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<\/a><\/p>\nLEADER JEFFRIES:\u00a0Welcome to the Shirley Chisholm State Office Building here in Brooklyn. It\u2019s an honor and a privilege to represent this area and to represent a district that Shirley Chisholm once represented here in Brooklyn in large measure. And the late, great Shirley Chisholm was a champion for making life more affordable for the people of Brooklyn, New York City and all across the country. Unfortunately, I think Shirley Chisholm would be horrified by what she\u2019d see and what has unfolded here in the United States of America under Donald Trump and Republican control of Congress.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump promised that costs here in the United States of America would go down on day one. But costs haven\u2019t gone down. Costs have gone up. Life has become way too expensive as a direct result of policy decisions made by Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress. The Trump Tariffs have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year. House Democrats will continue to strongly oppose those tariffs and to fight to roll them back.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump promised to love and cherish Medicaid. He then signed the Republican One Big Ugly Bill that enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, ripping healthcare away from people here in New York City, across New York State and throughout America. Donald Trump and Republicans refused to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. And as a result, tens of millions of people are experiencing\u2014including right here in New York City\u2014dramatically increased premiums, copays and deductibles, in some cases increasing by more than $1,000 a month. These are everyday New Yorkers and everyday Americans who are no longer able to afford to go see a doctor when they need one because of decisions made by Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump promised not to start endless wars in the Middle East but to stop them and then turned around and did the exact opposite by getting the country involved in a reckless and costly war of choice in Iran that hasn\u2019t made our country any safer but has certainly made the American people economically weaker, particularly as it relates to gas prices. House Democrats are uniformly and strongly opposed to Donald Trump\u2019s reckless and costly war of choice in Iran, and we will fight it every day until it comes to an end.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re fighting for an affordable America, and we\u2019re committed, as House Democrats, for the people here in New York City, across New York State and throughout the country, to lower the high cost of groceries, lower the high cost of gas and lower the high cost of housing, which is way too expensive all across this country. We\u2019re committed, as House Democrats, to fighting to make sure that healthcare is affordable for every single American because in this great country of ours, access to high-quality and affordable healthcare shouldn\u2019t simply be a privilege available only to the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected. It should be a right available to every single New Yorker and every single American.<\/p>\n
And as House Democrats, finally, we are certainly committed to combating the unprecedented corruption that the Trump cartel continues to unleash on the American people. Every day brings a new revelation, including the most recent one related to the U.S. Ambassador to Greece. What we\u2019ve seen from the Trump cartel is that they\u2019re more focused on enriching themselves, their family members, their friends and their donors than they are with making life more affordable for the American people. And our promise to the country in the new Congress is that, beginning on day one, we\u2019re going to hold the crooks accountable.<\/p>\n