WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), issued the following statement:
“Senate Republicans passed a budget resolution that betrays hard-working families across our nation, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet. This resolution sets the stage for tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans instead of offering any relief to those who need it most. Billionaires will reap the benefits at the expense of vital programs, like Medicaid, that millions of American families rely on.
“This budget paves the way for $5.8 trillion of deficit increases – more than the borrowing from the American Rescue Plan, TCJA, CARES Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law combined. For what? So President Trump can deliver $1.5 trillion in new tax cuts for his billionaire friends and make his 2017 tax law permanent -- the same tax law that cut the corporate tax from 35% to 21% with the promise that these cuts would increase the average household income in the United States by $4000. That never happened. Instead, wealthy shareholders received nearly all of the benefits through stock buybacks, large corporations made more money, and U.S. workers and employees hardly saw any of those net gains.
“The budget put forth by Senate Republicans says it will ‘reduce the deficit by not less than $880 billion’ for the period from 2025 to 2034. While the White House has argued that these tax cuts will ‘pay for themselves,’ we know from history that isn’t true. The part that my Republican colleagues don’t want to admit is that reducing the deficit by $880 billion is not possible without completely gutting Medicaid, a program that over 70 million Americans rely on for essential health care.
“I voted against this resolution because I stand for the people across New Jersey and our country who are struggling to make ends meet and for the families who rely on Medicaid to provide vital health care services.”