| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
They'll also hold a joint news conference later today. | |
| We're planning live coverage of that here on C-SPAN, expected to start just after 5 p.m. Eastern. | ||
| You can also watch on the free C-SPAN Now video app or online at our website, c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Earlier today, members of the Senate Finance Committee voted along party lines to send Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination for Health and Human Services Secretary to the full Senate, putting him one step closer to confirmation. | ||
| You can watch that meeting by the Senate Finance Committee tonight at 9 Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
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| Welcome back. | ||
| We are joined now by Representative Julie Johnson. | ||
| She's a Democrat of Texas and a member of the Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security Committees. | ||
| Welcome. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much. | |
| It's great to be here this morning. | ||
| So tell us a little bit about your background and what your priorities are for Congress. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I come from the state legislature. | |
| So I served three terms in the Texas House on judiciary, insurance, and appropriations, focusing a lot on health care policy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Unfortunately, you know, Texas leads the nation in some very undesirable statistics. | |
| We lead the nation in maternal mortality. | ||
| We lead the nation in infant mortality. | ||
| And lead the nation in persons without access to health coverage. | ||
| So that was something I focused a lot on in the state legislature, and I hope to do that in Congress. | ||
| And I'm a lawyer. | ||
| I practiced law in Dallas for 33 years. | ||
| I'm married and have two sons. | ||
| And how's it been so far? | ||
| You've got a month in. | ||
| How's the first month been? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's crazy. | |
| It's been a fire hose for sure, getting used to it. | ||
| I think having the legislative experience from the state really does give a leg up to those of us that have that experience. | ||
| And in the freshman class, I'm really amazed at how many of us come from the state legislature. | ||
| I think we have one of the most capable, experienced freshman classes coming into the Congress, and it really has made a difference. | ||
| And so a lot of my staff has been with me for a long time, understand the process, just getting used to DC and trying to figure out my way around those tunnels. | ||
| It is confusing. | ||
| I mentioned that you're on the Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security. | ||
| You recently took a trip to New Orleans, which is where the Super Bowl is going to be played this Sunday. | ||
| Tell us about that trip. | ||
| Yes, so the Homeland Security, I'm on the Emergency Management Subcommittee, and they had organized a trip down there to inspect the area where the attack had occurred on January 1st and make sure that security measures have been remedied to prepare for the Super Bowl. | ||
| It's a SEER one security level event, meaning that it's the top level of security and that the federal government on all levels are involved in that. | ||
| But the thing that was really disturbing to me was that the FBI special agent in charge for New Orleans was terminated as opposed to Trump's wholesale cleaning house of the FBI and destruction of that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And right before the Super Bowl, after years of planning, I think that was irresponsible and reckless on his part. | |
| So who's in charge now of security for that event? | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's folks in the Department of Homeland Security and they're doing a great job. | |
| You know, people have been planning, but it's a multi-governmental event. | ||
| You know, there's multiple agencies. | ||
| They all have pieces. | ||
| And as you know, whenever there's a weak link in any of it, it exposes all of it. | ||
| I was just really disgusted at the complete disregard, dismantling of the FBI, the agency that's responsible for homeland terrorism investigation and many other things, and that they would remove somebody who was so critical to that mission to keep the people safe in New Orleans. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just think that was irresponsible on part of the Trump administration. | |
| If you'd like to join our conversation and ask Representative Julie Johnson, a Democrat of Texas, any questions, you can do so. | ||
| Our lines are Republicans, 202748-8001, Democrats, 202748-8000, and Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Your website says that you're the first openly gay member of Congress from the South. | ||
| So I want to ask you about a couple of things. | ||
| The first is the Trump administration's revoking of the order to allow transgender troops to serve in the U.S. military. | ||
| Tell us about how many people that would affect as far as active duty and Guardian Reserve and what impact you think that might have. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's my understanding that it affects about 10,000 servicemen and women. | |
| And again, we have people who are willing to put their life on the line for this country, who are willing to put themselves in harm's way to defend the values of equality for all, for everyone. | ||
