Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), borrowing language from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), described the Republican health care proposal on Monday as “an act of mercy” for the wealthy. Later, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wondered how Trump voters in red states felt about hundreds of billions of dollars in tax benefits going largely to “blue areas.”
“The bill spends almost twice as much on tax cuts for the wealthy compared to tax credits to help older middle-class Americans afford health insurance. The rich get $592 billion in tax cuts for the richest, compared to only $361 billion for the middle class and the working class to afford health care,” Schumer told reporters in the Capitol building, standing next to Pelosi.
He was referring to the CBO’s estimates Monday that a repeal of revenue-generating aspects of the ACA would result in the loss of nearly $600 billion through 2026.
“So when Speaker Ryan says it’s an act of mercy, yeah, for those people who make over $250,000 a year because they get big tax cuts,” Schumer said.
Ryan said last week that Republicans were carrying out an “act of mercy” by proposing a replacement for Obamacare before the law “would collapse.”
Later, Pelosi said the hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts were “not right.”
“A lot of the benefit of the $600 billion will go to blue areas and that’s just not right,” she said, referring to states who voted for Democrats. “But think of yourself as a Trump voter in West Virginia or someplace, or Kentucky, which has really done a good job with the Affordable Care Act, too, thinking ‘I’m going to lose my coverage and they’re going to give $7 million to each of the richest families in America every year instead of giving me health care.’”
