00:00Now, while these policies hammer every single working family in the United States,
00:04the president and his family seem to be only out for themselves.
00:09He's enriched himself by $2 billion in just 12 months.
00:13Now, Jared Kushner got a $2 billion investment from the Saudis
00:18just months after leaving the White House in the first administration.
00:22Well, good morning, everyone.
00:23And I want to welcome everyone, of course, to first to Las Vegas.
00:28And more importantly, to a really critical hearing for the Oversight Committee.
00:34Our hearing today is called A Bad Bet for America, The President's Attack on Affordability.
00:40And I want to just begin by thanking our witnesses that are here,
00:43which I know we will introduce in just a minute.
00:46We're here on behalf of the Oversight Committee.
00:49And this hearing is important for us as Oversight Democrats
00:53as we prepare and continue to investigate the attacks on the American worker
00:59and certainly the way in this country that working class people continue to struggle.
01:05And yet the very rich and the billionaires in this country continue to get more wealthy.
01:11I want to thank our Nevada Democratic congressional colleagues, most importantly, for being here.
01:16It's clear that Las Vegas and broader Nevada are well represented in Congress.
01:22Of course, we're here in Congressman Stephen Horsford's district today,
01:25but of course, are also joined by Congresswoman Susie Lee and Congresswoman Dina Titus.
01:29And I want to thank them for being here.
01:32I also want to thank our Oversight members that are here, including our Oversight Democrats,
01:38Congressman Maxwell Frost and Congresswoman Emily Randall.
01:41And they, of course, are here with us as well.
01:44I'm going to make some opening remarks, and then I'm going to have our members from the Nevada delegation
01:49make some brief opening remarks.
01:51And then after that, I'm going to introduce our witnesses.
01:53And then, of course, all of us will have a series of questions.
01:57And I do want to thank some of the workers that are here as well that have joined us to
02:02hear this.
02:03And we are, like I mentioned to the committee, this hearing is being streamed on multiple platforms,
02:09including Midas Touch, Brian Taylor Cohen, Jim Acosta, Katie Fang, and a variety of other news outlets across the country.
02:17I want to thank them for streaming this hearing.
02:20I want to begin because we're here today because the American people are struggling and they need the help of
02:28our government.
02:30Now, when you look at what's happening right now, the rent's too high, the groceries are too high,
02:36the mortgages are too high, rent's too high.
02:38But it seems that the president doesn't care.
02:42He seems checked out.
02:45He's obsessed with his own ego and monuments in D.C.
02:49He's lying to the American public, and he can't deliver results.
02:55We know that in 2024, he promised to end inflation.
03:00During his campaign, he promised to be focused on affordability.
03:04He said he'd cut electric prices in half.
03:08He, in fact, promised to cut the price of owning a home in half.
03:12And he promised gas would be $2 a gallon.
03:18And worst of all, he has called the affordability crisis that we are in a hoax.
03:26This is not a hoax.
03:28And the bottom line is that the American people are struggling.
03:32And as the American people struggle, the president's family, donors, and those at the very top continue to get more
03:43wealthy.
03:44And let's be clear, the president is not just denying the American public relief.
03:51He's actually causing the issues around affordability.
03:55We have a reckless war with Iran that the American people don't support.
04:00And we're spending a billion dollars a day with no end in sight on that war.
04:08We know that the war has driven prices up, the tariffs are out of control, and every single American is
04:15paying for the administration's incompetence when it comes to this war.
04:19And he's targeting Canada, an ally, a friend, a neighbor, with a trade war for no reason.
04:28Terrorists have hit consumers and businesses.
04:32He's also cut $7.6 billion from clean energy projects across all of our states for no reason.
04:41American families are staying up at night wondering how they are going to get by.
04:45Workers are wondering why their shifts are being cut.
04:50And it's because of the very wealth we continue to take from working-class people and middle-class families across
04:57this country, including people that need food assistance.
05:01Over 4 million people have lost their food assistance, and many are now skipping meals worrying about when their kids
05:08are going to have their next full meal.
05:10That is not acceptable to those of us here at this hearing.
05:15Now, while these policies hammer every single working family in the United States, the president and his family seem to
05:23be only out for themselves.
05:25He's enriched himself by $2 billion in just 12 months.
05:29Now, Jared Kushner got a $2 billion investment from the Saudis just months after leaving the White House in the
05:37first administration.
05:38We know the president's sons are opening properties across the world, making money from crypto schemes, and in fact, we
05:48know that Don Jr. is actually sitting on boards of companies that are going into contracts with the federal government
05:54and the Department of Defense.
05:57$2 billion richer the president is now.
06:02And look, I think all of us believe that when you work hard in this country, you should be able
06:07to get ahead.
06:08But the president is getting ahead at the expense of working-class people, and that needs to end.
06:16And while the American people struggle, it seems that the president is really just focused on one thing, and that
06:22is these monuments in Washington, D.C.
06:26Maybe a $14 million reflecting pool, demolishing possibly the Kennedy Center and putting his name on it, and arched across
06:37from Arlington National Cemetery that is a dishonor to the veterans who were there.
06:44This is someone that's obsessed with himself, his vanity, and someone not focused on the American public.
06:51We need to end the attacks on the worker and start focusing on getting money in the pockets of American
06:58families.
07:00Subscribe to One India and never miss an update.
07:05Download the One India app now.
