Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, oil over democracy. Trump has made clear his priorities, accepting ruthless suppression by Maduro's comrades so long as the oil profits flow to him as the self-described acting President of Venezuela.

With one major oil company describing the country as uninvestable, Trump has absolutely no winning strategy to secure any benefits for the American people.

He doesn't just want to be king of America. He wants to be king of the universe. He wants to be a Putin or a Xi, disrupting the global order that bipartisan American leaders made possible to prevent another world war.

Imperialism, starting wars around the world wherever Trump's latest whim takes him, will not Make America Great Again. It will make us much less safe.

To found this country, Americans got rid of one despotic king. We don't need another one. Instead, we must demand an accountable President by adopting this important resolution and asserting the power of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, in their incessant drive to impose a national ban on all forms of abortion, Republicans continue to block relief for millions of Americans who are struggling with soaring ObamaCare health insurance premiums. Now, today, they offer this bill to funnel taxpayer dollars to fake health clinics.

To deceive women, these so-called pregnancy crisis centers use medical jargon and dress up in scrubs, yet most of the 2,600 clinics do not have a single licensed medical professional. Instead, they rely on fear and misinformation to discourage vulnerable women as they are trying to make one of the most important healthcare decisions about what is best for them.

Much more shocking than the waste that is promoted through this bill is the indifference with which so many extremist Republicans have shown to the right to life, the right to life for the mother, the right to life for American women.

I chaired an Austin field hearing last August, and I heard dozens of tragic stories from Texas women like Kaitlyn Kash and Amanda Zurawski, forced to the brink of death before they could receive care for a miscarriage, hemorrhage, or sepsis.

An obstetrician, Dr. Donell Oliver, testified: ``Women are dying; families are suffering; and medical professionals' hands are being tied.'' That is the result of the kind of strict abortion ban Republicans have imposed on Texas women that some here want to impose on all 50 States and all women in our country.

I think the death certificates for so many other women who have been denied treatment for pregnancy complications should really read the truth, which is ``Cause of Death: Republican abortion ban.''

For every American whose life is threatened by Republican extremist interference, I strongly oppose this bill and urge its rejection.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes.

Madam Speaker, information on the deceased is already shared among Federal agencies under existing law. This is really a trivial bill that is designed only to make it appear that Republicans are doing something about supposed fraud. An independent investigation found that the Social Security Administration has an incredible success rate with less than 1 percent of payments found to be improper, some of those being overpayments and some of those being underpayments.

Today, of course, is not the first time we have heard these claims about fraudulent Social Security payments to the dead. Indeed, from that very podium, Madam Speaker, we heard President Trump last March come to give a lengthy address to a joint session of this Congress. In his remarks that combined misinformation, outright lies, and a good many platitudes, the President devoted special attention to Social Security, ridiculing it with outlandish tales. He spoke of ``3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139, 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them.''

What nonsense. Thanks to the anti-fraud guardrails that are already available, that has not happened, and the President's representation was absolutely wrong.

While today's bill essentially duplicates existing efforts to prevent erroneous payments, the focus on improper payments to deceased people is just another part of the Republican plan to undermine public confidence in Social Security, a social insurance program that has been one of the most valuable initiatives ever approved in this Congress.

Yet Trump appointed Elon Musk, who proclaimed that Social Security is ``a Ponzi scheme.'' He gave him the authority to take a hatchet to the Social Security Administration. For months, DOGE, the department of government evisceration, promoted related lies.

Undermining the delivery of checks and quality service, the Trump regime, through DOGE, abruptly fired thousands of Social Security workers, and it continues to enact erratic policy changes. This comes on top of years of Republican opposition to adequately staffing the Social Security Administration.

Social Security has less staff today than it did a decade ago, despite the fact that it now serves many, many more Americans. As a result, at Social Security, under the Trump regime, there is a backlog of 6 million cases, public inquiries, along with an agency that is riddled with errors and delays from the shortage of adequate staffing.

Now, the plan from the Trump regime on Social Security is to cut in- person visits at offices around the country, which is just another effort to obstruct Americans from getting straight answers, not from a machine but from a person, concerning their hard-earned benefits. These are just more ways to cause Americans to question this vital Federal program so that nobody is surprised if, one day, the payments are late or the trust fund is insufficient.

