Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H. Con. Res. Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump's tariffs are the biggest tax increase on the middle class in this country in generations. Even with today's so- called pause announcement, he is still putting a 10 percent tax on food, on energy, and on essentials that Americans need, while keeping up with the high cost of living.

The number one thing that I hear in my district and that I know everybody hears in their districts is the cost of living is too high.

Why in the world is this President increasing the cost of living for millions of middle-class Americans?

At the same time, the stock market has tanked. Even after today's so- called pause, which is not a pause because it is still a 10 percent tax--the S&P is down 10 percent since Trump took office, and trillions of dollars of people's retirement savings are wiped out.

Mr. Speaker, what are our Republican colleagues doing to respond to this insanity? The majority is trying to pass a rule that says that Congress cannot overturn these tariffs even though the Constitution gives Congress and not the President the sole authority to levy tariffs.

Why are my Republican colleagues even bothering to show up to work?

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are just giving the executive branch all of the powers that the Constitution had originally given to the Congress.

Why are Republicans even bothering to show up if my Republican colleagues are just going to give all of our constitutional authority to the executive to levy these taxes on middle-class Americans who can't afford it?

I will say why Republicans are still showing up. As Mr. McGovern said, this rule also includes the next step in a budget plan that would cut taxes for billionaires at the same time that it cuts healthcare for working people. The math doesn't lie. This budget plan requires $880 billion of cuts under the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Speaker, the majority could cut literally every program under the Committee on Energy and Commerce except for Medicare and Medicaid and only get to $200 billion. Where does the other $600 billion-plus come from?

It can only come from kicking people off of their health insurance so that Elon Musk and the billionaires can get another tax cut that they don't need. It is unconscionable.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

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