On House Floor, Boyle Calls Out Backroom Budget Deals, Offers Republicans the Chance to Save Medicaid & SNAP

WASHINGTON, DC - On the House floor, Congressman Brendan F. Boyle, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, slammed Republicans for plotting changes to their budget bill behind closed doors and refusing to share these changes with the American people. He offered House Republicans the chance to keep their promises to defend Medicaid by signing his discharge petition to force a vote on the Hands Off Medicaid and SNAP Act.

Remarks as delivered and video are below: 

(Click for video of remarks as delivered) 

Ranking Member Boyle's floor remarks as delivered:

Late Sunday night, the House Budget Committee on which I serve as Ranking Member passed out with only Republican votes, a draconian tax bill that cuts almost 14 million Americans off their health care and ensures a few million more lose their food assistance. Now, you might ask yourself why. The reason is in order to help pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

Interestingly, we were originally supposed to pass this on Friday, but on Friday around lunchtime, enough hard-line conservative members on the budget committee withheld their votes and voted no, not because they objected to 14 million Americans losing their health care, not because they objected to millions more losing their food assistance, but because they looked at those numbers and said, "well, that's a good start. We want those numbers to go up. We want even more people to lose their health care and more people to lose their food assistance."

So the vote went down Friday. We come back Sunday night and suddenly the vote is called again. I raised the question as a parliamentary inquiry. I simply asked, what has changed? What deals have been made? The American people deserve to know. We as members on both sides of the aisle, deserved to know before casting our votes. I was assured that nothing had changed, there were no agreements made.

Then the very next Republican speaker who's one of those hard-line conservatives, gave the game away and said he was flipping his vote because of the agreements that were made. Backroom deals deny the American people the transparency that they deserve. Now, one of the things we keep hearing on the other side of the aisle is that we need to get this done, otherwise taxes will go up on the American people.

Apparently, the President said that today while he was here in this building. It's completely false. Just this past week, Democrats introduced an amendment that would ensure the extension of the tax cuts for every American making under a billion dollars. Every Democrat voted yes, every Republican voted no.

So you see this really is about the tax cuts for billionaires. Now, the President has also said, and I quote, "he would love and cherish Medicaid." Well, my Republican friends have an opportunity. All of those included who have said that they would protect Medicaid, they have an opportunity to prove it. Right now at the well of the House chamber is a discharge petition that would force a vote on my legislation, the Hands Off Medicaid and SNAP Act.

It would stop permanently, these outrageous cuts from happening. It would preserve health care. It would ensure these cuts do not happen. Right now we have 211 signatures, all from Democrats. We just need a few Republican members to sign that discharge petition and we will be able to "love and cherish" Medicaid as well as SNAP.

That's all it would take, just a few Republican members, to save health care for millions and millions of Americans and save food assistance for millions more. I think it is clear, Mr. Speaker, the difference in the priorities between this side of the aisle and the other side. It is the members on this side of the aisle that are fighting to save health care for the American people and it's that side of the aisle who are fighting for the billionaire class.

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