Hakeem Jeffries Checkmates Republicans With Stunning Move Before Shutdown Vote In House? Watch Drama

I'm going to call the witness Leader Jeffries, you are recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to our Ranking Member Jim McGovern for the opportunity to testify before the Rules Committee on behalf of an amendment that Whip Catherine Clark and I are introducing that would extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years. Millions of working class Americans all across this country are struggling from the high cost of living that exists in the United States of America. This country is too expensive. Donald Trump and Republicans promised all throughout 2024 that costs were going to go down on day one. But

costs aren't going down for the American people under Republican complete control of government. Costs are going up. Housing costs, up. Grocery costs, up. Electric, electricity bills through the roof. And now, because of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles. In some cases, everyday Americans, working-class Americans, middle-class Americans are going to see their premiums go up by a thousand or

two thousand dollars per month. We have an affordability crisis here in the United States of America, and Republicans continue to bury their heads in the sand. During the longest shutdown in American history, the Trump-Republican shutdown, what we've seen repeatedly from our Republican colleagues, who here in the House're on a taxpayer-funded vacation for more than seven weeks, welcome back. Donald Trump has done everything but try to actually make life better for the American people. He somehow has found $40 billion to bail out his right-wing wannabe dictator buddy in Argentina, putting

Argentina first but not the American people first. So Whip Clark and myself on behalf of the House Democratic Caucus believe that this amendment to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for tens of millions of hard-working American taxpayers is actually designed to put the American people first. And we are hopeful that our Republican colleagues will join us and abandon the reckless policies that you all have pursued in creating this

Republican health care crisis, including but not limited to what Republicans did in your one big ugly bill largest cut to Medicaid in American history Ripping health insurance away from at least 14 million people Hospitals nursing homes and community-based health clinics all across the country including in rural America are closing because of Republican policies. And now, because of the refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of people are going to suffer, will be unable to see a doctor when they need

one, in every single community in this country. And so we respectfully urge all of our colleagues to support this amendment, to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, and support the American people. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Jeffries. Ms. Clark, you are recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member McGovern, members of the committee.

Thank you for having us. Thank you, Mr. Jeffries. Ms. Clark, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member McGovern, members of the committee. Thank you for having us. I am proud to co-sponsor Leader Jeffries' amendment and to be here in support of this urgent lifeline for the American people.

To my Republican colleagues, welcome back. I don't know what you've been doing the last 54 days, but I hope you've spent some of that time talking to your neighbors, hearing from your constituents, and I hope you've heard the same stories that they have been conveying to us. I hope you realize just how anxious they are, how desperate they are, as they scramble to figure out how they are going to afford health care under this Republican budget. And I hope you got a chance to hear from the people who traveled to the United States Capitol trying to secure meetings with their Republican members of Congress. Americans like the farmer I met, Ann, from Minnesota.

She's a soybean farmer already suffering from the market disaster caused by Republican tariffs. Then she found out her local hospital was closing because of the Medicaid cuts in your budget. And now you're going after her ACA coverage. And by the way, one in four out of our farmers get their health care coverage through the ACA. You have sent her premium skyrocketing and I have heard this same story from small business owners, from gig workers,

from parents, from people who live in your states. So what are we doing here today? You've already voted to dismantle Medicaid, the largest health care program in America. A program that covers 40% of all births in this country, 40% of children in this country, 40% of disabled people in this country, but you couldn't leave it there. Now you're going after the millions of families who get their coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

And let's be clear about what that actually means specifically to your own constituents. Let's take a couple making $88,000 a year in each of your districts that couple currently play pays for silver plan six hundred and twenty three dollars a month. It is by no means cheap. But here's what that couple will pay in 2026 if you vote yes on this budget. In Pendleton, New York, this couple will go from paying $623 to $1,160 per month. In Tifton, Georgia, they will pay $2,160 per month in Tifton, Georgia They will pay

$2,134 a month in Greensboro, North Carolina, they will pay $2,300 in Rock Hill, South Carolina, they will pay 2,600 and in Fredericksburg, Texas This middle- class couple will pay $3,000 every single month to get themselves some halfway decent health insurance.