| And the transgender members serve with valor, they serve with distinction, they serve with honor and bravery. | ||
| And to just unilaterally, wholesale dismiss them is disrespectful to our men and women of the military, all everyone that serves, to say that you can be just summarily discharged from our military service, even though you have served with exemplary honor, just because the president doesn't like a characteristic of you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It has nothing to do with the quality of your service. | |
| It's just disrespectful to everyone that serves. | ||
| And it's really unfortunate. | ||
| We don't have enough people wanting to serve our country in that role. | ||
| And to start filtering out a whole segment of folks, not because of their abilities, not because of their qualifications, but because of a political ideology that has nothing to do with their service is really unfortunate in my opinion. | ||
| So how do you think the Congress should respond to that? | ||
| Advocates who disagree with that and other orders related to LGBTQ plus issues. | ||
| How do you think they should respond in today's Washington? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think we need to pass legislation. | |
| We need to pass the Equality Act that confirms that the LGBTQ community cannot be discriminated against, that we deserve full equality and not bigoted biased policies just based on who we are. | ||
| The other thing that is really disturbing about this whole situation is that the Trump administration has just summarily removed transgender and queer people from all government websites. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Travel advisors, everything. | |
| If you go now on the government sites, it used to say LGBTQ, and now it just says LGB. | ||
| They just took it off. | ||
| And it is so irresponsible, bigoted, discriminatory, and biased. | ||
| It's just outrageous to me. | ||
| And what are the chances of that Equality Act passing in a Congress-dominated majority Republican? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Probably not very high, you know, unfortunately. | |
| But, you know, there are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer people, LGBTQ people in every single district across this country. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Every single member of the United States Congress represents people in the LGBTQ community. | |
| And they have an obligation to represent all their constituents, in my opinion. | ||
| I want to ask you about tariff policy since you're from Texas. | ||
| In 2023, Texas exported about $130 billion worth of goods to Mexico. | ||
| It's also home to the nation's largest port in Laredo, among the southern border. | ||
| What do you think of the tariff policy so far? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't agree with it. | |
| I think the tariff policy will increase prices. | ||
| It'll make life harder for people in this country, for people in Texas. | ||
| It'll make groceries expensive. | ||
| We import vast amounts of our produce from Mexico. | ||
| Texas is the ninth largest economy in the entire world, more than many other countries, just the state of Texas. | ||
| And Mexico is our largest trading partner. | ||
| And so these tariffs will wreak havoc on our markets. | ||
| It'll increase prices on a variety of issues and of areas and areas where people just can't afford it. | ||
| They couldn't afford it before, and they're certainly not going to be able to afford it now. | ||
| And so for a party who supposedly campaigned on lowering prices, his policies are going to do everything but I thought it was interesting that after he announced his tariffs, the stock market plunged and was on a deep dive and only it was the stock market that forced that correction. | ||
| And the Mexico tariffs have been paused for 30 days. | ||
| Do you think that this is a good negotiating tactic for Trump? | ||
|
unidentified
|
To pause the tariffs? | |
| I think Trump. | ||
| Well, to say that we're going to put tariffs, get concessions, pause them, maybe get more concessions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, he hasn't gotten any new concessions that the Biden administration didn't already have. | |
| He's not getting concessions. | ||
| What happened is he responded to an uproar of a stock market crash because his financial policies were going to be destructive to our economy. | ||
| And recognizing that this tariff policy and trying to bully Mexico is just not responsible governance. | ||
| Let's talk to callers. | ||
| We'll start with Betty, an independent in Bowdoin, Georgia. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I am totally in favor of equality as long as it includes everyone. | ||
| However, my question to you is, why should we believe what any Democrat tells us when the same people are telling us that never questioned Biden's cognitive abilities and told the American people he was fine and approved of everything he did? | ||
| What do you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was trying to hear exactly. | |
| I couldn't hear very well. | ||
| So she was saying why should we trust the Democrats when they were not forthright about President Biden's cognitive abilities and telling us that he was fine? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, and I believe she said she agreed with everything he did, right? | |
| And so the thing is, is that, yeah, you agree with his policies. | ||
| And the reality of it is we're not his medical providers. | ||
