On the House floor, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) decried President Trump's tariff policies.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, and I rise today to initially extend
00:10greetings to all, especially those who are traveling over this season of resurrection.
00:18In my church, I'm a Christian, we commemorate and celebrate Easter. So I want to let everyone
00:29know that I appreciate those who do, and to those who do not, I understand. But I also want to give
00:36a special expression of gratitude and thanks to the thousands of persons who have literally called
00:43my office, sent cards, greeted me along life's way to give me a pep talk, or to simply say to me,
00:54we appreciate what you're doing. It means a lot to me to have people that I do not know,
01:01many of whom I will never meet and greet, to simply say to me, we want you to continue to do what you're
01:08doing. And as you know, Mr. Speaker, I have been censured. I have been censured.
01:17I was censured, but not silenced. Censured, but not silenced. I am here today because I was
01:29censured, but not silenced. And today, as a person who still speaks truth to power, also speaks truth
01:41about power. Speaking truth to power is not as difficult as it is to speak truth about power.
01:48To speak truth to power, you but only have to go to power and say, there is a problem,
01:56and you and I can solve it. That's speaking truth to power. But when you speak truth about power,
02:05you go to power, you go to power and say, there is a problem, and you are it. I speak truth about power
02:15and to power. And today, I'm going to speak truth to power as it relates to the president's tariff.
02:26One has to ponder why the president of the United States of America would put so much emphasis on
02:42these tariffs, emphasizing the tariffs for many, many years, as I'm told, but put emphasis on the
02:50tariffs to the tariffs to the extent that he nearly drove the economy into a ditch. Colloquial way of
03:01saying driving the economy into an area wherein it would suffer greatly. The president put a lot of
03:12emphasis on this. He was just obsessed with the tariffs. And we have to ask ourselves, why was he
03:20obsessed with the tariff? And I'm going to answer this question, and I'm going to answer this
03:25question as it relates to the president's obsession and how it will impact you. It's important for you
03:32to understand how this obsession would impact you, how it would impact billionaires, how it would impact
03:42your life. I will answer the question, how it will impact you. It's important for me to call to your
03:50attention that the president has a book that you are familiar with. It is styled the art of the deal,
03:59the art of the deal. Well, I want to introduce you to the president's art of the steel, art of the steel.
04:08A steel can be an underhanded way of acquiring something. The art of the steel. Here is how it
04:20works. The president, with his tariffs, will continue. At one point it was going to be unimaginable, but he
04:31has reduced it. Let's just say 10%. There's a 10% tariff. This tariff is collected at the point of
04:43entry into the United States of goods that an importer desires to purvey in this country. He wants to sell
04:51it, or she wants to sell it. They want to sell it. They want to sell these goods. So they have to pay
04:57this tariff, and this tariff has to be paid that the president would add to the goods. Let's say you
05:03have something that costs $40,000 coming into the country, tariff of 10%. So that's going to give you
05:11an additional $4,000. This additional $4,000 is collected at the point of entry, and the person importing
05:20has to pay the tariff has to pay the tariff. This is the Trump tariff tax at this point. And when that
05:30tariff is paid, that money goes into the Treasury of the United States of America, the same place that
05:37your tax dollars will go, into the Treasury of the United States of America. Tariff, collected, port of
05:47entry, let's say $4,000 on a $40,000 item. It's a 10% tariff. And when it is collected, it goes again,
05:58important to remember, into the Treasury. Now, that person who imports and has this additional tax now to
06:07deal with, will do what you will see when you buy something and you're in a state that has a sales tax.
06:15You'll see that the item costs X amount of dollars. If it's something that costs $40,000 and there's a
06:2210% sales tax, then you'll see that there's a tax on there, sales tax, of 10% or $4,000.
