Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H. Con. Res. Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this is a lousy budget. It is a budget that will hurt working families. It is a budget that will especially hurt families who are struggling in poverty.

Republicans have succeeded in putting together a Marie Antoinette budget, helping the richest of the rich while hurting the poorest of the poor. Let them eat cake. That is the Republican motto.

I have never seen such cruelty contained in a budget in all my years here. This budget would force the biggest cut to Medicaid in American history.

The idea and the audacity of somehow pretending like it isn't going to hurt people is just insane. It is simply not possible mathematically to cut Medicaid by almost a trillion dollars and not hurt people.

By the way, for the record, that is not fear-mongering. It is what is in the text of this resolution.

I just want to say that this budget directs the Committee on Energy and Commerce to come up with at least $880 billion in cuts within their jurisdiction. Republicans want to be able to claim that there is no way to know at this point in the process where those cuts will come from, and they are saying that they are not going to cut any benefits in Medicaid or Medicare.

Guess what, Mr. Speaker. If you don't cut Medicaid, if you don't cut Medicare or CHIP, there is only $381 billion left to cut in E&C's jurisdiction. Even if you cut literally every single other dollar, you are still at least $500 billion short, half a trillion dollars short.

I guess I understand why President Trump suggests that you all close your eyes before voting on this steaming pile of Medicaid cuts.

I would also say it is not mathematically possible to tell the Agriculture Committee to cut $230 billion without cutting SNAP benefits. You just can't do it. You have to kick people off of food assistance if this budget passes. That means children, seniors, and Americans with disabilities are cut off.

In my opinion, that is the reality that Republicans are trying to hide from the American people.

We had a hearing in the Agriculture Committee yesterday where Republicans were bragging about how they wanted to put more hurdles in place for people to be eligible for SNAP. The majority of people on SNAP are children, are senior citizens, are people who are disabled. We don't expect them to work, unless you want to repeal the child labor laws, unless you want to send grandma back to the factory. That is the overwhelming majority of people who are on the program.

Of those who are able-bodied and expected to work, the majority of them work. The majority of them work. That is the program Republicans want to target? Give me a break.

I will go right through the list.

We can debate waste, fraud, and abuse all day. The money that DOGE has supposedly found in waste, even if you believe that number, is totally offset by the tax breaks for billionaires in this resolution. I mean, with all the chaos in our economy right now, does anybody really believe that we have to help out billionaires, that they are the ones who are hurting, not average working families but billionaires?

We have billionaires in this country who pay an effective tax rate that is lower than the effective tax rate for teachers, police officers, and firefighters.

What the hell is wrong with this place? I mean, the priorities here are all screwed up. Let's have a debate about our values and our choices, but, please, let's not pretend like this budget isn't going to hurt people.

Let's at least have an intellectually honest conversation and admit what this is about. Just like the devastating DOGE cuts to NIH and CDC, they are going to hurt people, just like Trump's tariffs are hurting people.

By the way, on tariffs, if I may, Republicans are once again rigging the rules to protect Donald Trump and hide from accountability.

Republicans know his tariffs are economic poison and know voters hate them, but House Republicans are too cowardly to go on record. The majority is trying to sneak around with a procedural gimmick in this rule to block a vote on the tariffs instead of facing the truth.

Mr. Speaker, to be clear, a vote for today's rule is a vote for Trump's disastrous trade war, period. There is no hiding from it.

Mr. Speaker, I know that Trump just announced on social media, of all ways, that he is partially backing down and putting a temporary pause on some of the tariffs he announced last week.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know whether it is idiocy or incompetence, maybe both, but that means that Trump tanked the market nearly 20 percent and put the entire American economy on the line so that countries would give him a phone call? Is that what this is all about? Give me a damned break.

Rightwing pundits are going to act like pausing the tariffs was some kind of stroke of genius, that recouping only one-third of our market losses is somehow a brilliant move. Now, I wasn't very good in arithmetic, but that doesn't sound like a brilliant move to me. That sounds like a stupid move.

First, let me remind my colleagues across the aisle that this is just a pause.

Second, 10 percent tariffs across the board are still in place, plus the increased Chinese tariffs.

