During a press briefing on Wednesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) spoke about 'unwillingness' within the Republican party to push back on cuts in the budget.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Leader. Following up on the question about rescissions, there are some Republicans who may have concerns about the provisions and the reconciliation bill, but support clawing back some of these funds for whatever reason. What's your message to those Republicans who say they're going to vote for the rule because they support the rescissions package, even if they have concerns about those provisions and the reconciliation bill, because those two are tied together in the rule that's going to come before they have to outcord it in?
00:28Republicans made an intentional decision unnecessarily to tie this rule together. They could separately provide for a vote on the rescissions package in a different rule, or in fact, there's an argument to be made that because rescissions have a privileged status, that it can be brought to the floor. And Jim McGovern, of course, has made this point.
00:50Republicans, again, are just trying to hide behind their unwillingness, unwillingness to actually just confront doing the right thing for the people that they represent. That's the fundamental challenge that we have right now in the United States Congress.
01:08We have an unwillingness, an unwillingness amongst Republicans to stand up to Donald Trump, stand up to J.D. Vance, stand up to Elon Musk. We are a separate and co-equal branch of government. We don't work for any of those people.
01:24We work for everyday Americans, and it's time for House Republicans to stop being nothing more than a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump's extreme agenda.
01:36There's no requirement that they have to tie them together. The fact that they tied them together is proof positive of how uncomfortable House Republicans are with this bill.
01:46They ought to take that discomfort into action. They have an opportunity. Separate. If they vote no, they can pass the rescissions. We'll fight it every step of the way.
01:56But they have an opportunity then to amend the actual bill that does such harm to the American people.
02:03So if you want any proof that the Republicans' leadership knows how unpopular this bill is with the American people,
02:10it's the way they try to use the rescissions package to get it passed.