| You know, I agree with many of what President Biden did. | ||
| I thought the infrastructure bill was transformative for our country. | ||
| He certainly didn't show cognitive decline in that. | ||
| You know, I think the President Biden had great policies that really turned our economy around. | ||
|
unidentified
|
If you look at our economic indicators, our economy did better under the Biden administration than it did under the previous Trump administration. | |
| And so I think that that demonstrates that he was able to manage the government just fine. | ||
| And this is Mark in Pennsylvania, a line for Republicans. | ||
| Mark, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I just wanted to ask you, you have these, like the lady said, how do you trust these Democrats? | |
| You just had this lady on talking about transgender and they're going to get rid of 10,000. | ||
| What about Trump's appointees? | ||
| How about Richard Grinnell? | ||
| How about the Secretary of Treasury? | ||
| Do you ever talk about them? | ||
| Do you know they're two openly gay men that are married that have children? | ||
| I don't know about the sexual orientation of those two individuals that you referenced. | ||
| I can only look at what the Trump administration is doing policy-wise towards the LGBTQ community by removing all transgender service members from the military, by erasing whole swaths of the LGBTQ community from governmental websites and programs. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's what I'm looking at, and I find that to be very discriminatory and bigoted towards our community. | |
| Joseph in Florida, Independent, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, okay. | |
| Yes, good morning. | ||
| Good morning, Joseph. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yes, I'm calling because I have two questions. | ||
| The first question is in reference to federal funding and the responsibilities of our federal republic insofar as normal citizens, when they own property, they have a right to cover themselves by paying for homeowners' insurance. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What I don't understand is why our taxpayer funds are being used. | |
| Yes, it's a shame when there's a tragedy such as a hurricane, et cetera. | ||
| But should we make normal American citizens pay for others who don't take the responsibility to have, like, say, homeowners' insurance? | ||
| And then another question that ties a little bit into it is constantly, I'm hearing a lot of representatives, journalists constantly saying we are a democracy. | ||
| Now, while it is true that we vote democratically when we vote officials into office, but we are actually a constitutional federal republic that votes democratically. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the responsibility of the government is simply to protect individual rights. | |
| It's not supposed to interfere so much into our private lives. | ||
| And that's where, of course, with our new administration coming in, I am an independent, but I'm happy that Donald Trump got in. | ||
| But the main problem I have is that there's too much today interference into the private lives of our citizens, including federal spending and all that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When are we going to go back to being a country of individuals where our lives are private again instead of being exposed? | |
| Now, the government does have the right to protect individual rights. | ||
| So when individual rights are being violated, yes, then the government has a right to step in. | ||
| But to force people to pay for others through our taxes, to get involved in people's lives, whether they're, say, for example, have a different sexual orientation, that's their business. | ||
| That's their business. | ||
| Okay, Joseph, let's get an answer on those two things. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, let's talk about insurance first. | |
| You know, yes, we have private insurance at their private markets. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We have private insurance companies. | |
| They measure risk and they decide whether or not they are going to accept a risk and insure appropriately for that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
A lot of times, though, there are some areas where there are not insurance carriers or they choose not to engage in a market. | |
| An example of that is the Texas Gulf Coast. | ||
| We have the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, TWIA, which is sort of a collaboration of reinsurance to make sure that people can have affordable insurance. | ||
| We have the National Flood Insurance Program. | ||
| We as the richest country on earth have a society where our government is not going to let thousands and thousands and thousands of its citizens suffer due to a natural disaster. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's too destructive to our life of our country. | |
| It's too destructive to our economy and our overall production. | ||
| And it's not the moral values that we have. | ||
| So oftentimes insurance will act as sort of a reinsurance, as an extra backstop to cover a lot of the things that regular private insurance won't cover. | ||
| And I think that as a society, that's something that we all want. | ||
| And it is the right thing to do. | ||
| With respect to our democracy, we are a democracy. | ||
