    [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 19, 2025)]
    [Senate]
    [Pages S1020-S1023]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                              Trump Administration

      Mr. President, the price of just about everything is going up right
    now. Anyone that has been to the grocery store in the past few weeks
    knows how hard it is to find a dozen eggs. Since the President was
    inaugurated, the price of eggs has gone up by 15 percent, which is the
    single biggest monthly increase in 10 years.
      The price of coffee is up 25 percent since the start of the year, and
    everything from gas to housing to car insurance is getting more
    expensive.
      But I don't want people to worry because Republicans are on it.
    Donald Trump knows that the main thing people elected him to do is
    lower prices, and, rest assured, he is working day and night to fix it.
    Everybody knows that the best way to lower costs for individual
    Americans is to cut taxes for billionaires. Everybody knows that. If
    eggs are 8 bucks where you are living, obviously, cut taxes for
    billionaires. If coffee is increasingly expensive, cut taxes for
    billionaires.
      That is the very first thing that Republicans in the new Congress
    have decided to do is cut taxes for the richest people to ever exist,
    and they are going to do it by making regular people pay.
      Now, that might sound like a partisan accusation, and, of course, on
    some level, it is. But if you are sitting at home listening to the
    chatter about one big, beautiful bill or two bills, and you are
    wondering what it all means, here is what they are doing. They want to
    cut taxes for billionaires to the tune of about $4.5 trillion--$4.5
    trillion.
      And because they already blew up the Federal deficit in 2017 and
    because there are some House Republicans and maybe some Senate
    Republicans who won't vote for a package that increases the deficit,
    they actually need to find some savings elsewhere.
      It is very hard to find $4.5 trillion worth of savings. So what are
    they doing? They are having to cut programs and services that help
    people on a daily basis, hundreds of billions of dollars in Social
    Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act subsidies, and
    food assistance.
      They are slashing funding for cancer research and disaster recovery
    and schools and national parks and VA clinics. They are laying off
    thousands of employees at Federal Agencies, one-third of whom are
    veterans.
      And to be clear, this is not for the holy grail of efficiency. Food
    is rotting at the dock. Medicine is rotting. The National Park Service
    is already backed up. Normally, it takes 1 minute to get into a
    national park. In a lot of places--it is cold outside--it is taking 90
    minutes to get into national parks. That is not efficiency.
      They are laying off probationary people, but let's be clear what
    ``probationary'' means. It does mean new hires. It also means anybody
    who is getting a promotion. Someone who has performed well, the U.S.
    Government says: You are so good, we want you to do something even more
    important. So then you get put into this probationary category, and
    then you get laid off.

    [[Page S1021]]