06:30Well, here is where the stealth comes in. Here's where the art of the steel begins. When the person
06:38sells that $40,000 item and has to add that additional $4,000 to it, that person becomes somewhat of a tax
06:50collector for the Trump tariff tax steal. That person who purchased this item, brought it into the country, paid $40,000 for it and then had to pay
07:03four more, making it $44,000, adds that $4,000 to that product when you buy it. That $4,000 is added. The unfortunate thing is, it's not done the way a sales tax is done.
07:17It's not noted that you are paying it. You pay it because it's a part of buying the product. But there's nothing that will say this is the Trump tariff tax steal. It won't be there.
07:35It's a very stealthy way of doing business. Most people don't realize that they're paying this tariff, this tax, this steal, if you will. They do.
07:50But we really haven't gotten to the essence of what's important here. That money, that money, that $4,000 that was paid at the point of entry,
08:02now collected from you because the person who is selling, purveying, does not want to pay that because they're operating possibly on a thin profit margin.
08:12They already have an overhead that they have to consider. So you pay it. Now it goes into the Treasury. And here's where it gets really stealthy.
08:21The steal gets stealthy. Because at some point the President is desiring to say, I gave you a tax break. You got a tax break from the President.
08:37The President. Well, here is the truth. That tax break that you think you're getting, or may get, and the billionaires will get, that's the money that came out of your pocket.
08:52The President was desiring to get this huge tariff because that would be more money in the coffer coming out of your pocket so that it could then be some of it.
09:04You don't get it back dollar for dollar. You might get some of it back. Some. You may not get any depending on your tax circumstance.
09:13The billionaires will get plenty. You may not get any. This is a stealthy way of doing business. It's a steal. This is why it is the art of the steal that has been developed by this President so that he can take money out of your pocket, put it into the Treasury, and then say later on, you now have a tax break.
09:38I think that people who understand this will understand why tariffs are not always a great benefit to you. They can be a benefit in some circumstances.
09:54But remember, the President was putting a tariff on some 90 plus countries. He was putting a tariff on any and every country that he could find a means by which he could tax with a tariff.
10:11And some places didn't have people to actually tax with a tariff. Just animal life.
10:18But he was desperate because he wants to get money into the coffer, the Treasury of the United States of America, so that he can then say to you, you have now a tax break.
10:30Some of you may, some of you may, some of you may, some of you may, some of you may, billionaires will, have a tax break, but it's really money out of your pocket that is being returned to you in a diminished fashion.
10:43This is the art of the steel as perfected or as is being perfected by our President.
10:53Our President understands also that there are other ways to get money into this coffer, the Treasury.
11:03You can get money into the Treasury by simply having Medicare or Medicaid have some cuts into these two programs, these two health care programs.
11:17And this can be done because there has been an indication in this house that some 880 billion dollars will be cut or should be cut.
11:32I'm going to fight it. Attempt to cut. I'm going to fight it from the committee that has jurisdiction over Medicaid and Medicare.
11:45880 billion dollars. You can't cut 880 billion dollars out of the appropriations that would emanate from that committee without cutting into Medicaid or Medicare.
11:57You have to do it. Well, when that is done, that money goes into the Treasury.
12:04So now you add the the stealth tax, which was a tariff, and you add the money that you are saving now by putting people who need health care in harm's way as it relates to their health care.
12:20Put that money in. And when I say people who need it, I'm talking about people who have long term illnesses and their seniors, their dual eligible persons may have medic may qualify for Medicaid and Medicare.
12:33So they need these long term hospitalization programs available to them.
12:39That that can be cut. Talking about children in this country, approximately 40 percent of all children benefit from Medicaid at some point in their lives.
12:48That can be cut. These cuts. These cuts would then go into the cuts to children that would impact children and impact seniors would go into the coffer.
13:01And again, add this to the stealth tariff tax. And you have more money that you can now pass back to people who are going to get a break and say,
13:17here's what the government is sending you by way of cutting taxes and giving you additional money.
13:24Friends, I conclude that this is a very stealthy way of doing business when people don't always understand.
