Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi
speaker
221 appearances
16 recordings
1 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard May 2025
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
Yeah, I do. And I think that these town halls are an indication that, you know, constituents are restless. They don't like what they're seeing. They don't like the fact that, you know, the Republicans are proposing upwards of two point three trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid. Think about that. That's almost a third of Medicaid. That would mean tens of millions of Americans losing jobs.
access to their sole source of health care. And so, Ben, you know this. This is a program, numerous programs like this touch Democrats, Republicans, Independents in blue states and red states. And I think that people are suddenly kind of becoming aware of just the consequences of what's about to happen. And why do they want these cuts? That's the other question that people are asking.
Well, it turns out the answer is to fund tax cuts, tax cuts for billionaires, oligarchs, broligarchs, special interests, you name it. And that just causes the smoke to come out of people's ears as well.
It is. We were one vote short of having him testify before the Oversight Committee when we tried to subpoena him. But can I say one other thing that is wigging people out, really getting people upset, which is avian flu. This avian flu thing is out of control. It's causing the price of eggs and other groceries to skyrocket. For that matter, you might have seen this, but
Prices have gone up since Donald Trump became president. They've gone up. Not only that, but the stock market gains have disappeared since Donald Trump became president. And so people are starting to notice that their 401ks are down. Prices of groceries are up. Sickness increases. is up through avian flu, but also there's outbreaks of salmonella, outbreaks of listeria.
And what is this guy focused on? He actually has an executive order banning paper straws. And I'm not making that up. I actually, I hope that your viewers go and look at this. He has an executive order on paper straws. So that's kind of the types of priorities that Donald Trump has right now.
Because he'd have to tell the truth, Ben. He'd be under oath. You'd have to put your hand up and actually swear to tell the truth under penalty of perjury. And that is why he's not appearing. Who's protecting him, though? Who's protecting him? our Republican colleagues. They don't want him to come up there and have to testify.
And oh, by the way, he's constantly threatening these Republicans if they don't do things that he wants. You may be getting to this, but one of the reasons why the Republicans in the Senate rubber-stamped Such controversial figures as Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel and RFK Jr.
is because Elon Musk threatened each of the wavering senators with primary battles that he would fund with his PAC. And so he's threatening people and they're doing his bidding. And one of them is not bringing him to testify before the House.
Well, what I tell them is that please hold us accountable in Washington. I'm talking about Republicans and Democrats. We have to get this better. We have to do something about this. This is unacceptable. And that starts with, I think, three things. One, we have to lift up.
and speak up and speak out about these stories that are repeatedly popping up about people getting hurt by these moves with executive orders. And we have to rally public opinion around reversing these executive orders and these decisions by the Trump administration.
Secondly, there is a litigation strategy, both inside of Congress from the committees, but also outside of Congress from the state attorneys generals and not-for-profits Third, we have our votes and we're going to be required to vote on a budget. We're going to be required to vote on a debt ceiling in the next month.
And I personally think that those votes, you know, obviously, if there's a shutdown or if we can't get a debt ceiling increase, that lies at the feet of the Republicans because they have a majority. They have a trifecta. However, if they're going to come to us to rescue them, there are going to be conditions. And then fourth, we have to hold them accountable.
We have to make sure that everyone knows exactly how our Republican colleagues are voting, especially in those marginal districts, because just as there is a Project 2025, there needs to be a Project 2026 taking back the House and then Project 2028 taking back the White House. That is what we need to be focused on right now. All four of those things.
Look, I think it's kind of the typical Donald Trump playbook at this point, which is childish insults, all sorts of allegations which are designed to distract from the dismantling of our federal government that Elon Musk is trying to do. It's somewhat laughable for him to refer to all Democrats as corrupt,
when this is a guy who has taken over control of government contracts when he himself receives billions of dollars of government contracts. But because he's not an official government employee, he can evade the standard conflicts of interest rules that apply to all other government employees.
And so it is the ultimate corruption where he is essentially getting access to the federal budget and getting to make recommendations or even decisions about what contracts should continue and what contracts should not. Do you think he's going to say, you know what, my contract is a little excessive. It's wasteful. Let's cancel that.
There's no question they're laying the foundation to defy or ignore court orders. And just to be clear, you know, our rule of law, which is the basic foundation of our democracy and our economy and our criminal justice system. I mean, if you do not have the rule of law in control, you are no longer a democracy. And
Our rule of law depends on the respect for judicial orders, dating back to Marbury versus Madison, when our separation of powers was clarified to mean that we're co-equal branches of government and the judiciary determines whether or not the laws are being complied with. It's like, for example, you were playing basketball or in any sport. Why do you have a referee? Why do you have an umpire?
Right? You want someone who is neutral, experienced, educated, qualified because they've all been confirmed by the Senate to make the determination. Should Elon Musk make the determination as to whether what he is doing is lawful or breaks the law? Of course not. That's why you have referees and umpires to call those balls and strikes. And so it's an absurd allegation that J.D.
Showing 181–200 of 221 · page 10 of 12
← Previous
Next →