WASHINGTON— Today, Vice President J.D. Vance cast a tiebreaking vote with a 50-50 split of Senators who voted to pass the budget reconciliation bill. The following is a statement from Demelza Baer, director of the Public Policy Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“Make no mistake, millions of Americans’ health and livelihoods are now at risk due to this dangerous bill, which will take healthcare and food assistance away from millions, deepen the racial wealth gap, make college less accessible to the working and middle class, and fuel incarceration and racial profiling through a multi-billion dollar investment in expanding immigration enforcement and building detention centers to rival the size of federal prison system.
“Black people and other people of color, low-income adults and children, and people with disabilities will be disproportionately harmed in the aftermath of this bill, andnearly every American but the wealthiest will be worse off – including the next generation who have to pay for the over $3 trillion dollar increase in our federal deficit.
“We urge the House of Representatives to reject this bill and return to the drawing board. At a time of rising prices, economic precarity, and global instability, Congress should be laser-focused on improving the lives of people working to support themselves and their families, not redistributing resources from the poorest Americans to the wealthiest and corporations.”
