51 GOP Senators Just Voted To Cut $1.5 Trillion from Medicare and Medicaid To Give Super-Rich and Corporations a Tax Cut

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, center, with fellow Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. (Photo: Reuters/Gary Cameron)

51 GOP Senators Just Voted To Cut $1.5 Trillion from Medicare and Medicaid To Give Super-Rich and Corporations a Tax Cut

The Republican budget, declared Sen. Sanders after its passage, "is not a bad bill. It's a horrific bill."

Along strict party lines, the Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday night voted to pass a sweeping budget measure--one criticized as both "despicable" and "horrific" for providing massive giveaways to corporations and the super-rich while eviscerating funding for social programs, healthcare, education, and affordable housing.

"Another dark deed done: GOP passes obscene budget to slash Medicare/Medicaid & explode the deficit - all in the name of tax cuts for the 1%."
--Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon)
The measure passed by 51-49 vote, with only one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, joining every Democrat and the chamber's two Independents who voted against it. Its approval now paves that way for massive tax giveaways to the wealthy and corporations envisioned by President Donald Trump and the GOP in both the House and the Senate.

"51 Republican Senators just voted to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion and Medicare by $500 billion so that millionaires and corporations can get a tax cut. It's immoral and despicable," said TJ Helmstetter, a spokesperson for Americans for Tax Fairness, in a statement immediately following the vote.

Though the budget resolution itself is nonbinding, MoveOn.org's Ben Wikler notes how the Senate passage on Thursday represents the "starting gun for what might be the most consequential legislative fight of the Trump era: the looting of the U.S. treasury to reward billionaire GOP donors and mega-corporations, at the expense of the rest of us." And with the Senate resolution now in place, a reconciliation process can begin with Republicans in the House, meaning the GOP can "shoot for a tax bill without a single Democratic vote."

In the wake of its passage, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)--who earlier this week called the proposal "Robin Hood in reverse" for taking from the poor to give to the rich-- said the "Republicans' budget is not a bad bill. It's a horrific bill."

Sanders was far from alone in his outrage.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) called the vote a "dark deed" and urged people nationwide to stand up and fight back against what the budget represents:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), also vocal in her warnings ahead of the vote, condemned the budget put forth by her Republican colleagues as "garbage".

Here, for the record, is the full roll call of the vote:

Alexander (R-TN), Yea 
Baldwin (D-WI), Nay 
Barrasso (R-WY), Yea 
Bennet (D-CO), Nay 
Blumenthal (D-CT), Nay 
Blunt (R-MO), Yea 
Booker (D-NJ), Nay 
Boozman (R-AR), Yea 
Brown (D-OH), Nay 
Burr (R-NC), Yea 
Cantwell (D-WA), Nay 
Capito (R-WV), Yea 
Cardin (D-MD), Nay 
Carper (D-DE), Nay 
Casey (D-PA), Nay 
Cassidy (R-LA), Yea 
Cochran (R-MS), Yea 
Collins (R-ME), Yea 
Coons (D-DE), Nay 
Corker (R-TN), Yea 
Cornyn (R-TX), Yea 
Cortez Masto (D-NV), Nay 
Cotton (R-AR), Yea 
Crapo (R-ID), Yea 
Cruz (R-TX), Yea 
Daines (R-MT), Yea 
Donnelly (D-IN), Nay 
Duckworth (D-IL), Nay 
Durbin (D-IL), Nay 
Enzi (R-WY), Yea 
Ernst (R-IA), Yea 
Feinstein (D-CA), Nay 
Fischer (R-NE), Yea 
Flake (R-AZ), Yea

 

Franken (D-MN), Nay 
Gardner (R-CO), Yea 
Gillibrand (D-NY), Nay 
Graham (R-SC), Yea 
Grassley (R-IA), Yea 
Harris (D-CA), Nay 
Hassan (D-NH), Nay 
Hatch (R-UT), Yea 
Heinrich (D-NM), Nay 
Heitkamp (D-ND), Nay 
Heller (R-NV), Yea 
Hirono (D-HI), Nay 
Hoeven (R-ND), Yea 
Inhofe (R-OK), Yea 
Isakson (R-GA), Yea 
Johnson (R-WI), Yea 
Kaine (D-VA), Nay 
Kennedy (R-LA), Yea 
King (I-ME), Nay 
Klobuchar (D-MN), Nay 
Lankford (R-OK), Yea 
Leahy (D-VT), Nay 
Lee (R-UT), Yea 
Manchin (D-WV), Nay 
Markey (D-MA), Nay 
McCain (R-AZ), Yea 
McCaskill (D-MO), Nay 
McConnell (R-KY), Yea 
Menendez (D-NJ), Nay 
Merkley (D-OR), Nay 
Moran (R-KS), Yea 
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea 
Murphy (D-CT), Nay 
Murray (D-WA), Nay 
Nelson (D-FL), Nay 
Paul (R-KY), Nay 
Perdue (R-GA), Yea 
Peters (D-MI), Nay 
Portman (R-OH), Yea 
Reed (D-RI), Nay 
Risch (R-ID), Yea 
Roberts (R-KS), Yea 
Rounds (R-SD), Yea 
Rubio (R-FL), Yea 
Sanders (I-VT), Nay 
Sasse (R-NE), Yea 
Schatz (D-HI), Nay 
Schumer (D-NY), Nay 
Scott (R-SC), Yea 
Shaheen (D-NH), Nay 
Shelby (R-AL), Yea 
Stabenow (D-MI), Nay 
Strange (R-AL), Yea 
Sullivan (R-AK), Yea 
Tester (D-MT), Nay 
Thune (R-SD), Yea 
Tillis (R-NC), Yea 
Toomey (R-PA), Yea 
Udall (D-NM), Nay 
Van Hollen (D-MD), Nay 
Warner (D-VA), Nay 
Warren (D-MA), Nay 
Whitehouse (D-RI), Nay 
Wicker (R-MS), Yea 
Wyden (D-OR), Nay 
Young (R-IN), Yea
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