Rashida Tlaib Slams GOP Budget Bill And Accuses Colleagues Of Personally Benefiting From Defense Investments

Forbes Breaking News

On Wednesday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) delivered remarks on the House floor about the proposed spending bill.

Transcript

00:00The chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan, Ms. Tlaib, for five minutes.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm here this morning to talk about what is happening here in Congress

00:10in regards to the budget proposal. You know, I can't believe that many of my Republican

00:14colleagues, many of which have a larger number of folks on Medicaid, are proposing the largest cut

00:21to food assistance in the history of our country, the largest cut to Medicaid in our history of our

00:27country. And many are actually denying that they're even cutting it. That is a slap in the face of so

00:35many people that depend on it. You know, don't take it from me, but take it from the Congressional

00:40Budget Office and many others that continue to say that nearly 14 million Americans will lose their

00:46health care and thousands of people will be impacted by the proposal, the so-called reconciliation that

00:53is going through this chamber. We know that children and families will go hungry with this proposal.

01:00You know, our residents can't simply stop being hungry or stop being sick, Mr. Chair.

01:06For me, I know being on the front lines of a community that continues to again be left behind

01:12with policies here in this chamber, I know that they feel very much that this budget is a betrayal to our

01:18families. And if it wasn't bad enough, this all is being done to give trillions of dollars, not billions

01:24or millions, but trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the billionaire class and the largest corporations,

01:30corporations that do not need these tax breaks. But don't worry, there is a budget that got increased.

01:38That's the Pentagon, the defense budget, the war machine of the Pentagon budget can't pass an audit,

01:42seven audits in a row. I read somewhere that in the most recent audit failure, the Pentagon could not

01:49account for half of its assets. Half. That's hundreds of billions of dollars that are unaccounted for.

01:58And these are, many of my colleagues continue to talk about the deficit.

02:03I know this is a misnomer, but the Congressional Budget Office said the deficit is being increased by

02:08$3.8 trillion. So why isn't there this outcry of that number? But it always seems to be an outcry

02:19when we're trying to, again, feed children that are hungry or help make sure that people, again,

02:25no fault of their own getting sick to get covered by Medicaid. The budget would cut crucial programs for

02:32the poor and working families. That is a fact. It's not being made up. It's right there. It's going to take

02:37food away from hungry children, let people die from the lack of health care coverage. And they're

02:42even cutting, again, trillions of dollars, trillions of dollars, again, so that, so that we can continue

02:49to fund a budget that can't pass an audit. You know, one of the amendments that I'm offering this

02:55morning, Mr. Chair, is one of the ones that says, hey, if the Pentagon can't pass an audit, then we

03:02shouldn't be able to fund them. You know, I really believe no money for Pentagon waste. When an

03:08amendment would prevent any funds, again, being allocated to this, when you talk about waste,

03:12when you talk about fraud, you look at the Pentagon budget. But instead, what did we do?

03:17We went to the most vulnerable. We went to the hungry. We went to the sick.

03:22Why? Because many of my colleagues in this chamber own stock and war manufacturing, Mr. Chair.

03:28That's a direct conflict of interest. So every time they increase the budget for defense,

03:36many of them are benefiting personally from that increase. No increases to helping the poor

03:44or helping the hungry, and many of which are in both Republican and Democratic districts.

03:50Again, many of my colleagues have a lot more people on Medicaid than my district does.

03:54But yet here we are, gaslighting and misleading the public and saying, we're not cutting it.

03:59We're not doing this or that. How is that possible when the Congressional Budget Office,

04:04a nonpartisan agency that many of my colleagues on the other side have quoted themselves,

04:09many of the people that are the so-called, I'm concerned about the deficit,

04:13you're increasing the deficit by $3.8 trillion. But put that aside, the cruelty of it.

04:20The cruelty of it. You know, I have an amendment in there that talks about the fact that we need to

04:25focus on reducing the rate of infant mortality. Why can't we work on that? That is a national crisis

04:31right now, infant mortality. We can do that by ensuring that Medicaid covers all prenatal and

04:37postnatal care. Why can't we support that? Why can't we make sure? I know over 40% of births in our

04:44country are covered by Medicaid, Mr. Chair. And again, I'm trying to propose these amendments to

04:50highlight the fact that these are very critical programs, no matter where you live in our country.

04:55We could also be ending child poverty and ensure that every child has the resource they need to

05:00reach their full potential. You know, we should be talking about these critical issues of funding

05:07these programs. It's our tax dollars going back to our neighbors who need it most. Instead of voting

05:15to make life easier, they're supporting polluters, corporations, and billionaires that do not need it.

05:22General Women's Times expired? Please, to all my colleagues. They won't ask Speaker Johnson or the

05:28President why they voted this. They're going to ask you when you go back to your districts. So please do the

05:32right. Thank you.

Category

Transcript

Recommended