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Report from the Senate Floor:
Last
night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans
forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We
started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night
would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people
to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire
class is.
So I want to
explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back. The apex
of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy
cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they
plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on.
Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are
all being targeted. In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go
through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first
step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it,
any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic
colleagues and I did just that.
Now,
we knew that Republicans would largely unanimously oppose them, but we
had two objectives here. One, Republicans were forced to put their
opinion on record — many for the first time — on the most corrupt parts
of Trump and Musk’s agenda. Two, as I’ve been saying, I am going to make
every process and procedure as slow and painful as possible for as long
as my colleagues choose to ignore the constitutional crisis happening
before our eyes.
So what
did we propose? We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion
dollars a year. We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE
should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data. We made them
vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it. Every
single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down. On almost every
single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican
voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires.
The corruption and theft is happening in the open here.
The
whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the
wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your
parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest
children. They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are
offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than
what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts
for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic
necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice.
Thanks
to your pressure and support, many of my Democratic colleagues have
joined my effort to do everything we can to make sure they cannot
destroy democracy and steal your money in the dark of the night. We are
being loud about what is happening. I’m going to continue to grind the
gears of Congress down as much as possible to make it that much harder
and slower to get away with this corruption. That’s why the votes lasted
until nearly 5 AM.
This
is a five-alarm fire. I don’t think we have two years to plan and fight
back. I think we have months. It’s still in our power to stop the
destruction of our democracy with mass mobilization and effective
opposition from elected officials. So we can’t miss any opportunity to
take advantage of opportunities to put Republicans on the record and
shine a light on what is happening.
And
you have a role to play in this as well. I need you to amplify what’s
happening, support the leaders who are fighting for you to make sure
they can continue speaking truth to power against Musk and Trump’s
billionaire cronies, and show up at rallies and town halls. Use every
tool at your disposal to send a message loud and clear about how you
expect my colleagues to lead and fight in this moment.
Every best wish,
US Senator Chris Murphy (D - CT)
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