Chairman Aguilar: Republicans spent the last six months putting more money in billionaires' pockets and cutting health care

Chairman Aguilar: Republicans spent the last six months putting more money in billionaires' pockets and cutting health care

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, Vice Chair Ted Lieu and DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene held a press conference on Trump and Republicans' One Big Ugly Law raising health care costs while sinking Republican chances of holding on to the House.

CHAIRMAN AGUILAR: Good morning. Grateful to be joined today by DCCC Chair, Suzan DelBene and the Vice Chair, Ted Lieu. At the DCCC today, we had a productive Caucus meeting across the street. Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one. We're six months into this Trump Administration, and prices are rising because of reckless tariffs, inflation is still too high and now health care costs are going to skyrocket. For the 24 million Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act, health insurance will go up by as much as 75 percent. And these price hikes don't even include the tax credits that Republicans are going to let expire, so even more Americans are going to see higher costs and could lose their health care coverage. Democrats have been warning about the dangers of the Republican cuts to Medicaid leading to higher prices for everyone. The American people were told that Donald Trump and Republicans were going to turn the economy around and prioritize families. But that couldn't be further from the truth: they've spent the last six months putting more money in billionaires' pockets and cutting health care. But they did make private jets tax deductible, so there's that. They're even shielding Jeffrey Epstein and his associates-including the President of the United States-from accountability, despite promising for years to release the files that implicate those involved. At a time when family budgets are stretched thin, Republicans are only prioritizing the needs of billionaires. It's not just bad policy that will make the economy worse, it's a slap in the face to working people who voted to bring down costs. Now, I'll introduce Vice Chair Ted Lieu.

VICE CHAIR LIEU: Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. This morning, I went on this interesting website called HouseRepublicanPriceHike.com. And if you go on that website, you can see the increases in grocery prices starting from the beginning of this year. Beef prices, for example, are at an all-time high. Donald Trump promised that he was going to lower inflation on day one. He lied. Inflation has continuously increased. The most recent report has inflation increasing above expectations to 2.7 percent. Core CPI increased even more to 2.9 percent. And what are Congressional Republicans doing? Nothing. In fact, it's even worse than that. They are actually ending this week early because they're afraid to cast votes on the Jeffrey Epstein issue.

The Rules Committee is not meeting because they're afraid to cast votes to release the Epstein files. So you've got this Epstein issue affecting Congressional operations and making sure that the Congressional Republicans don't work on trying to lower costs. So this is an epic cover-up, right? This is a cover-up of epic proportions, where you've got the majority party literally having us leave Congress early, and not having the Rules Committee meet, because they don't want to deal with releasing the Epstein files. We should release the Epstein files. It is what Donald Trump campaigned on. It's what Attorney General Pam Bondi talked about this February when she said that Epstein's client list was, 'sitting on my desk right now.' Why don't we have that client list? And these are the questions the American people keep asking, and the story is not going to go away. Because at its core, this is an issue about underage women who were sexually abused and assaulted. Attorney General Pam Bondi should not be protecting Jeffrey Epstein's legacy, nor his clients, nor should Congressional Republicans be doing the same. With that, it is my honor to introduce our amazing field general for the DCCC, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene. She's done a fantastic job, and she's going to discuss what we talked about this morning.

DCCC CHAIR DELBENE: Thanks Vice Chair Lieu and Chairman Aguilar. Good morning, everyone. This morning, in Caucus, we presented how we're holding House Republicans accountable for their disastrous agenda and our path to retake the majority. We hear over and over and over again from people back home that the top issue for them is affordability and lowering costs-lowering costs for everyday goods. By all accounts, Republicans have failed miserably in the time that they've had the trifecta. Prices are still rising, whether it's housing, health insurance premiums or everyday things like food and groceries. Republicans broke their promise to lower costs. Their Big Ugly Law is just another broken promise. It rips coverage away from millions of people and will raise health care bills for everyone, regardless of what kind of insurance that they have, and it takes food off the table from hungry families and children. It guts funding for rural hospitals and increases ER wait times. Energy bills will go up for families across the country. Republicans did all of this to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest few. Their agenda is cruel, it's extreme and an absolute disaster, and the American people agree.

In poll after poll, we see that the Republicans' bill is massively unpopular. The more people learn about it, the more they oppose it. The one lie Republicans keep telling themselves is that voters won't punish them in the midterms because the American people won't feel the pain of the cuts until after the election. Aside from the fact that this is exactly the kind of insincere political gamesmanship the public hates, it's also not true. In a matter of months, millions of people will see their health insurance costs go up by an average of 75 percent-rural hospitals are already announcing they'll close down and cut services. So no matter how many legislative games that Republicans try to play, there's no hiding from the facts-the Big Ugly Law will have devastating consequences that will absolutely be felt by working families.

Republicans are poised to lose the majority next year, and they know it. You can tell by the way they're behaving. They avoid in-person town halls because they're afraid to face the public when they have to talk about their Big Ugly Bill. House Republicans are headed for the exits. We already have three vulnerable Republicans decide to retire or not run for re-election because they know they're not going to take the majority. And we know there are more with one foot out the door, who may soon announce that they won't seek re-election. So in these last six months, Republicans have broken promise after promise, feeding into a larger narrative that reminds everyone that they don't work for the American people-they work for the elite, the powerful and the billionaires. It's a theme we hear on the ground day after day, and if House Republicans would take the time to listen to their constituents back home, instead of only working and waiting for Donald Trump to tell them what to do, they would know. But instead, they blindly follow his orders that are hurting our economy and hitting the American families in their pocketbooks, and that's why they'll lose the majority.

House Democrats will hold every single vulnerable Republican accountable for their betrayal against their communities when they supported the Big Ugly Bill. We have the better message, we have stronger candidates and public sentiment is on our side. And next year, we'll have the gavels. Thank you and I'll turn it back to the Chairman.

Video of the full press conference and Q&A can be viewed here.

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