Bennie Thompson Torches GOP, Says They Are 'Hellbent' On Passing Trump's Billionaire 'Giveaways'

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing last week, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) spoke about congressional Republicans' support for President Trump's agenda.

Transcript

00:00Remember to make an opening statement.

00:02Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

00:05Mr. Chairman, we're here today because President Trump has one goal,

00:10to pass massive tax cuts and giveaways for billionaires on the backs of hard-working Americans.

00:18Unfortunately, Congressional Republicans are hell-bent on helping him do it.

00:23The extreme Trump legislative agenda provides $7 trillion in giveaways to billionaires and big corporations

00:33while cutting $880 billion from Medicaid, hurting tens of millions of Americans,

00:41and taking food from veterans, seniors, and kids.

00:45It would also blow a $14 trillion hole in the national debt.

00:50Americans know the President's scheme don't benefit anyone but himself and his cronies.

00:57Trump's reconciliation bill is a big, beautiful bill for his billionaire buddies like Elon Musk,

01:05but a terrible deal for everyone else.

01:08This disastrous Republican plan puts Americans' health care in jeopardy.

01:13Mr. Chairman, in your congressional district alone, nearly 140,000 of your constituents receiving Medicaid

01:22are at risk of losing their health care, including over 82,000 children and 14,000 seniors.

01:31That's why so many Republican members spent the recent congressional recess telling their constituents

01:37they'd fight to defend against cuts to the very programs their party's budget resolution would decimate.

01:46Fortunately, the American people aren't buying these Republican lives.

01:51Three polls released this past Sunday show Trump's approval rating at a 70-year low

01:56for any president in its first 100 days in office.

02:01These pitiful approval ratings are of the President's own making.

02:07Americans witnessed Trump's crash, our economy, in real time.

02:11They watched him break promises about lowering prices.

02:15And now Republicans want to take health care and food from kids and seniors to help the likes of Elon Musk.

02:23Democrats refuse to be complicit in this Republican scheme.

02:27The President's plummeting poll numbers and the tanking economy make supporting this reconciliation package

02:34more complicated for my friends on the other side of the aisle.

02:40That's why House Republican leadership is putting lipstick on a pig of reconciliation package

02:46by pretending it's about border security.

02:49But the border measure we are considering today is nothing more than window dressing

02:54designed to help moderate Republicans' cruel cuts to Medicaid and distract Americans

03:02from the fact that Trump is taking a chainsaw to federal services they rely on.

03:08This reconciliation package isn't about securing the border.

03:13It is and has never been.

03:15If Republicans were serious about border security,

03:18they would have taken up the bipartisan border package last year.

03:22But they were too busy doing Trump's bidding then,

03:26and they are too busy doing Trump's bidding now.

03:29If they are serious about border security,

03:32they'd have had the Secretary of Homeland Security testify before this committee

03:38to make the case for more funding for the department.

03:42But while Secretary Nong travels the world for countless photo ops,

03:46she's appeared before the department's Committee of Jurisdiction despite repeated requests

03:53from committee Democrats.

03:55And yet Republicans are ready to turn over tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to her.

04:02At the end of the day, reconciliation is about lining billionaires' pockets on the backs of ordinary Americans.

04:09I know it's hard to defend the indefensible,

04:13but at some point my colleagues on the other side will have to face the music.

04:17The fact is, most Republicans voted to start this reconciliation process

04:23when all they knew about it was a concept of a plan.

04:27As their constituents have learned more about it

04:30and watched every Trump administration priority implode,

04:35publicity defending reconciliation or anything associated with the president

04:41has become very uncomfortable.

04:44But reconciliation won't distract Americans

04:47from the fact that their grocery bills are higher,

04:50their bank account balances are lower,

04:53and there isn't a Republican Congress or anyone in the White House who cares.

04:59I urge my colleagues to oppose this Republican reconciliation scheme.

05:04I yield back.

05:05The gentleman yields.

05:07Other members of the committee are reminded that opening statements may be submitted for the record.

05:15Pursuant to notice, I now call up Committee Print 119A.

05:19The text was circulated in advance and printed copies are available.

05:22The clerk shall designate the committee print.

05:24Committee Print 119A, providing for recon...

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