GOP budget bill

 Heidi Shierholz, President, Economic Policy Institute - Congress just passed one of the most destructive economic bills in generations. The Republican budget will gut Medicaid, slash food aid for families, and shutter rural hospitals—just to give tax breaks that will go overwhelmingly to the wealthy. It is a staggering upward redistribution of income.

The tax breaks for the rich are so huge—$100,000+ per year for the richest 0.1%—that even after gutting aid for the most vulnerable, this bill will still increase the national debt by nearly $4 trillion. To cover up how grotesque this is, Republicans have invented a new, completely bogus way to measure the bill’s costs.

The bill also turbocharges an authoritarian-style immigration regime—funding internment camps, mass surveillance, and waves of deportations that will kill millions of jobs.

And, surprise, the GOP structured the bill’s provisions along deeply cynical political timelines. The rich get their tax cuts before the midterms. Some of the most painful (and unpopular) cuts to families? Not until after. It is shameless. And that means that—by design—this bill will cause economic pain that will unfold slowly but steadily over many years. It’s engineered to dodge accountability.

But make no mistake—the pain will be devastating. Kids will lose food assistance. Families will lose health care. The economic shock will hit hardest in communities least equipped to withstand it.

It’s a perfect storm of long-term economic sabotage. This bill will weaken economic growth over the next decade, making this country poorer. All to give huge tax cuts to the richest.