| And I agree with you in that there are certain aspects of life that you either want privacy, you want privacy in your bedroom, you want privacy and sanctity of the physician-patient relationship. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think there's a lot of governmental overreach with abortion access and that kind of thing, trying to regulate how physicians practice. | |
| And those are fundamental differences in the two parties that we have right now, with Republicans and Democrats. | ||
| I think Democrats believe in those privacies that you advocated for in terms of not being able to invade LGBT people, not be able to invade the doctor-position relationship with women seeking health care. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I think that's a big distinction on the parties right now. | |
| Helen in Toledo, Ohio. | ||
| Democrat, you're on with Representative Julie Johnson. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm kind of in a tissue here because I've been trying to get through and thank you for a month or so. | |
| And I'm just going to hit bases at a few things. | ||
| I'm 85 years old, and I've listened to a lot of them in my age group. | ||
| And what I am so appalled at, in fact, my heart's beating quite fast right now, is that I've lived through 13 administrations and I am so afraid for this country and mainly my children and grandchildren. | ||
| And one of the most things that have got me so in a turmoil is J-6. | ||
| That was the most deplorable thing I've ever seen to say it was not a Boy Scout outing. | ||
| It was disgusting. | ||
| And the fact that we as Americans is accepting that is unbelievable. | ||
| And also, people need to reread the Constitution because we're taking it as a joke. | ||
| And this is serious. | ||
| This is why other countries are laughing at us and think we're now, we're at the bottom. | ||
| We're getting at the bottom. | ||
| And the confirmations, they're a joke. | ||
| Are these men so afraid of another man? | ||
| And this is all in the line of dictatorship, fascism, and the whole nine yards. | ||
| This is unbelievable. | ||
| And I'm so concerned. | ||
| Like I said, I've lived through quite a bit. | ||
| My eyesight may be getting better, but I certainly can see through BS. | ||
| All right, Ellen. | ||
| Go ahead, Congressman. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, you know, Ellen, I agree with you. | |
| I think the January 6th pardons were outrageous. | ||
| You know, we had people who attacked our country, who were seeking to overthrow our government, who were seeking to execute members of our political leadership on both parties because they didn't like the election results. | ||
| They were trying to steal an election. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the fact that, and Capitol Police served with honor, bravery. | |
| They got injured. | ||
| They were attacked violently. | ||
| We lost one. | ||
| And the fact, and then these people were duly charged, convicted by a jury of their peers in our court system, and which is one of the best legal systems of structure in the world, the fact that we have an independent judiciary and an independent judicial process, and they were all convicted. | ||
| And for the fact for President Trump to come in on day one, and absolve them all is so disrespectful to our court system, to the values of democracy, to the rule of law. | ||
| He's trying to diminish the value and the import of the rule of law in this country. | ||
| And once we see, fall into the abyss of absolute and utter lawlessness, where are we? | ||
|
unidentified
|
To your point, it is one of the most concerning aspects of the last 30 days. | |
| And unfortunately, Republicans have been silent. | ||
| Where are they? | ||
| Why are they not standing up? | ||
| How can you be a party that claims you back the blue, that you support law enforcement and support the pardons of the January 6th rioters who viciously attacked Capitol Police? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's inconsistent. | |
| So I think that one of the takeaways from here is that Democrats are the ones that truly support our law enforcement. | ||
| We want law enforcement to have the tools they need. | ||
| We want the rule of law that they are seeking to enforce to be upheld, to be enforced, and to be respected. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the Republicans have clearly abandoned all fidelity to law enforcement in this country. | |
| And CBS News is reporting FBI is distributing questionnaire probing agents' work on January 6th and the Capitol riot cases, according to sources. | ||
| What's your reaction to that? | ||
| And is there anything you are going to be doing about it in Congress? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| It's just horrible. | ||
| You know, I know that members of the Judiciary Committee that have that jurisdiction are certainly looking into that and figuring that out. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I wish I served on that committee to get square in the middle of that as well. | |
| But I think that the fact that leadership of the FBI is, of the president of the Trump administration is coming in and trying to purge anyone in the FBI that had anything to do with the January 6th investigations is outrageous. | ||
| And it's something that we should all be screaming about. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's undermining an agency that's sole mission is to enforce law and order, prosecute dangerous criminals in this country, and keep us safe. | |
| And to be able to weaponize the FBI in such a political fashion is nothing like we have ever seen in this country. | ||
