05.21.25

Merkley: Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office Confirms Republican Reconciliation Bill’s Impact is Families Lose, Billionaires Win

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the below statement following analysis published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) showing that the Republican reconciliation bill will heavily favor the rich, while working families pay the price.

“The Republicans’ reconciliation bill has one outcome: families lose and billionaires win,” said Ranking Member Jeff Merkley. “CBO’s analysis shows that passing this bill will benefit the billionaire class while middle class families pay the price. We should not even consider a bill that gives handouts to the wealthy while leaving the working class worse off. It is immoral to finance tax cuts for the rich by taking food and medicine from hardworking Americans—but that is what the Republicans’ bill does.

“This bill gives the top 10 percent about 4 percent more in after-tax household income– while the bottom 10 percent get 4 percent of their resources ripped away. It’s there in black and white in CBO’s analysis. This is just another example of the Republicans’ Great Betrayal of American families.”

CBO estimates that cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will result in the bottom 10 percent of American households seeing their resources diminished by about 4 percent in 2033, after several of the bill’s tax benefits for this group fade out but the cuts to social safety net programs remain, while the top 10 percent of American households would have their resources increased by about 4 percent in 2027 due to the tax cuts they receive from this bill.

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