Reduce Exacerbated Inflation Negatively Impacting the Nation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Chair, I thank the distinguished gentleman from the great State of Maryland for his tremendous leadership.

I rise today in opposition to the amendment, as well as to the underlying bill, the so-called REIN ACT, which is not really designed to do anything meaningful in terms of addressing the economic concerns of the American people.

That is consistent with the fact that over the last 2 months of this extreme MAGA Republican majority, they have been focused on doing anything but dealing with the real kitchen-table pocketbook concerns of the American people.

Over the last year or so, all we heard was that this extreme MAGA Republican majority was going to try to address the economic concerns of everyday Americans.

So we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the big, grand Republican plan--waiting for it, notwithstanding the fact that President Biden's administration has done a tremendous job pulling us out of a once-in-a-century pandemic, and in partnership with Democrats through the American Rescue Plan, saved the economy from a deep recession, put shots in arms, money in pockets, kids back in school, invested in the infrastructure of this country, which will create millions of good-paying jobs; passed the CHIPS and Science Act to bring domestic manufacturing jobs back home to the United States of America; passed the Inflation Reduction Act to strike a dramatic blow against the climate crisis, set our planet on a sustainable trajectory forward; strengthened the Affordable Care Act, lower healthcare costs, drive down the high price of lifesaving prescription drugs for millions of Americans, including many on insulin, which will now be reduced to $35 a month.

That is the economic record of this administration: 12 million good- paying jobs created over the last 2 years, record unemployment.

Yes, we still have challenges that we need to address as we try to emerge from this inflationary environment that has afflicted the entire world.

Oh, by the way, the United States' economy has emerged from COVID in a better position than any other developed country because of the Biden economic plan and the partnership with House Democrats and Senate Democrats.

But we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the grand Republican plan, and here it is, the so-called REIN IN Act. Three pages. Three pages.

What does it call for? Reports. Reports. It is the grand Republican economic plan. Why? Because you have been focused on the wrong things.

Now, House Democrats, we are going to continue to invest in the American people, invest in education and job training, invest in transportation and infrastructure, invest in research and development, invest in technology and innovation, invest in the creation and preservation of affordable housing, invest in the health, the safety, the economic well-being of the American people.

That is our plan. We are going to continue to put people over politics. We get three pages calling for reports, the so-called REIN IN Act.

Here is what we should be reining in. We should be reining in the extreme MAGA Republican effort to cut Social Security.

We should rein in the extreme MAGA Republican effort to cut Medicare; rein in the extreme MAGA Republican effort to criminalize reproductive freedom and impose a nationwide ban; rein in the extreme MAGA Republican effort to crash the United States' economy and default on our debt for the first time in American history.

We should be reining in your effort to hand over sensitive security footage from the January 6 violent insurrection to an avowed conspiracy theorist. That is what we should be reining in.

A three-page plan calling for reports is not a serious effort to address the challenges facing the American people, but we will continue to be serious about putting people over politics, fighting for lower costs, fighting for better-paying jobs, fighting for safer communities, fighting for reproductive freedom, and defending our democracy at all costs.

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