Press Release

The expansion of President Trump’s illegal Muslim ban will only further endanger our country and erode our standing and leadership in the world.

As we celebrate Black History Month 2020, whose theme is ‘African Americans and the Vote,’ we look for inspiration from the powerful stories of those throughout our history who stood up and demanded equality and the right to vote – and those who still do so today. 

As a candidate, President Trump promised the American people that he would not seek cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.  With today’s announcement, he’s broken that promise yet again.  Fundamentally changing Medicaid by allowing states to take away health coverage and cut health benefits will force low-income Americans, seniors, rural communities, those with disabilities, low income pregnant women facing staggering maternal mortality rates, and Americans seeking treatment for opioid addiction to pay the price. 
 

This morning, the Bureau of Economic Analysis provided further evidence that supports what we already know: the Trump economy is one broken promise after another. After promising 6% GDP growth would result from his tax cuts for the wealthy, growth has actually slowed to 2.3% from 2.8% a year earlier.  Rather than causing a flood of business investment that would trickle down to workers, today’s report shows that, in the wake of his tax cuts, business investment has declined for 3 consecutive quarters. 

As a result of the 2017 Republican tax scam, in which Republicans gave massive tax cuts to the wealthiest at the expense of everyone else, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now expects permanent trillion-dollar deficits.  While President Trump and his allies promised that the tax cuts would yield 6% GDP growth and pay for themselves, the reality is today is slower economic growth and trillions in new debt left to our children and grandchildren. 

As we observe seventy-five years since the liberation of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps, where 11 million innocent civilians were horrifically and systematically murdered, the world must bear witness together so humankind’s most evil acts are never repeated.  We must not allow time and distance to fade the horrors we are charged with keeping in the forefront of global memory. 

I was saddened to learn of the passing of former California Rep. Pete Stark, who served the people of the East Bay in Congress for forty years with patriotism and conviction.  My thoughts are with his wife Deborah, his children, and the entire Stark family.