2027 Presidential Budget Request Will Make Life Harder

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, the convicted felon in the White House is not an honest man, but when he rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War, for once, for once, he told the truth because war is what we have. War is what he wants, and war is what he is asking the American people to pay for.

President Trump's budget requests $1.5 trillion in taxpayer money for the Department of War--$1.5 trillion, a $440 billion increase. Who pays the extra $440 billion? Not the billionaires who just got tax cuts, not Elon, not the Trump family, not White House insiders cashing in on trades ahead of market-moving announcements, no. Trump's war machine will be paid for by working people, just like his tax cuts for billionaires were paid for by working people.

In the last year, Trump has made the largest cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in history and the largest cut to food assistance in history, all to make the richest Americans richer and the biggest corporations bigger.

This time, it is not tax cuts but war he wants.

What ATM is the President tapping again to pay for it?

It is the working men and women of this country.

How does the President propose paying for more war?

I am glad you asked, Mr. Speaker. It is with cuts to heating assistance, with cuts to housing, with cuts to education and job training, and even cuts to programs that provide food for women, infants, and children, all to pay for wars that the American people don't want.

What is the agenda?

It is to cut healthcare to fund war, cut food to fund war, cut housing and heating programs to fund war, and cut maternal health to fund war. He wants to cut more, take more, and sacrifice more.

And for what?

It is for war. Wars the American people do not want. That is not just grossly irresponsible, it is gross and immoral.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know who is winning Trump's war with Iran, but I can tell you who is losing the war: Everyday people in America. It is hardworking people seeing prices rise even more, people trying to afford healthcare, to buy a home, and to make ends meet. Working people can't afford Trump's reckless wars, and they can't afford this horrendous budget.

We owe it to them to reject this abomination.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source