{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=13&itemid=1595", "Grijalva Votes Against Unfair Budget Deal That Fails to Protect Unemployed, Fails to Create Jobs and Fails to Close Corporate Loopholes", "2013-12-13", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "AZ", "Ra\u00fal Grijalva", "G000551", "grijalva.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C.\u00a0\u2013 Rep. Ra\u00fal M. Grijalva last night voted against the year-end budget deal \u2013 created by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) \u2013 that passed the House despite failing to address most of the nation\u2019s pressing economic issues. Grijalva\u00a0hosted\u00a0a Wednesday press conference on Capitol Hill with working and retired Americans on the damage the deal could have done to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security if not for diligent advocacy by Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders and their allies.\r\n\r\n\t\u201cThe best way to help the American people is to create jobs and get more families back into this economy, and this deal doesn\u2019t do that,\u201d Grijalva said. \u201cI don\u2019t see enough here that\u00a0helps\u00a0the people I represent.\u00a0This package\u00a0doesn\u2019t help people looking for jobs, it doesn\u2019t help people wondering what they\u2019re supposed to do when their unemployment insurance is cut off, and it doesn\u2019t create any new opportunities for working Americans. It used the flawed Budget Control Act as its starting point, and that meant the finished product wasn\u2019t strong enough to earn my support.\u201d\r\n\r\n\tThe sequester portion of the Budget Control Act passed in 2011 included a reduction in payment rates to Medicare health care providers that would have expired in 2021. Last night\u2019s budget deal extends those cuts to fiscal years 2022 and 2023. It also postpones, but does not eliminate, certain scheduled cuts to future budget years\u2019 federal education and job creation funding. Other cuts will go forward on schedule.\r\n\r\n\tIn addition to ignoring the impending end of unemployment insurance benefits for approximately 1.3 million Americans later this month, the deal falls well short of necessarily funding levels for major programs that help Southern Arizonans, Grijalva pointed out.\u00a0The graph at the right shows how far below historical funding levels this deal falls given its overall $1.012 trillion spending level for 2014 \u2013 more than half of which ($520.5 billion) will be spent on the military.\r\n\r\n\t\u201cWe started cutting too deeply years ago, and we\u2019ve just been cutting more ever since,\u201d Grijalva said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0as though the only job Congress is here to do is make things tougher for people.\u00a0If we\u00a0want\u00a0an economy that really creates growth and opportunity, all we have to do is look at what we\u2019ve gotten from austerity economics to see we\u2019re not getting results.\u201d\r\n\r\n\tGrijalva agreed with the negotiators\u2019 decision not to cut Medicaid or Social Security benefits at this point and said those programs \u201cshould be expanded rather than granted a last-second reprieve.\u201d However, he said, \u201cdoing less damage than you\u2019re threatening to do isn\u2019t the same thing as passing a good law. When Congress comes back in January, expanding job opportunities and helping working people succeed in this economy is going to stay my top priority, and I hope my colleagues say the same. We can\u2019t just check this box and say we\u2019ve done our bit for working families. Congress needs to continue a longer and very necessary conversation about economic inequality and job opportunity in this country, and I look forward to doing that as early as possible next year.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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": ["http://grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=13&itemid=1595"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8927267044782639, "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"}