Providing for Consideration of H.R. Protecting Our Communities From Failure to Secure the Border Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. No Funds for Iranian Terrorism Act; and Providing for Consideration of S.J. Res. Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Relating to ``Small Business Lending Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B)''

Floor Speech

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Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the grandmas and grandpas and moms and dads and neighbors and beloved community members who spent their entire lives paying into Medicare out of their own paychecks on the sacred promise that they could retire with health and dignity only to have that promise betrayed by today's Republican Party.

I stand here on behalf of our aging parents and sons and daughters fighting mental illness, loved ones who are cancer patients and stroke survivors, workers injured on the job, orphaned children, and siblings with disabilities, whose access to food, shelter, medicine, and dignified retirement depends on Social Security that Republicans are hellbent on tearing away.

In Pennsylvania alone, 2.8 million folks depend on Medicare--227,727 in Allegheny County--and 2.9 million depend on Social Security--nearly 150,000 in my district alone. Every one of them deserves to retire in dignity with access to healthcare. Every one of them deserves a Congress where every Member has the decency to honor that sacred promise not to leave our families behind at the hardest moments of their lives.

The reality is that just about every American agrees, no matter where we come from, how we vote, or what our skin color is--we all deserve those things.

The Republican Party, bought out by greedy CEOs, billionaires, and lobbyists, have always been terrified of that reality. They are so terrified that instead of facing it they have chosen to lie, scapegoat, and defraud even the folks who elected them, assuming we are too foolish to see what is going on.

Let me break it down. First, Republicans passed tax handouts for their filthy rich donors promising a trickle-down miracle that never has and will never happen from Reaganomics to the Trump tax scam.

When their tax scam causes the economy to slow and deficits to grow, they refuse to correct their mistake. Instead, they blame immigrants, poor folks, Black folks, and Brown folks.

Next, Republicans pretend to panic and call for devastating cuts to Social Security and Medicare that would force Americans to work longer for less and tear away their hard-earned retirement and end Medicare as we know it--reducing spending.

They call for more handouts for their billionaire donors and corporate polluters. They hope that you will settle for tearing away your neighbors' lifelines to protect your own right to retire in dignity, forcing us to the brink of catastrophic shutdown or debt ceiling crisis until we clean up their mess.

They repeat the cycle hoping enough of us will forgive and forget their scheme to tear away Medicare and Social Security and believe their lie that they were only after food assistance, healthcare, or housing for poor folks--not your earned benefits. The truth is that they always were and always will be after it all.

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Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, as I speak, Republicans on the Budget Committee are holding a hearing to establish a death panel commission to gut earned benefits where their chairman called his party's fight to tear Social Security our generation's world war.

At a time when the majority of Pennsylvanians say they struggle to afford healthcare and half are delaying getting the medical care they need because they can't afford it, we as Democrats have an obligation to fight to not only protect Social Security and Medicare but expand them.

If we preserve the retirement age, increase benefits to keep up with inflation, expand Medicare to include vision, dental, and hearing, and hold Big Pharma price gougers accountable and pass Medicare for All, that is how we fulfill our sacred promise and move our country and our economy forward.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question so we can bring up legislation that reaffirms the House of Representatives' commitment to protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare.

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