Hoyer Floor Remarks on President Trump's First 100 Days
Mariel Saez 202-225-3130
WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the House Floor today where he discussed President Trump's first 100 days in office and his broken promises to the American people, including his promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and provide insurance for everybody. Below is a video and transcript of the remarks:
Click here to watch a video of his remarks.
“Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. At the end of the week, President Trump will reach his hundredth day in office. These first 100 days, unfortunately, have been defined by chaos, contradiction, and conflicts of interest. And he has broken campaign promise after campaign promise.
“He claimed he would be the greatest jobs president God ever created, yet he has failed to put forward a single jobs bill and is taking credit for jobs that were created or announced long before he took office.
“He said he would fight for working families, yet his budget would slash investments that create jobs and opportunities.
“He said he would drain the swamp, yet he refuses to release his taxes, which would shed light on his own conflicts of interests. Washington is now practically drowning in the swamp President Trump has rained down on our Capitol.
“He promised to balance the budget in nine years – it took him, unfortunately Mr. Speaker, less than thirty days to abandon that pledge. And his most recent proposals, tax cuts, would plunge our nation even more deeply into debt.
“But perhaps most emblematic of the failure of this presidency’s first hundred days was his attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and, purportedly, to replace it. The President has promised ‘insurance for everybody.’ Not access, ‘insurance for everybody.’ He said that over and over again.
“But TrumpCare would do exactly the opposite – kicking 24 million people off their coverage and precluding millions more from being able to get health insurance.
“The President promised coverage that is ‘much less expensive and much better,’ but TrumpCare would force Americans to pay more for less. Not my observation, the Congressional Budget Office’s.
“The President promised he wouldn’t cut Medicaid, but, like so many other broken promises, TrumpCare cuts Medicaid deeply.
“As was true of the President’s campaign, he brought no unity to his attack on America’s health, and his plan was not even voted on. Indeed, that has been followed by Republican efforts to make their proposal even more draconian.
“The second hundred days loom even worse as the Trump White House continues to be focused on kicking Americans off their coverage and making the rest pay more for less, saying it intends to bring an even more draconian version of its TrumpCare bill back.
“Mr. Speaker, Republicans control both the House and Senate and the Administration. They are now, theoretically, the governing party, and whatever happens to our health care system on their watch will be their responsibility. So as this Administration reaches its hundredth day in office, it has a choice. It can continue to rack up the failures it has amassed or it can turn the page to constructive cooperation.
“The President can, contrary to his promises, keep trying to take health coverage away from the American people and make it more expensive, or he can set partisanship aside and work across the aisle to make sure the Affordable Care Act works for everyone. We ought to be working together to accomplish that objective.
“He must start by ensuring that the promised cost-sharing reduction payments under the Affordable Care Act are made. If he does not, millions of people will be deeply hurt, the insurance system will be destabilized, and Americans across this county will find their policies more expensive.
“On jobs, he can continue doing nothing or he can finally show the American people a plan to invest in jobs and infrastructure. Send us the legislation you promised, Mr. President.
“And he can keep hiding his tax returns from the American people and ducking and weaving when it comes to his ties to Russia, or finally draw the curtain back, show what he’s been hiding, and support a bipartisan, independent commission to seek the answers Americans deserve and that America must have.
“Mr. Speaker, if these first hundred days are the prologue of that which is to come, I grieve for us all. America is a great and good nation; an exceptional nation and people. We must not, by demagoguery, irrationality, and negligence on the wings of a tweet, allow it to be brought low. And I yield back the balance of my time.”