'This Is Called Extortion': Melanie Stansbury Blasts Republican Reconciliation Bill

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At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) spoke about the reconciliation bill.

Transcript

00:00but amendment the nature of substitute mr stansbury all right well good morning everyone

00:06uh thank you mr chairman i think these uh markups are complicated and sometimes difficult

00:13to explain and understand because they get into technical details so i want to try to break it

00:19down a little bit and actually with our current acting ranking member maybe get a little bit into

00:24the details so let me zoom way out here to talk about the entire enterprise that the gop is engaged

00:31in right now and to lay down some facts so first of all what's important to understand is that over

00:39the last couple of months the president has transmitted to the hill a list of asks and they

00:47really uh focus on making permanent tax breaks that were originally put into place in 2017

00:55that are about to sunset so these tax breaks are for billionaires millionaires mega corporations

01:01and it's going to cost seven trillion dollars and to pay for it they want to try to offset some of

01:08those costs because our friends across the aisle are trying to claim that they're being fiscally

01:11responsible but let's be clear the math doesn't math because the offsets that they're seeking only add

01:18up to about 1.5 to 2 trillion dollars so if you do the mass seven minus two equals five which is why

01:28this bill the big bill that we're talking about does not actually reduce the debt or the deficit it

01:34actually will blow a hole through it by increasing debt spending by five trillion dollars and when you add

01:40it all up over 30 years we're talking over 30 trillion dollars in new spending for the united

01:46states government so first of all don't buy the baloney that this is somehow going to balance the debt this

01:51is going to blow a giant hole in the debt now let's talk about what is happening in this committee so they

01:56passed the instructions out of the senate came back to the house very confusing the senate and the house

02:02republicans couldn't agree on which package to go with so they passed it all so here we are now those

02:08instructions have gone down to each committee and each committee now has to break it down in its own

02:13jurisdiction so this committee can only work on things that are in its jurisdiction we're in the

02:18oversight committee our jurisdiction is overseeing the federal government and so this committee has been

02:24instructed through those resolution instructions to cut funding to supposedly offset cuts so where are they

02:33trying to find those cuts they're trying to find those cuts on our federal workers backs now let's be

02:39clear over the last hundred years 100 days donald trump has fired over 200 000 probationary employees

02:47over 75 000 people have been forced to retire or leave the federal government and now they're talking about

02:54taking away significant retirement benefits and turning the federal workforce over to an at-will workforce

03:03what that means is that they want to strip away the protections for our federal workers so they can be

03:11fired at will at any moment okay so that is actually what is inside this reconciliation piece that's in front of the

03:20committee today and if you do not as a federal employee elect to be at will if this passes if this piece of

03:28legislation passes you're going to have your retirement taxed essentially an additional five percent so that

03:35means your pay is going to get cut unless you elect to be fireable

03:42is that correct mr lynch that is essentially correct yes so basically what this package is doing

03:50is extortion this is called extortion this is in the vein of trying to say that they're going to

04:00balance the budget which they're not because it's still going to cost the american people five trillion

04:05dollars to pass this overall tax package for billionaires and by the way these these trillionaires

04:11are going to get an additional let's say 300 000 a year off of their taxes while the rest of us are

04:18going to actually see prices go up with tariffs the cost of living expenses all of these issues they're

04:26going to use this piece of the reconciliation package to further punish the 2.4 federal employees

04:34who provide your social security who help with your va benefits who make sure that your medicaid is

04:41taken care of this is all about cutting federal workers punishing federal workers making life

04:47harder for americans and destroying the federal workforce and i strongly oppose opposing every single

04:54way every piece of what's in this piece of the reconciliation package and i yield back

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