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Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, for yielding and for her strong leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Motion to Instruct. From the very beginning of this Congress, Democrats have made clear that we are willing to work with anyone in this town who is committed to lowering the high cost of living.

America is too expensive. Far too many people in this country are working hard and playing by the rules, but they are unable to get ahead and can barely get by.

Yet, what we have seen from this Congress is that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have consistently made life harder for everyday Americans. That is what the one big, ugly bill was all about. It was to hurt everyday Americans in order, Mr. Speaker, to reward billionaire donors with massive tax breaks.

Why was this done? The one big, ugly bill rips healthcare away from millions of Americans. Hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health clinics will close. The American people are now confronting dramatic increases in healthcare premiums, copays, and deductibles. America is already too expensive. President Trump and House Republicans are making things worse.

Democrats are prepared, under the leadership of Rosa DeLauro, to sit down anytime and anyplace to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people in terms of their health, public safety, and economic well-being.

What Democrats will not do, Mr. Speaker, is support partisan spending legislation put forth by Republicans that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people.

Enough is enough. We need to reverse the damage that has been done, not do more.

The big, ugly bill steals food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors, and veterans. Why? Once again, it is to pay for massive tax breaks to Republican billionaire donors. This is unacceptable and unconscionable.

This motion to instruct will help ensure that in a conference between the House and Senate, between Democrats and Republicans, we are actually protecting women, infants, and children here in the United States of America, all over, in urban America, rural America, small- town America, suburban America, exurban America, and the heartland of America.

The assault on the social safety net that Republicans have engineered this Congress, Mr. Speaker, has been completely and totally unacceptable, hurting everyday Americans and exploding the debt and the deficit at the same period of time.

Nothing has been done by this Republican-led Congress to lower the high cost of living. Donald Trump promised that costs would go down on day one. Costs have not gone down. They are going up. Inflation is on the way up. Life has gotten more expensive. Electricity bills are skyrocketing and out of control. Now, healthcare premiums are on the verge of increasing by thousands of dollars a year for 20 million Americans unless Republicans choose to join us and act with respect to the tax credits that will expire at the end of this year connected to the Affordable Care Act.

There is much work that needs to be done. Again, Democrats are ready to sit down anytime and anyplace to work out a spending bill on a bipartisan basis that actually makes life better for the American people, but we will not allow this administration and the Republican Congress to continue to hurt everyday Americans.

That is why I strongly support this motion to instruct. That is why we have made clear that under no circumstances will we support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to rip away healthcare from the American people.

Vote ``yes'' on this motion to instruct.

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