Lawmaker says plan benefits billionaires, saddles next generation with trillions in debt

A lawmaker told the Senate Committee on Appropriations that a proposed plan would "devastate" health care and nutrition while transferring wealth to "billionaires" and adding trillions to the federal debt.

The speaker opened by calling the approach "families lose, billionaires win," saying it is "a terrible mission for America" and that it would "devastat[e] health care for billionaires to get richer and devastat[e] nutrition for billionaires to get richer." The lawmaker said the measure "also creates massive debt on the next generation, dollars 3,400,000,000,000.0 over 10 years, more than $30,000,000,000,000 of additional debt as compared to current law over 30 years."

The remarks concluded with an explicit partisan indictment: "Our Republican colleagues have become the most fiscally irresponsible group to ever inhabit this capital," the lawmaker said.

The transcript contains these assertions but does not include responses, supporting documents, or a formal vote. The hearing record in this excerpt does not specify the bill or amendment referenced, nor any staff analysis or counterargument.