Video: Kaine Delivers Remarks Slamming Republican Budget Bill Teeing Up Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

BROADCAST-QUALITY VIDEO OF KAINE’S REMARKS IS AVAILABLE HERE.
WASHINGTON, D.C. –Today, during a Senate Budget Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) slammed Republicans’ budget resolution that would tee up tax cuts for billionaires at the expense of middle-class Americans. Today, the Senate Budget Committee is beginning a legislative process known as “reconciliation,” which allows certain legislation to be expedited and passed in the Senate by a simple majority. Senate Republicans are using this process to pass their budget proposal in order to avoid having to meet the 60-vote threshold needed for most other legislation.
“I view this exercise and this resolution as a Trojan horse,”said Kaine.“You do not need reconciliation to do defense, you do not need reconciliation border security. There's a demonstrated track record in this body that both of those can be done in a bipartisan way. So what's this bill about?”
“This is an effort to dramatically cut spending on programs that affect everyday Virginians and everyday Americans,”Kaine continued.“Those dollars – combined with the tariffs that Donald Trump is laying on American families that will make everything more expensive – then go into a big pot that gets used to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.”
President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are currently negotiating an extension to Trump’s 2017 tax law, which cut taxes for large corporations and the highest-income earners andsubstantially increased the federal deficit. They are now proposing broad-based tariffs and massive, across-the-board cuts to federal programs like Medicaid to fund these tax cuts for billionaires. Tax estimates have shown that if enacted, Trump’s tariffs could raise costs by$2,500tonearly $4,000per household, and American consumers could lose between$46 billion to $78 billionin spending power each year.
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