Patriotic Millionaires Slam House GOP Debt Ceiling Plan for Protecting Rich Tax Cheats while Hurting Poor Families

Earlier this evening, Republicans in the US House of Representatives voted to pass a debt ceiling plan that contains substantial cuts to virtually all areas of discretionary spending for the federal government.

Morris Pearl, chair of Patriotic Millionaires and former managing director at BlackRock, issued the following statement in response:

"The new House debt ceiling plan proves that the GOP really only cares about the rich. In a desperate attempt to cut the debt as much as possible, Kevin McCarthy and his allies have passed a bill that would impose draconian cuts on vital programs like veteran care, nutrition assistance for women, infants, and children, and food programs like Meals on Wheels. Even though they're apparently willing to cripple the federal government, there's one thing they won't do - make the rich pay taxes. In a budget all about "saving money," there's one notable change that would actually cost the government $120 billion - repeal of additional IRS enforcement funding. The House GOP just told America that they believe it is more important to make sure rich tax cheats can get away with breaking the law than it is to make sure poor families have access to food and health care. The cost of repealing the IRS funding is nearly exactly equal to the savings from imposing harsh work requirements on programs like SNAP and Medicaid. This isn’t a genuine attempt to balance the federal budget, it’s just another extremist step by the GOP to cut critical social services in order to protect the wealth of tax cheats in the top 1%."