'A Shameful Day In The House Judiciary Committee': Jesús García Blasts Markup Of GOP Reconciliation Bills

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jesús García (D-IL) spoke in opposition to Republicans' reconciliation process and its underlying legislation.

Transcript

00:00I move to strike the last word. Today is a shameful day in the House Judiciary Committee

00:07as Republicans move forward with their plan to trample on the Constitution and the working

00:13families so that they can give tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations. Let's take

00:19a step back and ask where our country is 100 days into the Trump administration. The economy is in

00:26the toilet with people losing thousands of dollars in retirement savings and no progress being made

00:32on the affordability crisis affecting ordinary Americans. The executive branch is being gutted.

00:40Nothing has been done about actual waste fraud and abuse like the nearly trillion dollar budget given

00:47to the Pentagon which has never passed a financial audit. Instead Republicans have turned over the

00:54keys to Elon Musk who's trying to dismantle agencies that fight for workers and consumers

01:00over billionaires like him. Republicans have fought against diversity, equity, and inclusion

01:06talking about merit. Meanwhile Trump has anointed some of the most embarrassingly incompetent and

01:14unqualified cabinet members in our nation's history like Pete Hedsef and Kristi Noem and to distract the

01:21country from the incompetence and the giveaways to billionaires and corporations. This administration

01:27is terrorizing immigrant communities. They are rounding up entire families, targeting unaccompanied

01:33children and people with no criminal history, denying them due process and defying judges and shipping

01:41them to Guantanamo Bay and spending millions in taxpayer dollars to jail them in a mega prison in El Salvador.

01:48They're even deporting U.S. citizen children with cancer. That is pure evil. But it doesn't stop

01:56there. Republicans know their agenda is unpopular. So they're running authoritarian crackdowns to stifle

02:04legitimate protest and dissent. They're throwing people in jail and deporting them on the basis of

02:11protected speech, attacking colleges and universities, and even going after law firms. All of this is

02:18cruel, it's incompetent, but it's also unconstitutional. And that's why Trump is losing in court. Over 100

02:26court orders have been issued blocking his actions, many by judges appointed by Presidents Reagan, Bush,

02:33and even Trump himself. And the people of this country are realizing that none of this is in their

02:39interest. That's why Trump has the lowest 100-day approval rating of any president in the past 100 years,

02:47and why he is underwater in every single issue. But Republicans don't serve working families. They

02:55serve billionaires and wealthy corporations. So here we are, faced with this cruel bill. Instead of doing

03:02anything to tackle the affordability crisis, Republicans are using reconciliation as the vehicle

03:09to advance their cynical agenda of giving trillions of dollars in tax breaks to people like Donald Trump

03:15and Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, while cutting vital resources for our communities. Things like Medicaid,

03:23food assistance, and school lunches, Pell Grants for students, health care, and infrastructure.

03:30They're also going to gut asylum and spend tens of billions in a giveaway to ICE, a rogue agency that's

03:37terrorizing communities and trampling on civil liberties and the Constitution itself, because they've been

03:43directed to do so by this president. Just look at what's in this bill. They want people fleeing

03:48violence and persecution to pay a thousand bucks so they can apply. They want people to pay $550

03:55every six months to work. They want people to pay $900 to appeal rulings against them. They are

04:02commodifying the immigration system. And these giveaways to ICE, $45 billion for detention facilities,

04:10which in 13 years worth of their current detention budget. Over $1.3 billion for the office of

04:17principal legal advisor. $40 million to screen children for tattoos and other supposed gang

04:24affiliations. None of this makes sense for working families. I know this firsthand. My district is home

04:32to predominantly Latino immigrant and working class families, and my constituents are not asking for more

04:38tax breaks for Elon Marks. They're not asking for CFPB, the National Labor Relations Board, or the FTC to be gutted.

04:48They're not asking for Medicaid or food assistance to be cut. So I'm proud to stand with my district in

04:56opposing this assault on our communities. I yield back.

05:00Gentlemen.

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