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  • 8 months ago
At today's House Budget Committee hearing, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) tore into the GOP reconciliation budget bill.
Transcript
00:00I yield three minutes to my friend from Georgia, Mr. Andrew Klein.
00:04Three minutes.
00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:08House Republicans have a once-in-a-decade opportunity,
00:13a once-in-a-decade opportunity to deliver real conservative change in Washington.
00:18This Congress has laid out bold priorities for President Trump's one big, beautiful bill,
00:23including tax relief for working families and small businesses,
00:26major investments in border security, strengthening our military, unleashing American energy,
00:32reforming federal health programs to protect the most vulnerable, and restoring Second Amendment rights.
00:38We're also committed to ensuring the final package is fiscally responsible,
00:43right-sizing government, and putting our fiscal future back on track.
00:47Unfortunately, the current version falls short of these goals
00:51and fails to deliver the transformative change that Americans were promised,
00:55substantiative improvements are needed,
00:58and I look forward to working with this committee and our House Republican Conference
01:03to make sure we deliver.
01:04As an ardent Second Amendment defender, I have always promised to defend my constitutions,
01:09my constituent Second Amendment rights.
01:11Today, excise taxes, specifically transfer and making taxes,
01:15are imposed on every firearm regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934.
01:20As Chief Justice John Marshall warned in 1819,
01:24the power to tax involves the power to destroy, and he was absolutely right.
01:30These taxes have enabled unconstitutional regulation and registration under the National Firearms Act,
01:36exemplified by the Biden administration's dangerous pistol brace rule,
01:40which turned millions of law-abiding gun owners, many of them veterans,
01:44into felons overnight.
01:46The House now has a historic opportunity to repeal the burdensome taxation,
01:51registration, and regulation of short-barreled firearms,
01:54both rifles and shotguns, and suppressors under the National Firearms Act.
01:59The American people are watching.
02:00It is time to deliver.
02:03Additionally, House Republicans must put Medicaid on a sustainable path
02:06by refocusing the program on the truly vulnerable,
02:10single mothers, pregnant women, disabled Americans, children, and the elderly.
02:13Yet taxpayers in non-expansion states,
02:17like my constituents in Northeast Georgia,
02:21are unfairly footing the bill for excessive Medicaid spending in blue states.
02:26Currently, the federal government matches $1.33 for every $1 that states spend
02:32for these core vulnerable populations.
02:34But under Obamacare's Medicaid expansion,
02:36the federal government pays $9 for every $1 spent on largely able-bodied working-aged adults
02:44that simply will not work.
02:46That's unacceptable.
02:47It's time Republicans prioritize Medicaid for the vulnerable over the able-bodied.
02:53Unfortunately, the current reconciliation package fails to reverse this misguided funding scheme
02:58that undermines care for the most vulnerable,
03:01the very people Medicaid was originally intended to help.
03:04For these reasons, I am unable to support this package in its current form,
03:08but I look forward to strengthening this bill to ensure that it does pass
03:12so that we fulfill all of our America First promises to the American people.
03:17Thank you, and I yield back.
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