Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the middle of the night, House Republicans pushed through their “Betrayed for Billionaires Bill”—a sweeping, multi-trillion-dollar deficit explosion that rips health care and food assistance away from millions of Americans to fund tax breaks for billionaires and handouts to mega-corporations. Republicans rushed debate, and many of them admitted they had not read the bill before acting on it in committee.

This afternoon, every single House Democrat, including Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03), and 2 Republicans voted NO on the legislation, which passed by a vote of  218 to 214 in the House.

“Trump’s signature bill betrays the American people by giving massive tax breaks to billionaires and paying for them through the biggest cut to health care in history and the biggest explosion of our national debt ever,” said Leger Fernandez.

“Taking food, health care and education from working families, veterans and the disabled to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, well-off and well-connected is immoral, cruel and un-American. It does, however, tell us loud and clear that Trump and the Republicans who passed this bill value the richest among us and not working families.”  

“Budget bills highlight the values of the parties that pass them. Four years ago, we invested in manufacturing and renewable energy, expanded the child tax credit for all families, capped insulin prices, forced pharmaceutical companies to bring down the cost of medicine and raised taxes on billionaire corporations. Democrats know Congress has a lot more work ahead to build good lives for all Americans. In contrast, Republicans' reconciliation bill overturned all of this progress in their one big ugly bill that will turn the possibility of an American dream into an American nightmare for working families with health care needs.”

“The cuts to health care will affect someone you know and love. The $500 billion cut to Medicare triggered by this bill will hurt seniors who earned those benefits. The $900 billion cut to Medicaid will close many of our rural hospitals, kick grandparents out of nursing homes and deny health care coverage for pregnant women, children and the disabled. The elimination of the premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will significantly raise health insurance premiums for millions of working families. A couple in their 60s earning $80,000 could see their premiums increase from $6,900 to $22,300 per year. A 28-year-old earning $39,000 could see bronze plan premiums go from $380 to approximately $2,300 in many states.”

“The cuts and caps on education loans will also impact the training of our future leaders and professionals. If students can’t borrow the money to pay for their medical degrees, only the children of the wealthy will be able to afford to become our doctors and dentists, further eroding our healthcare system.”

“Faith leaders across many religions wrote letters asking us to vote no. They described the cruelty of destroying health care access for 17 million Americans and nutrition programs  as a “moral failure.” I agree with their assessment that the bill “takes from the poor to give to the rich.” This Republican bill is immoral.”

“This bill doesn’t just continue the legacy of Republican presidents increasing the deficit while Democrats lower it. This bill also shatters deficit spending by adding almost $4 trillion to the national debt.”

“In passing this bill, Republicans ignored the outrage from Americans who are angry and afraid about losing their health care, SNAP and access to reproductive health care. They voted against every amendment my colleagues and I offered to protect Medicaid and rural hospitals, lower energy costs and protect Planned Parenthood. They even rejected my amendment to remove tax cuts for the richest Americans making over $600,000 a year. Republicans sided with billionaires and left the rest of us behind. Now, we will make sure every American knows about this betrayal,” she said.

Democrats filed more than 500 amendments to block the cuts and call out the nasty attacks on health care, food security, rural hospitals, renewable energy and reproductive freedom in this bill. The Republican majority rejected every single one.

“This is a major setback for our prosperity agenda, but we will be relentless in our fight to build the good life for working families,” said Leger Fernandez. “I will also note that there were a few wins. In both the House and the Senate, Republicans tried to sneak in provisions to force the sale of public lands, including right here in New Mexico. We fought back. We organized. And we got it removed. That’s the power of New Mexicans’ advocacy.”

“Finally, for years, Senator Luján and I have fought alongside New Mexicans to expand and extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to cover the New Mexicans who’ve suffered from radiation exposure—downwinders and uranium miners. We built a broad bipartisan coalition grounded in justice and science, yet House Republican leadership refused to hear our bill and the program lapsed last year.”

“While the broader Betrayed for Billionaires Bill is deeply harmful in many ways, we welcome that some Republicans finally recognized this injustice and expanded RECA in this bill. New Mexicans have waited long enough. They deserve the compensation and recognition they’ve earned through pain and sacrifice,” she concluded.

The Betrayed for Billionaires Bill:

• Cuts more than $1 trillion from Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act, leaving nearly 17 million Americans uninsured.
• Triggers a $500 billion Medicare cut that will hurt seniors across the country.
• Takes food assistance away from hungry kids with a nearly $200 billion cut to SNAP.
• Represents the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. The individuals in top 0.1% stand to gain $309,000 on average in 2027 alone while those earning less than $50,000 will get just $0.68 per day from tax breaks.
• Increases the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. 
• Raises premiums for millions on the ACA and piles on paperwork for Medicaid, making it harder to access coverage
• Cuts funding rural hospitals and clinics depend on, putting nearly 300 hospitals and 500 nursing home facilities at risk of closure across states like New Mexico.
• Sets strict borrowing caps for graduate and professional students that will make it hard for those training to become doctors or dentists in rural areas to pay for their education unless they come from wealthy families. 
• Defunds Planned Parenthood, putting nearly 200 health centers in 24 states across the country at risk of closure. 
• Repeals clean energy incentives that lower costs and fight climate change.

###