- 4 months ago
House Democratic leadership hold their weekly press briefing on Wednesday.
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00:00Good morning and welcome back. I know you're all thrilled that we are here in town. Great to be
00:11back. I'm so thankful to be joined today by our newest Democratic Caucus Leadership Representative
00:19Stephen Horsford from Nevada. You'll hear from him shortly and of course Vice Chair Ted Liu.
00:25Throughout the August district work period the number one thing that we heard from our
00:30constituents was a concern about rising costs especially the skyrocketing costs of
00:36health care. Thanks to Republicans big ugly bill which became law earlier this
00:40summer over 15 million Americans are now getting kicked off of health care. On top
00:47of that 24 million Americans who buy their health insurance through the
00:51Affordable Care Act will see those costs go up by as much as 75 percent. These
00:57might sound like big numbers but they have very real consequences. Your neighbor
01:03might not be able to pay for the cancer treatment that they desperately need or
01:08someone in your family might struggle to pay for the prescription drug costs that
01:12are rising on a daily basis and we need to remember how we got here. Donald Trump
01:19and House Republicans manufactured this health care crisis because they decided to
01:24put profits over people and to give billionaire buddies tax breaks at the
01:29expense of working families. Republicans claim to care about the economy but Donald
01:34Trump promised to lower costs on day one and the American people are still seeing
01:41right through their lives. Our constituents deserve better and that's why Democrats are
01:47doing everything in our power to expose the truth about Republicans cruel agenda that
01:52puts Americans health care at risk and to hold this administration accountable at
01:56every turn. I'll turn it over to Vice Chair Ted Luke. Thank you Chairman Aguilar. Under the
02:04policies of Donald Trump and House Republicans prices have gone up up and up. The
02:10latest inflation report shows a core CPI rose by the highest it's been since the last six
02:16months. Energy prices have gone up. Electricity is skyrocketing in a number of
02:21areas more than doubling the pace of inflation in some of these areas. We know
02:26food prices have gone up. For example, one pound of beef has gone up 12.8% in the
02:32last six months. One pound of chicken breast has gone up nearly 6% in the last six
02:37months. And if you want to finance a new car with a car loan, it's gone up about
02:42$400 in the last six or seven months. And what is Donald Trump and House
02:46Republicans doing about it? Nothing. In fact, House Republicans today on the
02:51Judiciary Committee are holding a hearing on European laws in Europe that govern
02:58what Europeans can say about speech. That's what they're talking about instead
03:02of addressing inflation or Epstein files. And then Trump's tariffs are going to make
03:07these costs even worse. We're asking House Republicans and Donald Trump to focus on
03:12what the American people want, which is to bring down costs. We know, as Chairman
03:17Aguilar said, health care costs are going to skyrocket as well. Because of this big
03:21ugly bill, you're going to have deep cuts to Medicaid as well as the ACA and an
03:27additional $500 billion to Medicare. We saw today that the Trump administration is
03:32trying to rebrand the big ugly bill. Turns out you cannot rebrand crap, right? You
03:39can call it fecal matter. You can call it poo. At the end of the day, it's still crap. And that's
03:43because the big ugly bill has massive cuts to health care, largest in U.S. history. And
03:49in exchange, they give really large tax breaks to billionaires and millionaires,
03:53including a new yacht tax. Try rebranding that. Now, it's my honor to introduce Stephen Horsford. It's
04:03an honor to serve with Stephen in leadership. He is a great representative for Nevada. I look
04:08forward to hearing Stephen Horsford. Thank you very much. It's great to join Chairman Aguilar and Vice
04:16Chair Liu for their tremendous leadership. Thank you for including me in today's press conference.
04:23I am Congressman Stephen Horsford, representing Nevada's fourth congressional district. And as
04:29the new Democratic caucus leadership representative for the five terms or less members, I'm eager to
04:36bring those insights of our newer members of Congress into the Democratic leadership discussions.
04:42And that starts with health care, which is a fundamental right, human right, and an economic
04:49necessity. The American people are scared right now. They're scared because congressional Republicans
04:57have cut health care to the bone to fund tax breaks for corporations and the ultra-rich.