      Why? Why? Because they need to find $4.5 trillion worth of savings.
    That is what is going on.
      As we speak, there are multiple outbreaks of diseases and illnesses
    within the United States. We are in the middle of the worst flu season
    in a decade, 13,000 Americans dead. Norovirus cases have skyrocketed by
    340 percent this winter, and there have been 68 cases of the bird flu
    nationwide, not to mention that if you can find eggs at all, they are
    sometimes $8 or $10 for a dozen.
      In Texas, 58 people--mostly children--have gotten measles, and that
    is to say nothing of Ebola and Marburg virus in eastern Africa. But
    don't worry. Trump is on it. And by ``on it,'' I mean he is laying off
    the very people who are responding to these crises.
      We learned yesterday that after DOGE fired officials at the
    Department of Agriculture who were working on containing the bird flu,
    they had to quickly backtrack to try to rehire them. Sometimes, they
    don't have these people's email addresses. Sorry, would you please come
    back? I don't know how to find you.
      This is not efficiency. This is an arson job so they can generate
    savings so they can shovel $4.5 trillion to the people on that stage at
    inauguration. That is what this is.
      We are less than 2 months into the year, and we have already had four
    major deadly aviation disasters, including one right here in Washington
    over the Potomac. And Trump is firing hundreds of FAA employees, people
    who have jobs like maintenance mechanics, information specialists,
    safety assistants.
      They actually asked a bunch of air traffic controllers to quit. We
    are short air traffic controllers. We have been short air traffic
    controllers for 6 or 7 years. As a matter of fact, when I was the
    chairman of the relevant committee, we worked on a bipartisan basis to
    put a lot of money behind hiring more air traffic controllers.
      Now, you can be a conservative and think the government should be
    smaller or you can be a liberal and think the government should be
    bigger. I assume nobody thinks we should lay off air traffic
    controllers.
      And if we are going to do that, it should be because something else
    even more urgent than air traffic control is at stake. But let's
    understand what is at stake. What is at stake is $4.5 trillion in tax
    cuts for the wealthiest people to ever walk this planet.
      We are less than a month away from the March 14 funding deadline to
    keep the government open, and we don't even have topline numbers yet,
    let alone full committee bills. We are nowhere near a defense bill. But
    the only thing that Republicans are focused on right now, immediately,
    urgently, is cutting taxes for billionaires.
      People are dying because of the flu and the bird flu? Let's cut taxes
    for billionaires. Airplanes are falling out of the sky? Let's cut taxes
    for billionaires.
      People are losing their homes in wildfires in Los Angeles and floods
    in Kentucky? Let's cut taxes for billionaires. Families can't afford
    their healthcare or housing no matter how hard they work? Let's cut
    taxes for billionaires.
      Kids are falling behind in school, with a third of eighth graders
    lacking basic reading skills? Let's cut taxes for billionaires. Trump
    is illegally cutting funding for pediatric cancer research and disease
    prevention? Let's cut taxes for billionaires.
      Thousands of National Park Service workers fired? I know what we
    should do. Why don't we shovel a bunch of money to a bunch of
    billionaires?
      Millions of people--millions of people--are on the verge of
    starvation, disease, and death because Trump suddenly and illegally
    suspended one of our primary arms of foreign policy: USAID. What is
    their solution? Not to exert any pressure on the State Department or
    the OMB or the President himself, let's cut taxes for billionaires.
    Anything and everything comes down to this. Why? Because it is the main
    thing they think about.
      There are so many smart people on the other side of the aisle, so
    many people who have accomplished so much in their careers, and they
    are lighting it on fire for this man. The solution to every problem big
    or small, domestic or global, complex or simple is to cut taxes for
    billionaires.
      This is their project. This is their reason for being. Whatever else
    has motivated them to run for office in the first place, this is the
    first thing they are doing, instead of a bunch of other stuff.
      It doesn't have to be like this. You can be a Republican and give
    them their Cabinet and their judges and Justices, but, my God, stand up
    for this place. Why would you run for office and then just remove your
    frontal lobe and do whatever this man thinks?
      It doesn't matter how much harm comes to your hospitals or your
    schools or your roads or the one-third of Federal workers who are
    veterans, the solution always is to cut taxes for billionaires.
      I yield the floor.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
      Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, you know, it was just 30 days ago that
    President Trump took the oath of office just down the hall here in the
    Rotunda. Thirty days later, he continues to betray the promises that he
    made to the American people when he was on the campaign trail.
      He promised he would focus on reducing prices and costs that the
    American people have to bear. In fact, costs are going up. He promised
    to fight for working Americans, the forgotten Americans, but with the
    help of the richest man in the world Elon Musk, he is actually going
    about cutting very important public services to the American people in
    order to make way for and pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest in this
    country--people like Elon Musk.
      I come to the Senate floor today because we are in the process of
    setting up the framework in which that is going to happen. Republicans
    are bringing to the floor--probably tomorrow--a budget resolution that
    will set in motion that process of providing tax cuts for the very
    wealthy at the expense of other Americans.
      That is a great betrayal by the Trump administration. But before I
    talk about that great betrayal by Donald Trump, I want to talk about
    another betrayal that is going on as we speak, and that is his betrayal
    of the Ukrainian people and everybody who yearns for and fights for
    freedom and democracy around the world.
      What we are witnessing is not ``America first''; we are witnessing
    ``America in retreat.''
      The Ukrainian people, for over 3 years now, have been fighting
    against the brutal onslaught by Vladimir Putin. They are fighting to
    protect their sovereignty, their way of life. President Trump is
    throwing the Ukrainian people under the bus and at the same time
    betraying people who fight for freedom around the world.
      You know, Donald Trump likes to pick on people he perceives as
    weaker. We all know that he made fun of people with disabilities. He
    likes to pick on people who have differences. But when it comes to
    other bullies, he is a weak, weak person. He backs down. And that is
    what we are witnessing with respect to Vladimir Putin--Donald Trump is
    backing down.
      In fact, he just today blamed the Ukrainians and President Zelenskyy
    for Putin's attack on the Ukrainian people. In fact, he called
    Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, a dictator, when it is Vladimir Putin
    that is the dictator and launched the assault on the Ukrainian people.
      We should all be ashamed--ashamed, Mr. President. I met with
    President Zelenskyy at the Munich Conference over the weekend, along
    with many of my Senate colleagues, a bipartisan delegation. All of us,
    Republicans and Democrats, said to President Zelenskyy: You have our
    continued support. The Ukrainian people have our continued support.
      But at that same conference, we saw Vice President Vance not even
    talk about the threat from Putin and our support for the Ukrainian
    people. In fact, we heard him lecture the people from Europe and others
    around the world gathered at that conference about their ``weak
    democracy'' and say that really what they needed to do was kowtow to
    the farthest right parties in Germany, neo-fascist parties in Germany,
    and then, after saying that, he went out and met with them. That is now
    the U.S. foreign policy in action, and all of us on a bipartisan basis
    should be standing up and saying that is wrong.