We have had one current Member of the United States Senate, a Republican, who has declared that what we need to do, he insists, is to ``pull it up by the roots and get rid of it'' with reference to Social Security.

Providing modest retirement, disability, and retirement benefits to 69 million Americans, Social Security is what puts food in the fridge and keeps the lights on week after week.

For 22 million Americans, Social Security is the difference between living in poverty, and for 40 percent, it is more than one-half of their income.

It is a lifesaving, irreplaceable, social contract. As stewards of this hard-earned benefit, we must protect taxpayers' dollars, but empty promises to address supposed fraud are not the answer.

Americans deserve a restored watchdog and efficient program at Social Security that ensures swift and easy access to their payments.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself another 5 minutes.

This bill is really another missed opportunity. The protections that are most urgently needed are not these new guardrails, but guardrails to protect our inalienable right to privacy.

Through the Privacy Act and other means, this Congress has long set limits on what the government can and cannot do with intimate details that it collects about each American. Government officials are not free to use our sensitive personal data however they wish, but that may actually be happening under the Trump regime.

When this legislation was before the Ways and Means Committee, I offered an amendment to address a serious and looming threat to our privacy. The Trump administration is pursuing an unprecedented effort to consolidate Federal data on virtually every American into a single, centralized master file, a de facto digital ID on every American.

This would be a digital record containing most anything that any part of the government knows about you, tracking where you live, where you work, your earnings, your bank account, your health insurance, your child support agreements, and more.

To understand the scope of this extraordinary project, my amendment required the administration to produce materials related to the Social Security Administration's role in data aggregation and its chosen contractor, Palantir, a company that one Silicon Valley executive once described as ``building the infrastructure of the police state.'' This project would further empower a President whose priorities include revenge, personal enrichment, and self-glorification to misuse this data.

Beyond the obvious danger of empowering a surveillance state or enabling the targeting of political opponents, the other danger associated with this mass centralization is that this sensitive information held by the Federal Government in one place could be exposed to hacking. One vulnerability, one malicious actor, one insider threat, and millions of Americans could be exposed.

A whistleblower has already revealed that the Social Security records of roughly 300 million Americans were uploaded into an unsecured cloud environment without adequate safeguards. Internal Federal reviews have identified serious weaknesses in Palantir's systems.

One internal U.S. Army memorandum described Palantir's platform

as ``very high risk,'' warning that any unauthorized user, regardless of clearance, could access all the applications and datasets, the very kind of thing that would interfere with our privacy from private entities.

Palantir, of course, disputes these findings, but the concerns are real, and the consequences of getting it wrong would be enormous. My approach would not have stopped this project. It would not have dismantled anything. It simply would have required transparency, basic disclosure of how Social Security data has been used or misused by the Trump regime in the creation of this centralized database.

Yet, despite the gravity of these concerns, Republicans voted to block this reasonable inquiry from a regime that seems to thrive on secrecy.

This vote follows a troubling pattern that occurred right here in the House when rules were adopted to block a resolution of inquiry that I and other Members had to ask for this data from the administration.

Twice now, Republicans have adopted special rules, extraordinary measures that are designed to prevent the House from ever considering this question. Twice they have used the process to hide from the American people what is happening and to protect their Members from having to take a vote about this sweeping intrusion into our privacy.

Remarkably, Palantir has even said they are willing to support the resolution. That hasn't been enough for our Republican colleagues. This is the time for sunlight instead of fear of sunlight. It is unfortunate that this transparency, which should not be controversial, is not included in this bill.

I will be voting for this bill, as we did in committee, but it is relatively meaningless, and the big issues of the day are not being addressed in this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.

Madam Speaker, I think it would be more accurate to say this bill is a tiny step, it is a trivial step, and it is curious how narrow the interest of our Republican colleagues are with regard to fraud.

Trump has been busy pardoning one fraudster after another. We haven't heard a peep from our Republican colleagues about that nor about his wrongful action within days of his inauguration of abruptly and unjustifiably firing the chief inspector general of the Social Security Administration. That is the public watchdog who is there to ensure that no fraud--dead, living, or otherwise--occurs. In only a single year, that inspector general had saved Social Security about $12.4 billion through audits and investigations.

