Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Monday rallied fellow Home Democrats to unite in opposition to President Trump’s proposed price range plan, which he says would pave the way in which to draconian cuts in well-liked applications like Medicaid to fund large tax cuts for the rich.
Lashing out at what he derides because the “GOP tax scam,” the Brooklyn minority chief urged Democratic lawmakers to remain near Capitol Hill as a collection of deliberate Republican votes unfolds as early as Tuesday.
“Far-right extremists are determined to push through $4.5 trillion of tax breaks for wealthy Republican donors and well-connected corporations, explode the debt and saddle everyday Americans with the bill by ending Medicaid as we know it,” Jeffries wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter.
“We must be at full strength to enhance our opportunity to stop the GOP Tax Scam in its tracks.”
Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. (AP Photograph/Alex Brandon)
Democrats plan to assemble Tuesday on the steps of the Capitol to “make sure that the country can hear from everyday Americans whose lives will be devastated by the Republican budget scheme,” Jeffries mentioned.
Republican lawmakers led by Home Speaker Mike Johnson are pushing to move massive chunks of President Trump’s agenda by passing what he calls a single “big, beautiful bill.”
Though the GOP controls each homes of Congress, Republicans solely maintain a three-vote majority within the Home. Meaning Johnson can probably solely afford to lose a few votes from his facet of the aisle, which can be a tall order.
Some Republican fiscal hardliners need the plan to incorporate even deeper cuts whereas a number of moderates from swing districts worry voters will punish them for going together with deep cuts to well-liked social applications.
One price range hawk, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Indiana) has already mentioned she opposes the plan and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), an everyday thorn in Johnson’s facet, has been telling fellow lawmakers he’s additionally in opposition to it.
If Jeffries can persuade fellow Democrats to vote in lockstep in opposition to the plan, he has a preventing probability of blocking it and inflicting a significant political black eye on Trump.
Democrats are additionally enjoying up the loud backlash some GOP lawmakers confronted final week from voters of their districts who gave them an earful in regards to the cuts and billionaire Elon Musk’s mercurial budget-slashing efforts.
“Concerned citizens across America, from the Heartland to the Central Valley of California, the Upper Midwest to the Deep South, the Northeast suburbs to Southwestern towns, made clear that they do not support the House Republican budget,” Jeffries mentioned within the letter.
The outspoken pushback is an effort by Jeffries to carry Democrats’ spirit of resistance to Trump amid the flurry of government orders he has issued in his first month in workplace.
It remembers the trouble by activists to cripple Trump’s agenda in his first time period, an rebellion that bore fruit when Democrats swept to massive wins within the 2018 midterm elections.
