Post by bot on May 28, 2017 20:37:01 GMT -5
Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference with House Democrats and Advocates Opposing Trump’s Budget
HOYER: AMERICA IS GREAT BECAUSE IT PROVIDES ITS PEOPLE WITH OPPORTUNITIES TO GET AHEAD, NO MATTER WHERE THEY STARTED OUT
WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) delivered the following remarks earlier today at a press conference led by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) in opposition to President Trump's harmful budget cuts and broken promises to American families:
“[Rep. Lee] says I looked at the budget. If you care about people and you look at this budget, you will tear up. You will cry for the pain that it is going to inflict. You will cry for the negligence it reflects. You will cry because it reflects what has been the mantra of the Republican Party for a long time and certainly Mr. Mulvaney admitted it to the press.
“When they asked him, you know it’s going to do this to health care, it’s going to do this in education, it’s going to do this to somebody who cares about the environment, he said that’s not what we’re focused on. We’re focused on the people who pay the bill – the high rollers. That’s what they’re focused on. Not on the people who will be adversely affected by this bill.
“The President’s budget shows us exactly what his values and priorities are. It is a litany of broken promises to voters and a severe disinvestment in American workers and their families.
“America is great because it provides its people with opportunities to get ahead, no matter where they started out. This budget will make it harder: harder to send your kids to college, harder to access job training to get ahead, and harder for seniors to access Meals on Wheels. As a matter of fact, there will be no Meals on Wheels. This budget will make it harder for low-income families to stave off hunger with the help of nutritional assistance programs.
“President Trump’s budget cuts Medicaid. Medicaid, largely used by senior middle class families. Yes, there are people who don’t have resources and need Medicaid, but you go to a nursing home and you ask them how they’re paying for that nursing home and they will tell you, Medicaid. $1.4 trillion slashed from that program.
“Another slashes funding for the Social Security Disability Insurance. You know during the campaign, unforgivably, this President made fun of, mocked a reporter with a disability. Now what he says to the disabled is not only am I going to mock you, but I am not going to cover you under Social Security Disability Insurance. How sad it is.
“This budget is built atop a foundation of massive tax cuts for the wealthiest in America and the discredited mantra that these tax cuts will pay for themselves. Mr. President, we’ve been there. We’ve done that. And we have seen that all you’ve created with those massive tax cuts and some of your predecessors who supported such is massive debt confronting the American people.
“Even Republicans know this is a bad budget that has no chance of being enacted. But what an awful place to start the debate. Representative Mike Simpson said, ‘Frankly you can’t pass these budgets on the Floor.’ I hope he’s right.
“Representative Mark Meadows, think of this, Mark Meadows, the Chair of the Freedom Caucus said, ‘Meals On Wheels, even for some of us who are considered to be fiscal hawks, may be a bridge too far.’ My my my. Not feeding people who need food. That should be a bridge to everyone who needs it.
“I want to thank Chairwoman Barbara Lee of the Democratic Whip Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, and Opportunity for organizing this press conference and leading the charge against these dangerous Trump budget policies.
“Democrats will continue, and I hope some of our Republican colleagues as well, will continue to stand up for working Americans and their families, as Donald Trump turns his back on those families that he believes elected him to office. How sad.
“The Republican manta is ‘you’re on your own.’ Our mantra is, as a country, as a party, as a people, ought to be: ‘we are in this together. We are in this together. We are in this together.’ Our faiths teach us that principle, and we ought to follow it in our public policy.
“Let us fight to see that that happens. Thank you very much.”