Eliminating the Department of Education
Floor Speech
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Mr. KHANNA. Mr. Speaker, NBC News is reporting that President Trump plans to eliminate the Department of Education with an executive order. This is an assault on every young American who went to public school like me.
This is an assault on every American family who has someone who is disabled and needs the IDEA program to provide education. This is an assault on every neighborhood in America that has a public school that gets title I funding. This is an assault on every child who gets school lunches in America.
This is an assault on our public teachers across this country. This is an assault on every American who has gotten any Federal financial aid to go to vocational school or to go to public college or to get an education like I did.
The President does not have the Constitutional authority to do this. It is cruelty. It is taking away the bedrock of education in this country.
Thomas Jefferson said that you can't have a democracy without an educated citizenry. What built America, what made us exceptional, is that we allowed Americans to go and finish high school before World War II while the Europeans didn't. Mr. Speaker, America had a record of 80 percent high school graduations compared to 20 and 30 percent in the European nations.
President Trump wants to take all of that away, snatching money from our public schools, snatching money from our teachers, and snatching money from our families who have kids who need the help.
Mr. Speaker, we need to rise up and oppose this blatantly unconstitutional executive order. We need to stand up for public education in America. Opposing Tariffs on Food Products
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Mr. KHANNA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose Donald Trump's reckless tariffs on food products.
I am for strategic tariffs to protect our strategic industries in steel, aluminum, and semiconductors and our national champions.
We know, from Hamilton to Paul Krugman, that tariffs work for infant industries and important national industries, but who thinks we need tariffs for Corona beer? Who thinks we need tariffs for vegetables?
Here is what we get from Mexico. We get 85 percent of our strawberries from Mexico. Donald Trump put a 25 percent tariff on it. We get 86 percent of our tomatoes from Mexico. Donald Trump put a 25 percent tariff on it. We get 69 percent of vegetable imports from Mexico. We get 90 percent of our avocados from Mexico. Donald Trump put a 25 percent tariff on it.
So much for lowering grocery prices, Mr. Trump. You want Americans to pay 25 percent more for their avocados, for their strawberries, for their beer. In what world does this economic nonsense make any logical sense?
Then, you caved to the President of Mexico, President Sheinbaum and caved to Prime Minister Trudeau because you saw the stock market dip. How about you stop paying attention to the stock market and start paying attention to people's grocery bills?
We are in dangerous times where we have a President who could impose these tariffs on food at any moment. That is why retailers are already raising prices. They don't believe Trump in terms of a 30-day pause. They are raising the prices on all of these food products today.
We need to be very clear, Mr. Trump: Learn Economics 101. Stop raising grocery prices for ordinary Americans.
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