This budget will raise costs on people who voted for Donald Trump, people who believed him, who believed they're Republican members of Congress when they promised to lower their cost of living and instead they're being asked to spend up to $3,000 a month for ACA coverage. That's $36,000 a year before they're deductible, before their co-pays. What a betrayal of a straightforward promise. But this is not a given. This does not have to happen to the American people. This is a choice. Democrats have been presenting off-ramps all year. We've been giving you a chance

to reverse course day after day. Well here's another. Here's another chance to do right by the people you represent who believe in you and voted for you. I urge you for the sake of the American people to make Leader Jeffrey's amendment extending the ACA tax credit for three years in order and bring it to the House floor for a vote. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to defer my questions until the end when I see

how many things need to be corrected that are being said. Mr. McGovern,

well I need to correct the record for some things that have been said Madam Chair with all due respect. First of all with regard to the claims that my Republican friends can't vote for any amendments because somehow that will mean that the government shutdown will be prolonged. The Senate basically took a day and a half for them to do what they did. If we were to pass any make any amendments in order the Rules Committee by getting rid of that slush fund for certain senators, the Senate Majority

Leader Thune could call them back tonight they say be ready to vote tomorrow night. They could and they could take care of that right away. So that's number one. Number two, my friends keep on talking about a Democratic shutdown. Let me, I want, in case anyone's watching here,

I want to make this very, very clear. And I'm going to make it clear to my Republican friends, you control everything. You control the White House. You control the House, you control the Senate. And you know and so Democrats did not shut the government down, Republicans did by refusing to negotiate.

And the third thing I want to correct for the record is I gotta be honest, I am shocked by the indifference that my Republican friends are showing towards the impact of not extending the ACA tax credits. It is stunning to me. I don't know whether you don't talk to your constituents, but if you do, people are getting bills where their premiums are skyrocketing. I mean, it's astronomical. And you knew about this well before the shutdown? You chose to do nothing. You chose to do nothing.

You knew about it during the shutdown? You chose to do nothing, not even to want to sit down and negotiate, and now you know about it. I'm going to tell you right now, you refuse to act, you own this. You own this. And it's a cruel thing to do to the American people. Leader Jeffries, I want to get to the substance of your amendment, which I think is so important. But first, I want to ask you about something one of our Republican colleagues said in this hearing room just before you came in here. Earlier I asked Chairman Cole a simple question.

I said, do you think the House should have been here these last eight weeks trying to pass appropriation bills? Because as you know, as appropriations chair, he still has not passed nine out of 12 bills that need to pass by the end of the fiscal year, which was in September, by the way,

to keep the government funding. So I pointed that out and I gave, and he gave this long meandering non-answer and he said something that stood out to me as odd and it kind of shocked me to be honest. And I went back and I looked at the transcript

and he said it was okay that we weren't here because quote, there wasn't anything for us to do until the Senate acted, end quote. And I got to tell you, I'm shocked by that, that Republicans would say there wasn't anything for us to do. And can you talk about what the House should have been doing for the last eight weeks on affordability, on health care, on grocery prices, on rent, on what looks like a war that might occur in the Caribbean,

on the many things that people are looking for us to take action on? What would Democrats have done if we were in charge here?

Well, I thank the distinguished gentleman from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And it's an incredible question. It was a stunning answer. Given all of the problems that the I thank the distinguished gentleman from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This is an incredible question. It was a stunning answer, given all of the problems that the American people are confronting right now throughout the country, beginning with the affordability crisis. The cost of living in America is far too high. The American people throughout the country just made that clear last Tuesday across the country that they want to see action. Yet for seven plus weeks House Republicans saw fit to be on a taxpayer-funded vacation, missing in action,

part of the witness protection program, doing nothing to make life better for the American people. That's extraordinary. And you gotta wonder whether this was an order that was given by Donald Trump, who apparently has said that he's got two jobs. He's both the president and the speaker of the house.

His words, not mine. Donald Trump apparently doesn't believe that there is an affordability crisis. He said it himself. There is no affordability crisis in the United States of America. That is what Donald Trump, top Republican in this country, said. I guess it is no small wonder that the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee would say that there's nothing to do Because Republicans apparently don't think that there are problems in this country. That should be dealt with

Such that the House of Representatives should be in session But as Democrats our view is that we've got to lower the high cost of living We've got to make life more affordable for everyday Americans who are suffering under crushing Republican policies. Costs haven't gone down, that was the day one promise, costs have gone up. Inflation going in the wrong direction.

