216 GOP House Members Just Voted to Destroy the Safety Net and Deliver a Trillion-Dollar Tax Cut to the Rich

"Two hundred sixteen members of the House just voted to hurt millions of vulnerable Americans," said Morris Pearl of Patriotic Millionaires. (Photo: CSPAN)

216 GOP House Members Just Voted to Destroy the Safety Net and Deliver a Trillion-Dollar Tax Cut to the Rich

"The representatives who just chose the bank accounts of their donors over the health and wellbeing of their constituents should be ashamed."

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed a Senate-approved budget resolution that moves Republicans one step closer to their ultimate goal of delivering massive tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and imposing "grotesque" and "heartless" cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and other life-saving safety net programs.

"The representatives who just chose the bank accounts of their donors over the health and wellbeing of their constituents should be ashamed."
--Morris Pearl, Patriotic Millionaires

The final vote tally was 216-212, with 20 Republicans defecting from their party. No Democrats backed the measure.

Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, called the GOP budget an "immoral calamity" in a statement following Thursday's vote.

"The Republicans in the House have just advanced an immoral tax plan that will have disastrous real-world consequences for many millions of Americans," Clemente said. "It's a calamity of their own making, and voters will remember it."

Despite insistence from President Donald Trump and the GOP that their budget is pro-working class, analysis after analysis has shown that their proposals would in fact raise taxes on many middle class families while sending an enormous windfall--$1.5 trillion over the next decade--to the top one percent.

Meanwhile, notesVox's Dylan Matthews, "the federal welfare state would be rolled back in just about every dimension."

"All non-Medicare health programs would see a cut of $1.3 trillion, or nearly 30 percent, by 2027," Matthews adds. "Medicare would be cut too, to the tune of $473 billion. There is $1 trillion over 10 years in mystery cuts to mandatory programs, cuts that would in practice almost certainly hurt programs for the poor."

Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said in a statement Thursday that "[t]he representatives who just chose the bank accounts of their donors over the health and wellbeing of their constituents should be ashamed."

"Two hundred sixteen members of the House just voted to hurt millions of vulnerable Americans, including many of their own constituents, just to give millionaires like me a massive, unnecessary tax break," Pearl added. "The American people don't want a $1.5 trillion cut to Medicare and Medicaid and they don't want a huge tax cut for the rich, but wealthy donors do."

Proving Pearl's point, both the billionaire U.S. President Donald Trump and the Koch Brothers-backed Freedom Works celebrated the resolution's passage.

"On to tax reform!" declared FreedomWorks in a statement. And Trump, who personally stands to make millions for he and and his family if the GOP tax plan ultimately goes through, tweeted: "Big news--Budget just passed."

This post will likely be updated...

Here are all of the House members who voted for the budget measure:

Abraham
Aderholt
Allen
Amodei
Arrington
Babin
Bacon
Banks (IN)
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Bergman
Biggs
Bilirakis
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Bost
Brady (TX)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Budd
Burgess
Byrne
Calvert
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Chabot
Cheney
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Cook
Costello (PA)
Cramer
Crawford
Culberson
Curbelo (FL)
Davidson
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Dunn
Emmer
Estes (KS)
Farenthold
Ferguson
Fleischmann
Flores
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallagher
Garrett
Gianforte
Gibbs
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Graves (MO)
Griffith
Grothman
Guthrie
Handel
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Higgins (LA)
Hill
Holding
Hollingsworth
Hudson
Huizenga
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd
Issa
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (LA)
Johnson (OH)
Jordan
Joyce (OH)
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
Kinzinger
Knight
Kustoff (TN)
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Latta
Lewis (MN)
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Marchant
Marino
Marshall
Mast
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mitchell
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Mullin
Newhouse
Noem
Norman
Nunes
Olson
Palazzo
Palmer
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Pittenger
Poe (TX)
Poliquin
Posey
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Rice (SC)
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney, Francis
Rooney, Thomas J.
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Rouzer
Royce (CA)
Russell
Rutherford
Ryan (WI)
Scalise
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (TX)
Smucker
Stewart
Stivers
Taylor
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Trott
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Weber (TX)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)

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