Rep. Gene Green Opposes GOP "Balanced Budget Amendment' to Cut Funding from Social Security, Medicare

Press Release

Today, Congressman Gene Green (TX-29) released the following statement before the House of Representatives vote on a "balanced budget amendment' that would cut federal programs like Social Security and Medicare:

"This Monday, we heard that federal deficits are going to be almost $2 trillion more over the next decade than previously projected. While there is more than one reason for our exploding deficit, the GOP's tax reform bill increased our deficit by almost 20%.

Last fall, I and many of my colleagues voiced our fears that the so-called party of fiscal conservatism was going to try to pay for their tax bill by gutting Medicare and Social Security.

I agree with the amendment's authors that Congress urgently needs to address our debt. If Congress advanced a carefully structured balanced budget amendment, with waivers to allow fast action to stabilize the markets in the event of a financial crisis like the one we faced just a few short years ago, and with waivers to allow us to fulfill the promises that we have already made to our country's senior citizens, I would support it.

But this amendment does not do that. It endangers our long-term prosperity in order to pay short-term lip service to fiscal responsibility.

I do not support potentially pulling the rug out from under Americans counting on their Medicare and Social Security benefits, who have been relying on the promises our government made to them for their whole lives. I do not support action that increases the likelihood that our country will be plunged once again into recession, endangering markets and economies worldwide. And I do not agree that the cost of larger tax breaks for multinational companies or of other fiscal decisions made by Congress should be borne by our country's elderly and sick."

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