House Republicans have similarly remained totally mute about the fact that as of today, almost a year later, Trump has continued his failure to nominate a replacement inspector general. They are apparently not too eager about addressing fraud to have a real watchdog there.

Just as they yell ``fraud'' as an excuse to replace ObamaCare with Republican nothing care, while Trump reinstates the suspended insurance brokers that were causing the fraud, the Trump regime and its congressional enablers are really just yelling ``fraud'' as a cover for the real agenda, which is to privatize Social Security.

Trump's Treasury Secretary, Mr. Bessent, recently blew their cover by indicating that the big, ugly bill about which Republicans have been so gleeful is really a ``back door'' to privatize Social Security, a step that will undermine the program that so many Americans are counting on.

This bill offers no additional protection to them or to the taxpayer. What it does do is continue the myth that Social Security is fraudulent, that it is not delivering the benefits that Americans have been able to rely on for generations, and with appropriate action will be able to rely upon for generations to come.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

As stewards of Americans' hard-earned tax dollars, we have a responsibility to ensure efficient and appropriate government spending. The dollars that have been spent on Social Security have been spent well and effectively to benefit millions.

For years, I have sought action on several fraud prevention measures, efforts that have been repeatedly rejected, not even heard by the Republican majority.

Ignoring my legislation and other proposals that have been offered from the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, another inspector general that was fired by President Trump, Republicans instead offer this minor bill that does little to address fraud, that raises a myth concerning payments to the deceased, and perpetuates that myth that Social Security should be, in the words of one Republican Senator: pulled up by its roots and gotten rid of.

It is all fear-mongering from some of the same people who recently enacted a truly horrifying scheme with the largest cuts to healthcare and SNAP food assistance in the history of this country, all in order to further enrich some billionaire donors. These cuts leave millions of children, people with disabilities, and seniors without access to a doctor, struggling to afford their medications, and unable to receive in-home support.

The billionaire class was so greedy that even $1 trillion in cuts to healthcare wasn't enough to pay for everything that they demanded. The total receipt from Republicans' legislation means that trillions of dollars are being added to our national debt, even after these draconian cuts to healthcare. Those additions to the national debt will endanger the long-term promise of Social Security and Medicare.

This legislation does nothing to address Social Security's guarantee to American workers. If this Congress fails to act, the Federal Government will default in 2032, and people would see their Social Security payments cut.

Meanwhile, this bill also ignores the Trump regime's effort, which I discussed, about the development of a digital file on every American and the invasion of our privacy. It is good that this legislation requires the Treasury Department's Do Not Pay system to reimburse Social Security and State agencies for its use of death records that the States collect and provide to Social Security.

Social Security should not bear the price for that Do Not Pay system's use of the data. I certainly support that provision, but every American will bear the cost of Republicans' failure to protect their hard-earned benefits and private information from Trump's hatchet job on the Social Security Administration.

While I don't oppose the bill, I do oppose the misrepresentations that are made about it.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I support strengthening our relations with African countries through the African Growth and Opportunity Extension Act. I think increased trade, economic activity, and development that respects human rights, labor rights, and the environment can benefit both Americans and Africans.

I think that trade is especially important at this time after the profound damage done by the consistent disrespect by President Trump of Africans, unless they happen to be White Afrikaners, and, more importantly, by his abrupt and unjustified termination of the Agency for International Development, which has cost tens of thousands of lives in Africa and other places, and thousands of American jobs. AGOA cannot undo all of that harm, but it can be part of responsible engagement, if it is done right.

It is important, however, to understand that this reauthorization does not guarantee a single African country the benefits of this bill if they fall out of favor with President Trump. The role of Congress is constrained. The bill continues to empower the President to include or exclude countries entirely at his whim, and we know how unpredictable, vengeful, and punitive he can be.

While I support AGOA, I do not support extending it to countries with serious human rights abuses, nor to those engaging in serious environmental destruction, such as the devastation of Africa's rainforests.

In Tanzania, bodies filled morgues as more than 700 people last fall were reportedly killed in connection with the recent election. Peaceful protesters in Mozambique, Angola, and Madagascar were shot by security forces. Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are involved in multiple war crimes, despite President Trump's failed attempts to achieve a peace agreement.

