{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://balint.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=582", "Rep. Becca Balint on Passage of Devastating Republican Tax and Spending Bill", "2025-07-03", "2025", "2025-07", "Democrat", "House", "VT", "Becca Balint", "B001318", "balint.house.gov", "balint", "https://balint.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Rep. Becca Balint (VT-AL) released the following statement on the passage of the Republican tax and spending bill that guts Medicaid, food assistance and other critical programs that Americans rely on. The Republican budget includes over $800 billion in cuts that will decimate Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. These cuts put rural hospitals at risk of immediate closure. It will kick nearly 17 million Americans off their health insurance and throw at least 4 million people off food assistance, all to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and massive corporations. All Democrats voted no.\n\n\u201cThis Republican budget is far and away the cruelest piece of legislation I\u2019ve seen in my career. It\u2019s an utter moral failure,\u201d saidRep. Becca Balint. \u201cThis bill will leave people without food, without healthcare, without options to keep their families afloat. That\u2019s the painful reality of this bill. It comes after the poorest among us to give to the richest, while Americans are already struggling to put food on the table, afford medications, and pay rent in an economy rigged against working people.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m horrified to see the Republican party almost unanimously support propping up billionaires at the expense of their own communities. It\u2019s sickening and speaks to their vision for America. But I\u2019m not giving up hope. It\u2019s going to take all of us fighting together to work to reverse some of the worst policies passed today.\u201d\n\nRepublicans\u2019 reckless tax and spending bill will:\n\nAdd over $3.9 trillion to the national debt, a $1 trillion increase over the House-passed bill.\n\nKick nearly 20 million people off their health insurance and increase health care insurance costs for everyone.\n\nMedicaid is the largest single-payer of maternity care in the United States, covering an estimated 40% of births. One in five women, and nearly half the country\u2019s children, are covered by Medicaid.\n\nDefund Planned Parenthood. The bill prohibits health clinics from accepting Medicaid funds for family planning and reproductive health care services if they provide abortions. The destruction of Planned Parenthood\u2019s critical family planning and reproductive health care clinics will cost taxpayers $52 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and close 200 clinics.\n\nCut to nutritional assistance jeopardizing SNAP for 40 million people including 16 million children, 8 million seniors, 4 million people with disabilities and 1.2 million veterans.\n\nBlock future increases to the Thrifty Food Plan, which determines SNAP benefits.\n\nIncreases household energy costs by an average of $400 and will lead to millions of jobs lost and $197 billion in lost wages.\n\nCut clean energy incentives and add a tax to wind and solar energy.\n\nSpend more than $150 billion in funding for Trump\u2019s cruel immigration enforcement agenda which breaks down our legal immigration system, deports people without due process and has turned its back on asylum seekers and refugees.\n\nRep. Becca Balint is a member of the House Budget Committee. Throughout the budget process, Rep. Balint has offered amendments to protect Social Security and reduce health insurance costs. Her amendments to prevent the House of Representatives from considering legislation that would cut Social Security benefits, increase the retirement age, or privatize Social Security were all rejected by Republicans in the House Budget and Rules Committees. This week, Rep. Balint filed amendments to:\n\nProhibit funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain individuals on the basis of their protected speech,", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T14:40:33Z"]], "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=582"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0836930014193058, "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"}