05:04Millions of Americans are now one diagnosis, one broken bone, and one unexpected illness away
05:12from financial ruin. More than 20 million people became covered through the advanced premium tax
05:19credits. Democrats did that when we passed the Affordable Care Act. We fought to protect those tax
05:27credits and extend those tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. But they expire at the end of
05:35this year, which means Congress needs to act now to extend them. But so far, Republicans haven't just refused. They've
05:44stonewalled our attempts to extend them. And believe me, I would know. They were my amendments. Their big ugly tax scam adds trillions to
05:54our debt, kicks millions of Americans off health care coverage by excluding the Affordable Care Act premium tax
06:04credit extension, and it makes coverage unaffordable for millions more. People that I represent from North Las Vegas to rural
06:13Nevada. People that I'm here to fight for now. A woman named Andrea, whose daughter has schizoaffective disorder. It took four years to
06:23stabilize her life. Without affordable health insurance, she couldn't have afforded the consistent care that helped stabilize her. Find employment and
06:32return to being a productive and compassionate member of our community. Another named Evan retired with his wife. He tells me that their two
06:44greatest concerns are the cost of living and health care, both of which were not on the horizon at the beginning of this year. And
06:53Kenneth, who contacted my office after a motorcycle accident. Kenneth is lucky to be alive today and also lucky he had insurance from the
07:03Nevada Exchange. Without his coverage, he could not have come close to covering his medical bills. Some things should rise above partisan
07:11politics and health care must be one of them. Republicans need to join House Democrats now in protecting the health and well-being of our
07:20constituents. The time to act is right now. I look forward to working with Chairman Aguilar, Vice Chair Liu and all of our leadership to make sure health care remains at the top of our priority of what we're fighting for on behalf of the American
07:30people. I yield that. Thank you, Stephen. Happy to field questions for Vice Chair Liu and Mr. Horsford. Go ahead.
07:39Hello. Thank you. Thank you. Just beginning to the crime situation we're seeing right now, crime rates have fallen significantly since the
07:48President's federal takeover of D.C. law enforcement. Would you consider that a success with rates dropping so much? I think we've seen
07:54post-COVID in big cities across the country crime continue to go down. I think what folks in D.C. need to understand and think through is do we want to live in a permanent police state?
08:09Um, and I think that that's an important piece of of how Americans are thinking through is someone and I'll defer to Vice Chair Liu who saw this close to our homes in Los Angeles. Um, what the administration did is it must be
08:19have to live in a permanent police state. Um, rampant policy state. Um, I think that's an important piece of how Americans are thinking through uh, is someone and I'll defer to Vice Chair Liu who saw this close to our homes in Los Angeles. Um, what the administration did was
08:38administration did is illegal and wrong. If they want to protect the federal assets, they can. I don't think spreading mulch or picking up trash in the mall is exactly what the National Guard had in mind. And so we'll continue to ensure that public safety is a top priority. It has been for the House Democratic Caucus. If someone was serious about public safety, though, they wouldn't pardon 1500 insurrectionists on day one who committed crimes.
09:08If someone was serious about public safety, you wouldn't submit a budget that cut cops grants and programs to local law enforcement across this country by hundreds of millions of dollars. If you were serious about public safety, you would do that. You would support local law enforcement carrying out their jobs and duties. That's how the House Democratic Caucus feels. Vice Chair Lee. Sure. Local law enforcement deals with crime. And what House Republicans did is they cut millions of dollars from cops.
09:38grants to local law enforcement. So you have to fund local law enforcement and then you can reduce crime. If you want a police state with military folks running around all over the place, well, sure, that's going to reduce crime. But that's not the free and open society we in America want to live in. I'm sure there's really low crime in North Korea because they have military troops all over their place. That's not the society we want. The United States military is designed to fight foreign adversaries, not designed to be unleashed on the American people.
10:08So I want to ask about government funding since that deadline is coming up in a few weeks. What would get Democrats to yes on a continuing resolution?
10:19Bipartisan spending bill that meets the needs of the American public. We've been clear on that. I've talked from this podium about the work that I've done with appropriators and ranking member Rosa DeLauro. If Republicans were serious about a spending plan, they would work with Democrats in order to meet those needs. Time and time again, we are seeing priorities that are out of line with what the American people want,
10:49what they released this weekend in gutting health care within the labor age bill that is coming before the appropriations committee and was marked up in the subcommittee yesterday.
10:56So that gives us huge concern. But Republicans know that they need to work with us. And we stand ready to do that. If they want a shutdown, then they have the ability to put one forward. If Donald Trump and House Republicans want to shut down, they can. But it's not going to be because of Democrats. We're at the table. We're working on the
11:19And we want to find solutions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. NFL season kicks off tomorrow. The cost of being a sports fan has just gone up with all of the streaming platforms that sports fans are going to need to watch their favorite teams. Amazon Prime, Peacock, I could just go on and on and on. Same thing with the NBA season later on that kicks off this year.
