In New Letter To President Trump, Senate & House Democrats Urge The President To Keep his Promise & Reject Proposed GOP Budgets That Cut Critical Medicare & Medicaid Programs In Order To Fund Tax Cuts For The Wealthy

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Senate and House Democrats today wrote a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to reject the GOP’s proposed budget that would cut vital programs like Medicare and Medicaid in order to finance tax cuts for the wealthy. During his presidential campaign, then President-elect Trump vowed he would not touch such critical programs that middle class Americans rely on when they are in most need. Democrats urged the President to keep this promise and reject the GOP’s proposals, which include roughly $500 billion in cuts to Medicare and more than $1trillion in cuts to Medicaid. The Democrats said cutting these critical programs that help middle class people every day in order to fund massive tax relief for the top 1 percent is just plain wrong.

The letter was penned by U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ranking Member on the Senate Budget Committee Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Ranking Member on the House Budget Committee Congressman John Yarmuth (D-KY), Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ranking Member on the House Ways & Means Committee Congressman Richard Neal (D-MA), and Ranking Member on the House Energy & Commerce Committee Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ).

A copy of the letter sent to President Trump appears below:

Dear Mr. President:

We write to urge you to uphold your repeated promises to not cut Medicare and to publicly reject the almost $500 billion in Medicare benefit cuts in both House and Senate Republicans’ Fiscal Year 2018 budget resolutions.  We also ask you reject the more than $1 trillion in Medicaid benefit cuts in the House and Senate budget resolutions.  Medicare and Medicaid should not be used to finance new tax breaks for the wealthy, and we request that you pledge to veto any legislation that includes these cuts.

Nine out of ten Americans oppose cutting Medicare, including 85 percent of Republicans. During the campaign, you pledged numerous times not to cut Medicare in any way, and as recently as April said, “the concept of Medicare, I'm not touching.” 

More than 55 million seniors and Americans with disabilities depend on Medicare. The staggering benefit cuts proposed in the Republican budgets would subject millions of these Americans, many of whom already live on tight budgets, to soaring out-of-pocket health costs, higher premiums and reductions in benefits.  Even deeper cuts would be triggered if Congress adds trillions to the deficit in tax cuts for the wealthy as the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act would then require an additional automatic cut (“sequester”) to Medicare and other domestic programs.

Additionally, nine out of ten people do not want to see Medicaid cut. Americans resoundingly rejected cuts to Medicaid this year and fought to protect care for the more than 70 million Americans that benefit from it.  Hard-working families, children, seniors, veterans, those with disabilities, people struggling with addiction, and rural communities would face immense suffering – but the proposed budgets cut Medicaid even deeper than any previous legislation.

Medicare and Medicaid are promises to working and middle-class families that quality health care will be there when they need it most. It is a promise that we must not break. Americans have spoken passionately and clearly to say that our country should move toward covering more people and reducing the cost of care – not the opposite. We hope to work with you and Congressional Republicans in a bipartisan manner to achieve this goal.

We ask you to maintain your ongoing promise to protect Medicare, to oppose cuts to Medicaid and to swiftly reassure the millions of Americans who rely on them that they will not be cut to fund tax breaks for the wealthy.

Sincerely,

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Senate Democratic Leader

U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Ranking Member, Senate Budget Committee 

U.S. Representative John Yarmuth, Ranking Member, House Budget Committee

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee               

U.S. Representative Richard Neal, Ranking Member, House Ways & Means Committee

U.S. Representative Frank Pallone Jr., Ranking Member, House Energy & Commerce Committee