises taxes on the middle class.
“This Republican proposal is an attack on low- and middle-income people. First and foremost, the plan ends the Medicare guarantee of decent health insurance in retirement. It also slashes critical investments, such as education and infrastructure by 45 percent and 24 percent, respectively. While the Republican plan would dramatically cut domestic spending, it would increase the 2013 defense budget from $546 billion to $554 billion.
“This budget proposal confirms that House Republican leaders intend to cut the deficit that they helped create by draining support from vital programs and services. Republicans want to pay for their reckless tax giveaways to millionaires on the backs of our nation’s most vulnerable: working families, seniors, children, and our middle class – and that’s wrong. This plan is a ‘Roadmap to Ruin’ for our neediest communities and our country, and I will work to ensure that we protect our nation’s most vulnerable populations, who are already bearing the brunt of these difficult economic times.”
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