Margaret Wood Hassan

“The President promised to lower costs for families, but prices for gas, healthcare, and food have gone up instead. At the same time, he wants to spend $1.8 billion of taxpayer money on projects that honor himself, like parades and a ballroom. I want the President to explain to the American people why spending billions on himself is more important than paying for healthcare for our veterans.”

“Mr. President, 2 years ago, the American people elected a new Congress and a new President. The American people did so based on a promise that the President and his allies in Congress would work to bring down high costs. So now it is worth asking a simple question, one that the American people will ask their elected representatives when they return home in a few days: Did the President and his allies in Congress make good on their pledge to bring down costs for American families? The answer is clear: No. Not only has the President failed to make good on his pledge to bring down costs, not only is it evident that he never even bothered to try, but it is clear that on virtually every metric, it costs more to be an American than it did 2 years ago when this President was sworn in and the 119th Congress began. It is worth taking a moment to go line by line, cost by cost, broken promise by broken promise, to examine the ways in which the President’s policies--including his tariffs and his war--have driven costs higher and higher. Before the President took office, he promised that he would bring gas prices down from $3 a gallon to less than $2. But under this President and his majorities in Congress, gas prices haven’t just failed to go down, they have instead shot up to around $4.50 a gallon, meaning gas costs 50 percent more now than when Donald Trump entered office. Since the President began his reckless war with Iran without a plan to win, the American people have paid an additional $93 billion on gas in less than a year, and, on average, each American family has had to spend $790 more on gas since this war began. And the President failed even more catastrophically to bring down diesel prices. Diesel now costs around $3 more a gallon than it did when the President took office. Farmers and truckers are weathering the highest prices for diesel in American history, with costs at the pump exceeding $6.50 a gallon last week. Now, it is one thing to fail on a promise to lower the price of something; it is quite another to be responsible for the highest price of that good ever recorded in our country’s history. The President also promised to make healthcare ``affordable again.’’ Of course, this is not at all what happened. Instead, the President gutted Medicaid to take away healthcare for millions of Americans in order to pay for tax giveaways to billionaires like himself. He also allowed health insurance premiums to surge, meaning more families now pay more for insurance every single month, even if they don’t get sick. Just before the President took office, the average monthly cost for health insurance was $468 a month. The President did not reduce those premiums by a dime. Instead, families now pay $611 a month. That is almost $150 more monthly, almost $2,000 more per year--$2,000--dollars that could otherwise be spent on the mortgage, the rent, repairs for the car, let alone parents just using it to do something nice for their kids. And what about the cost of groceries? The President promised repeatedly that he would bring down grocery costs. Well, let’s look at the numbers. Since the President took office, ground beef has risen to $7 a pound, and coffee has risen from about $7 a pound to more than $9. Now, I don’t know if the President is right when he says that ``groceries’’ is an ``old-fashioned word,’’ as he often claims, but I do know that old-fashioned math tells us that $9 is more expensive than $7. And let’s say we take everything all together--all the goods and services that we pay for every day--and add it all up. How much, if at all, did the President and his allies in Congress reduce costs? They failed to reduce costs at all. The American people have had to pay an additional $4,200 on goods and services since the President took office. The President had nearly 2 years to try to lower costs, and instead, families had $4,200 more taken out of their pockets. This isn’t a partisan point. This isn’t spin. This is just basic mathematical facts--facts that make evident that the President both completely failed to lower costs and honestly didn’t even try. So if the President failed to bring down costs, what has he been working on these last 2 years? Well, the President’s been clear about his priorities. He is not interested in lowering costs for families. He is interested in raising monuments to honor himself. He hosted