    [[Page S1022]]

      Yet the Secretary of Treasury arrived to extort Zelenskyy, saying:
    Unless you give us half of your rare mineral reserves to pay for past
    support, you don't get any additional support from the American people.
      Imagine if during World War II, FDR had said to Churchill and our
    other allies: Hey, we are no longer going to support you in the fight
    against fascism, Nazis, and Hitler unless you sign over now half of
    your natural resources.
      This is a shameful moment for the United States. We have stood up for
    freedom, we have stood up for democracy, we have stood up for the rule
    of law, and now, President Trump is throwing Ukraine and freedom-loving
    people around the world under the bus.
      So I say to our NATO allies and other allies around the world and
    partners who believe in the rule of law and believe in democracy: You
    are going to have to carry this mantle for now.
      A lot of people say: Oh, that is just President Trump saying these
    things. Watch what he does, not what he says.
      What an American President says matters, and when President Trump
    talks about abandoning Ukraine and how President Zelenskyy is the
    dictator and how Ukraine started the war, not Putin, that is throwing
    Ukraine and our NATO allies under the bus.
      So our European allies, our European NATO friends--they are going to
    have to step up and clearly carry that mantle, and I really urge my
    Senate Republican colleagues to do so at this moment.
      You know, it was Donald Trump who, in speaking about Americans who
    lost their lives in combat, said, ``They are losers and suckers.'' That
    is what the now President of the United States said about Americans who
    sacrificed their lives for our country. Folks may also recall that is
    what he said about our former colleague Senator McCain because he was
    taken prisoner.
      So I really hope that those in this Senate, in both parties, will
    stand up and stand up for the principles the United States has stood up
    for--not perfectly, far from perfectly, but what we have stood up for
    since World War II and in that postwar period where we helped construct
    many of the institutions that helped set the rules of the road in the
    globe today.
      Now, here at home, we are also experiencing a betrayal. You know, I
    just was earlier today at a rally in front of the Department of Health
    and Human Services. It was a rally to protect the public health and
    specifically to help protect medical research that is conducted at the
    National Institutes of Health and at institutions around our country,
    colleges and universities and other places where they do the research
    that leads to treatments and cures that save lives in America.
      It is pretty simple: When you start slashing funds for the NIH and
    its programs and when you start slashing the research team at NIH, it
    means more Americans will die prematurely of disease; it means more
    Americans will suffer for lack of treatments. Yet, that is what we saw
    the Trump administration do recently.
      Fortunately, a Federal court has put a stay on those illegal actions,
    these actions to just unilaterally try to cut important public
    investments in medical research.
      So let's not sugarcoat it. The consequence of doing that is very
    serious. They do important research in cancer, in Alzheimer's, heart
    disease, diabetes, and other diseases, diseases that plague probably
    every American family, and rare diseases. Firing NIH employees and
    canceling important grants and reducing support for medical research
    will mean more Americans will die early.
      So what is going on? Well, it is the great betrayal because the
    reason we are seeing these efforts to slash important public
    investments across the board and to cut important positions in Federal
    Agencies is because they want to make room for a big tax cut for
    wealthy people.
      You can see that the person that Donald Trump, President Trump, has
    chosen to do his dirty work is Elon Musk, the richest person in the
    world, who is in the process of conducting illegal raids on various
    government Agencies. And I say ``illegal raids''--I have never seen the
    courts so busy. I mean, courts are issuing temporary restraining orders
    because there is a lot of lawbreaking going on. We have to fight this
    in the courts, and we have to fight it here, and the American people
    are fighting it around the country.
      This is the most corrupt bargain in American history. Elon Musk paid
    $280 million--$280 million--to help elect Donald Trump, and Donald
    Trump has now turned the keys to the Federal Government over to Elon
    Musk. And make no mistake, this has nothing--nothing--to do with
    government efficiency. We all welcome any effort to make the Federal
    Government more efficient. But this has nothing to do with that, and
    this has everything to do with helping the Federal Government serve the
    already powerful at the expense of working Americans and to clear that
    way--make cuts to pay for tax cuts for the very, very wealthy.
      You know, during the Presidential campaign, Candidate Trump talked
    about reducing prices, lowering costs for American families. When he
    was asked about Project 2025, he said: I don't know what that is. I
    don't know who those people are.
      But as soon as he was sworn in down the hall here, he went about
    implementing Project 2025. Now, why, on the campaign trail, would he
    say he knows nothing about it? He knew it was very unpopular. That,
    however, is exactly what he is implementing right now. In fact, the
    person he installed in the White House as the head of Office of
    Management and Budget was Russ Vought. He is the author of Project
    2025.

