[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 1, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H1396]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WE MUST RESIST NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, in this Chamber last night, as I 
listened to the President's address to the joint session, I could only 
think of one word: ``resist.''
  Whether one voted for Donald Trump or not, we are all obligated to 
resist his incoherent and contradictory pledge to dismantle the 
protections of the Affordable Care Act with empty slogans.
  Perhaps the most revealing moment of the Trump administration so far 
was his declaration Monday in his meeting with America's Governors that 
health care is complex. ``Who knew?'' he said.
  Well, anybody who has done any work, any research, or had even had 
conversations with the people who rely on health care, who study health 
care, or deliver health care. This was not a secret that it is complex. 
Yet, for months, he has made reckless, misleading comments and has 
unleashed efforts to make the Affordable Care Act less effective and to 
destabilize insurance markets.
  We should resist his cynical and cruel step of singling out people 
who have somehow been harmed by illegal immigrants as a special 
category. Why not an office dealing with the far greater number of 
Americans whose lives are turned upside down as a result of gun 
violence--which, by the way, is the method of choice for homegrown 
terrorists who, experts in his own government point out, are 
responsible for more terrorist acts and violence and death of Americans 
than people who are foreign-born.
  We should resist empty promises to rebuild and renew America by 
failing to provide any meaningful detail. That squanders an opportunity 
for bipartisan cooperation and a badly-needed effort to revitalize 
America and put millions of Americans to work at jobs that can't be 
outsourced overseas and that will strengthen each community. It is 
important to resist an administration program long on divisive 
rhetoric, misinformation, and lost opportunities.
  The least popular new President in our history, as near as we can 
tell, has mobilized millions of Americans to be involved, to resist. It 
is critical that Americans of good conscience, who care about the 
future of their country and want to change the trajectory and tone of 
politics, dive in now to protect programs they care about which are 
under assault, to reject shortsighted policies that will spend billions 
of dollars on things we don't need, like even more nuclear weapons. How 
many times do we have to be able to blow up the world in order to 
achieve deterrence?
  We should resist spending less on critical parts of our defense. For 
example, the diplomacy and international aid saves human lives; it 
undercuts the calls to radicalism for people without hope. Making the 
job of our diplomats and our aid workers harder and more dangerous and 
less effective should be resisted at every turn.
  We should resist draconian budget cuts and hiring freezes that 
undercut the opportunity to take care of our veterans, especially their 
health. Their health is a long overdue promise that Trump has 
occasionally talked about but is now actively undermining.
  We should resist unparalleled potential budget assaults on things 
that make a difference to our communities, like arts, public 
broadcasting, programs for children, things that matter deeply.
  Together, we can resist these destructive policies in Congress, in 
the budget, and in legislation, while we strengthen their support for 
similar programs at home. Everybody should resist by being involved in 
their community. There is something every one of us cares about at home 
and on the national stage. We should resist politics of division, 
hatred, and hopelessly flawed and failing priorities.
  We should resist. It is within our power to dramatically change the 
political equation. Remember, Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 
almost 3 million votes, while Democrats picked up seats in the House 
and the Senate. The country is much more evenly divided, and they are 
not united in support of this administration.
  By doing our job now, it makes it possible to build on the successes 
by making sure everyone has a chance to participate in the voting 
process. Fight efforts at voter suppression.
  It is time for all of us to engage in that resistance that adds 
energy and hope across America. It must start now and will continue 
until we defeat hate, bigotry, shortsighted policy, and misallocated 
priorities.
  America can halt and reverse the damage that has been set in motion. 
We should resist. We should resist now.

                          ____________________