| And again, if you value law enforcement, if you value the bravery, if you value our judicial system that's supposedly free from corruption and intimidation, then you need to be outraged by this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There are countries in the world that have a corrupt judicial system where people cannot get a fair trial, a fair prosecution in the system. | |
| And when you start undermining and politically weaponizing a major branch of law enforcement, it's really destructive to our country. | ||
| Let's talk to Jonathan, a Republican in Wilton, Connecticut. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, good morning. | |
| Thank you, Congresswoman, for serving. | ||
| You know, look, the worst crime we see in this country is in these sanctuary cities. | ||
| And, you know, California has the common sense to finally pass some laws to prosecute people going into stores and just ripping stuff off. | ||
| You know, I think, you know, one of the biggest things you didn't mention is the powers these presidents have is too much, right? | ||
| I mean, President Biden dismisses two brothers for possible graft. | ||
| That is more outrageous to me than anything. | ||
| I mean, during COVID, $250 billion was stolen from the American taxpayer. | ||
| And this is from AP News, if you don't believe me. | ||
| So yeah, we're upset about all these things going on, but this country's been run to the ground since NASA, Clinton, allowing Wall Street to control our economy. | ||
| The Dems have sold out to money. | ||
| So we've elected a guy that is very sketchy. | ||
| Do we want the billionaires running the country or all the Dems and Republicans who are looking for the money run in the country? | ||
| You know, this country is, you know, and then, I mean, you look at, I ran away to San Francisco. | ||
| I know the gay thing. | ||
| Okay, so 1972, the mine shapped in New York City. | ||
| I'm tired of watching. | ||
| We got to bring some morality back to this country. | ||
| All right, Jonathan. | ||
| Any response? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, there was a lot going on there in that. | |
| Let me just address the immigration part of all of that that he put out there. | ||
| You know, there's no doubt that our immigration system is broken in this country, and it needs to be fixed. | ||
| Our border has been a mess. | ||
| We can't have people coming to this country, swimming a river, and being smuggled in the back of trucks. | ||
| The system must be overhauled. | ||
| And I think it's going to take a bipartisan coalition of people. | ||
| I'm hopeful to be part of that. | ||
| I just got assigned to the Border Committee of Homeland Security. | ||
| I'm excited about that. | ||
| But what we need to do is we really need to address the visa system and the work permit system. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There are a lot of businesses in this country that need labor, that don't have an adequate workforce. | |
| There are a lot of people that want to come to this country and work, but our visa structure has not been overhauled in decades. | ||
| And we need to really revise the ability for people to come and work here legally, go back, have seasonal back and forth. | ||
| In Texas, we have a lot of need for seasonal agricultural work for people to come in and work and then go back home. | ||
| And we make it very, very difficult for people to do that. | ||
| We have a chronic shortage of employees across a variety of sectors of our workforce. | ||
| And our immigration population has always felt a need in our economic structure for that. | ||
| And so I do think we need to look at strengthening border security. | ||
| We need to have a fair, fast, and final immigration system where people can get processed in a very timely way. | ||
| We need to deploy more resources to making sure that people can get a hearing within 60 days, not six years. | ||
| It shouldn't take, you know, a physician I know in Dallas. | ||
| It took her 16 years to get a citizenship. | ||
| 16 years. | ||
| That is outrageous for people to have to wait. | ||
| Congresswoman, you said that there's an economic need for immigrants in your state. | ||
| Our previous guest from the Center for Immigration Studies said we have enough people in this country to handle all those jobs. | ||
| It's just a question of paying them fairly and under the right circumstances. | ||
| How would you respond to that? | ||
| Aren't there Americans to take those jobs? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, that's not what the industries are telling me. | |
| You know, when I meet with businesses and I meet with industry groups, what is one of your biggest needs? | ||
| Workforce development is one of them. | ||
| For example, the Hospital Association. | ||
| I've met with many of them. | ||
| They're having a heck of a time getting floor nurses in our hospital. | ||
| And we have nursing programs, but they're not wanting to do that work. | ||
| Working in nursing homes. | ||
| I meet with hotel chains. | ||
| They have a hard time to do cleaning and to clean rooms and to help do all that kind of work. | ||
| I mean, there's a lot of work in this country that needs to be done to keep our economy moving. | ||
| That's hard. | ||
| It's not glamorous. | ||
| It's not sexy. | ||
| It's not stuff that people necessarily want to do, but it's still work that needs to be done. | ||
| And these industry groups, when I meet with them, they're saying they have a huge shortage and a huge need for increased workforce. | ||
