{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://balint.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=528", "Rep. Becca Balint Joins Democrats in Taking Down Cruel Republican Budget", "2025-05-16", "2025", "2025-05", "Democrat", "House", "VT", "Becca Balint", "B001318", "balint.house.gov", "balint", "https://balint.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Rep. Becca Balint (VT-AL) and Budget Democrats successfully blocked the Republican Budget that would have slashed Medicaid, food assistance and other critical programs that Americans rely on. The Republican plan cuts over $880 billion in cuts that would decimate Medicaid, risking the health care coverage for over 13.7 million Americans to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and massive corporations. These cuts would put rural hospitals at risk of immediate closure due to these cuts, including many of Vermont\u2019s hospitals.\n\n\u201cBudget Committee Republicans voted down their own bill because it wasn\u2019t extreme enough to deny health care to 13.7 million Americans, they want to take it even further,\u201d said Rep. Balint. \u201cThis failure means another opportunity to fight for what Americans need and want: affordable health care and an economy that works for all of us.\u201d\n\nThe Republican Budget included:\n\n$7 trillion in deficit-financed tax cuts: $5.5 trillion that Republicans fraudulently claim are free, plus another $1.5 trillion in additional revenue losses\n\n$880 billion in cuts that will decimate Medicaid\n\n$230 billion in cuts that threaten food assistance\n\n$5 trillion debt limit increase (Senate instruction)\n\nMore than $14 trillion in new debt over the decade\n\nThe Treasury Department found that the extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts would give an average annual tax cut of $32,118 for those in the top 1 percent (family income over approximately $750,000 a year) and an average annual tax cut of $314,266 for those in the top 0.1 percent (making more than $3.5 million a year). Meanwhile, working families will only get a few hundred dollars in tax cuts a year.\n\nRead her opening remarks here:\n\n\u201cA budget is a reflection of our values, our priorities. What we view as the most important; and who we view as the most important. This Republican reconciliation package is cruel. It makes steep cuts to Medicaid. Millions and millions of people will lose their healthcare because of these cuts. Rural hospitals across this country will close because they won\u2019t be able to make their margins to stay open. Medicaid is that margin.\n\n\u201cMy Republican colleagues twice voted on the previous budget framework that made steep cuts to Medicaid. And they said over and over that there were not going to be cuts to Medicaid.\n\n\u201cAnd yet here we are. My Republican colleagues are making cuts to Medicaid. And millions and millions of people will lose their healthcare.\n\n\u201cBut it\u2019s not just a cruel budget. It\u2019s also a cynical one.\n\n\u201cWhy? Why do I use the word cynical? Because these cuts to Medicaid AND the billions of dollars in cuts to food programs are being made to help pay for a massive tax break for the wealthiest in this country. Food and healthcare versus even more money for people who don\u2019t need Medicaid or food assistance. So, yes, I think it\u2019s cruel and I think it\u2019s cynical.\n\n\u201cAnd get this\u2013despite being lectured repeatedly by Republicans about our country\u2019s deficit, this bill actually adds trillions of dollars to the deficit. I\u2019m serious. Trillions of dollars.\n\n\u201cSo people will lose healthcare. Kids and veterans will go hungry. Rural hospitals face closures. And the very rich will get even richer at the expense of our children and grandchildren who will shoulder the burden of the additional debt.\n\n\u201cAmericans overwhelmingly do not want cuts to Medicaid or to food programs. 81% And when we see the full impact\u2014when folks realize what\u2019s being done in their name\u2014they will be outraged. Because it\u2019s a betrayal.\n\n\u201cAmericans can\u2019t pay their rent right now. Grocery prices are too high. Prescription drug prices are too high. And costs will get higher because of Trump\u2019s stupid tariff regime. And small businesses are really struggling. This is Trump\u2019s economy and it\u2019s rigged against working people.\n\n\u201cThis budget is not for working people or the middle class. It\u2019s not for folks living paycheck to paycheck. It\u2019s not for rural communities where health outcomes are the worst.\n\n\u201cOur constituents are struggling. They feel that despite how hard they work, they can\u2019t get ahead. They\u2019re angry. They want fairness. They want a decent life for themselves and their families. We need to be their voices in this committee.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s not add to the struggles of our people back home. They deserve so much better than this. And Americans are fed up with the way that they are being treated.\u201d\n\nWatch her full remarks here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T00:49:36Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://balint.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=528"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.3734918795526028, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}