Washington, DC – Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA) issued the following statement today after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address:
“The President’s speech tonight was, once again, full of bluster, falsehoods, and a cynical distortion of American values.
“American values do not include denigrating immigrants. They do not include using lies to take away a woman’s right to choose. They do not include taking credit for the successes or hard work of others. They do not include sabre rattling. And, they do not include attempting to divide a nation to win an election.
“Rather than fighting for the middle class, the President passed a trillion-dollar tax cut that went primarily to the very rich and to corporations who used their tax cuts to make the rich even richer.
“Rather than taking bold action on climate change, essential to the prosperity of future generations, he bragged about the bold moves he’s made to make the planet dirtier and make the climate crisis even worse.
“Rather than fighting for a woman’s right to choose, he used deceptive and deeply cynical rhetoric to make it even harder for women to make the decisions they believe are right for them.
“On healthcare broadly, does anyone believe that he or the Republican Party want to protect pre-existing conditions? The boldness of this lie is breathtaking. Not only did the President and his cronies in Congress attempt over and over again to take away protections for pre-existing conditions through legislation, when they failed the President’s Department of Justice turned their attempts to take away protections for pre-existing conditions through the courts.
“In the chamber this evening, my guest was Susan Orfanos. Susan’s son, U.S. Navy veteran Telemachus “Tel” Orfanos, who had previously survived the October 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, was tragically killed in the Borderline Bar & Grill mass shooting on November 7, 2018. Susan was sitting in the chamber as a rebuke to President Trump’s inaction on the gun violence epidemic in our country. Since the Borderline shooting, an estimated 45,400 people have died from gun violence. Rather than propose bold moves to reduce gun violence, the President bragged about his commitment to putting even more lethal weapons in the hands of even more people.
“Our nation deserves much better.”
Issues: 116th Congress, Energy and Environment, Environmental Protection, Gun Violence Prevention, Healthcare, Immigration, Jobs, Economy, and Small Business