Yahoo Finance Republicans' plans to cut the budget could mean millions lost in back pay, more dangerous workplaces, and jobs sent overseas, the White House says
The White House is once again attacking the Freedom Caucus for its plan to cut spending.
Per a fact sheet, the White House said the Caucus' plan would result in lost wages and harmful working conditions.
The Freedom Caucus wants Congress to pass its plan as a condition to raise the debt ceiling.
The White House is still sounding the alarm over the potential repercussions of Republicans' budget proposal — and this time, they're highlighting the potential impact on workers, their wages, and their jobs.
In a fact sheet shared with Insider, the White House claims that the House Freedom Caucus' proposals would result in a loss of job training, wages, and manufacturing jobs to overseas workers.
"While President Biden and Congressional Democrats' economic agenda is revitalizing manufacturing in communities that have been left behind, MAGA House Republicans want to ship manufacturing jobs overseas and undermine American workers — even in their home districts and states," White House spokesperson Michael Kikukawa said in a statement to Insider.
Through cutting back on investigations and inspections, the White House estimates that the House Freedom Caucus' plans would cost 135,000 workers an average of $1,000 in back pay. Part of the Caucus' proposal hinges on capping funding at the same level as fiscal year 2022, which Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro estimates would amount to a 22% cut in spending on essential programs, when omitting defense and veteran medical spending.
The Department of Labor found that, if faced with a 22% cut, there would be $156 million less in back pay recovered for those 135,000 workers. And if spending stayed stable at fiscal year 2022, with no programs free from cuts, almost 21,000 workers would still lose out on $24.5 million in lost wages.
Beyond millions less in clawed-back wages, cuts could also majorly impede OSHA's ability to inspect workplaces. The DOL estimated a 22% budget cut would lead to the lowest-ever level of enforcement from OSHA — meaning that employers could get away with unsafe and potentially dangerous working conditions.
"Worker health and safety while on the job would be at risk, allowing big corporations to put workers in dangerous conditions by taking advantage of limited enforcement," DeLauro said in a statement to Insider.
Reversing spending in the Inflation Reduction Act – the cutting of which is one of the House Freedom Caucus' core tenets — would move millions of jobs for those projects overseas, the White House said.
"For years, billionaires and big corporations have made record profits while jobs are shipped overseas and American workers are denied pay raises and safe work environments," DeLauro said.
—House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) March 10, 2023
Last week, the Freedom Caucus unveiled their broad plan to address the debt ceiling through major spending cuts. Its plan, called "Shrink Washington, Grow America," would raise the debt ceiling only if Congress agreed to pass legislation that would, among other things, block student-debt relief and recoup unspent pandemic funds.
The plan would cap future spending at the 2022 level for ten years, which it said would "cut $131 billion in FY2024 and save roughly $3 trillion over the long term by cutting the wasteful, woke, and weaponized federal bureaucracy."
Leaders of federal agencies told DeLauro that capping funding at the 2022 level for a decade would be devastating for not only the agencies — but Americans that rely on their programs. DeLauro said in a statement that the proposal would "cause irreparable damage to our communities by gutting the programs every single American relies on. Those proposals are unrealistic, unsustainable, and unconscionable."
"We have a responsibility to protect and lift up our workers, yet the cuts proposed by House Republicans would undermine these efforts," DeLauro said in a statement to Insider.
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