Far too many people across this country working hard playing by the rules

But cannot get ahead

are barely getting by Can't thrive and can barely survive. This is in America the wealthiest country in the history of the world

and

Republicans have been out since September 19th. That's extraordinary. So there's a lot of work that needs to be done. Apparently House Democrats are the only ones committed on a day-to-day, week-to- week, month-to-month basis to do the people's business. And our commitment remains to lower the high cost of living, to fix our broken health care system,

starting by extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits to prevent tens of millions of people from experiencing unaffordable health care premiums skyrocketing through the roof that will either lead to medical bankruptcy or prevent them from being able to go see a doctor when they need one.

If I could go back to the issue of health care, just for the record, has Speaker Johnson promised a vote to extend the ACA tax credits to either of you?

It is extraordinary that he hasn't indicated that there will be a vote one way or the other to address the Republican health care crisis. Now, our colleague from the great State of Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, found it laughable that there is a Republican health care plan. She said she couldn't find it

She can't find it because it doesn't exist Now we know what the plan has been in the past in Terms of the Affordable Care Act Republicans have tried to repeal it more than 70 times Over the last 15 years and So We are just trying to get our Republican colleagues to take yes for an answer over the last 15 years and So We are just trying to get our Republican colleagues to take yes for an answer

Let's find a bipartisan path forward. Let's reopen the government Let's make life better for the American people But let's address the health care crisis that our Republican colleagues have created, and we can start by extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Has he talked to any of you about a pathway forward? Has he engaged either of you in our leadership about how we might resolve this health care crisis?

Absolutely not. It is astounding when we have 60% of American families telling us they are hard time affording the basics for their families. This is about lowering people's costs whether that's housing, groceries, utility bills, and affording health care. Health care. This should be something that Republicans should have come and negotiated with us, but they wouldn't do that. They showed so little regard for the American people. Not only did they make this extreme bargain where they

took away their health care, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA tax subsidies, medical research, all to pay for permanent tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans, they couldn't even, while they were home not doing their jobs, swear in a duly elected member of Congress because they would rather not do that than actually have to talk about the fact that they are shielding those in the Epstein files. The outrages and the disdain and arrogance that they look at the American people with

is truly hard to take in.

I took the train down here today and I got an earful from a lot of people on the train. And they're quite frankly puzzled at the priorities of Washington right now. They don't understand why billionaires and millionaires get tax cuts. And the ACA tax credits can't be extended

so that working families can afford their health care. They don't understand Donald Trump's obsession with redoing his bathroom in marble and gold and building a Marie Antoinette ballroom and demolishing the East Wing while they're struggling to afford groceries.

I mean, bottom line is the president won't even acknowledge that food prices are going up. When's the last time he's ever been in a grocery store? He has no clue what he's talking about. You got to talk to real people. But there is a disconnect and people are furious. And by the way, this is not about Democrat

versus Republican or left versus right. This is now about top versus bottom. I mean, and people increasingly feel like they do not have a voice down here, that the leadership in this Congress and this White House, all they care about are people who are well off

and well connected, who can write out big checks, and who can help enrich, you know, the President, his family, and those around him. And, you know, that is, that's corruption. That is corruption. You know, I used to say during his first term

that Donald Trump is the most corrupt US president in recent history, this time around, I want to amend that statement to take out the word recent. This is, this is unconscionable what's going on. And we ought to be able to come together and make sure people don't get screwed over on their health care. I thank you and I yield back.

Thank you, Mr. McGovern.

Mr. Roy,vern. Mr. Roy you recognized. Notice the ranking member says that quote we own this if we don't go down the road that is being suggested here before us when in fact the current situation with respect to health care exists entirely by record of vote and record of policies as a result of my Democrat colleagues putting forward the policies that the American people are having to live under. Entirely.

They broke the system and then they come here saying that we own it if we don't throw more subsidies, pour more diesel on the fire to the fire that they started. That's what's happening right now. That's what for the American people to understand. Insurance companies, 1,032 percent stock prices up since 2010, 448 percent up from 2013. Eighty-five percent of the revenues for insurers come from the federal government. What my Democratic colleagues are proposing is an insurance company enrichment scheme. It's literally what they're doing, is printing money in the Treasury and giving it to insurance

companies. That's their solution for healthcare, enriching insurance companies that are the very people that are telling the American people which care they can get and not get. There's no chance for an American to go to the doctor of his or her choice. There's no chance for them to go get care. There was no chance for my constituent

who lives near Fredericksburg, Texas, to go to MD Anderson to get care because she's on Obamacare, which can't go to MD Anderson. And if the cancer that I had when I went to MD Anderson came back and I'm on Obamacare as a member of Congress, I couldn't go to MD Anderson because of the situation that my Democratic colleagues have put the American people in.

