Greg Casar Asks Secretary Linda McMahon Point Blank How Much She Will Receive In Tax Cuts From GOP Budget

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During a House Education Committee hearing last week, Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) asked Education Secretary Linda McMahon how much she will receive in tax benefits from the Republican budget.

Transcript

00:00Gentlemen, I recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Kassar.

00:04Secretary McMahon, thank you for joining us here today.

00:08Right now, the administration that you are a part of is pushing for a massive tax break

00:14for billionaires paid for by massive cuts to health care and food assistance for everyday

00:21Americans, including to the children that you're charged with educating.

00:28You yourself and your family, as a billionaire family of wealth of about $3.2 billion, can

00:34you share with us, do you know how much you and your family will receive in tax benefit

00:41if this Republican tax proposal gets pushed through?

00:44No, I've not sat down and worked with my accountants on what tax.

00:49I can tell you most of the time—

00:50You have a general sense?

00:51Well, I can tell you, last time taxes went through, I paid more.

00:56And so you think that under this proposal, you will not, like the other billionaires,

01:00get millions or tens of millions of dollars in tax benefit?

01:03I think this is kind of a ridiculous line of question.

01:05No, it's not ridiculous, because here's what's important.

01:08The biggest bill being pushed by your administration for your average extremely wealthy person would

01:15give about a $4 million benefit.

01:17Your family is worth about $3.2 billion, so I imagine that you'd get millions of dollars

01:23in benefit from this tax bill.

01:25Does that make sense?

01:26Does that—check out.

01:29I don't know.

01:30I'd have to let you know.

01:31Let's just—

01:32I'd ask the member—

01:33Chairman—

01:34Chairman—

01:35My question.

01:36I'll refer to that secretary.

01:37So, okay, look.

01:38There are families watching at home from my district that could lose their health care, and they want

01:43to know why their health care would get taken away, and what it's paying for is overwhelmingly

01:48tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country.

01:52And so what is—what would you spend the $4 million on that you would get a benefit

02:00of at least $4 million?

02:01Let's get to your educational line of questioning that we deal with in this committee.

02:05What would those families who lose their health care, who are watching—what would

02:09you spend the $4 million on that's worth more than their health care?

02:16I'm not going to address the questions relative to me personally.

02:19I'm here as the secretary of education, and I'm—

02:21Okay, so as the secretary of education, then, as the secretary of education, do you

02:27think, yes or no, that kids will do better off in school if they have health care and

02:34their food needs met?

02:35Yes or no?

02:38We all do better, and children will do better in school if their health needs are met.

02:41I agree with that.

02:42Good.

02:43And so I guess for those kids, which there's going to be hundreds of thousands or millions

02:47of kids that lose their health care, how is it okay that they're going to lose their

02:54health care so that billionaires and billionaire families—I'm not even picking just on you,

03:00but billionaire families like your own—can get a tax break?

03:02What—if you don't even know how many millions of dollars it is you'd get, how is that worth

03:07it?

03:08I'm not going to respond to your question.

03:10I think the answer is because it's not worth it.

03:14It's not.

03:15If you've got 3.2 billion or 5 billion or 10 billion dollars—

03:20Going off the premise that there's going to be health care that is going to be removed

03:23from these children, I'm not sure that is a correct premise.

03:25Every single organization that's looked at this bill knows that millions of people will

03:31lose their health care.

03:32The latest estimate is at least 11 million people and families because you wouldn't

03:36get the enormous savings that the Republican majority on this committee is looking for unless

03:42you kick those millions of people off of their health care.

03:46So how can we educate our kids if they don't have a roof over their heads, if they can't

03:52see a doctor, if they don't have food assistance?

03:55So I'll ask you, do you think it's right for kids to not have food to eat at home before

04:03they go to class in order to make sure that a billionaire that doesn't even know how many

04:08more millions of dollars they're going to get could just get a few million more?

04:11I want to make sure that as a secretary of the Department of Education that the president's

04:17plan to make school choice available to every student in our country is what we follow.

04:24And the president's plan specifically takes money away from those kids, specifically takes

04:33food away from those families, specifically takes money and sends it to big contractors, big

04:41companies, and sends millions of dollars to billionaires like you who don't even know

04:46how many extra millions of dollars they're going to get.

04:49Before I was a member of Congress, I helped run an after-school program at a high school

04:53where many of the kids were getting driven to school in the same car that they slept in

04:57at night.

04:58They didn't have food, many of them couldn't see a doctor, they struggled in class.

05:03We should be passing a bill to make sure that they've got a decent classroom experience,

05:07a roof over their head, food and health care, not a bill that just funnels who knows, in

05:12your opinion, how many millions of dollars to billionaires like those in President Trump's

05:16government.

05:18Lord, I'm honored.

05:19You are encouraged by the wonderful gentleman.

05:20I'm honored.

05:21You are American.

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