'One Of The Biggest Rip-Offs In America History': Robert Garcia Tears Into GOP's Budget Proposal

During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing last week, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) spoke about the Republicans' budget resolution.

Transcript

00:00minutes everybody. I now recognize Mr. Garcia for five minutes. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I think it's

00:08pretty clear that Republicans have called us in today to oversee one of the biggest rip-offs

00:12in American history. We already know what this plan actually means. It's trillions in deficit

00:17finance tax cuts for the wealthiest in this country. 880 billion in cuts that will decimate

00:23Medicaid. Medicaid covers 80 million Americans, low-income people, the disabled, long-term care

00:29for the elderly, substance abuse treatment, and 41% of all births in this country. That's what's

00:35being threatened today and is part of this budget proposal. And that's not all of course. There's

00:39an additional 230 billion dollars in cuts that also threaten food assistance. Now this is one of the

00:45biggest wealth transfers from the poor to the rich in American history. And it comes at the same time

00:51that Donald Trump is destroying our economy with a crazy and erratic tariff agenda. It's a complete

00:56rip-off for the American people. Now we should believe in a country where we take care of each

01:00other, where billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share, where everyone deserves food,

01:05health care, and an affordable place to live. Now in our Homeland Security Committee today,

01:10truly disturbing things are happening. Now even though border crossings are at an all-time low,

01:15which I remind the committee actually began under President Biden, we want to give Donald Trump a

01:21giant slush fund for his extreme toxic and lawless deportation agenda. Now Secretary Noem currently

01:26spends much of her time dressing up as an ICE agent and doing propaganda tours of foreign prisons.

01:33Now this bill would give her a huge budget increase with absolutely no accountability. And we know the

01:39administration is already trampling on the rule of law, and we shouldn't be voting to empower them

01:44today. I want to begin by also, under unanimous consent, introduce into the record, a poll from

01:50Fox News showing that Donald Trump actually now has a negative approval rating on immigration.

01:56Mr. Chair? So ordered. And why is the American public churning on the president on immigration?

02:01It's because the president is now destroying our due process system in this country. In the case of

02:07Kilmer Abrego Garcia, there's a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling that is demanding his facilitation back to

02:14the U.S. and the Donald Trump administration is plotting the Supreme Court. Of course they've

02:20admitted they made a mistake, and yet they still refuse to bring him back. In the case of Andrew

02:25Romero, who came to the border seeking asylum because he was fleeing persecution for being gay,

02:30he came to his appointment at the border that we gave him as a government, and then was taken to a

02:35foreign prison with no due process. This is not the country that we should be proud of in this

02:42system of immigration. We now have evidence that Donald Trump is deporting people with no due process.

02:48He's willfully denying and ignoring the Supreme Court. We cannot continue to afford to continue to

02:54spend more and more resources on a toxic, extreme, and unconstitutional agenda. Everyone here supports

03:01border security. If you're convicted of a serious crime, I think we can all agree that you shouldn't

03:05be here. But this does nothing to bring down the cost of living for working-class and middle-class

03:10families. We are empowering an administration that is attacking our Constitution, our safety,

03:15and our middle class, and we should vote no on these budget increases today. Thank you, and I yield back.

03:21Gentleman Yields, I now recognize Mr. Magaziner for five minutes.

03:27Thank you, Chairman. We need more funding for homeland security and border security. I was

03:34very close to you. I'll see you next time.

03:36Thank you, Captain. Take care.

03:37Please,