Biden hails caregivers as heroes, slams GOP over proposed health care cuts
President Joe Biden has proposed paid family and medical leave in his most recent budget.
In an April 7 speech at Union Station in Washington, D.C., President Joe Biden delivered remarks honoring care workers, describing them as heroes.
“You’re the heroes to so many individuals. You really are. And you represent so many people who do it and do it out of love and concern, not because of the pay, because they’re not getting the pay they need. It matters,” Biden said. “As your president, I’m here with a simple message. I give you my word: I have your back. I have your back.”
Biden stated that the policies his administration has implemented to help the economy have been beneficial to care workers, whom he described as critical to families and America’s economic fortunes. He specifically cited the 2021 American Rescue Plan, which provided funds to child care centers to keep them in operation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the provision in that law that temporarily expanded the child tax credit and significantly reduced childhood poverty.
Biden also touted his proposed 2025 budget, released on March 11, which contains a provision for up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.
In his remarks, Biden contrasted his budget with the budget proposal released on March 20 by the Republican Study Committee, of which 179 of the current 218 Republicans in the House are members.
“They just released their budget — the Republicans — that cuts caregiving programs by a third — the ones that exist, cuts them by a third. For example, it would mean 260,000 fewer kids in childcare,” Biden said.
The Republican proposal, called “Fiscal Sanity to Save America,” was described at the time of its release by the committee’s chairman Rep. Kevin Hern (OK) as a path to “address our federal spending problem and start paying down our debts.”
An analysis of the proposal from research professor Edwin Park of the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families noted that the Republican plan calls for cuts to Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies.
“Facing such drastic reductions in federal Medicaid funding, states will have no choice but to institute truly draconian cuts to eligibility, benefits and provider reimbursement rates. That would likely drive tens of millions into the ranks of the uninsured and severely reduce access to health care and long-term services and supports needed by low-income children, families, seniors, people with disabilities and other adults,” Park wrote.
The six Republican members of the Michigan congressional delegation, Reps. Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John James, Lisa McClain, John Moolenaar and Tim Walberg, are members of the study committee.
Biden criticized former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, over his failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and his statement that he wants to “terminate” the law.
“You know how many times they’ve tried to take out Obamacare and the Affordable Healthcare Act? Forty-nine times they’ve tried. They can keep trying, but they’re not going to get it done,” Biden said.
