Hoyer Remarks at Screening of Documentary "A Hug From Paul Ryan"

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) delivered remarks today at a screening of the Sundance documentary film, “A Hug From Paul Ryan.” The documentary follows Tianna Gaines-Turner, a member of Witnesses to Hunger and one of America’s working poor, after her testimony at a 2014 House Budget Committee hearing on the “War on Poverty.” Below is a transcript of his remarks: 

“Thank you [Congresswoman] Rosa [DeLauro]. Nobody is more passionate, more outspoken than you are on these issues. And nobody has been more tenacious, and you have been there and lived it Tianna [Gaines-Turner], more than [Congresswoman] Barbara Lee. What a witness, when you say can I have a witness, and Barbara stands up and says I am a witness. And Tianna you are a witness, and thank you so much for that. And [Dr.] Mariana [Chilton] thank you for your leadership as well. I am so pleased to be here with Rosa DeLauro. Now Barbara, you weren’t on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services at the time, but Nancy, Nita, Rosa, and I, the four of us were all on that subcommittee together.

“Tianna, you’ve heard that man does not live on bread alone. Man, nor woman, nor children can live on hugs alone. Hugs are nice, hugs express a degree of caring and of embracing. But that’s all there is to a hug. Peggy Lee used to have a song ‘Is That All There Is.’ If that’s all there is to compassion is a hug, it’s not enough. And that’s what this debate is about. This debate that we are having in America today is about whether rhetoric will substitute for help.

“Speaker [Paul] Ryan talks about poverty—it’s right that he does so. Now as you noticed the title of Barbara Lee’s task force – I’m not the co-chair, I just asked her to lead it up and she’s doing a spectacular job – is Poverty, Income Inequality, and Opportunity. Because the issue is not simply looking at those in poverty, the issue is saying how can we get through to inequality and provide for opportunity. Now let me say a different cut on the specifics, because in my view what we’re dealing with is a philosophy, an ideology if you will. And that ideology expresses itself in the premise, ‘Tianna you’re on your own. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You know if you worked hard you could do this.’

“Now why do I say that, do I say that just because of Tianna and nutrition programs that are being savaged, continually, now in the budget? They wanted to cut $40 billion from the bipartisan farm bill that was agreed upon. That came to the Floor and people said ‘no that’s not enough’, people, Republicans. That’s not enough.

“Now I want to give you some examples and I want you to take it to heart the differences between the philosophies, because the philosophy, very frankly that Pope Francis came and talked to us about was ‘we are in this together’. Our faiths teach us to lift one another up—to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and house the homeless. But I suggest to you that there is a philosophy in the majority party that essentially says, ‘you’re on your own.’ Not that we are in this together, but ‘you’re on your own.’ Now Hoyer, is that just a conclusion? No, it’s an observation.

“The minimum wage, we can’t get it on the Floor to be voted upon. If we did it would be passed. Why? ‘You’re on your own.’ Paid family and medical leave, which would make a huge difference, Tianna, in your life and the life of thousands of people who have to say do I forgo the salary and not be able to pay for my groceries in order to be home with my child? ‘You’re on your own.’ Affordable child care—I have three daughters, all have children. They were confronted… with going to work and making sure their child was safe. Equal pay for women, we can’t get that to the Floor. ‘You’re on your own.’ Workplace discrimination protection. Affordable health care, we passed a bill that said we want to make sure people have affordable health care, and yet if you can’t afford it we will give you some help because we are in this together. And we understand if you get sick and I sit next to you, maybe I’ll get sick. So I want you healthy and I want me healthy. Protections from victims of domestic violence, we had to fight to get that through. And they wanted to say to those, by the way, who are immigrants, ‘you are on your own, we are not going to protect you.’ Student loans and affordable higher education, immigration reform, I can name scores of issues.

“One that I use as an example is [Hurricane] Sandy, remember Sandy? Sandy struck with a vengeance on the Atlantic coast. People were hungry and they couldn’t get food. Not because they couldn’t afford it, but because there was no food to be had. And we had urged, put Sandy Relief Bill on the Floor, and they wouldn’t put it on the Floor. And Governor [Chris] Christie got mad at them, remember that? And in effect, the Republicans said ‘you’re on your own.’ When we ultimately got that bill to the Floor, 49 Republicans voted for it. And almost 200 voted against it. Republicans said, ‘yeah, we know Sandy hit you but you’re on your own.’

“Now in that context, Tianna comes and gives, as you pointed out, a human face. I’m the one you are saying ‘be on your own,’ and my children in that kitchen needing to have a meal, can’t eat the hug. They can’t eat our good words or good intentions. They can’t eat our rhetoric or our task force. They need to have real resources.

“We spent a week, last week, talking about opioid addiction, and the crisis it confronts this country with. And we all voted for it, but there were not resources to back up that concern. We need to raise the issue throughout our country, to our fellow citizens and say there are children hungry, one in four, one in five in America, in the richest country on the face of the earth. That is not only bad policy, it is bad morals. It is bad faith.

“So I’m very pleased to be here with you, to discuss these issues about real people and that man cannot live on hugs alone. Hugs are good, I’m a hugger. You know I love the Special Olympics, we don’t call them huggers anymore, I think that’s politically incorrect, but I still use huggers. I think hugging is good, it’s an expression of affection and care. But if that is all there is to a hug, that hug will not sustain us. So thank you very much Rosa, thank you very much Barbara Lee for bringing both your experience and your passion and your power to bear on making sure that the philosophy of America is we are in this together.”