Authorizing the En Bloc Consideration in Executive Session of Certain Nominations on the Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, in the Republican ``Beautiful For Billionaires'' bill that Senator Sanders was just referring to, there were a great many dirty tricks tucked in there to hurt people and make billionaires wealthier and happier and more free to pollute.

Of all the dirty tricks in that bill, perhaps the trickiest was the one that was so hidden that it wasn't even mentioned in the bill, and that is, about a half-trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare.

We have heard a lot about the trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid. But without ever mentioning it, the Republican ``Beautiful For Billionaires'' bill will cut Medicare by half a trillion dollars, give or take.

How does it do that? It does that by adding $4.1 trillion to the deficit--one bill, one act of Congress, $4.1 trillion piled on our national debt.

There is another law that exists on the statute books of the United States of America, the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act. What does that do? It requires a look at bills that create enormous additions to our national debt. And to protect our fisc, it requires mandatory cuts to other accounts.

That is supposed to discourage running up the debt by trillions in the first place, and it is supposed to remedy that defect with automatic cuts.

Guess what is lined up for automatic cuts under the Statutory Pay-As- You-Go Act? Yep, Medicare. The same Medicare that we saw that huge demonstration from Republicans about during President Biden's State of the Union speech when he said Republicans want to cut Medicare, and they rose in ire and anger to say: No, that is not possibly true. And he said: Oh, I think we have unanimity here. I think we have agreement: no cuts to Medicare.

Well, that didn't last long. The cuts to Medicare just had to be well hidden, and that is what this bill does.

We have asked the Congressional Budget Office what it means. How big will the cuts be? When will they take place?

Well, here is the outcome: Given the magnitude of this massive increase, it will create a $45 billion cut to Medicare in 2026--next year. Next year, $45 billion cut to Medicare.

Unfortunately, it is not a one-time thing. It is going to keep going. In the following year, it goes up and up. By 2034, the end of the 10- year budget window that we work in, the annual cut to Medicare will be $76 billion.

If you stack up all those cuts year after year to Medicare, starting in 2026 and going through 2034, the total cut to Medicare from the ``Beautiful For Billionaires'' bill is $491 billion. That is where I get half a trillion from. I am rounding the $491 billion number CBO gave us for the total hit to Medicare done by Republicans in their ``Beautiful For Billionaires'' bill.

To head this off, we are going to have to pass legislation that exempts Medicare from those coming PAYGO cuts that are going to happen automatically by operation of law unless we take that step.

Now, Republicans could have, at the time, put a simple provision in their ``Beautiful For Billionaires'' bill saying: For purposes of this bill, Medicare is exempted from the PAYGO Program.

It could have protected, with very simple language, against a looming half-trillion-dollar cut to Medicare. They chose not to. They chose not to.

The question is, Was that an oversight or is this a trick to try to tee up cuts to Medicare that they don't have to own? Well, here is a clue as to whether that was a trick or an oversight: On the other side of this building, over at the House of Representatives, the Republican- controlled House is sending over a continuing resolution to fund the government. They could have put this correction in that bill. They could have added a simple line saying that when it comes to Medicare and the huge addition to the debt from our ``Beautiful for Billionaire's'' bill, pay-go sequestration will be lifted. Again, they chose not to do that.

The American public might not be familiar with sequestration and automatic cuts and how all that works, but I will tell you what--people around here are. Lots of people around here know very well that when you dump $4 trillion-plus onto the national debt, it is going to cascade into cuts to these other accounts, and those other accounts include Medicare.

So to plead innocence about this not being the intention all along is completely unsupportable. To say that it was just an innocent oversight in the ``Beautiful for Billionaire's'' bill is unsupportable. And now, with the continuing resolution coming over from the House, we have more proof that this is a deliberate cut targeted at Medicare done exclusively by House and Senate Republicans.

I want to focus on protecting Medicare. I have a Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act that would require people with incomes over $400,000 to pony up equivalent to what regular workers pay on the higher part of their salary. That would protect benefits and Medicare as far as the eye can see--as far as the actuarial eye can see--for Medicare and Social Security.

I want to put everybody here on record that we need to undo the looming half-trillion-dollar cut to Social Security before it starts to hit families in Rhode Island and elsewhere around the country.

Res. 404, submitted earlier today; that the resolution be agreed to; that its preamble be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, there we are.

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