Going around and preening that you're somehow caring for people more by giving them coverage for care that doesn't actually provide them care, while insurance companies get rich. $35 billion in subsidies in 2024 for people who didn't even use their plan. It's absolutely unconscionable.

That is right. That is the correct word. It is unconscionable what we have done to the healthcare system, destroying it for the American people so that they can't get the care of their choice. That's what's happened. And now you hold the government hostage for 45 days and then try to come lecture Republicans about it when you've been holding the American

people hostage to a broken health care system for 15 years. That's what's been going on. The fact is, Madam Chairman, or Chairwoman, we are here today trying to proceed with, I think, reason with three appropriations bills combined with a continuing resolution through January. After having tried with reason to fund the government through November 20th so that we can continue the debate on the various issues in question. But our Democrat colleagues refused to do it. And so now we've got the opportunity in front of us to extend fund government at current levels, roughly flat,

trying to stave off the inflation that is the direct consequence of the massive amount of government funding that has been going on by both sides of the aisle, but heavily being promoted from my colleagues here on the other side of the aisle, who want us to throw another trillion and a half dollars at it. That's literally what they were saying.

It's not a solution. That's just printing more money while trying to go run campaign ads while you shut the government down for very clearly and obviously political purposes. I yield back,

Madam Chairman. Madam Chair, I wish the gentleman had that passion condemning the 40 billion dollar bailout of Argentina, the right-wing cuckoo clock in Argentina. I wish he had the passion to condemn that. Mr. McGovern, Ms. Scanlon,

you're recognized. Thank you. Leader Jeffries, we just heard a fairly passionate condemnation of the Affordable Care Act. You've been here a little longer than I have. Have our Republican colleagues ever been able to produce a plan that would provide the kind of coverage for Americans, affordable coverage, that the Affordable Care Act did. You know, it's very interesting that my colleague from Texas

wanted to sit there and lecture both Catherine Clark and I, but couldn't see fit to ask us a single question, engage in a debate. Where y'all been, bro? You've been out for seven weeks. You don't have the time to have a back and forth? We hear you rant for a few minutes, basically threaten to repeal the Affordable Care Act and then don't want to defend that position?

You should feel free to defend that position. You've done it 70 times. And if you think that's on the right side of the American people, then fine. That's your plan. Repeal and displace tens of millions of people.

That's the Republican plan. And what I don't understand is why my colleague couldn't run. I'm sitting right here.

Catherine Clark is right here.

Hopefully, Madam Chair, we can have a back and forth as opposed to just being lectured I'm sitting right here. Catherine Clark is right here.

Hopefully, Madam Chair, we can have a back and forth, as opposed to just being lectured to by our Republican colleagues. But I thank the distinguished gentlelady from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who, by the way, another decisive win for the American people in Pennsylvania

last Tuesday. It was an extraordinary rebuke of the extremism that we've seen from our Republican colleagues and the absence of any plan to make life better for everyday Americans.

I appreciate that and I appreciate your prior remarks regarding what we could have been doing in the House over the last few months. I mean, the Senate has taken some votes on tariffs. Maybe we could have done something with respect to tariffs here, except I think we have a rule that would prevent

us from doing votes on tariffs.

Yes, I thank the General Lady for raising the tariff issue because there are so many parts of the parade of horribles that Republicans have unleashed on everyday Americans that I neglected to actually mention the tariffs. The Trump tariffs are causing costs on everyday Americans to increase by thousands of dollars per year. This is an affirmative effort to make life more expensive for the American people.

My colleague from Texas, before he cut and run, he also said that, you know, we have a fiscally irresponsible situation in this country, and that because Democrats want to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for everyday Americans, working class Americans, and middle class Americans, somehow that is problematic. You know what is problematic? The fact that Republicans, with the one big ugly bill, enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history,

ripped health care away from millions of folks, in that same piece of legislation cut $186 billion from SNAP, the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history, literally stole food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors, and veterans, and all of that was done to enact massive permanent tax breaks for GOP billionaire donors and in the process as if that wasn't bad enough skyrocketed the debt by trillions of dollars more per year saddling our children and our

grandchildren and making it more complicated for them to experience the American dream in their future. So we are not going to be lectured by anyone on the other side of the aisle about fiscal responsibility when the bill that you just passed

jammed down the throats of the American people in a partisan way because Donald Trump ordered you to do it in a partisan way because Donald Trump ordered you to do it is the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation ever