I have particular concern about Kenya from a business standpoint. A longtime, well-respected Austin resident, an engineer and law-abiding citizen, serves as co-president of LightPulse, a respected Kenyan healthcare and educational institution. Kenyan authorities cooperated in the abduction of one of his employees, who was taken to Turkiye and tortured. The next thing that we knew, up on a website in Turkiye was a declaration that my constituent was being labeled as a terrorist. Another incident of this type occurred only last month, and the Kenyans have been unable to provide a suitable explanation for their conduct.

Finally, American workers should not be forced to compete on an uneven playing field, where China sends manufactured products to Africa, there are minor changes made there, and then this product is sent here as an AGOA trade preference product. Our trade laws should be clear and not put our workers at a disadvantage by forcing them to compete with these kinds of practices.

AGOA cannot undo the immense harm that President Trump has already inflicted, but if properly structured, it can strengthen democratic rights and environmental protection.

I would support a short-term extension paired with meaningful reforms. We have had no shortage of time in order to get these reforms; only a lack of will. We do not have that reform bill before us.

Madam Speaker, for all of those reasons, I respectfully urge my colleagues to reject this bill and instead work toward a more responsible, accountable reauthorization of AGOA.

Mr. Speaker, our vote today represents hope, the hope of millions to access their family physician, the hope for so many Americans who have wondered how they will be able to afford healthcare, hope that by using an extraordinary measure today in the House, we can address an extraordinary need.

After 70 Republican repeal efforts, after rejecting the amendment I offered last May to retain these credits, and after delaying for months to give us the opportunity to provide this care, we are here today with hope.

Now, the responsibility shifts to the Senate. They need to promptly approve this measure and not attach any weakening provisions such as junk insurance and health savings account tax shelters. Keep it focused on affordability, on providing enrollment periods for those who have already lost their coverage because of enormous premium hikes.

We have heard so much about fraud. The only fraud that has been identified relates to broker fraud that Trump has made worse and Republicans have ignored. The biggest fraud of all would be replacing ObamaCare with Republican nothing care.

Mr. Speaker, unable to run America, Trump says that he will run Venezuela.

Unwilling to provide help to Americans facing soaring health premiums, he offers new tax subsidies to Big Oil.

Long eager to drag America back to the ugly glory days of White nationalism under his hero, President William McKinley, Trump now is apparently going to make imperialism great again, also.

Declaring that he and he alone will dominate the Western Hemisphere, he sends a chilling message to his fellow authoritarians, like Putin, Xi, and others: Might makes right. Just stay in your own neighborhood.

With no interest in democracy, he has made clear that this is a war for oil and that he will work with any pawn that will get it to him, even those who are launching a new wave of repression in Venezuela.

Colombia, Mexico, Greenland--he is handing Putin a gift by dividing NATO. Our allies had to meet yesterday to defend Denmark on Greenland from this bully in chief.

So many conflicts but no plan to provide security to American families. He ignores our needs.

Mr. Speaker, at the end of a long series of votes today, I missed the final vote on Representative Crenshaw's misnamed Do No Harm in Medicaid Act, which would prohibit Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care for youth. I would have voted No, just as I did when Republicans proposed this outrageous policy earlier this year.

Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 361, and NAY on Roll Call No. 362.

Mr. Speaker, in a bill that they call ``big'' and ``beautiful,'' Republicans have approved the biggest reduction in access to healthcare in American history. They rejected my amendment in committee to maintain the tax credits that make the Affordable Care Act truly affordable.

Now, after shutting down the government for weeks, delaying further weeks, they offer this sorry bill, this loser, wrapped up in a bow for Christmas.

To Andrew and his family down in Austin, this phony bill means zero relief on premiums, premiums that are going to spike for his family by nearly $2,000 per month. It means nothing for Russell, a prostate cancer survivor just 2 years away from Medicare, wondering how he will afford the screenings and any necessary care.

For a mother in Austin, who contacted me about the stop-loss provision that is reinforced in this bill, it means the possibility that after her 3-year-old child was diagnosed with cancer, they will lose all their coverage.

These are real-life stories from my neighbors who have been forgotten by Republicans in their rush to provide more tax benefits for their billionaire buddies. They forget the struggles of so many working Americans.

