[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                          THERE THEY GO AGAIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Arizona (Mr. Gallego) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Speaker, there they go again. Donald Trump and Paul 
Ryan are dusting off a familiar Republican playbook.
  I will break it down for you:
  Step one, slash taxes for millionaires and billionaires;
  Step two, explode the deficit;
  Step three, use rising deficits to justify cuts to Medicare and 
Medicaid;
  Step four, accuse Democrats of being irresponsible for opposing said 
cuts;
  Step five, repeat. Repeat as the rich get richer, repeat as the 
deficit grows larger, repeat as working families struggle, and repeat 
as the social safety net disintegrates.
  We saw it a decade ago under President Bush, and we are seeing it 
again right now.
  But you don't have to take my word for it, Mr. Speaker. The 
Republican tax bill will add $1.5 trillion to our national debt over 
the next decade, yet Paul Ryan is already claiming that we need to cut 
entitlements to get America's finances under control.
  Last week, Ryan warned: ``We're going to have to get back next year 
at entitlement reform. . . . Frankly, it's the healthcare entitlements 
that are the big drivers of our debt . . . that's really where the 
problem lies.''
  Not true, Mr. Speaker.
  Our problem doesn't lie with lifesaving healthcare programs like 
Medicare and Medicaid. Our problem lies with this monstrosity of a tax 
bill.
  What if we tried a different approach?
  What if, instead of slashing Medicare to pay for tax cuts for Trump's 
cronies, we said no to this scam of a tax bill?
  What if we said no to raising taxes on middle class families?
  What if we said no to hurting students to help the largest companies 
in the world?
  What if we said no to a tax bill written by high-paid lobbyists for 
wealthy donors behind closed doors?
  What if, just once, the Republican majority actually passed a bill to 
make life easier for Americans living paycheck to paycheck?
  It is a crazy idea, right?
  But if Republicans come to their senses and want to work on real tax 
reform for working Americans, they know where to find us, but I won't 
hold my breath.

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