James P. McGovern

Mr. Speaker, Thanks · 13 wordsI thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for yielding me the customary time, ThanksProcedure · 10 wordsand I yield myself such time as I may consume.Procedure Mr. Speaker, Positioning · 6 wordsthis Congress is an absolute mess.PositioningOff point Claims · 15 wordsThe gentlewoman from North Carolina says that our rhetoric doesn’t carry a bit of substance. Procedure · 16 wordsBut let me begin by asking a question of the American people, a very simple question: ProcedurePositioning · 11 wordsAre you better off today than you were 1\1/2\ years ago?Positioning Claims · 45 wordsIt has been 18 months since Donald Trump returned to the White House.¹Off point Republicans have controlled every lever of power in Washington for over 1\1/2\ years. They control the House. They control the Senate. They control the White House. They even control the Supreme Court. Procedure · 29 wordsThat is the one simple question to me that matters more than anything else that we will debate today.Off point In fact, it is the only thing that matters, really.ProcedureUnearned certainty Positioning · 68 wordsIs it easier to fill up your gas tank?Off point Are your rent bills more affordable? Are your groceries cheaper? Have your prescription medicine costs gone down? Does your paycheck go further? In short, Mr. Speaker, has life gotten easier for anybody over these last 18 months, or has it gotten harder? I think most people, including most Republicans, Unearned certaintyif they are being honest with themselves, know the answer.Positioning Claims · 102 wordsThey don’t need a politician or a fancy economics degree to say that things are not better. They are not better. In fact, they will tell you that things are worse--much, much worse. They see it every time they tap their credit card at the gas station. They see it every time they check out at a grocery store. They see it every month when their rent is due, when their electric bill comes in, and when the pharmacist says that their kids’ medicine is more expensive. They see it when their paycheck just doesn’t go as far as it used to. Positioning · 19 wordsThis is the Republican economy.Off point These are their prices, and it is their policies that have failed America miserably.PositioningOff point Claims · 26 wordsDonald Trump and Republicans promised they would use their power to lower costs on day one. Well, it is year two, and costs are not lower, Reasoning · 10 wordswhich by any definition would make that a broken promise.Off point Mr. Speaker, Positioning · 14 wordswhy are prices up? Why is life harder? Why are things worse off now?Positioning Procedure · 4 wordsThe reason is simple: ProcedureUnearned certaintyPositioning · 32 wordsIt is because instead of working with Democrats to fight for everyday people, Republicans have made one decision after another to help the rich and the powerful and, basically, hurt everybody else.PositioningOff pointLogical leap Procedure · 5 wordsI have example after example.Procedure Positioning · 10 wordsAre things better off because of Trump’s tariffs, Mr. Speaker?Positioning Claims · 19 wordsThe tariffs the New York Federal Reserve says are almost exclusively paid by American consumers, American farmers, American manufacturers, ²Positioning · 9 wordsand American companies, does that make anybody better off?Positioning Claims · 46 wordsI don’t think most people would say that tariffs have made their lives better. I would say that the tariffs have made their lives worse, more expensive, more difficult. What about the war in Iran--a new, endless, illegal war, another one of Donald Trump’s broken promises?Off point Positioning · 42 wordsDoes anyone think that has made life better for the American people? Maybe it has made life better for defense contractors. Maybe it has for the crazy neocon warmongers who get a kick out of another war, but not for everyday people.Positioning Claims · 18 wordsWe have spent probably well over $100 billion on this illegal and reckless war.³Off point That is $100 billion. Positioning · 24 wordsThat is not helping make sure that Americans don’t go hungry. That is not lowering healthcare costs, lowering people’s rents, or lowering gas prices.Positioning Claims · 29 wordsIt is on this crazy war, a war of choice that the President had no plan for. He doesn’t know what the hell he is going to do next.Off point Positioning · 3 wordsThis is nuts.Positioning Claims · 56 wordsIn fact, we are now 5 months into a war that these guys said would only last a couple of weeks.⁴ They have declared victory like six times, yet the Strait of Hormuz is still closed.⁵ More American troops, sadly, were killed this weekend.⁶ Gas prices are back above $4 a gallon.⁷ Inflation continues to skyrocket. Positioning · 11 wordsDoes anybody think that has made life better for most Americans?Positioning Claims · 11 wordsThere has been 5 months of war in the Middle East. Procedure · 7 wordsI can go right down the line.Procedure Claims · 25 wordsRepublicans promised better healthcare. Instead, they passed a law that takes hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicaid and leaves millions more people uninsured.⁸Off point Positioning · 9 wordsHow the hell does that make anybody’s life better?Positioning Claims · 31 wordsRepublicans promised lower taxes, except they chose another tax giveaway for those at the very top, and they pat themselves on the back for the pennies they gave to everyone else. Positioning · 7 wordsHas that made life better for people?Positioning Claims · 124 wordsAfter 18 months of higher costs, more inflation, new wars, costly tariffs, and stunning, stunning corruption, now they are bringing us a continuing resolution that kicks the can down the road. They are bringing us a pathetic excuse of a stock trading ban that fails to address the much larger culture of corruption and self-dealing coming out of the White House, and they are bringing us a budget framework authorizing $73 billion for Trump’s illegal Iran war, $12 billion as a Band-Aid to help farmers that their policies continue to hurt, ⁹¹⁰and another $10 billion to rig the November elections. That is nearly $100 billion in new spending with no offsets, meaning this bill could very well increase the debt by over $100 billion.¹¹ Positioning · 31 wordsWhatever happened to the old-fashioned Republicans who wanted to pay for things, who didn’t want to increase the deficit or the debt? I guess that is a thing of the past.Positioning Claims · 23 wordsNot one thing in this reconciliation bill, by the way--not a single damned thing--will be about affordability. Not one thing will lower prices. Positioning · 9 wordsThat is called being out of touch, Mr. Speaker.Positioning Procedure · 20 wordsThere will be time to debate their crummy bills on the floor this week, but this hour is about priorities, ProcedurePositioning · 76 wordsand Republicans have their priorities all out of whack. Their agenda has only made things better for those at the top, for the Mar-a-Lago members and CEOs with private jets, the donor class and the corporate special interests.Off point Things are better for them, but for the rest of America, their agenda has been a disaster. The policies of this Republican Congress are a dumpster fire for everyday people, a total disaster.Off point Their tariffs are crushing people.Positioning Claims · 32 wordsTheir war is driving up costs. Their toxic environmental policies are filling our air with smoke and our food with parasites, Off pointand Americans are dying in the Middle East for their war. Anecdote · 36 wordsAgain, Mr. Speaker, when I go back home and I ask people if they are better off than they were 18 months ago, they don’t even answer.Logical leap They laugh because it is such a ridiculous question.Anecdote Positioning · 34 wordsIt is so obvious that all of us are worse off because of this Republican majority and because of this administration, Off pointUnearned certaintywhich cares only about not hurting the President’s fragile feelings and delicate ego.Positioning Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 7 wordsI reserve the balance of my time.Procedure