At a Congressional Progressive Caucus press briefing on Tuesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) spoke about the Trump Administration's efforts in the healthcare industry since taking office.
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00:00Thank you so much, Deputy Chair. Omar, thank you to our Chairman, Greg Kassar, for leading us in this very, very important time.
00:11In the hundred days since taking office, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Department of Greed and Ego have taken a literal chainsaw to our government.
00:21They have eliminated and threatened programs that help people in every corner of our country, both red and blue.
00:27So I want to spend a few minutes just talking about health care and some of the promises that Trump made on the campaign trail.
00:35First of all, he said he was going to lower prescription drug costs. Promise made, promise broken.
00:41He said he would make IVF free. Remember that? Even as his Republican cronies in Congress took aim at it.
00:49Promise made, promise broken. He promised to not make a single cut to Medicare or Social Security.
00:57Promise made, promise broken.
01:00Let's be real. We have all heard the clip of Elon Musk saying the quiet part out loud,
01:06that Social Security and Medicare are the big ones that need to be cut.
01:13I know and you know that these are not entitlement programs the way that Musk talks about them.
01:18They are earned benefit programs. They are programs that people have paid into their entire lives so that they would have some security when they retire.
01:28No unelected billionaire should be able to just slash those benefits.
01:32And the budget that the Republicans are marking up this week in committees would cut a minimum of $880 billion from Medicaid.
01:41This is not a red state, blue state issue.
01:44Medicaid pays for health care for 38 million kids.
01:48That includes more than $3 million in Texas.
01:51It pays for 64% of childbirths in Louisiana, Speaker Mike Johnson's home state.
01:58This is an all-out assault on our workers, on our federal safety net.
02:02It is promises made, promises broken, by an administration that cares more about big pharma CEOs than families that rely on Medicaid.
02:11Cares more about insurance shareholders than seniors who are getting ripped off.
02:16An administration that cares more about keeping their billionaire buddies happy rather than lowering the costs of literally anything that Americans need.
02:26It is all promises made and promises broken.
02:30So now, 100 days in, we know exactly how Trump will conduct this presidency.
02:36And it is important that we both fight back and fight forward.
02:41That we have a positive, proactive agenda that we continue to fight for.
02:46And just today, we introduced the Medicare for All bill with Senator Sanders, Debbie Dingell, and over 100 of our House colleagues
02:53to say that universal health care is what we all need in the richest country in the world.
02:58And ultimately, we need to come together to stand up and to show that our collective power is stronger than their hate
03:06and that we will always fight for the American people.
03:10Thank you all.
03:11And now it is an honor to introduce Representative Jimmy Gomez from California.