For Immediate Release: Thursday, October 19, 2017
Contact: Morgan Williams Grogan, morgan.williams@berlinrosen.com, 202-836-9890
Senate Votes to Give Huge Tax Cuts to the Very Wealthy, Force Deep Cuts to Medicaid & Medicare
Washington, D.C. – In response to the Senate passing its budget resolution today, Health Care for America Now Co-Directors Ethan Rome and Margarida Jorge released the following statement:
“This vote was nothing but a massive tax giveaway to the 1 percent paid for by taking away health care from America’s poor and middle-class families. Any pretense that it was more than stealing health care from everyday Americans to give tax breaks for the rich and big corporations is nonsense. This was Robin Hood in reverse, plain and simple.
“In their relentless effort to give tax breaks to those who need them least, the GOP will force draconian cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and other critical programs for working families, seniors and the disabled, leaving the most vulnerable Americans out to dry. Given the chance to prevent deep cuts to Medicaid and Medicare during the amendment process, Senate Republicans doubled down on cutting $1.5 trillion from those programs and voted instead to protect tax cuts for the top 1 percent.
“Instead of taking health care away from millions to foot the bill for tax cuts for wealthiest Americans, the Republicans in Congress should end their war on health care and instead work towards bipartisan solutions to expand access to affordable health care, as Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray have begun to do.”
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Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is the national grassroots coalition that ran a $60 million five-and-a-half year campaign from 2008-2013 to pass, protect, and promote the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and protect Medicare and Medicaid. HCAN has come back together to fight the Republicans’ all-out effort to take away America’s health care and put people at the mercy of the health insurance companies again.
