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DENVER, CO – Speaker Julie McCluskie and House Majority Leader Monica Duran today released the following statements after the US Senate passed the GOP megabill, which will kick Coloradans off their health insurance, increase costs and jeopardize services for the most vulnerable people.
“Passage of the GOP megabill is nothing less than a complete betrayal of the American Dream and will cruelly strip health care from over 100,000 Coloradans and increase costs for working families,” said Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon. “While I am relieved that our public lands are safe for now, the proposal to sell them to the highest bidder was an outrageous attack on our Western values. We are still evaluating the impact on our state, but it is clear that the GOP megabill could blow a billion dollar hole in our budget, making it nearly impossible to deliver on our commitments to our schools, colleges, universities, public safety and safety-net services for those most vulnerable among us.”
“I urge my Republican colleagues in the General Assembly to stand up for rural communities and to tell Gabe Evans, Lauren Boebert, Jeff Hurd and Jeff Crank to oppose these cuts that jeopardize health care for rural Coloradans and threaten the viability of rural health clinics,” McCluskie continued.
“From over $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid to hundreds of billions less in food assistance, vulnerable people will suffer so the GOP can hand out tax breaks to billionaires and the wealthiest corporations,” said House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge. “Coloradans believe in fairness, responsibility, and community. We don’t turn our backs on people in need—we invest in them. We don’t strip healthcare from rural hospitals—we fight to keep them open. We don’t cut food from children’s mouths—we feed and support them. Safety net hospitals and health providers in Colorado have repeatedly raised the alarm as cuts to Medicaid jeopardize the payments they need to stay afloat and the health care Coloradans rely on, especially people of color, children, veterans and seniors. We need all hands on deck right now to pressure the US House to kill this bill!”
The most recent nonpartisan CBO analysis estimates that the GOP megabill will kick nearly 12 million Americans off their health care. It places a tax on energy, drives up utility costs, cuts food assistance and will force deep cuts to Medicaid and services for Colorado’s most vulnerable people, including veterans and many lower income families. Colorado Democrats—alongside health care providers, conservationists, and community leaders—have repeatedly asserted that this bill would be devastating to the American people and urged Congress not to pass it.
The Office of State Planning and Budgeting estimated that the GOP megabill will decrease state revenues by as much as $500 million and increase costs to the state by as much as $650 million. Even without passage of the GOP megabill or an economic downturn, nonpartisan economic forecasters estimate the state will face a nearly $700 million deficit and that revenues could drop below the TABOR cap in each of the three years in the forecast window. Under these conditions, the state will not be able to replace the loss of federal funding under the GOP megabill and will be forced to consider difficult trade offs and cuts to core services.