This Is How a New Republican Bill Would Affect Hardworking Floridians

Under the GOP’s agenda, hundreds of thousands of Floridians would lose access to food assistance, more than 17,000 kids would lose preschool and childcare slots, and tens of thousands of seniors would lose access to Meals on Wheels, among other cuts.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his Republican colleagues’ last week passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, a measure that aims to gut much of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and cut spending on key programs that benefit millions of Floridians.

The Republican bill, which critics are calling the “Default on America” Act, would slash a broad swath of programs Americans rely on—leaving potentially millions more people without health insurance—and enact cuts to programs for food safety, housing, cancer research, and other critical investments. It would also revoke Biden’s student loan cancelation proposal, claw back new IRS funding, and repeal clean energy tax credits passed into law last year as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

How would it impact Floridians and families? According to federal estimates:

• 833,000 Floridians would lose access to food assistance.
• 17,600 kids would lose preschool and childcare slots.
• 29,500 families in the state would lose access to rental assistance, including older adults, those with disabilities, and families with children.
• As many as 421,000 kids with disabilities would face reduced support.
• Florida schools serving nearly 1.5 million low-income children would lose $240 million in funding, equivalent to removing about 3,700 teachers and other personnel from classrooms.
• State veterans would lose 566,500 outpatient doctors’ visits, including for issues like mental health and substance disorder treatment and suicide prevention.
• Tens of thousands of Florida seniors would lose access to Meals on Wheels.

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According to new research from Moody’s Analytics, the GOP plan would also “meaningfully increase the likelihood” of a recession and cost the US 780,000 jobs by the end of 2024.

In Florida, Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor is fighting back against the Republican agenda that, she says, is putting our nation’s economy at risk of falling into chaos.

“They are so intent on undermining the successful Inflation Reduction Act, which actually reduces the debt, and giving huge tax breaks to corporations and billionaires, that they are willing to make drastic cuts to critical initiatives that our seniors, veterans and children rely on,” said Castor, who is launching a Take Back the House Fund this week. 

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Emily Gee, senior vice president for Inclusive Growth at the Center for American Progress, agrees.

“The House Republicans’ default crisis is the greatest risk to our economy today […] McCarthy’s default plan would undermine the security of middle-class families and force the government to fall short of its obligations to Americans,” Gee said in a statement, adding that “McCarthy and House Republicans cannot be trusted with America’s finances.”

The White House “strongly opposes” House Republicans’ bill and has signaled that if the president were presented with the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023, “he would veto it.”

Despite Biden’s opposition, Republicans hope they can exploit the upcoming debt ceiling negotiations to force through what they want. If they don’t get their way? They say they’ll let the US default on the nation’s debt, even if it means sending the country and economy into a financial crisis and possibly even a recession.

Within a week, the US would be unable to pay many of its bills and would plunge into a recession. An extended breach of the debt ceiling would be “cataclysmic,” eliminating more than 7 million jobs, causing the stock market to plunge by more than 20%, and eliminating $10 trillion in American household wealth, according to another report from Moody’s Analytics.