Schatz: Trump Tax Plan Would Raise Costs, Cut Health Care For Millions To Benefit Ultra-Wealthy

WASHINGTON — In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) warned that the Republican tax bill would raise costs for working families and cut critical programs like Medicaid and food assistance in order to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

“No one asked for this. No one asked for the biggest wealth transfer in American history — from the poorest people in the country to the richest people to ever exist. No one asked for the biggest ever cuts to Medicaid — to kick 14 million people off of health insurance and raise out-of-pocket costs for 20 million people. No one asked for food assistance to be slashed for millions of children and low-income families. No one asked for higher prices at the pump or on their electricity bills. No one asked for students across the country to lose federal financial aid,” Senator Schatz began. “I don't think Trump voters asked for this. I know Harris voters didn’t. I don’t think anybody wants this.”

“It is quite hard to believe that you would cut food assistance and cut health care and cut help for regular working people in order to shovel money to people making more than $4 million a year. But that is exactly what they're doing. It is as if they designed this bill in a lab to make the maximum number of people angry. It's unpopular. It is unnecessary. And they're doing it anyway,” Senator Schatz continued. “Do [billionaires] need $300,000? Because I know people who need $300. I know people who actually won't be able to stay on any health care at all if these [Obamacare] subsidies go away.”

The full text of Senator Schatz’s remarks is below. Video is available here.

No one asked for this. No one asked for the biggest wealth transfer in American history — from the poorest people in the country to the richest people to ever exist. No one asked for the biggest ever cuts to Medicaid — to kick 14 million people off of health insurance and raise out-of-pocket costs for 20 million people. No one asked for food assistance to be slashed for millions of children and low-income families. No one asked for higher prices at the pump or on their electricity bills. No one asked for students across the country to lose federal financial aid. No one asked for any of this, and I really mean that. That's not just a rhetorical flourish. I don't think Trump voters asked for this. I know Harris voters did not ask for this. I don't think anybody really wants this.

I think the reason that all of these crazy, harmful policies are about to be enacted is for one simple reason — and that is to generate enough revenue to satisfy the insatiable desire for tax cuts for people who make more than $4 million a year. They are literally taking money out of food assistance and Medicaid and Affordable Care Act monthly subsidies. By the way, you don't know if you get a subsidy or not. You just go on the exchange, and you pay the thing. The thing is, that thing is probably four, five, six hundred dollars a month less than it used to be because of the subsidies.

So it's one thing to say 14 million people are going to get kicked off of Medicaid — and they will. It's another thing to say, because of those Medicaid cuts, a bunch of clinics and hospitals in rural communities are going to shut down — and they will. I think what's a little underrated is many, many more millions of people are going to pay not 50 bucks more a year, not $100 more per month, but many hundreds of dollars more per month. Why? Because when you yank that money out of the system — it is what is called a pay-for. It means it generates a ton of revenue. How does it generate that revenue? By screwing regular people.

They are racing to pass a bill that does all of these things, that raises the deficit — excuse me, the debt — by many, many trillions of dollars. And I think the problem that some of us have — and I really appreciate the presiding officer, and when we agree we work really well together, and when we disagree we are at least able to stay civil, and so I'm trying to take the edge off of this — but one of the reasons that it sounds like I'm frothing at the mouth and saying a bunch of partisan talking points is that it's kind of hard to believe that any political party would actually do this on purpose.

It is quite hard to believe that you would cut food assistance and cut health care and cut help for regular working people in order to shovel money to people making more than $4 million a year. But that is exactly what they're doing. It is as if they designed this bill in a lab to make the maximum number of people angry. It's unpopular. It is unnecessary. And they're doing it anyway.

Hospitals serving rural and low-income communities will be forced to shutter because they won't be adequately compensated for their services. And by the way — again, not a talking point — go and visit any rural clinic or hospital, ask them what percentage of their payer mix comes from Medicaid and what would happen if they lost a big chunk of that. A lot of them say — the big ones (big is relative, but in the state of Hawai‘i our big institutions say), “Well, we could stay afloat. We’d just have to deliver a lot less care, and then everybody would end up in the ER.” Right? The Queen’s Medical Center — the sort of number one trauma center right in the middle of Honolulu — is already bursting at the seams. You've got multiple people in the hallways, all of the rooms, all of the beds are taken. It was just a couple of months ago that they finally figured out a way not to release the psychiatric emergencies right onto Punchbowl Avenue in their hospital gowns. That’s before they do this to the hospitals.

After the ACA passed, you go on the exchange, select a plan, and pay a fraction of what you used to pay. And I think one of the things is that the Obamacare is now so old that people forgot how horrible it was before then — really horrible. And so now you just go on and you're kind of irritated because it's still money, and it still feels like too much, and it still feels like your HMO or your provider, you know, kind of nitpicks you and, you know, doesn't cover a bunch of care, and the co-pays are too high. But it is way, way, way better than it used to be. And so this whole enterprise is for one single purpose — and that is to generate enough money to cut taxes for billionaire corporations and people who make $4 million or more in revenue. It's very, very few people benefiting and tens of millions of people being screwed.

There's little in this bill that will help regular people who are already struggling to meet their monthly obligations, but there are plenty of rewards for the ultra-wealthy. Millionaires stand to gain roughly $70,000 in tax cuts, while billionaires in the top 1% will see close to $300,000 in benefits. And how do they find that money to shovel to the millionaires and billionaires?

I don't mind a millionaire or a billionaire. I know like two billionaires — not close, but I've like met them — and I'm sure I know many millionaires. There are a number of colleagues in the Senate who are in that category, so it's not like I'm not trying to demonize anybody. I'm just saying — do they need $300,000? Because I know people who need $300. I know people who actually won't be able to stay on any health care at all if these subsidies go away.

This is not the closing of loopholes. This is not fiscal discipline. And I want to make this point as clearly as I can: we would be in a harder position to argue against this bill if it were actually deficit neutral, right? Because traditionally the accusation against Democrats is — they want to bust the budget, and Republicans want to be responsible. But this one's weird, because this is like — under the guise of “we’ve got to do austerity, we’ve got to do tough stuff, we’ve got to cut” — and then they come up with a bill that actually increases the deficit over baseline. Even when they do their kind of nonsensical accounting where they basically have stopped counting the tax cuts that are in place because that — “Oh no, that's the baseline.”

And so the whole enterprise — and everybody needs to understand this — they are making everything more expensive. That is food, that is medicine, that is groceries, that is gasoline, that is electricity. And the reason they're making it more expensive is because they are either indifferent to the suffering, or — more importantly — they just need the money. And they don't need the money to — you know, we've raised taxes in the past as a country to fight a war, right? To beat Nazism. Or we've raised taxes in the past to shrink the deficit. Or we've raised taxes and raised costs for people to invest in something important. That's not what we're doing here.

We are blowing up the budget, and we are harming regular people in order to provide tax cuts for people who literally didn’t ask for it.

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