04.04.25

Merkley: Democrats are Here to Expose this Fraud, Fight for Families

Link to Merkley’s Speech is HERE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, took to the Senate floor to highlight the purpose of the Republicans’ budget plan: to give tax breaks to billionaires at the expense of working families.

Merkley’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, follow.

M. President:

Families lose, billionaires win.

That is the Republican plan.

This Republican budget slashes $2 trillion from programs that families depend on.

Why?  To fund even more massive tax giveaways to billionaires.

We found out yesterday, that the new estimate of the cost of this bill is $7 trillion — that’s trillion with a “T” — of unpaid for tax cuts over the next 10 years.

And all of this will snowball into at least $37 trillion over the next 30 years!

Then Republicans will turn around and lie to the American people, telling us
with a straight face that giving trillions of dollars in more tax giveaways to billionaires magically won’t cost a dime!

This is exactly what people hate about Washington.

They hate the blatant lies, they hate the self-dealing, they hate the corruption.

They say: the billionaires can take care of themselves – what are you doing to help families back home, like mine?

With this one bill alone – Republicans are fighting to give $22 trillion to the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans while the bottom 10 percent get enough to buy one cup of coffee — so don’t drink it all at once!

Democrats are fighting for families – fighting for Medicaid, housing, health care, education, child care – all the things families need to thrive.

How is any of this possible?

Congress created the budget process in 1974 to get our deficits under control.

That process was built on three pillars:

Not increasing deficits within the budget window;

Not increasing deficits after the first ten years of the budget;

Preserve the integrity of the process by using independent, non-partisan numbers to honestly lay out costs and savings.

In 1996, Republicans wanted to pass tax giveaways for the wealthy, but they didn’t have 60 votes to break a filibuster – so they demolished the first pillar of the budget process that says you can’t run deficits in the first 10 years.

With that first pillar gone, Republicans gave even more massive tax giveaways to the wealthy in the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, and then even more in the 2017 Trump tax cuts.

Together, these tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans have exploded our deficits and debt.

Remember when I said that Congress was worried that deficits were getting dangerously out of control in 1974?

In 1974, the debt-to-GDP ratio was 23 percent – In 2025, it’s 100 percent.

In 1974, annual deficits were about $6 billion – In 2025, it’s about $2 trillion.

In 1974, the total debt was about $475 billion – In 2025, it’s about $37 trillion…

But the Republicans don’t care – with this budget, they are trying to destroy the second and third pillars of the budget process to make these billionaire tax giveaways permanent.

It has taken over 249 years, since the Founders signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, for the U.S. to accumulate nearly $37 trillion in debt – and today the Republicans want to add that same amount of money to our debt with one bill -- to fund massive tax giveaways for billionaires.

For thirty years Republicans have been changing the rules to give tax cuts to the wealthy – and families have been stuck paying the bill.

Now, they are trying to slash the programs families rely on.

Candidate Trump ran promising to be a champion for families, but President Trump is being a champion for billionaires.

This is the Great Betrayal.

 In February, Democrats voted for amendment after amendment to help families – and Republicans voted against every single one.

Democrats voted for an amendment to protect Medicaid — Republicans voted against it.

Democrats voted for an amendment to lower the costs of groceries — Republicans voted against it.

Democrats voted for an amendment to lower the costs of housing — Republicans voted against it.

Democrats voted for an amendment to lower the costs of prescription drugs — Republicans voted against it.

Democrats voted for an amendment to lower the costs of health insurance — Republicans voted against it.

Democrats voted for every amendment to help families thrive...

Republicans voted against every amendment to help families to instead fund massive tax giveaways to billionaires.

If this budget doesn’t help families, then who does it help?

We just need to look at who Donald Trump wanted in the front row at his Inaugural Address. 

Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire of Meta, which owns Facebook, that gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire of Amazon, who gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

Sundar Pichai, the billionaire of Alphabet, which owns Google, that gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.

And, finally, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink – and, now, infamously, DOGE – spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to elect Trump and other Republicans.

And those on the contributions we know about!

We don’t know about all the secret dark money they may have spent on the election.

And how are Republicans rewarding them?

By slashing programs families rely on to deliver trillions of dollars of tax giveaways to billionaires.

Billionaires who don’t care if we slash Medicaid…or raise grocery prices…or raise housing prices…or raise prescription drug prices…or raise health insurance prices – because they have more money than they will ever need!

That isn’t government of, by, and for the people – that’s government of, by, and for the powerful!

Democrats have a different vision.

Democrats want a budget where billionaires pay their fair share and families win…

Instead of the Republican budget where families lose and billionaires win.

Instead of the Republican budget that slashes $2 trillion from programs that families depend on to pay for tax cuts for billionaires that will add at least $37 trillion over the next 30 years.

Instead of the Republican budget that destroys the pillars the budget was built on in a desperate attempt to hide from the American people the true cost of their billionaire tax giveaways.

Democrats are here to expose this fraud!

Democrats are here to fight for families!

Democrats are here to stop this Republican budget in which families lose, billionaires win!

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