Hoyer Discusses President Trump's State of the Union Address with Axios
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Press Release
For Immediate Release:
January 31, 2018
Contact Info:
Mariel Saez 202-225-3130
WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) joined an Axios' News Shapers event this morning to discuss President Trump’s State of the Union address with Axios Executive Editor Mike Allen. Below are excerpts from the interview and a link to the video:On President Trump's State of the Union Address:
"The President said he wanted to make us safer, stronger, prouder. I’m not sure whether he has accomplished any of those things either in the world or in our country… He has spent most of last year, almost all of the last year, doing two things with the Republican Congress: trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass the tax bill that we think does not really help the middle-class working people of this country and, in fact, will pass a credit card debt along to all of our children."
"I had a young woman, Gabriela Hernandez, [as my State of the Union guest]... She is a wonderful nineteen-year-old. She came from El Salvador at the age of four and came to Prince George’s County and has gone to elementary school, middle school, high school. She is now in college, wants to be a social worker. Delightful young woman. At nineteen, I had nowhere near the poise that she had... She's a DREAMer, and she dreams of making a life here, which is why most people came into this country. They dreamed of a better life for themselves and their families. And I think that what [Trump] was doing – ‘we are dreamers, too’ – of course, that's the case. Americans are dreamers. Americans have vision. Americans have made a great country because of that vision and willingness to work hard. But the point is, the overwhelming number of Americans – almost 90% of Americans – are saying and identifying these young people, who came here through no conscious effort of their own, are Americans in every sense of the word and are dreaming of what they can do to make their lives better and Americans’ lives better."
"I think he said ‘stronger, better, and safer… proud.’ Ironically, when he says that we’re at a better standing in the world, every polling data throughout the world shows that's not true and, in fact, respect for the United States and confidence in the United States has plummeted. That's dangerous not only for the United States, but it's dangerous for the international community that they don't think they can rely on a steady hand of the leader of the free world, which is the United States of America. And in terms of, again, safer and stronger, you are not stronger if you don't have health care. You are not stronger if you don't have some stability in your economy. We think that he vastly overstated the results of his presidency. After all, for six years prior to that there was more job growth. So when he says ‘greatest economic growth,’ that's not true. We are pleased that the Hispanic and African-American unemployment has gone down, but it's been going down for some number of years. This President was advantaged by inheriting a growing economy, an economy that was less than 5% unemployment, as opposed to his predecessor, President Obama, who inherited a tanking economy, an economy in peril. And [Obama] brought it up, [it] has continued to go up, and that's good news, and hopefully it will continue. The tax bill we think is, however, in the long-term, going to be detrimental to the economy. And certainly in terms of the middle-class working people that they talked about – and he talked about that as well – those [tax cuts], of course, will be phased out. The [tax cuts] on the upper 1% are going to continue."
On the 2018 Midterm Elections:
"I think we’re going to win. I think the environment is such that – you see it all over the country – you see two phenomena. Number one: we have a lot of candidates who want to run in a lot of districts. Ben Ray Lujan, our campaign chair, is saying [there are] almost 100 districts now that we have really good candidates in. Are all of them competitive? Maybe not, but the large number – Charlie Cook says a larger number – certainly enough for us to take back the majority. Secondly, what you see on the Republican side, you see retirements, particularly districts that are swing districts, you’re seeing Republican Members decide not to run for reelection. And you see throughout the elections, we've seen in Virginia, in New Jersey, in Alabama, in Wisconsin just two weeks ago, you see a real energy on our side and a real… lack of enthusiasm on the Republican side.”
On the Need to Fund Government:
"[The government has] been shut down five times consciously, purposely over the last twenty years by Republicans, who have used that as policy. That's not our policy. What happened last time is we have two major things that we need agreement on. We are now… a third into the fiscal year. We still don't have a single appropriations bill sent to the President of the United States to fund any agency of government – not one. That, I think, is unprecedented, and particularly it is unprecedented when you have the President and the House and Senate majorities. Now, one of the reasons is because the Republicans refuse to compromise on what the spending number is going to be. The irony of that is we've had the same agreement that we're asking for the last four years. Senator Murray and Speaker Ryan agreed that the increase in domestic and defense spending would be equal. That's all we’ve asked for, but we haven't gotten that agreement, and, therefore, the Republicans have been unable to get in the House – obviously they can simply roll us in the House, but in the Senate they need sixty votes – and they’ve been refusing to compromise with Democrats in the Senate to move appropriations bills forward."
