Skip to main content

Foster, Duckworth and Schneider Vote Against Republican Budget

April 10, 2014

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Representatives Bill Foster (IL-11), Tammy Duckworth (IL-08) and Brad Schneider (IL-10) voted against the Republican budget proposal introduced by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (WI-01). They released the following statements:

“I am deeply disappointed that we could not build on the budget compromise of last year and move our nation forward,” said Duckworth. “At a time when budgetary constraint is needed, the Ryan budget would raise the deficit with tax cuts that will favor large corporations and the wealthy. The Republican budget proposal takes 170,000 children out of Head Start and cuts the jobs of nearly 30,000 educators. It eliminates $137 billion over ten years for critical food assistance to those who are most in need. This budget fails to make the necessary investments in our economy that will create jobs and reduce our deficit. We need to enact a budget that makes smart, targeted spending cuts and ends spending on tax breaks for millionaires and special interests. It is time for members on both sides of the aisle to work together to preserve the guaranteed benefit of Medicare, reduce the deficit and grow our economy.”

"I voted against the Ryan budget today because it flies in the face of our values and places the burden of balancing the federal budget on those who can afford it the least," Schneider said. "The Ryan budget slashes education funding, ends the Medicare guarantee and guts environmental protections. This budget hurts our middle class families, our students and our seniors.”

“The Republican budget would be devastating for the middle class,” Foster said. “It would end Medicare as we know it, while protecting tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations who ship jobs overseas. It would cripple job creation and undermine our global competitiveness. It would gut funding for education, research and innovation – the foundations that support our economy in Illinois. It would devastate our ability to build roads and airports necessary for our local commerce. And it would undermine the American Dream, putting it out of reach for middle class families in Illinois. A strong middle class is essential to our country’s economic success. We need a budget that strengthens the middle class and grows the economy from the middle out, not the top down.”