'It Is Scary, Quite Frankly': Jim McGovern Blasts GOP Appropriations Packages

5 months ago

During debate on the House floor, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) spoke in opposition to two major appropriations packages.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. Speaker, we heard last week that the Republican Party is newly focused on unity,

00:06toning down the rhetoric and bringing people closer together.

00:09Wow, that's rich.

00:11I mean, I guess they mean only to unite people under their extreme agenda,

00:17because the four funding bills we met on last night

00:20are part of the same unpopular, divisive, controversial, extreme MAGA agenda

00:27that they've been pushing since they came into the majority.

00:30None of this is serious.

00:32None of these bills are ever going to become law.

00:35All four of the bills are in line with the GOP's Project 2025,

00:40their dystopian plan to consolidate power in the presidency

00:44and take total control over our country and our lives.

00:48If Trump and Republicans win in November,

00:50they promise to gut the checks and balances that protect our freedoms,

00:55they promise to advance abortion bans in every state,

00:59and they promise to give big corporations billions of dollars

01:03while increasing taxes for middle-class families.

01:06That's their plan for America.

01:08It is not about unity, it is about division.

01:11It is scary, quite frankly.

01:14These policies are centered around driving people further apart,

01:18not bringing them together.

01:20They even had to pull the agriculture and financial services bills

01:25because they were too extreme.

01:27They didn't even know where they had the votes within the Republican conference

01:31to vote for these crummy bills.

01:33Just to reiterate, this rule only brings half of the bills

01:38we heard testimony on last night to the House floor,

01:41because the other half were so controversial, so divisive, so partisan,

01:45again, that the Republican leadership wasn't even sure

01:48they had the votes within their own conference.

01:51I have to say, what is the point of wasting time at the Rules Committee

01:56if these bills aren't ready for the floor?

01:58I've never seen lawmakers work so hard and force institutional staff

02:03to spend so much time putting in such extensive effort

02:07to do absolutely nothing, nothing.

02:11This majority superpower is wasting people's time.

02:17For the two bills that are included in this rule,

02:20they are just as unserious, and again, they will never ever become law.

02:24An energy and water bill that raises energy costs

02:28and is full of more giveaways for big polluters.

02:32And an interior and environment bill that's potentially even worse,

02:37gutting funding for national parks.

02:40National parks!

02:42I mean, our national parks are like the only thing in this country

02:48that has a 100% approval rating, and they're attacking national parks!

02:53Give me a break!

02:56And what they're doing, Mr. Speaker, is they're going after national parks

03:01while patting the pockets of big polluters.

03:04Follow the money. Follow the money.

03:06And more culture war riders.

03:09More attacks on LGBTQ people.

03:12One of these bills has language to protect Confederate names on things.

03:16I mean, that is unifying?

03:18Commemorating the traitors of the Civil War?

03:21Enough is enough.

03:23This is just an awful, awful rule.

03:26And I urge my Republican colleagues to stop wasting people's time

03:30and vote no with us.

03:32And I reserve my time.

'It Is Scary, Quite Frankly': Jim McGovern Blasts GOP Appropriations Packages

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