Third, all of this chaos is horrible for the economy. Small businesses cannot plan or operate under this level of uncertainty.

What big business would want to invest in any new manufacturing if there is no telling what policy is in place tomorrow? How can our trading partners believe what we say when we are changing policy every 3 days? The swinging back and forth is making Americans worse off for no apparent reason.

Maybe Republicans think that some people need to be hurt in order to fix our country. I love it when Trump puts up all of these billionaires to tell working families: You have to just deal with the pain. It is no big deal. You should sacrifice. These are billionaires lecturing hardworking, middle-class Americans.

If Republicans at least admitted what the impact of these tariffs really were on average working families, we could have an intellectually honest conversation about what this budget and Trump's tariffs do. Yet, we can't because that would force the other side to acknowledge the truth.

The truth is that this budget was written by the rich, for the rich, to help the rich get richer. That is what this is: a massive transfer of wealth from those at the bottom to those at the top. It is Robin Hood in reverse, and the American people will pay the price for the Republicans' billionaire-first budget.

Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman said that we need to deal with facts. I agree.

Yet, we also need to deal with math. I understand that President Trump told the gentlewoman and other Republicans ``to close your eyes'' and vote for this budget. That is a direct quote, by the way.

Did he tell Republicans to hide their calculator, too?

I just went through my concerns about the cuts in Medicaid. This budget actually has instructions to the Committee on Energy and Commerce to cut $880 billion at a minimum. They were instructed to find $880 billion at a minimum in savings.

There is no way to do that when doing the math without cutting Medicaid. That is just a fact. The math is undefeated here.

I am sorry that my friends don't want to appear like Republicans are insensitive to the plight of those who are struggling in the lower income brackets and who need Medicaid and for whom it is a lifeline. It is just the truth. There is no way. Again, do the arithmetic. Do the math. There is no way to get those cuts without going into Medicaid. That is going to hurt people.

Mr. Speaker, again, I tried in the Committee on Rules to have an amendment saying that we won't give tax cuts to people who have a net worth of over a billion dollars. That was rejected on a party-line vote.

We want to give more benefits to people at the top, but the way we are going to do it is we are going to cut people's healthcare benefits who are on Medicaid. By the way, Medicaid is also the program that helps provide long-term care for a lot of middle-income families in this country.

Mr. Speaker, the notion that we can make all these cuts and don't worry, be happy, come on. Come on. People can figure this out. The math is undefeated.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman essentially, once again, called me a liar, so I am going to be a little less polite than normal and say that the gentlewoman doesn't understand basic math. I am not going to waste my breath to try to explain it to her again, but math doesn't lie. It is undefeated.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to urge that we defeat the previous question. I will offer an amendment. My amendment will simply strike section 2 of the rule. That section, tucked in the rule by Republicans this morning, prevents the House from voting on Trump's disastrous worldwide tariffs, the ones destroying the economy and raising prices on regular Americans.

Just before I came down here, I guess Trump said on social media that he is partially pausing some of the reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. Oh, cool, a 90-day pause. That is the certainty that the business community is looking for. How is any company supposed to forecast for their future, build a plant, and hire workers if they have no idea what the hell this President is going to do in his next tweet?

We went from the President saying on social media today ``be cool'' to then saying ``just kidding.'' We have a 90-day pause in a matter of hours. I have whiplash. I need a neck brace to be able to get through all of this.

Also, the President announced that he is hiking the tariffs on China to 125 percent and keeping the 10 percent tariffs across the board. That is great. Get ready to continue to pay more for almost everything.

What about the EU? They retaliated with tariffs against us this morning, too. Are we going to treat them like China and punch back as the White House Press Secretary says that we are doing? I guess we don't have any clarity on that question.

Here is the worst part, Mr. Speaker. The Congress could stop this madness and provide the certainty that is needed by voting on these tariffs, but it seems like Republicans are fighting tooth and nail not to stop the insanity but to keep Congress from having a say about these tariffs, to hide from doing their jobs.

With this provision hidden in the rule, they are stopping the entire House from bringing up legislation to put an end to these tariffs, not pause them, end them, legislation which, under the law, any Member should be able to bring to the floor 14 days from now.