13:36I believe that if people truly understand how the president is amassing this tax break for billionaires,
13:43I think they are going to be exceedingly upset. And there are many ways to express how upset you are.
13:49You can do this always peacefully. Many are going to protest. Others will do it at the polls.
13:56A good many, a good many of my colleagues who are participating as persons who are aiding and abetting, if you will,
14:08many of them will find that, as they are finding out currently, that they are going to be received
14:16in less than a very warm way when they find themselves having town meetings.
14:23They are already experiencing this. That's why many of them are not having their town meetings.
14:28But they are going to experience it also when we have an election, because people are going to forget this.
14:35They are not going to forget how the president desperately tried to tax them so that he could then return money,
14:46some to them if they would qualify, but much to billionaires who would qualify.
14:52This is, in my opinion, a shameful and disgraceful way for the president to tell people that they are going to get a tax break
15:03when it's really their money that is being returned to them by way of this tariff.
15:09I would also remind people that as we move forward, I have indicated that impeachment is imminent.
15:24The filing of articles of impeachment is imminent. We are currently in a countdown to impeachment.
15:35Now, those who know me know that I wouldn't say this if I were not going to move on with it, and I am.
15:45We will have articles of impeachment filed. I cannot tell you what the vote will be.
15:53And there are some who would say, well, you shouldn't file the articles of impeachment if you can't win.
16:00No, you need to know where people stand. You really do. We need to know.
16:05I heard a member just yesterday indicate that we need to have a certain thing brought before the House to understand where people are.
16:16It is not unusual for us to have votes to find out where people are on certain issues.
16:22And this is no exception. And the first articles of impeachment may not succeed. The second may not succeed.
16:30But having laid the foundation for the president's impeachment in the past, I know that impeachment can succeed.
16:39And I also know that should Democrats reclaim the House and the Senate by margins that are sufficient to not only impeach but to convict,
16:52I believe that the president can be removed from office.
16:57He talks of having another term.
17:01Well, Mr. President, you're not going to have another term.
17:06That's not going to happen.
17:09But I do know that you have incited persons to come to the Capitol, the citadel of democracy, and engage in an insurrection.
17:21So I don't know what you have up your sleeve, but I do know that we will prevent you from having a third term.
17:30And the best way to do it is to not have you finish this term.
17:34And the best way to do this is to have you impeached and convicted and removed from office.
17:41It can be done.
17:43I'm telling you it can be done.
17:45The law says it can be done.
17:47We but only have to have the will to do it.
17:50The way is before us.
17:52The will is what is necessary to implement the way to an impeachment and a removal of Donald John Trump as president of the United States of America.
18:06It would be the appropriate thing because he is unfit to be president, unfit to enforce the laws of the land in such a way as to bring honor to the process.
18:29Unfit.
18:30Unfit.
18:31When you consistently, consistently, repeatedly flout the laws, flout the notion of due process.
18:44When you would have agents of the state approach a female and approach her with persons who would surround her and then pull up a mask and then take her away all in plain clothes mask.
19:04I don't believe that the American people want to see that kind of episode take place in this country.
19:12It looks like we have secret police.
19:15America is not a country with secret police that come and take you away, away from your home to some distant state where you're not known, where you don't have resources.
19:30Don't give you any due process.
19:33This is not America.
19:35The president is destroying the lawful, judicious processes that we have enjoyed.
19:44He is chipping away at them.
19:47And if the president can do it for a person who is here for whatever reasons, the president can do it to any one of us.
19:57Especially when the president believes that you don't have to allow a person to say, hey, you have the wrong person.
20:03I didn't do that.
20:06Doesn't matter because the president believes that he has the sole authority by and through his agents to determine who can stay and who must leave.
20:16And unfortunately, someone who should be here is not here as a result of the president's behavior.
20:25The president is harmful to the processes that we have enjoyed in this country.
20:35He is unfit to be president.
20:38He is also unfit because he disrespects the judiciary.