Republicans have made over 70 attempts to destroy the Affordable Care Act, which they all opposed. They peddled junk insurance policies that would deny essential consumer protection benefits under the Affordable Care Act.

They could even make matters worse with one provision in this bill that will allow the reinstituting of preexisting conditions that were used to bar coverage for so many people before the Affordable Care Act.

This is their commitment to deny healthcare, to provide no relief on premiums that are soaring. In short, it means replacing ObamaCare with nothingcare.

While we are thankful for this belated decision of four Republicans here at the last minute to join the discharge petition, unless they join us in voting in favor of this action on the previous question, there is nothing that can be done this year because the Speaker will continue to obstruct premium relief for Americans.

This would be the key vote?

Mr. Speaker, we all mourn the loss from the tragic attack on two National Guard members here in Washington last week. Yet, once again, the master of distraction seeks to avoid any accountability for his role in this tragedy. Only 7 months earlier, the Trump administration granted asylum to the assassin.

Big unanswered questions for the President: What specific vetting was done with regard to the 3 years that this assassin lived here in America? Was his post-traumatic stress from his prior violent work considered? Was the caseworker who reported his possible radicalization interviewed and reviewed? Was his inability to even get a job a factor? Did this review include biometric information, checking social media platforms, and other steps?

Instead of blaming all immigrants and blaming Biden, how about just looking in the mirror and figuring out what went wrong here in this regime and how to fix it in order to avoid another tragedy? Americans deserve accountability and answers.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Michael Mucchetti, my chief of staff, for concluding 25 years of devoted service. Prior to coming to Congress, he worked with me at the Texas Supreme Court as a briefing attorney. Thereafter, he practiced law and then took his Texas know-how to the United Nations in Geneva before returning here to lead my congressional team.

Through shutdowns, wars, and so much history, including a record differently numbered congressional districts, Michael has been there as a

steady hand, quiet in credit, relentless in our efforts, a mentor to many, and kind to team members and constituents. He has advocated for peace and nonviolence, protecting our most vulnerable, increasing access and opportunity, advancing equal justice, and defending a democracy where every voice can be heard.

He embodies the best of public service: wisdom, integrity, and compassion. He has been less an employee and more a brother-in-arms.

Thanks to his remarkable family, Kiki, Anna, Austin, Connor, and Torben. It has been a privilege and an honor.

Mr. Speaker, this rule further erodes the system of checks and balances that has served our democracy so well. Republicans, through it, are surrendering more and more unrestrained power to President Trump. This rule is but another step on the march to tyranny.

Trump is seeking to create a master file of information on every single American, a digital ID tracking your movements, where you live, where you work, when you see a doctor, how much money you have, even child support agreements, and much more. Today, Republicans are simply rubberstamping that plan, the very kind of surveillance and intrusion that Libertarians have always opposed.

Today, these Republicans are blocking us from presenting any resolution of inquiry concerning the Trump administration, like the one that I introduced on June 11 to demand the facts from the administration about all of its wrongdoing, including what confidential information it has accumulated on each American. Your data becomes fully public and available to President Trump even as the Epstein files remain fully buried.

Republicans are keeping the American people ignorant of what Trump is doing with their private data: Ignorant of how he may use it against his political enemies or his business competitors, ignorant of what he may do if you have ever expressed any criticism of him, his family, his policies, or maybe you just expressed support for someone that with his latest whim he is opposed to. Now he will have a master file that includes you to persecute and even prosecute.

Too intimidated by this self-proclaimed king, Republicans are empowering what could become a police state. To shed light on this descent into authoritarian darkness, to let the American people know how their own government is centralizing their personal data, I introduced a resolution of inquiry demanding that the administration produce all the information related to the creation of this vast searchable database with its handpicked contractor, Palantir, a company that one Silicon Valley executive accused of building the infrastructure of the police state.

I do agree with one Republican, Representative Warren Davidson, who does believe in freedom and has described Trump's deal with Palantir as dangerous and has said when you start combining all these data points on individuals into one database, it really essentially creates a digital ID, and it is a power that history says will eventually be abused. With this administration, ``eventually'' will be very soon.

A vote for this rule is a vote to bury the truth and allow the Federal Government to track Americans and invade their privacy with no restraint. I strongly urge my colleagues to stand up for freedom and reject this rule.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to recognize Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, His All-Holiness Bartholomew.

