During Friday’s House Budget Committee hearing, Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) discussed the consequences of increasing the deficit and cutting social services.
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00:00I yield to our friend from California, Mr. Jimmy Panetta, for three minutes.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:05Look, I think we all recognize how difficult it is to craft legislation that balances fiscal
00:11responsibility with economic growth, but I think we can all clearly see that this legislation
00:18is not the way to do it, considering that you completely blow out the debt and deficit
00:23and you thoroughly fail working families to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
00:28I mean, look at the distribution tables alone for this bill.
00:33The top 0.1% stand to gain $255,000 in 2027 alone.
00:41That's $700 every day for that 0.1%.
00:44Yet for those earning less than $50,000 per year, the average benefit is only $265.
00:53That's less than $1 a day.
00:55That's 310 times more benefit for billionaires.
01:01And the consequences of this bill go well beyond that, and they're well documented.
01:05The $750 billion, $715 billion, that's legislation which slashed from Medicaid and the Affordable
01:12Care Act, would strip health coverage from nearly 14 million Americans.
01:17The bill includes the deepest cuts to food assistance in the history of the United States,
01:23slashing SNAP benefits for nearly 11 million Americans.
01:28And for what?
01:29In addition to being stuffed with largesse and accounting gimmicks, the bill also offers tax
01:33breaks for gun silencers.
01:36It not only fails working families, it undermines America's economic security, and it explodes,
01:42explodes our nation's fiscal foundation.
01:45Now, in order to do everything the president promised, in order to cut many of these benefits
01:52for working families, this bill would add close to $7 trillion to our national debt.
01:57It will increase interest rates.
01:59It will make everything from buying a home to financing a business more expensive.
02:04The nonpartisan Cato Institute has stated that the bill is likely to increase growth by only
02:100.6 percent, nowhere near enough to offset the fiscal damage brought on by this legislation.
02:18In fact, this bill is expected to reduce investment, lower wages, and have little impact on the total
02:26national income.
02:27And so as I see it, this bill represents gutting benefits for working families, giving tax breaks
02:34to billionaires, giving in to exploding our national debt, and giving up, giving up on the fiscal health
02:42of our nation, and therefore giving up on our obligation to our children's and our country's future.
02:48That's why I oppose this bill, and so should you.
02:51Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
02:52I yield back.
02:53I thank the gentlemen, and now-