Congressman McGarvey Makes Budget Committee Debut with Fiery Speech Slamming Republican Tax Scam
“It reads like a love letter to billionaires… This is a scam, plain and simple.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 13, 2025) – Today, Congressman Morgan McGarvey (KY-03) made his debut on the powerful House Budget Committee during a markup hearing on the Republican budget proposal, which includes over $4.5 trillion in tax cuts paid for by deep cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Let’s call the Republican budget proposal what it is – a total scam and betrayal of the American middle class.
It reads like a love letter to billionaires, which we all know is the point. This is their end game.
Billionaires like Elon Musk poured hundreds of millions into the 2024 election, and now they are cashing in on that investment.
What do these billionaires want so desperately? Tax cuts. Not for us, for them.
It’s that simple! Tax cuts for billionaires and the most profitable companies, paid for by our kids, our seniors, veterans, and anyone who works hard for a paycheck.
All so the richest man in the world can get even richer – and so that companies like Tesla can continue to pay zero — that’s zero — in federal taxes, despite bringing in billions of dollars.
This is a scam, plain and simple.
The Republican budget scam will hurt our most vulnerable – including our kids, seniors, and veterans.
Someone’s illness should never be a death sentence, but this budget will rip away health insurance from millions of Americans.
In Kentucky, we know this all too well.
We had the most successful rollout of Medicaid expansion in the country. Nearly 25% of Kentuckians have Medicaid. 440,000 Kentuckians got health insurance for the first time because of the expansion of Medicaid.
That’s now all at risk. Republicans want to rip this coverage away so the ultra-wealthy can get even richer.
But these cuts go far beyond health care.
We have a hunger crisis in this country. Millions of American families struggle to put food on the table and rely on programs like SNAP to survive.
The Republican budget scam puts these food assistance programs on the chopping block – including for over 35,000 Louisvillians who count on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
And who does this hurt?
Countless seniors and veterans also face food insecurity, including thousands of veterans across Kentucky who rely on SNAP.
Let’s be clear: a cut to SNAP is a cut to our veterans, who we made a sacred promise to support after they risked everything for us.
As if hurting millions of Americans wasn’t enough, Republicans’ math doesn’t even add up.
I went to law school so I wouldn’t have to do math, but I do understand some basic addition and subtraction.
Republicans want to cut your benefits by one trillion dollars – but they want to spend $4.6 trillion on tax cuts for the point-one percent.
Even if you take the rosiest forecasts and account for growth, that is over $2.5 trillion that Republicans are adding to our deficit. Where is that money going? And more importantly, who is that money going to?
They’re robbing you to line Elon Musk's pockets. That’s the truth.
Republicans have been plotting this scheme for years.
They used to want to hide the fact that they are ripping off the middle class and bending the knee to their billionaire donors.
But now, Republicans are openly bragging about it. Donald Trump promised all of these ultra-wealthy donors gathered at Mar-a-Lago, saying – quote – “You’re rich as hell… we’re gonna give you tax cuts.”
Enough is enough – this has to stop.
House Democrats will not cede an inch. We will continue fighting for working families, for balanced budgets, for budgets that work for the American people. Not this Republican budget scam.
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