Born Demetrios Arhondonis in 1940 on the island of Imvros (today, Gokceada, Turkey), His All-Holiness Bartholomew was elected in October 1991 as the 270th Archbishop of the 2000-year-old Church founded by the Apostle Andrew. His formal office is Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch, a historic title dating to the sixth century.

The role of the Ecumenical Patriarch as the primary spiritual leader of the Orthodox Christian world and transnational figure of global significance has increased exponentially during the tenure of His All- Holiness.

He has co-sponsored international peace conferences, as well as meetings about racism and fundamentalism, bringing together Christians, Muslims and Jews for the purpose of advancing greater cooperation and mutual understanding. He has advanced Christian-Muslim relations in such places as former Yugoslavia, advocating for peace-building measures to diffuse global conflict in the region, while supporting many traditionally Orthodox countries emerging from decades of wide scale religious persecution and oppression behind the Iron Curtain. Moreover, he has initiated international meetings and theological conversations with Muslim and Jewish leaders to promote mutual respect and religious tolerance on a global level, proving a pioneer in interfaith encounters and traveling to Muslim countries rarely visited by Christian leaders.

He has organized international, inter-faith and inter-disciplinary symposia and summits to address ecological problems of the world, earning him the title ``Green Patriarch'' and prestigious international awards. His efforts to promote religious freedom and human rights, his initiatives to advance religious tolerance among the world's religions, together with his work toward international peace and environmental protection, have justly placed him at the forefront of global visionaries as an apostle of love, peace and reconciliation.

In 1997, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the United States Congress. The Guardian recognized him as one of the world's leaders in raising environmental awareness. And, in its category of Leaders and revolutionaries, Time Magazine named him as one of the world's most influential people. Now, he is being rightfully honored with the Templeton Prize, previously received by Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others. Congratulations to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on this honor and I thank him for his life of service.

Mr. Speaker, at 3:35 in the morning, a favorite time of Republicans for taking up this bill, we consider a travesty.

The Senate took an ugly bill, went out and whipped it with an ugly stick, and made it even uglier with 17 million Americans going without health insurance; a 17 percent increase in electric rates; and the largest nutritional assistance cut in American history, leaving Americans hungry.

The independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget condemns this as exploding our debt, spiking it to new record highs, and accelerating the insolvency of Social Security and Medicare.

One thing remains the same: It takes from those with the least and gives to those with the most, lining the pockets of the super-rich with millions in tax giveaways.

It is mean. It is cruel. It is wrong. That is why it is being taken up at this hour of the morning, as they have done throughout this process.

Let's reject this ugly bill and stand up for Americans.

Mr. Speaker, where lies are king, the truth is the enemy. Institutions that spread knowledge are defamed as ``enemies of the people.'' NPR and PBS are targeted here today precisely because they are so good at delivering the truth. Like millions, I tune into both of them daily.

Trump tweets: `` . . . RADICAL LEFT' `MONSTERS THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!'' What hurts Trump are facts when he demands flattery.

This attempt to quash thorough, objective NPR and PBS reporting is a sign of Trump's weakness, of his drive toward tyranny. Trump doesn't want a country of engaged, informed Americans. He prefers those who salute on command, like for his North Korean-style, taxpayer-funded, wasteful $45 million birthday bash this Saturday.

Reject these dangerous DOGE cuts and defend the right of the American people to know.

Mr. Speaker, breaking yet another promise, Republicans are cutting Medicare by $500 billion.

On October 1 of this year, every Medicare healthcare provider will see a 4 percent cut, and that will occur year after year as seniors try to find someone who will accept Medicare.

On January 1, millions of Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act will lose their access to a family physician. Medicaid for those in nursing homes and for half the babies born in my hometown of Austin is cut. Almost 14 million Americans will lose their access to healthcare.

The new Trump school voucher sabotage plan atop State vouchers incentivizes removing students from public schools. Meanwhile, our national debt, soaring by trillions from Republicans who talk fiscal responsibility but serve their cult leader, the deficit hawks have become chicken hawks tonight in submission to Trump, the self-described king of debt, all to reward billionaires with even more tax breaks.