Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025
Floor Speech
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Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Madam Chair, despite all the promises on the campaign trail, House Republicans have chosen to do three things with their majority: raise the cost of putting food on the table, raise the cost of getting healthcare, and use that money, deserving taxpayers' money, to cut billionaires' taxes. That is it. That is the agenda.
Let's look at the scale of what Republicans are sacrificing: funding that feeds 15 million children, a program that pays for half of all the births in America, and a service that keeps nursing homes and health centers' doors open. This is all to cut Elon's taxes.
If that sounds outrageous to you, Madam Chair, and I sure hope it does, you are not alone.
Let's be clear about the kind of money we are talking about. Do you know what it costs to keep a kid on Medicaid? It costs $10 a day. How about how much it costs to keep that child fed with SNAP benefits? It costs $6 a day.
What do Republicans want to give away to the already rich? They want to give $6 million per billionaire. Think about that. For a billionaire, $6 million is not even a rounding error. For a hungry child, it is enough to eat every single day for 34 lifetimes.
Inflicting hunger on children to give billionaires money they don't need and won't even notice, there is no moral code under which that is acceptable. There is no public demand for it. There is no logical reason for it other than total fealty to billionaire donors, billionaires who will never feel they have enough.
I will close with a family that has been on my mind, a mom-to-be who is 5 months pregnant. She and her husband are happy. They are in love, and they are excited for their daughter to arrive. Every month, their budget is tight. They get a little bit of help from food pantries, but sometimes, even if they arrive by 6 a.m., the food is already gone. Without the SNAP program, the mom said: I honestly don't know what we would do. I honestly don't know what we would do.
Every Republican has a choice to make with this vote. Will they vote to keep that mom and her daughter fed, or will they keep padding the pockets of those who will not even notice?
The American people can forgive a lot, but they will not forgive this betrayal.
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