Hakeem Jeffries

03/05/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/05/2026 17:05

LEADER JEFFRIES: “REPUBLICANS ARE PLUNGING AMERICA INTO ANOTHER ENDLESS CONFLICT, BUT THEY CAN’T FIND A DIME TO LOWER BILLS”

Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries held a press conference, where he emphasized that House Democrats will continue fighting to make sure taxpayer dollars are used to lower the high cost of living and fix our broken health care system, not to let ICE brutalize the American people or to launch endless wars.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Fundamentally, politics is about the management of public money. How do the people who are entrusted with serving in the House, in the Senate and within an administration prioritize the expenditure of taxpayer dollars? And our view, as Democrats, is that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people in an environment where the cost of living is way too high, which is why Democrats are going to continue to focus on driving down the high cost of the living, fixing our broken health care system and making sure that people in this country who work hard and play by the rules aren't simply surviving, but they can thrive, because far too many people in this country are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. One of the challenges that we have in this country is that Republicans have decided to manage the public's money recklessly. Taxpayer dollars should be used to make your life more affordable. Instead, Republicans have decided to actually use it to enact massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors. That's what the One Big Ugly Bill was all about. Republicans have decided to use taxpayer dollars to create a $75 billion slush fund to unleash masked and poorly trained, out-of-control ICE agents on American communities, brutalizing and in some cases killing American citizens and violently targeting law-abiding immigrant families. That's how Republicans have chosen to use the taxpayer dollar of the American people, to manage public money.

And now, of course, we've seen Republicans, led by Donald Trump, plunging America into another endless conflict in the Middle East, spending billions of dollars to bomb Iran, but they can't find a dime to make it more affordable for the American people to go see a doctorwhen they need one. Can't find a dime to make it easier for Americans who are working hard to purchase their first home. And they can't find a dime to lower the grocery bills of the American people. And instead, of course, the reckless Trump tariffs have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year. Democrats are committed-this is the fundamental fight at this moment-to making sure that we jealously guard the resources of the American people and we use it to make life better for everyday Americans, not actually make things worse, which is what Donald Trump and the Republicans have done.

Full press conference can be watched here.


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Hakeem Jeffries published this content on March 05, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 05, 2026 at 23:05 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]