{"id":41299,"date":"2025-05-17T13:15:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T20:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41299"},"modified":"2025-05-17T13:15:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T20:15:39","slug":"embarrassing-gop-fails-to-pass-their-own-cruel-budget-plan-out-of-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/17\/embarrassing-gop-fails-to-pass-their-own-cruel-budget-plan-out-of-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Embarrassing’: GOP Fails to Pass Their Own ‘Cruel’ Budget Plan Out of Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"House<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) listens as Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) speaks during a markup on May 16, 2025 in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Bill Clark\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is the biggest tax cuts for billionaires in American history paid for by throwing 13.7 million Americans off their healthcare coverage,” said the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Brendan Boyle.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JESSICA CORBETT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 16, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple Republican “fiscal hawks” on Friday voted with Democrats on the U.S. House Budget Committee to block the GOP’s budget reconciliation package\u2014and while high-level negotiations are expected to continue, members were reportedly<\/a> told they could go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They couldn’t agree on how many people to take healthcare away from in order to give billionaires a tax cut,” said<\/a> Rep. Pramila Jayapal<\/a> (D-Wash.), a panel member, after the vote. “Embarrassing. We’ll keep fighting to protect Medicaid and the American people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The five Republicans who voted no were Reps. Josh Brecheen (Okla.), Andrew Clyde (Ga.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Chip Roy<\/a> (Texas), and Lloyd Smucker (Pa.)\u2014though, unlike the others, Smucker changed his vote from yes to no for a procedural reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To be clear\u2014I fully support the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). My vote today in the Budget Committee is a procedural requirement to preserve the committee’s opportunity to reconsider the motion to advance OBBB,” he explained<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/RepJayapal\/status\/1923396163417366870?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1923396163417366870%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fone-big-beautiful-bill-vote<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to<\/a>The Hill<\/em>, Smucker also said that “we’re working through some remaining issues here, there are just a few outstanding issues I think everyone will get to yes, and we’re going to… resolve this as quick as we can and hopefully have a vote, ideally on Monday, and we can advance this bill.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House Freedom Caucus said<\/a> on social media Friday that “Reps. Roy, Norman, Brecheen, Clyde, and others continue to work in good faith to enact the president’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’\u2014we were making progress before the vote in the Budget Committee and will continue negotiations to further improve the reconciliation package. We are not going anywhere, and we will continue to work through the weekend.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday’s failed vote comes after various GOP-controlled panels advanced parts of the package this week, in the face of protests<\/a> from Democratic lawmakers and constituents outraged that Republicans are trying to pass massive tax giveaways for wealthy individuals and corporations while adding $3.8 trillion to the national debt they claim<\/a> to worry about and gutting programs like Medicaid that serve the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The House Budget Committee’s vote is a necessary\u2014but largely performative\u2014step that bundles the 11 different bills Republicans have approved over the last few weeks through their policy committees, including the piece the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee advanced this week<\/a> and the measure the Energy and Commerce Committee approved after an all-night markup<\/a> of Medicaid policies forecast to strip healthcare coverage<\/a> from more than 10 million people,” Politico<\/em>reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Budget Committee’s markup began on Friday, Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) charged<\/a> that “this is a big bill for billionaires.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyle continued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Now, we will hear over the course of this hearing a vigorous debate, and frankly, there is a strong divide between Republicans and some other Republicans. There is also a divide between both sets of Republicans and this side of the dais, I can speak at least as to why it is every Democratic member will be voting no on the bill for billionaires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, besides all of the other important issues involved in this bill, this is the overarching truth. It is the biggest tax cuts for billionaires in American history paid for by throwing 13.7 million Americans off their healthcare coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, those aren’t my claims, that is not subjective. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office just this week confirmed that at least 13,700,000 Americans will lose their healthcare if the GOP bill for billionaires becomes law. That is bad economics. It is unconscionable.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Several other Democrats have spotlighted the GOP’s attempt to strip healthcare from millions of Americans in their critical comments about the megabill, which is backed by Republican President Donald Trump.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This budget is disastrous and cruel, and we stopped it from moving forward,” declared<\/a> Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), a committee member, on Friday. “Republicans have no mandate to rip away health care and food assistance from families.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another panel member, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), said<\/a> after the vote that “even some GOP recognized that this is an ugly lie atop a mountain of lies and dangerous trillions of additional national debt.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They’ll be back with another scheme next week, and we’ll be ready to fight,” he added. “Limiting this bill’s benefits to 98% of Americans and denying them to\u00a0Elon Musk<\/a>\u00a0and the 2% richest would cut this bill’s cost in half and protect the healthcare of millions, which the GOP would otherwise deny.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JESSICA CORBETT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) listens as Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) speaks during a markup on May 16, 2025 in Washington, D.C. \u00a0(Photo: Bill Clark\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images) “It is the biggest tax cuts for billionaires in American history paid for by throwing 13.7 million… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41300,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41299\/revisions\/41300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}