20:47When he loses a case, it's always the judge's fault.
20:52And what is amazing to me is that I have colleagues who are buying into that, that it's the judge's fault.
20:59Let's impeach the judge because it's the judge's fault.
21:03Always the judge.
21:05Always the judge.
21:07Never his fault.
21:09Always the judge.
21:12When we start this process of having the person who holds the highest office in the land,
21:19continually say that judges are not fair when they are dealing with him and things that he would have done.
21:26When we allow that, we are now sending a signal to the rest of society that the judges are the reason why we're not succeeding,
21:37the reason why we can't have whatever it is that we want and can't acquire, and we have to take it to court.
21:43It's always the judges.
21:45At some point, people will have a disrespect for the law and the process that will cause others to disrespect the country.
21:55People invest in this country because they know that we have a good judiciary.
22:02That it is a process that has been in place and that will be honored.
22:06They invest in this country also because they know that your money is safe here.
22:14You invest in our bills, our bonds, it's safe.
22:22We have stability.
22:24Except when you do as the president has just done, and that is tariff some 90 countries,
22:34and do it in such a way as to cause people to start to equivocate when it comes to our bonds, our notes.
22:44And when that happens, you can see how the president backs off.
22:49He understood at final, at last, that he was making a terrible mistake.
22:56And he backed off.
22:58He has extended what he calls a 90-day, I would call it, pause.
23:04But I don't think he's going to go back to where he was.
23:07I don't think he will.
23:08Even he understands that he was making a serious mistake.
23:13But here's the problem with that mistake.
23:16He has hurt the brand, the American brand.
23:20He's hurt the image of the country.
23:23He has put the country in a position such that people may no longer think that this is the safest place for their investment dollars.
23:31They may not want to buy our bonds as readily.
23:34They will then, if they don't buy them readily, that will make it difficult for us to sell them to pay bills.
23:41The president is hurting the image of the United States of America.
23:45We are now seen as a country that doesn't honor his word.
23:50The president negotiated with Canada and Mexico a trade deal.
23:57He breaks the trade deal.
24:00The president says that he wants Canada to be the 51st state.
24:04Canada is not about to become the 51st state.
24:08I will be quite candid with you.
24:10I admire the way the Canadians have made it perfectly clear to the president that this won't happen.
24:18Someone has to stand up to him.
24:20Greenland wants to take it.
24:24Wants to make Gaza a resort.
24:27The president has to understand that he is not a king.
24:32He's not the emperor.
24:35He's not a dictator.
24:37He has awesome power.
24:40But he doesn't have the power to just go around people and take what he wants.
24:47He doesn't have that kind of power.
24:49And we can't let him have that kind of power.
24:52So it's important for us to move to impeachment.
24:57Because impeachment is the means by which a reckless, ruthless president can be brought into check.
25:06This is the balance that we have.
25:09When all else fails, when the Congress majority refuses to act, and when he disregards the orders of the courts, impeachment is still available.
25:24I intend to bring articles of impeachment.
25:27I don't know what the vote would be.
25:29My guess is that you're not going to get the vote required.
25:33But you will get the opportunity to see who believes in what we have said.
25:39We said that the president was a detriment to democracy.
25:43We talked about how that would, how he would harm the country if he got back into office.
25:49Let's find out if we meant that.
25:51One of the ways we'll find out is with articles of impeachment.
25:55I'm proud to serve my country.
25:59I am proud to be an American.
26:03It means something to me.
26:05And I want to protect what this country stands for in a positive way.
26:10The positive image that our country has had.
26:13The negative image I'm trying to change to a positive.
26:16But I want to protect that.
26:18It means something to me to be an American.
26:21And I want this country to be the one that people look up to as opposed to frown upon.
26:28And many do now because of the way our president behaves.
26:33I thank you, Mr. Speaker.
26:35I am proud to say that I'm going to yield back my time that I am censured, but not silenced.
26:43I yield back.