Medicaid and Social Security Cuts

Floor Speech

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, tonight in the middle of the night and in darkness, away from the view of the American people, hidden in some committee room in the Capitol, the Rules Committee will meet. They are scheduled to meet at 1 a.m. in the morning when Americans are sleeping and when families are resting awaiting the next day.

They are scheduled to meet to discuss at length Medicaid cuts. More than one-half of the residents in the district that I have the privilege to represent, the 13th Congressional District, encompassed by Harlem, east Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, and the northwest Bronx, more than one-half--close to 500,000 of my constituents--are Medicaid recipients. They receive primary and emergency healthcare. Almost 4 million residents in New York City, one-half of the city, rely on Medicaid.

Mr. Speaker, this discussion that will be held in the middle of the night when most Americans will not be tuned in is a life-and-death discussion about cuts to perhaps the most important Federal program that impacts the daily health and life of people across the country, the Medicaid program.

Again, over 3 million New York City residents are also enrolled in the New York State Medicaid Pharmacy program, the so-called OTC program, the Over-the-Counter program, which allows coverage of prescription drugs and certain over-the-counter medication and goods, including food. So this is a life-and-death discussion that our Republican colleagues are having in the middle of the night after promising the American people that Medicaid will be safe from deep cuts.

Republicans have spent time and will spend time delivering a bill that will devastate--again, Mr. Speaker, will devastate Medicaid enrollment rates. This, again, will happen in the middle of the night. They are scheduled to meet at 1 a.m. in the morning.

Mr. Speaker, 14 million Americans will lose their healthcare, and safety net hospitals will be in danger of closing. Yes, even senior homes, nursing homes, will be facing severe cuts and potential closing, and people could die. This is a life-and-death discussion, Mr. Speaker. All of this is to pay for severe tax cuts for the very wealthy.

The bill will require harsh work requirements for Medicaid recipients. It will force people who are ill or sick to go to work to receive the benefits that the program offers that will terminate coverage for millions of low-income Americans including seniors, children, and veterans.

Republicans also have introduced a $300-million cut to the SNAP program, yes, on food stamps, which would impact 300,000 people in my district, many of them children and seniors who rely on the benefit to eat.

Mr. Speaker, 35 percent of them are children.

This will be the largest cut to the Food Stamp Program in our Nation's history. In the middle of the night, Republicans will cut Medicaid and will cut food stamps when people are not watching. This is nothing more than a GOP tax scam that gives billions of dollars in tax breaks to millionaires and gives nothing back to working-class families but empty stomachs and Medicaid debt to the working class.

Mr. Speaker, the billionaire wins and families lose with this bill. Let's fight back.

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