WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, today spoke on the Senate floor about the budget resolution and tax cut framework currently before the Senate. During his remarks, Senator King highlighted the impact the budget resolution and tax framework will have on working people, seniors, and future generations of Americans.

“If we pass unfunded tax cuts, they aren’t really tax cuts, they are simply a deferral of the tax from us to our kids,” Senator King. “We don’t have to pay the tax, but the money to be spent is going to be spent. So the hole gets deeper, we borrow that money, and our kids and our grandchildren are going to have to pay that back with interest.

“[…] I believe that there are important areas where tax cuts are necessary in order to make us more competitive, in order to help grow our economy. But I don’t think what I’ve heard so far is the answer. And there are many problems with what have been described. I’m willing to hold my fire and see what the Finance Committee comes up with and see whether – as the Senator from Pennsylvania [Pat Toomey] said – it will be an open and bipartisan process with amendments. If that’s the case, I think we could come up – on a bipartisan basis – with a reasonable tax change, tax cuts, tax reform that will strengthen our economy without adding to the deficit and without requiring massive cuts to programs such as Medicaid and Medicare that are so important to millions of Americans. It can be done right.”

During his speech Senator King highlighted the negative impact the budget resolution could have on seniors through its significant proposed cuts to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The budget resolution would cut approximately $473 billion from Medicare and $1.1 trillion from Medicaid over the next ten years to help fund a tax cut framework that would disproportionately support the top income earners in the country. Senator King also underscored the fact that 70 percent of nursing home beds are paid for by Medicaid, and cuts to the program would adversely affect seniors across the country. With Maine’s aging population, these cuts could also have a devastating impact on seniors in the state and would significantly threaten the financial stability of rural hospitals which serve as one of the top employers in fifteen out of sixteen Maine counties.

Senator King also expressed concerns that the tax framework outlined by the Senate majority neither pays for itself nor spurs economic growth, citing both the federal tax cuts in the mid-2000s and the 2012 tax cuts in Kansas that incited an increased budget deficit and a lag in job creation.

Senator King has consistently called for a responsible, balanced, and long-term approach to addressing our national debt and deficit, and was named a “Fiscal Hero” in 2016 by Campaign to Fix the Debt. The Budget Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2018 budget resolution by a 12 to 11 party-line vote. 

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