Congressional Black Caucus Hit the Ground Running in August

Floor Speech

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Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for her leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have broken the economy, and everyday people are paying the price.

Trump and his family, with their tax cuts, stock trades, and new military contracts got rich, while working-class people got the bill.

Earlier this month, in northeast Ohio, our county division of Senior and Adult Services held a return-to-work fair for people over 60. Why? Because older Americans and seniors can no longer afford the rising costs of gas, groceries, and housing.

You see, a lot of people that thought they had enough to retire are realizing Donald Trump had other plans for their golden years.

As one of the women told our local newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer: There is no way around it. We won't make it.

Paying the bills is especially hard when you have also lost your healthcare coverage or your SNAP nutrition assistance.

In Ohio, 259,000 people have lost their healthcare coverage in the last year--259,000. These numbers are staggering, but they are not just numbers, no. These are real people. Now, they are just one illness away from financial ruin, all because the Trump administration and Republican majorities in Congress have enacted the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, along with letting the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire.

Remember last year, the other side of the aisle raised, rushed, and sprinted--sprinted to pass tax cuts for the rich. But when it came to tax credits to help working people afford healthcare, they did nothing, nothing at all.

You see, it is not just healthcare. In Ohio, we are now up to 110,000 people who have lost their nutrition assistance. Nearly every day of the week, we have Trump's Secretary of Agriculture going on TV to brag about this, talking about it like it is a good thing. Spare me. In fact, why don't they come to Cleveland, Ohio, and tell someone who is trying to survive on $7 a day in SNAP benefits that these cuts are a good thing. Tell seniors, who are now having to go to job fairs, that they are living in a golden age. It is insulting.

Meanwhile, we have a confused, corrupt, cruel, and chaotic President roaming around the White House, a President in denial and out of touch.

Here is the bottom line: Americans got poorer last month. Last month, according to official data, inflation was higher than wage growth. That has been true for a lot of people, but it is official now, and that is for the people that actually have jobs, because in Trump's economy, Black unemployment is now 6 percent, twice the rate as White unemployment.

According to the Urban League, because of the job loss and the cuts, Black America is already in a recession.

Did anyone really expect anything different from Trump and a MAGA Republican Congress? Because I know I didn't.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of all of my constituents in Cleveland and northeast Ohio to say that enough is enough is enough. We have to turn this car around before Trump drives us further into a ditch. It is time to cancel the cuts and the illegal wars, stop the corruption, kill the kickbacks and the insider trading, and give the American people their country back.

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