Cost of MAGA Default: House Bill Squeezes Families as GOP’s Billionaire Tax Plan Balloons Deficit by Trillions

Washington D.C. – Less than two weeks away from a catastrophic default crisis that all but guarantees a deep recession, and the MAGA House majority continues to make unreasonable economic ransom demands in exchange for letting the nation pay its bills — demands that needlessly leaves millions of veterans, children and seniors worse off while costing 8 million Americans their jobs. Conveniently, the House Republican default bill protects all debt-ballooning special tax breaks for their billionaire donors and big corporations, and even takes away resources needed to crack down on wealthy tax cheats that shift costs onto everyday families. 

Adding insult to injury, the MAGA House majority has kept another bill squarely on the table — backed by Republican leadership, previously embraced by nearly every House Republican, and now backed by 96 co-sponsors – that permanently extends the expired and expiring 2017 Trump-era tax cuts geared heavily towards the wealthy. This week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Republican plan to make these Trump-era tax breaks permanent would add at least $3.5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, effectively erasing all the $3.2 trillion of discretionary budget cuts that House Republicans passed under their default bill last month.

TODAY IN FOCUS: The MAGA Majority’s Default on America Act could drive up the cost of living for millions of families across the country — children would suffer from cuts in every sector, including early childhood education, nutrition support, and housing access. 

Highlights from STATE FACT SHEETS: MAGA House Republicans’ Default on America Act Would Have Devastating Impacts Across America:

• “Eliminate Preschool and Child Care Slots. The Default on America Act would mean 200,000 children lose access to Head Start slots and 180,000 children lose access to child care—undermining our children’s education and making it more difficult for parents to join the workforce and contribute to our economy.
• Strip Nutrition Assistance from Women and Children. The Default on America Act would also mean 1.7 million women, infants, and children would lose vital nutrition assistance through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), increasing child poverty and hunger.
• Raise Housing Costs for Americans. Under the Default on America Act, more than 600,000 families would lose access to rental assistance, including older adults, persons with disabilities, and families with children, who without rental assistance would be at risk of homelessness.
• Gut Funding for Low-Income Students. The Default on America Act would cut approximately $4 billion in funding for schools serving low-income children—equivalent to removing more than 60,000 teachers and specialized instructional support personnel from classrooms, impacting an estimated 26 million students.
• Reduce Support for Students with Disabilities. Under the Default on America Act, as many as 7.5 million children with disabilities would face reduced support—a cut equivalent to removing more than 48,000 teachers and related services providers from the classroom.
• Slash Mental Health Support for Students. The Default on America Act would limit educators’ abilities to address student mental health issues and prevent suicide and drug use by cutting funding dedicated to creating healthy learning environments in schools by about $300 million.”

BACKGROUND: The extreme MAGA House Majority is threatening to manufacture a catastrophic default crisis and economic collapse. To hold the economy hostage, the House passed a long list of hugely unpopular and extreme ransom demands that promise pain for millions of average Americans including veterans, seniors, students, children, workers, and the food insecure. They voted to ship 100,000 high paying manufacturing jobs overseas while going out of their way to protect wealthy tax cheats. The MAGA Majority’s proposed cuts are untenable, unworkable, and unreasonable, especially as they leave in place costly tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. With the nation now projected to run out of money as early as June 1st, Accountable.US’ Cost Of MAGA Default’ project continues to underscore the catastrophic consequences of a MAGA default that grows closer by the day.

Accountable.US’ ‘Cost of MAGA Default’ project puts a daily spotlight on specific harms the MAGA Majority’s default plan and brinkmanship will bring for Main Street and Wall Street alike – from tanking markets, frozen credit, lost jobs, disruptions to critical benefits like Social Security, and soaring interest rates on everything from car loans to mortgages. While the MAGA Majority claims they are holding the economy hostage over supposed debt ‘concerns,’ they insist on harmful cuts – crafted by the far-right House Freedom Caucus – aimed at average Americans while protecting and even expanding debt ballooning tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations that profiteer and ship U.S. jobs overseas. Not a deadbeat nation: The U.S. has never failed to pay its bills and Congress worked to prevent default 78 times since 1960, including 3 times during the Trump administration. The clock is ticking. The MAGA majority should stop playing dangerous political games with American lives and the economy and responsibly pass a clean bill that allows the nation to pay its bills. The sooner they do, the less damage will be inflicted on Americans of all walks of life. 

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