Last month, House Republicans passed a budget revealing their absolute priorities: Tax cuts for the very wealthy, paid for by seniors, middle class families, and the poorest and most vulnerable.
Reflecting their claim and creed that support programs risk - in the words of the Budget Chairman - becoming "a hammock," the highest incomes are untouchable while programs for the youngest to the oldest are shredded.
The legislation we are considering today is the next step in their ideological march.
* Ending refundable child tax credits for more than 3 million children in 2013 alone in families with an average income of about $20,000.
* Attacking further the Affordable Care Act so another 350,000 Americans lose health care coverage, penalizing them for work and economic advancement, death or divorce.
* Eliminating funding for the Social Services Block Grant that helps provide critical services to 23 million children, seniors and disabled Americans.
The Block Grant helps provide Meals on Wheels and other supportive services for 1.7 million seniors; services for nearly 1 million disabled individuals, including respite care and transportation; child care and related assistance for 4.4 million children and child protective services for 1.8 million at risk children.
What is happening today is a vivid demonstration of how rigid ideology has changed this key Committee. When the Block Grant was in jeopardy during several years, the Chairman and I and others, both Republicans and Democrats, acted together to protect the Block Grant's vital funding. Those efforts were embodied in oral and written communications to leadership and other colleagues.
This bill turns this Committee's back on bi-partisanship.
I urge my Republican colleagues to rethink this bill. It is a disservice to this Committee. Most vitally it is a disservice to the American people.