military parades in his honor. He destroyed the East Wing to build himself a golden ballroom. He has been trying to put his name on other monuments. He is running taxpayer-funded ad campaigns praising himself. And, according to a new report from the Joint Economic Committee Minority, while the American people are paying more to keep up with high costs, the President wants to spend $1.8 billion on projects to flatter his own vanity. Now, we throw lots of numbers around in Washington, but it is worth remembering what the American people know full well: This is real money we are talking about. It is the American people’s money. We owe it to them to ask: How could that same $1.8 billion help them? What can $1.8 billion buy when it is not being diverted by an apprentice dictator, who, rightly fearing that no one will ever honor his Presidency after he is gone, rushes to build gilded tributes to himself? Mr. President, $1.8 billion, it can buy a lot of things: It can pay for the electric bills for 12 million families for a month; it can fill up more than 35 million tanks of gas, even at the President’s new high prices; it can buy 600 million school lunches, fully paid for, so our children can have a good, healthy meal at school; $1.8 billion could hire around 30,000 new firefighters to keep our communities safe; and it can pay all the medical expenses--every medical bill--for more than 88,000 American veterans for an entire year. If the President insists on spending the people’s money on himself, he owes them an explanation. So if I have one request today, it is this: I want the President to explain why a monument to honor himself is a better use of taxpayer dollars than paying for healthcare for veterans. Is a ballroom to make one man feel like a King more important than healthcare for a year for the heroes who fought to keep our country free? What more did America’s heroes--people who have given everything to this country--what more do they need to do to deserve the $1.8 billion that the President would rather spend to honor himself? And when in America did honoring service become less important than honoring one man’s ego? I know that a majority of Americans, including many of my Republican colleagues, also find the President’s vanity projects distasteful, but I think we are all doing a bit of play-acting if we forget that the President’s determination to shower himself in honors is not simply excessive or distractions but is wrong and is distinctly un-American. Consider our other Presidents. George Washington didn’t order the construction of the Washington Monument. Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson didn’t pick out sculptors to build their memorials. John F. Kennedy didn’t name the Kennedy Center. And none of them tried to put themselves on our currency. They received these honors from grateful citizens after their time in office. The current President is the only exception to this rule. George Washington was a rich man as well, but he used his wealth to support the Continental Army. He didn’t use his office to enrich himself, nor did he have any interest in being King. The reason why this matters is because the President’s desire to appease his own vanity and his failure to bring down costs are linked because it is deeply telling that the President will go to such extravagant lengths to honor himself. He will break with American values and precedent when they stand in the way of his whims; he will use a wrecking ball to tear down buildings; he will spend great time and effort planning every detail; he will file court appeals while defying court orders; he will pilfer taxpayer funds and even ignore the law and the Constitution--all just in his mission to leave a gilded tribute to himself. But he can’t be bothered to lift a finger to bring down costs despite his promise to do so. What does this all reveal? It reveals that the President is uninterested in listening to what the American people want. The American people don’t want the President to build a golden ballroom; they want him to build homes that they can afford. They are not asking for parades and car races on the National Mall; they want to pay less at the pump on their way to work. They don’t want his face on our currency; they want to keep more money in their pockets. So, in closing, what does the final accounting of this President’s broken promises tell us? Since the President took office, Americans have had to pay $4,200 more to keep up with rising costs while the President spends $1.8 billion to keep up with his own ego. In short, it tells us that the President seeks to rule but that he is unable to lead. He seeks to honor himself, but he is unable to honor his word. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. GRAHAM). The Senator from Oregon.”