"The President said he wanted to make us safer, stronger, prouder. I’m not sure whether he has accomplished any of those things either in the world or in our country… He has spent most of last year, almost all of the last year, doing two things with the Republican Congress: trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass the tax bill that we think does not really help the middle-class working people of this country and, in fact, will pass a credit card debt along to all of our children."
"I had a young woman, Gabriela Hernandez, [as my State of the Union guest]... She is a wonderful nineteen-year-old. She came from El Salvador at the age of four and came to Prince George’s County and has gone to elementary school, middle school, high school. She is now in college, wants to be a social worker. Delightful young woman. At nineteen, I had nowhere near the poise that she had... She's a DREAMer, and she dreams of making a life here, which is why most people came into this country. They dreamed of a better life for themselves and their families. And I think that what [Trump] was doing – ‘we are dreamers, too’ – of course, that's the case. Americans are dreamers. Americans have vision. Americans have made a great country because of that vision and willingness to work hard. But the point is, the overwhelming number of Americans – almost 90% of Americans – are saying and identifying these young people, who came here through no conscious effort of their own, are Americans in every sense of the word and are dreaming of what they can do to make their lives better and Americans’ lives better."
"I think he said ‘stronger, better, and safer… proud.’ Ironically, when he says that we’re at a better standing in the world, every polling data throughout the world shows that's not true and, in fact, respect for the United States and confidence in the United States has plummeted. That's dangerous not only for the United States, but it's dangerous for the international community that they don't think they can rely on a steady hand of the leader of the free world, which is the United States of America. And in terms of, again, safer and stronger, you are not stronger if you don't have health care. You are not stronger if you don't have some stability in your economy. We think that he vastly overstated the results of his presidency. After all, for six years prior to that there was more job growth. So when he says ‘greatest economic growth,’ that's not true. We are pleased that the Hispanic and African-American unemployment has gone down, but it's been going down for some number of years. This President was advantaged by inheriting a growing economy, an economy that was less than 5% unemployment, as opposed to his predecessor, President Obama, who inherited a tanking economy, an economy in peril. And [Obama] brought it up, [it] has continued to go up, and that's good news, and hopefully it will continue. The tax bill we think is, however, in the long-term, going to be detrimental to the economy. And certainly in terms of the middle-class working people that they talked about – and he talked about that as well – those [tax cuts], of course, will be phased out. The [tax cuts] on the upper 1% are going to continue."
On the 2018 Midterm Elections:
"I think we’re going to win. I think the environment is such that – you see it all over the country – you see two phenomena. Number one: we have a lot of candidates who want to run in a lot of districts. Ben Ray Lujan, our campaign chair, is saying [there are] almost 100 districts now that we have really good candidates in. Are all of them competitive? Maybe not, but the large number – Charlie Cook says a larger number – certainly enough for us to take back the majority. Secondly, what you see on the Republican side, you see retirements, particularly districts that are swing districts, you’re seeing Republican Members decide not to run for reelection. And you see throughout the elections, we've seen in Virginia, in New Jersey, in Alabama, in Wisconsin just two weeks ago, you see a real energy on our side and a real… lack of enthusiasm on the Republican side.”
On the Need to Fund Government:
"[The government has] been shut down five times consciously, purposely over the last twenty years by Republicans, who have used that as policy. That's not our policy. What happened last time is we have two major things that we need agreement on. We are now… a third into the fiscal year. We still don't have a single appropriations bill sent to the President of the United States to fund any agency of government – not one. That, I think, is unprecedented, and particularly it is unprecedented when you have the President and the House and Senate majorities. Now, one of the reasons is because the Republicans refuse to compromise on what the spending number is going to be. The irony of that is we've had the same agreement that we're asking for the last four years. Senator Murray and Speaker Ryan agreed that the increase in domestic and defense spending would be equal. That's all we’ve asked for, but we haven't gotten that agreement, and, therefore, the Republicans have been unable to get in the House – obviously they can simply roll us in the House, but in the Senate they need sixty votes – and they’ve been refusing to compromise with Democrats in the Senate to move appropriations bills forward."