ICYMI EARLIER TODAY: Senator Murray Rips Into Republicans for Using Deceptive “Current Policy Baseline” to Hide True Cost of Deficit-Busting Tax Cuts for Billionaires
Murray: “Republicans should know, if they replace math with magic, if they tear up the Senate process, if they blow off the Senate Parliamentarian, that bill will come due.”
***VIDEO of Senator Murray’s remarks HERE***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Budget Committee, spoke out again on the Senate floor to slam Republicans’ use of a so-called “current policy baseline” to hide the true cost of their deficit-busting tax cuts for billionaires.
Republicans’ 940-page reconciliation bill—the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—which they released in the dead of night, cuts more than $900 billion from Medicaid—$100 billion more than the House bill. About 17 million Americans will lose their health care, more than 300 rural hospitals could close, and more than 500 nursing homes could close. The legislation makes the largest cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history and will rip away nutrition assistance entirely from more than 5 million Americans and shift tens of billions of dollars in costs to states. The legislation also increases the debt by nearly $4 trillion dollars—nearly a trillion more than the House bill. About two in three Americans oppose the bill.
Senator Murray’s full remarks, as delivered, are below and HERE:
“Mr. President, there are some things you can’t change with legislation, despite what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem to believe.
“For example, one plus one is two. And while a trillion might have a lot of zeroes in it—it is, in fact, a much, much bigger number.
“Now that might sound obvious, but apparently, my colleagues across the aisle need a little reminder.
“Because, right now, Republicans are pretending not to get it. It is almost beyond belief, and it is certainly beyond common sense.
“After years of complaining about the debt—in fact, at the same time they are talking about how we need to address the debt—Republicans now are suddenly pretending they don’t know how to count. Republicans are suddenly pretending the parliamentarian doesn’t exist if they don’t talk to her.
“Republicans are suddenly pretending that precedent doesn’t exist if they just fake amnesia, and that norms, and consequences for breaking them, will disappear if they wish it away really hard.
“My preschool students had more common sense!
“Republicans should know, if they replace math with magic, if they tear up the Senate process, if they blow off the Senate Parliamentarian, that bill will come due.
“And not just the bill for four trillion dollars—blown on tax cuts for billionaires and corporations—the bill will also come due for trashing this Senate process and precedent when Republicans are no longer in the majority.
“And, M. President, if Republicans are serious about plowing forward with rewriting—or ignoring—Senate procedure, and the laws of mathematics—I just ask, spare me the empty excuses. Spare me the explanations that totally ignore the reality of what you are doing.
“I mean, do they really think it washes away everything to say, “oh it’s fine to break the process in half because we say it’s fine’… ‘oh it’s fine, we have the authority to ignore math… give me a break!
“To every Republican who really thinks that is a convincing argument… to anyone who thinks ‘we can’ is an acceptable rationale for going nuclear and pretending the most expensive bill in the history of our country can be paid for by some magic bean counting…
“Here’s my challenge to you.
“Go back home and try that game with your constituents. Tell them: ‘It’s okay. Yes, the debt is going to be four trillion dollars higher ten years from now… that’s true. But it’s fine! We voted on it, and we get to say, a trillion is actually zero.’
“Go ahead, see how that works out for you. And you may as well tell them you are voting against gravity next, because that’s just as reasonable.
“And don’t forget, when you tell your families back home that four trillion in tax cuts for the billionaires and companies are free because you waved a wand, or you said some magic words, don’t forget to tell them: those are just tax cuts for the billionaires, not for working families.
“Don’t forget to tell the folks back home: ‘yeah, I voted to say a trillion dollars is nothing, but we still need to kick people off their health care—that’s too expensive. We still need to close those hospitals—we have to cut costs. And we still have to kick people off SNAP—because the debt is out of control.’
“And don’t forget to mention that, ‘No, we can’t afford child care. No, we can’t afford paid leave. No, we can’t afford to solve your problems. Magic math is apparently just for billionaires. You all are getting less.’
“Please, Republicans—send that message to your constituents. Just see how it goes over.
“Because, you can fool yourself, but you are not going to fool the American people. They don’t get to balance their budget with magic math. They don’t get to pretend a trillion dollars is nothing. And they don’t get to pretend that this bill is free.
“Because, at the end of the day, regardless of what policy baseline you all want to use in D.C., those families back home? They are the ones who will be paying the actual cost.
[…]
Senator Merkley: Would you yield to a question?
Senator Murray: I would.
Senator Merkley: In the time that you were Budget Chair, did you every contemplate a situation in which you argued that renewing a tax break that was, by law, expiring, would somehow have no impact on the deficit?
Senator Murray: To my friend from Oregon, I never would have contemplated, and I never would have put it forward. And I happen to know that if I had suggested that, that my Republican colleagues would have been all over me, telling me that breaks the rules.
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