Center for American Progress and Third Way Condemn the MAGA-Republican Budget as an Attack on the Working and Middle Classes and the Most Vulnerable

Center-left organizations Center for American Progress and Third Way have both released statements and reports critiquing the MAGA Republican budget and tax reconciliation bill making its way through House Committees the last two days as a cruel attack on working and middle class families, especially the nation’s most vulnerable.

In the conclusion of their report condemning the MAGA Republican bill, leaders at the Center for American Progress conveyed:

“Taken as a whole, this bill would harm Americans—particularly the most vulnerable people—and leave the country worse off. It would lead to preventable deaths by taking health care away from millions of people. It would worsen food insecurity by taking food away from the hungry, particularly kids. It would leave the United States on a significantly worse fiscal trajectory by adding trillions of dollars to structural deficits. Budgets showcase our morality because they force governments to decide how to prioritize limited resources. The House Republican budget plan would shift funding away from the sick and hungry and, instead, toward the wealthiest Americans.”

Gabe Horowitz, Senior Vice President for the Economic Program at Third Way, released a statement that read:

“Raising prices on US families, giving more benefits to the wealthy than middle class, and wreaking havoc on our budget deficit does not make America great again.

“Let’s be clear, millions of people will lose health care coverage through substantial cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Medical debt will explode. Hospitals in low-income and rural communities will be cut as well as nursing homes—all of which increase costs on working families. Energy prices will go up as taxes are increased on new nuclear, geothermal, wind, and solar. And this bill does nothing to stop the Trump tariffs which increase costs on groceries and other goods.

“Benefits in this bill are also far too skewed to the wealthy rather than working- and middle-class families. The few bright spots—like enhancements to the Child Tax Credit, paid leave credit, and child care credit—are important, but they are just a sliver of what working families need. What’s even more troublesome is the fact that the wealthy will see massive giveaways while the deficit is set to skyrocket. We saw the national debt explode under Trump’s first term, and this bill accelerates that destructive trajectory.

“If Republicans really want to make America great again, they can do that by scrapping this bill.”

Third Way’s Senior Director of Domestic Policy, Climate and Energy Program, Ryan Fitzpatrick, also released a statement decrying Republicans attacks on clean energy investments and new taxes on those resources, relaying:

“Republicans are coming at working families from all sides here. Their reconciliation bill will both raise prices in the short term and compromise America’s economy long into the future.

“In the face of acute challenges to our electricity supply, this bill will raise the cost of new energy projects, increasing taxes on building new nuclear, geothermal, wind, and solar starting in 2028. But don’t let that timeline fool you – consumers will start to feel the effects of these tax hikes immediately. 

“In response to the rapidly evolving regulatory environment and an unpredictable executive, companies will begin to cancel or suspend new energy projects. Many have already begun. Less supply to meet our growing electricity demand? That’ll raise prices on working families and increase the likelihood of service disruptions, as we head into the hot (and energy-intensive) summer months. 

“The bill also kills consumer credits that make it easier to boost home energy efficiency, presenting the cost-conscious consumer with a choice: they can either pay more on their energy bills or pay more for energy efficiency. Either way, the federal government won’t help lower their utility bill—even for those who need help most. 

“But the Committee won’t content itself with short-term impacts—the bill also hits working families in the long-term too, slashing America’s competitive edge in manufacturing and deploying energy technologies. The bill eliminates tax credits for some US-made energy products and makes the credits practically unusable for the rest. The ensuing chaos will hit emerging technologies like nuclear, and geothermal particularly hard.

“Demand for these technologies is real, and it won’t simply disappear if the US opts out of the market. Instead, allies and potential allies will turn to China and other countries for critical technologies. Republicans have talked a lot about creating more manufacturing jobs, and this bill does that, just not in America.

“Cutting support for clean energy manufacturing and deployment, especially for nascent technologies, is a giveaway to America’s competitors and a blow to the future of working people across this country.”