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WASHINGTON, DC — 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 unserious, 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.

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No matter how you do the math, the deep cuts passed under the MAGA majority default plan add up to severe harm for America’s most vulnerable populations. House Republicans claim they can cut around veterans’ programs, but in reality, veterans will still be impacted by these harmful cuts, as will seniors, children, and working families. It’s simply impossible to magically exempt all veterans from harm under their extreme plan that conveniently leaves in place all costly tax loopholes for billionaires and corporations that ship jobs overseas.

Speaker McCarthy’s fuzzy math can only mean even harsher rollbacks of critical priorities like housing vouchers, SNAP, Pell Grants, and life-saving opioid treatments – and other programs many veterans depend on.”

Liz Zelnick, Director of Accountable.US’ Economic Security & Corporate Power.

Today in focus: A new White House memo breaks down how if Speaker McCarthy and the MAGA Majority are serious in their determination to forgo spending cuts for Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security programs, Americans will suffer from 30% cuts in every other area, including education, nutrition support, and Social Security. 

Highlights from The Hill: White House memo warns of steep cuts from GOP spending bills ahead of Biden-McCarthy meeting

“But if Republicans opted not to cut spending for Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security, the estimated impact would be a cut of 30 percent to all other areas, [Shalanda Young, the head of the Office of Management and Budget] wrote.

The result would be slashed funding for schools with low-income students and students with disabilities, reduced access to opioid treatment, eliminated child care for hundreds of thousands of children, worsened wait times for Social Security and Medicare, increased housing costs and a drop in funding for cancer research, Young wrote.

‘House Republicans can do this math as well as anyone,’ Young wrote. ‘They are absolutely aware of these very calculations.’”

Highlights from Insider: The GOP proposal to raise the debt ceiling would force Americans on Social Security and Medicare to wait longer to receive help and make college more expensive, the White House says

“While Young noted that the GOP bill doesn’t include a line-by-line breakdown of exactly how cuts would be implemented, she lays out a few scenarios. If Republicans leave defense funding, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security untouched, everything else would have to be cut by 30%. That could mean people waiting for disability benefits through Social Security might face wait times of at least two months longer, and those seeking help through Social Security and Medicare offices could experience worse customer service. Additionally, the cuts would mean less funding for affordable housing vouchers, and the maximum Pell Grant award going down by nearly $1,400.”

BACKGROUND: 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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