      And just a reminder to our colleagues, OMB is like the command and
    control center for the entire U.S. Federal budget. So President Trump
    put the author of Project 2025 in the cockpit for the Federal budget
    and has Elon Musk running and doing the dirty work at Federal Agencies
    around the country.
      If this were about government efficiency, you wouldn't start out by
    firing all the inspectors general. The inspectors general job is to be
    independent watchdogs. Their job is to look out for waste, fraud, and
    abuse. So if you want to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, you don't
    start by firing the inspectors general. In fact, that is what you would
    do if you wanted to have people look the other way or not see when
    people were committing waste, fraud, and abuse.
      In fact, that is exactly what is happening now because if you look at
    what Elon Musk and his cronies are doing, they are going into Federal
    Agencies and taking and reviewing and have access to the most sensitive
    personal information of the American people. They did it at the
    Department of Treasury--Social Security numbers, bank accounts.
      The acting head of the Social Security Administration, a career
    official, just quit because she said it was inappropriate to turn over
    sensitive Social Security Administration information to Elon Musk and
    the DOGE boys.
      We have seen that in other Agencies, too, where career Federal civil
    servants whose loyalty is to the country are resigning rather than
    follow illegal orders. I commend them for not following illegal orders.
      If this were about efficiency, why would the Trump administration
    tell the employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stay
    home and not work? They continue to get paid, but they don't do their
    jobs. That is what they have been ordered. Why?
      The CFPB is a Bureau that helps protect American consumers against
    people who are engaged in fraud and con artists and cheats. They have
    gone after a lot of powerful people, a lot of powerful organizations.
    And they have returned over $1 billion to the American people--dollars
    that hard-working Americans were cheated out of. They went and got them
    back for them.
      Yet here comes Trump in the name of ``efficiency,'' telling people to
    no longer do their work, even though they are being paid for it. And
    their work is to go after fraudsters and cheats.
      I think we know what is going on here. What is going on here is we
    have Elon Musk trying to create a government that helps the already
    powerful and cuts services that benefit every American--like what
    happened to the Veterans' Administration, the Social Security
    Administration, and, yes, NIH when it comes to medical research, to
    help clear the way for tax cuts for very wealthy people. That is what
    is going on here.

    [[Page S1023]]