March 13, 2013
House Republicans’ latest budget crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan is a zombie proposal long ago rejected by working families. But he won’t let it die. Instead of calling for the sensible repeal of the sequester, Rep. Ryan would double down on harmful cuts to education, health care and other programs that build a strong middle class.
And instead of closing tax loopholes for the super wealthy, this budget would give even more tax breaks to the rich—higher subsidies for shipping American jobs overseas, bigger tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy.
Republicans would pay for all this by voucherizing Medicare, cutting Medicaid for the most vulnerable, and increasing Medicare premiums for middle class beneficiaries. This budget would cut spending by $5.7 trillion – devastating child nutrition, cancer research, transportation and other key programs and shrink government to the size it was in the 1950s.
Our economy is still in a fragile state of recovery and we’ve seen that previous cuts to state and local services and jobs have prevented us from recovering faster. The last thing we need is more austerity that would cost jobs and stunt America’s future. We reject these so called “balanced” approaches that increase inequality and shift even more of the burden to those who can least afford it. We call for an immediate repeal of the across the board sequester cuts and urge lawmakers to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from benefit cuts.
