WASHINGTON - Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) gave the following statement today on the floor of the House of Representatives in opposition to the Republican Budget Reconciliation Bill:
This bill is vivid evidence of the radicalization of the Republican Party. I recall decades ago chairing a Committee in the Michigan State Senate and addressing a number of reforms affecting the lives of working men and women. I directly engaged in give-and-take and negotiated final legislation with Governor George Romney, resulting in legislation that passed on a bipartisan basis.
Today the radicalization of the Republican Party would make that impossible. Instead we have a bill that would:
* Take away food stamps for 2 million Americans - children, working parents and seniors.
* Threaten 280,000 school meals
* End the Social Services Block Grant, which provides home care, transportation for individuals with disabilities, protection for abused children and Meals on Wheels.
All of this and much more extremism to carry out an additional tax cut of $240,000 for the very wealthiest 1% of taxpayers. We can turn off the budget sequester and the damaging across-the-board cuts, but not with this extreme, partisan bill. The House Leadership refuses to follow a bipartisan path. This bill is sad proof of how the Republican Party of today has moved dramatically to the extreme, leaving behind most Americans except the very wealthiest.