Let's set aside that the stock markets are in chaos and having volatile swings. Let's set aside that the business community--you know, where people work--don't know where to buy supplies, where to build plants, where to hire, or anything else with any certainty now. These tariffs affect the cost of everything: the food at the grocery store, electronics, the goods that are in most demand by our constituents. We are in a trade war not just with China but with our own allies and friends.

These tariffs are harmful and they will lead to a recession, one caused not by any outside calamitous event, but by the ego of one man: Donald Trump. We could stop this uncertainty. We could stop this chaos, but Republicans are literally stopping us and themselves from even having a vote on these tariffs.

I say to my Republican colleagues, stop hiding. Open your eyes despite the President telling you to close them. Represent your constituents, the people who elected you and the ones who are getting hurt by these tariffs and strike this provision blocking a vote on tariffs.

If you don't adopt my amendment, then a ``yes'' vote on this rule is a ``yes'' vote for Trump's tariffs. A ``yes'' vote is for more chaos and uncertainty in the market. With a ``yes'' vote, you will own the pain that comes with these tariffs, the chaos and the uncertainty, and you will have no one to blame but yourselves.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Craig), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Agriculture, to discuss our proposal.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, can I inquire of the gentlewoman whether she has any Republicans that want to come down here and defend these tariffs and the tax hikes on average people? Does she have any other speakers?

Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, this is a terrible, horrible rule. Voting in support of this rule means voting to protect Trump's reckless tariffs. Don't get me started about this budget resolution. It is not just Democrats who think this budget resolution is terrible; it is Republicans.

Mr. Norman, a member of the Rules Committee says: ``The Senate version is dead on arrival.''

Mr. Roy, a member of the Rules Committee says: ``Adopting a policy baseline does not change basic math.''

Mr. Ogles says: ``The Senate budget bill is really offensive.''

Don't worry. Donald Trump is on top of things. He says: ``Close your eyes and vote for it.'' I would just add to that: Close your eyes, cover your ears, and hide your calculators. That is what Trump wants you to do.

Pass this quickly and move on so he doesn't get blamed for how much it is going to screw people.

My answer to that is: We are going to fight back. If you support this budget, we simply do not share the same values. I believe it is fundamentally wrong to gut Medicaid. I don't want to kick moms and dads and kids off their long-term healthcare. I think it is rotten to kick kids and Americans with disabilities and veterans off of food assistance. I think it is evil to give tax cuts to billionaires while middle America struggles to get ahead.

I think that those are awful, mean, nasty things to do. We are the richest country on Earth. Republicans don't have to hurt poor people to help the rich. They are deciding to do that. They are deciding to steal from the poor. They are making a conscious decision to betray their constituents and sell out their best interests to MAGA billionaires.

At the end of the day, no matter what my Republican friends say, because of this budget, more kids will go without food. More kids will be malnourished. Because of this budget, parents and grandparents will have to sell their houses to afford medical care. Because of this budget, more consumers will get ripped off. Because of this budget, our air and water will have more toxic chemicals. That is the truth. That is the reality.

Most people in this country feel like the economy doesn't work for them, and it hasn't for a long time. Do you know why? It is because of budgets like this which were written for billionaires and not for regular people. I think plain and simple, that is wrong.

I reject this budget. I reject it not just mathematically, but I reject it morally. I am reminded here of the Book of Matthew, where Jesus says: ``Truly I tell you, whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me.''

This budget steals from those with the least. Let me repeat that. This budget steals from those with the least. It is all so the rich can get richer. I just find that awful. I find that awful. We don't share the same values if you embrace this budget.

Years from now, Mr. Speaker, when we are all gone, we won't be judged by the size of our bank accounts. We won't be judged by how many tax breaks we gave to billionaires. We will be judged by our decency. We will be judged by our compassion. We will be judged by our kindness, and, yes, we will be judged by our work to build a society where everybody has a chance and nobody is left behind.

This is an immoral budget, and I want the American people to know I do not share these values. Democrats do not share these values. I reject this budget. Democrats reject this budget.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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