• Personal attack
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  Speech on a bill

  Respect 92 of 100

  This statement targeted a person rather than their actions or views: “an apprentice dictator, who, rightly fearing that no one will ever honor his Presidency after he is gone, rushes to…”.

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“I want the White House to stop using tax money to pay for television ads. These are political campaign ads for the President, not public service messages. Republicans blocked my resolution to stop this spending, but the President should still stop using our money for his political ads.”

“Mr. President, it is really disappointing that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have blocked a resolution that simply says these plainly political television ads should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars. One of the ads is literally one of the President’s campaign ads from 2024. It is clearly a campaign message, but he is making all of us pay for it at a time when he has sent grocery costs, rent costs, and gas costs soaring. Any American who watches this ad can see that it is not a PSA like the White House claims. What is the public service message here? People know the difference between a PSA and a political ad. Moreover, if we are going to talk about which side of the aisle is supporting communism and socialism, it is this President, who had the U.S. Government take a share--an interest--in a privately held company; it is this President, who welcomed the leader of the largest Communist Party in the world to the White House, fawning over him, having the military on their hands and knees straightening out a red carpet for him, while banning the free press from the White House and welcoming the communist press in. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle should stand together in opposing this clearly unlawful and wrong use of taxpayer money. This is an incredibly wealthy President with a huge war chest that can afford to fund whatever political messages he wants. It should not come at the cost of hard-earned American tax dollars. So, despite the fact that we can’t pass this resolution today, I hope that the administration listens to the bipartisan pushback on these ads and reverses course immediately. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Curtis). The Senator from Virginia.”

• Reasons given
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  Speech in the House

  Reasoning 100 of 100

  This statement drew 3 conclusions and gave a reason for each one.

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“President Trump promised to end inflation on his first day in office, but life has become much more expensive under his presidency. In New Hampshire, the average family has had to pay thousands of dollars more for gas, food, housing, electricity, and health insurance. The President refuses to lower these costs and falsely calls higher prices a hoax instead of helping people.”