| Let's talk to Nancy in Connecticut, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| The Republican voters voted in a convicted felon, and shame on them. | ||
| Now, I call the Republican Party the party of takeaway party. | ||
| Please give an example of what the Democrats have done for us over the years. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Well, I think you can, you know, I think a great example is making sure that we have our social safety nets. | ||
| We need Social Security and Medicare to stay functioning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It is a critical part of the morality of our country that we're not going to have our seniors live in abject poverty. | |
| I think that. | ||
| I think also the Biden's infrastructure bill most recently. | ||
| Our national infrastructure has been crumbling. | ||
| We need resources, investments in our airports, our bridges, our roadways, our cybersecurity. | ||
| All of those issues are fundamental to our national security, to our quality of life. | ||
| And I think Biden has in the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS Act trying to bring in manufacturing of really key computer equipment and chips that really are propelling our country forward was very significant that happened in the recent time. | ||
| Tom in West Baldwin, Maine, Republican, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you doing today? | |
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've been paying attention to all this back and forth between Democrats and between Republicans and all this and that. | |
| You know, I watched where Jeffries sat back and said it's going to be a smooth transition. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Everyone's going to get along. | |
| We're all going to do the best for this country. | ||
| And then two hours later, he's on there saying how they're going to be fighting in the streets and they're going to be fighting in the government to stop Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| It's really sad that they're doing this because Trump is trying to turn this country back around so that we can get back on our feet. | ||
| And yeah, the conviction they made on him was all lies and the government knows it. | ||
| And everyone just turns their back. | ||
| And I think the government needs to shut their mouths and tend to the country. | ||
| Stop fighting and acting like children. | ||
| You know, maybe we'll give them all lollipop or an ice cream. | ||
| All right, Tom, let's get to our response. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, Tom, I disagree with you. | |
| I think that Trump was duly convicted. | ||
| Again, the rule of law worked there in that instance. | ||
| And, you know, the Democrats are. | ||
| We are willing to. | ||
| I mean, I've worked in a very bipartisan fashion in the Texas legislature as a Democrat. | ||
| I've passed a lot of the legislation and worked very productively with my Republican colleagues on bills that were rational, that made sense, that helped the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I think Democrats are in that space. | |
| We've always said, if we can come together and work to lower your grocery prices, to make cars more accessible, to make it easier to get a mortgage, reduce some of the regulation in that space, improve our country, we're all here for it. | ||
| But what we're not here for is an unconstitutional power grab where he is trying to take the power of the purse and power of the Congress away from the legislative branch and consolidate even more power in the executive branch. | ||
| He has no legal authority at all to not put out the funding that was duly appropriated by Congress in previous sessions. | ||
|
unidentified
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His wholesale cancellation of USAID is unconstitutional. | |
| His putting in Elon Musk, a private citizen, to take your confidential security financial data out of our treasury database is alarming and not okay. | ||
| And he's trying to redirect the power of the purse and consolidate all of that power and really dismantle our constitutional protections that our framers have put in place that have kept this country strong for over 200 years now. | ||
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unidentified
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And so what he's doing is absolutely amoral and wrong. | |
| Marcus in Brownsburg, Indiana, Democrat, good morning. | ||
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unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| So really, I just had a question. | ||
| Real quick, Marcus. | ||
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unidentified
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Okay, as far as dysfunction in our country, it all boils down to money and politics. | |
| And I just have a question for the Congresswoman. | ||
| Do you take corporate PAC money? | ||
| If so, from whom? | ||
| Yes, I take corporate PAC money. | ||
| I think corporate PACs are made up of employees who work for companies who give $20 a month out of their paycheck to see to it that they have a better life. | ||
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unidentified
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Most of these employee PACs want equality for all people. | |
| They want good access to health care. | ||
| And I'm representing those values in the United States Congress. | ||
| All right, Representative Julie Johnson, Democrat of Texas. | ||
| Thanks so much for coming in. |