Golden votes against House GOP plan to gut health care, blow up deficit to fund tax cuts for the rich

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) voted tonight against a budget resolution introduced by House Republicans that set the stage for harmful health care cuts, more deficit spending and tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.  

“More than 160,000 working-class Mainers in the 2nd Congressional District rely on the ACA and Medicaid, and this budget resolution puts their health care on the chopping block to fund tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy and corporations,” Golden said. “What’s more, this bill adds trillions to the federal debt, which is already threatening to crowd out critical programs like Medicare and Social Security. Americans deserve and Congress can do better than harmful cuts, irresponsible deficit spending and unnecessary tax cuts for those at the top.”

The bill narrowly passed the house in a 217-215 vote.

The House GOP has made extending tax cuts enacted in 2017 its top priority in the reconciliation process this year. While Golden supports extending tax benefits for working families, extending the full 2017 tax package will cost $4.5 trillion, with roughly half the benefit going to households with annual income over $450,000. The Treasury Department found that extending the tax cuts would give an average annual tax cut of more than $32,000 for those in the top 1 percent, while working families will only get a few hundred dollars in tax cuts per year. 

The budget resolution passed by the House would pay for those tax cuts, in part, with $2 trillion in spending cuts. The largest share of the cuts would be determined by the committee that oversees health care spending, and a menu of proposed cuts circulated by GOP leaders targeted Medicaid and ACA premium tax credits, which make marketplace plans affordable for Mainers. 

The resolution also queues up $2.8 trillion in deficit spending, which is estimated to require an additional $600 billion in debt servicing costs. Interest on the debt costs the federal government more every year than on national defense or Medicare. It is second only to Social Security as an annual line item in the federal budget. 

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