“Madam President, I rise today to speak about a broken promise, a promise that the President made to the country when he took office. Time and again, the President promised that ``starting on day one’’ of his administration, he would ``end inflation’’--his words. A year and a half into his term, it is clear that the President not only has broken his word but that he disdains the very notion that he should even try to make good on his pledge. Now, for the vast majority of Americans of all ages and walks of life, of all political stripes, costs aren’t a partisan thing, and it is simply clear: It costs more to be an American with Donald Trump as President. Part of why I am speaking today is because, as a new Joint Economic Committee minority report details, American life has become more expensive under this administration. As of June, in my home State of New Hampshire, the average Granite State family has had to pay an additional $4,400 for goods and services since President Trump took office. This toll is exacted from virtually every part of everyday life. In Donald Trump’s America, when a person wakes up and starts their day, they now drink coffee that costs around $10 a pound, a 25-percent increase since the President launched senseless trade wars, launched without the support of the American people. After they finish their coffee and drive to work or to drop their children off at school, they do so in a car that now costs more to fill up every time they stop at the pump. Each Granite State family has spent $596 more on gas, in fact, since President Trump launched his reckless, illegal war against Iran--a war he launched without a plan to win. Now, let’s say our typical American has a doctor’s appointment that day. Assuming that they are able to afford health insurance, they will receive care covered by a plan which premiums rose as much as 50 percent under President Trump. Why? Because the President let Affordable Care Act insurance premiums surge. And at the end of the day, the average Granite Stater returns to a house or an apartment that is also more expensive, as families in our State have so far spent $1,108 more on rent or mortgage payments since President Trump started his term--all because the President refuses to address our country’s housing crisis. And after my constituent gets home and goes to pick up her mail, she opens another electric bill. Electricity has gotten so expensive that people in New Hampshire have had to pay $194 more so far this year than last year because the President caused a worldwide energy crisis and canceled clean energy projects. Next on the list, my constituent goes into the kitchen to make dinner, where--you guessed it--the ingredients cost more than they did before Trump took office. Granite Staters paid $310 more for groceries last year than they did the year before. So what has been the cost of the Trump Presidency, a Presidency where food, healthcare, gas, rent, and more have all become more expensive? The costs can be summed up by the figures in this report, but it can also be put more simply. For many in our country, the cost has been nothing less than seeing their chance at the American dream fade before their very eyes. A year and a half into his Presidency, my Republican colleagues are making excuse after excuse for the President’s failure to address the American people’s basic needs. They need to stop--stop trying to advance the fiction that the President cares about lowering costs or perhaps is trying to lower costs but is getting some bad counsel from his advisers. If the President actually wanted to help the American people, he would listen to them. He would hear that this economy isn’t working for them and, for some, well, it is breaking them. If he cared, this man who was supposed to understand the economy, as well as the hopes and dreams of the American people, would acknowledge that he needs to take action to lower costs. And even if he doesn’t care, if this President believed that, in America, Presidents are accountable to the American people, he would be working to make life more affordable. But this President neither cares nor thinks he is accountable to anyone other than himself and perhaps his billionaire backers. Just consider, he has attacked and dismissed anyone who says that there is a problem at all. He has called inflation a ``hoax’’ and dismissed the cost-of-living crisis as--his words--``made up.’’ He says this despite the fact that virtually every American of every political perspective-- at least those who live outside the splendor of Mar-a-Lago--knows that American life has become more expensive under President Trump. So when the American people say that their costs have gone up and the President dismisses inflation as a ``hoax,’’ is he saying that American families are lying? Is he suggesting that they should not believe their own eyes, their own understanding of math, when they look at the numbers at the cash register or at the gas pump? Because it is one thing not to solve a problem for American families; it is quite another to essentially say that the American people are lying. What have American families done, what have the people who gave the President the privilege of serving in the highest office in our country done to have their biggest challenge, their greatest anxiety and fear dismissed by the President as a ``hoax’’? Should we be surprised that a President who incited a mob to storm the Capitol and tried to overturn the voices and votes of the American people dismisses yet again what they have to say? Maybe the President would be more inclined to help the American people if they were a little less decent and a lot better connected. After all, this is President Trump’s Washington, and we know well who this President is. He will save one of his corrupt campaign donors asking for a pardon, but he won’t lift a finger to save American families a dime on their groceries. And so I return to the President’s promise. When he sought our country’s highest office yet again, Donald Trump told the American people to put aside his corruption, his self-dealing, his poor character, his willingness to fan the flames of division and extremism, to forget the way he disrespects our veterans. He wanted us to even forget the attack on this Chamber, to forget the scars of the Capitol Police officers, forget all of this and more because he said he would bring down costs. And now he is dismissive and contemptuous of anyone who asks him to make good on his pledge. He even undermines my Republican colleagues when they do try, in good faith, to lower costs. He actually threatened to block a bipartisan bill to bring down the cost of housing, a law that we were eventually able to pass. Now, Donald Trump has made himself very, very clear. His Presidency will be defined not by lowering costs for families but by raising monuments to himself. It doesn’t have to be this way. The American people, right now, want an American dream that they can afford, a dream that doesn’t belong just to a privileged few, a dream that is bigger than self-dealing, kickbacks, and self-enrichment schemes in the gilded rooms of Mar-a- Lago. The dreams of the American people aren’t focused on golden luxury trappings. Their dreams are less gilded than all of that, but they are also far more noble. Americans want their children to live better lives than they did; with quality, affordable healthcare that can help them rest easier at night; a decent education for their children; a place to build not a gilded ballroom but a home--a home in a country where we don’t live fearing one another, divided over politics, but instead united as freedom-loving Americans who know that we are lucky to live in the greatest country on Earth, who love this country too much to ever hate our fellow Americans and who won’t let the miracle of self-government die--not in the service of one man’s ego, not for anything. The American people want an America that is as good as this Nation’s promise. They deserve a President whose word is as good as our people. I yield the floor.”

• Little substance
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  Speech in the House

  Signal 41 of 100

  Much of this statement went to praise, blame, greetings, routine procedure or general stories rather than reasons, requests or specific points.

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“I want the Senate to pass this bill quickly. People are having their identities stolen, and they cannot get their Social Security benefits. We need to pass this bill now to help them.”

“Mr. President, I appreciate the efforts of the Senator from Texas to get legislation that we have passed here passed through the House of Representatives. But I think it is really critically important to understand that while he is in these negotiations, people’s identities are being stolen, people who need their Social Security benefits are going without as they try to navigate a complex and outdated Social Security system. It is high time that we pass this bill. I am disappointed that we weren’t able to send this bill to the President today. I understand the concerns of the Senator from Texas, but I really do think this is urgent for our people. I hope that my colleague from Texas and I can work together in a bipartisan way to get this over the finish line soon.”