By a narrow vote of 216 to 214, the House of Representatives on April 10 passed the Republican blueprint for a new federal budget. The vote was described as a critical step toward implementing Donald Trump’s proposed new tax cuts. The measure calls for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, with $800 billion coming from the agency that controls Medicaid spending, although Medicaid is not specifically named in the legislation.
There had been uncertainty as to whether the Republicans could muster enough votes to pass the legislation because some conservatives felt it was not going to give them the deficit reduction they wanted. In addition to House Speaker Mike Johnson applying in-person pressure on holdout Republicans, President Trump applied pressure through phone calls to several of the holdouts.
Westchester’s congressmen were on opposite sides of the vote. Republican Mike Lawler, who represents the 17th Congressional District, voted in favor of the bill while Rep. George Latimer who represents the 16th Congressional District voted against the measure.
Latimer in a speech on the House Floor after the vote, said that the Republican plan would hand $7 trillion in tax giveaways to billionaires while cutting Medicare and SNAP benefits for working-and-middle class families, and free school lunches from 908,000 New York schoolchildren.
“This House Republican budget takes away money from people who desperately need it and gives it to people who already have plenty of it,” Latimer said. “The cuts needed for $7 trillion in tax giveaways will mean over 196,000 residents in Westchester and the Bronx are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage. This includes 73,000 children and 27,000 seniors. This budget plan also threatens 74,000 people who count on SNAP to put food on the table.”
Lawler had not commented on the budget plan’s passage via a news release or statment on his congressional website, his “X” account or Facebook page as of late afternoon.