11:42As you want to talk about affordability, do you see the rising cost of being a sports fan as part of the larger pocketbook conversation that you're having with Americans as, you know, a lot of folks are just complaining about just all of the different platforms that they're going to need to watch their favorite teams? How does that fit into this larger conversation that House Democrats are having about affordability?
12:06I appreciate the focus on the NFL. This is a big week for many people, for many House members who come from areas with teams as well. But I think it's a fair point. Millions of Americans turn on Saturday and Sunday this fall to sports as an outlet, as something they can do with friends and family, as something that brings people together
12:36to supports backyard barbecues and get togethers. And I do think that the rising costs that people face are not exclusive to housing, health care, gas and groceries, but it includes lots of categories like entertainment, like going out to dinner with your family, like watching your local sports teams.
12:56And I think that's something that we have to be mindful of as well. Many of these media companies are buying each other up and raising costs along the way. Many of them are cutting deals with sports teams to have their own networks, or at least they were a decade ago. That model's changed a little bit. We need to be mindful of that and the role that we play in approving that rate structure to ensure that people have that outlet and that opportunity to convene and get together.
13:25As a Browns fan, Ted Lieu has no comment.
13:33Thank you, sir. I'm wondering if you could just react to what Vice Chair Lieu mentioned earlier in the presser about this rebrand by Republicans of they're calling it the one big beautiful bill, now they're calling it the working families tax cut. Do you see that as a surrender on where the sentiment is about that bill right now?
13:54I mean, what Republicans don't understand is it's not the language. It's not the title of the bill that people are objecting to. It's the substance. It's that this is bad policy and people see through that.
14:07There's not enough lipstick you can put on this pig to make that any better looking. That's the concern that the American public has. And so after months and months touting their one big ugly bill, now they want to pivot.
14:24They can send J.D. Vance across the country. They can spend millions of dollars on a marketing campaign. It's not going to change the fact that over 15 million people are going to lose their health care coverage as a result of their bill.
14:36It's not going to change the fact that energy costs are going to rise, premiums, health care premiums are going to rise very soon to the American public as a result of their bill.
14:47It's scary and it's shocking that they feel changing some of the language associated with it is going to give them a lifeline. But that's just not the case.
14:55I am not aware of many working families that buy yachts. And so this big, ugly bill has this new yacht tax break that is so good that Forbes magazine published an article where a consultant for billionaires said, quote, too good to be true, referring to that yacht tax break.
15:15So what we're talking about really is not tax breaks, mostly for ordinary Americans. It's really weighted towards the top 1%. And if you look at the CBO scoring, the lowest income bracket actually has a tax taxes increase over the life of this bill.
15:34So that's what this bill actually does.
15:35And I'll just add, as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, you know, we actually had a Ways and Means Field hearing in Las Vegas at the end of July, at the beginning of the district work period, the Friday before the district work period.
15:51And they came to try to sell their one big, beautiful bill.
15:56And what came out of that hearing is that any benefits for working people are temporary and capped, while the benefits for the very wealthy and big corporations are permanent and have no caps.
16:11Whether it's no tax on tips or overtime, workers feel betrayed when they're promised something during a campaign and then when they find out about the details of it and realize that it either doesn't apply to them or it's not what was promised, it's actually a betrayal of the American public who believed that they were going to get relief from this big, ugly bill.
16:34So not only are they losing health care, the benefits go to the wealthy, it also adds $3.4 trillion to our federal debt at a time when American families are struggling to cover the cost of rent, child care, and health care, which are the pressing issues that the majority of constituents are facing every single day.
16:57So when it comes to working with Republicans and negotiating with them regarding government spending, can you kind of talk about how you are kind of approaching negotiations with them, if I'm more excited?
17:13Rosa DeLora, on our side, the ranking member of Appropriations, leads those discussions with her counterpart, Chair Tom Cole.
17:21They will continue to have conversations, as will members of the leadership team, with their counterparts.
17:28Like I said, if Republicans are serious about this, they will work on a bipartisan solution that meets the needs of the American public.
17:36That has been and continues to be our focus, to work in the committee process to make sure that these bills meet the needs of the public.
17:45That has not been the case.
17:46House Republicans have advanced bills that don't do that.
17:51And it's unfortunate, but ranking member DeLora will lead those conversations for House Democrats, working closely with Leader Jeffries.
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