Rep. Demings Votes to Prevent Medicare Cuts

Orlando, FL: Today Rep. Val Demings (FL-10) voted to prevent a scheduled $36 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare as part of an across the board cut that would have hurt seniors, farmers, and working families. The vote will also save the U.S. from defaulting on its financial obligations, which would collapse the economy, interfere with social security checksand military paychecks, wipe out six million jobs, and erase$15 trillion in household wealth. Today's vote will prevent Florida seniors from losing critical benefits.Said Rep. Demings, "Our tax dollars are precious, and we need to be responsible with our spending, not punish Florida seniors for Congress' inability to come to reasonable solutions. I believe in balanced budgets, and when I was Orlando's Chief of Police we did more with less, working during the great recession to ensure that our dollars went directly to public safety initiatives. Today's vote will protect Florida seniors' access to the physician of their choice and the medical services they need, continue vital farm support, and preserve American families' savings and livelihoods. I voted yes because I will always put our communities first."

Background

Today's vote is a follow-up to a vote in March in which Rep. Demings voted to prevent automatic cuts from slashing Medicare, farm subsidies, and other programs. Wrote the New York Times, unless Congress passes a fix, American families will see "an estimated $36 billion in cuts to Medicare next year and tens of billions more from farm subsidies and other social safety net programs…many mandatory spending programs could be completely defunded, including social services block grants, a Justice Department program that provides aid to crime victims, and the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund."

The bill also included a provision to permit a one-time exception in Senate operations that can raise the debt limit with a simple majority. The debt ceiling increase is a required vote by Congress which is necessary to meet existing financial obligations to Social Security recipients, veterans and the public. In the past these votes have been bipartisan - seven times in the last ten years. Two years ago, Senator McConnell said "America can't default. That would be a disaster," and supported suspending the debt limit.

The debt ceiling vote is not an increase in U.S. debt, nor is it an authorization for additional debt. Rather, it upholds American obligations on past, existing debt, incurred in large part because of record GOP-led deficit spendingunder the last administration. A default on U.S. debt would instantly collapse the U.S. economy, "wipe out as many as 6 million jobs and erase $15 trillion in household wealth," according to CBS News, citing a Moody's Analytics report.

The Democratic Build Back Better plan is fully fundedand will reduce the deficit. President Trump's administration "had the third-biggest primary deficit growth, 5.2% of GDP, behind only George W. Bush (11.7%) and Abraham Lincoln (9.4%)."

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