LEADER JEFFRIES ON MS NOW: "WE SHOULD NOT LEAVE TOWN UNTIL WE VOTE ON EXTENDING THE ACA TAX CREDITS"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MS NOW's The Last Word, where he made clear that while Donald Trump and Republicans continue to act as if the cost of living crisis is a hoax, Democrats successfully got the 218 signatures necessary on a discharge petition to extend the ACA tax credits that should get a vote tomorrow.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Joining us now for the Democratic response is the Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Please just, I want to offer you an open opportunity to respond to that speech in any way you choose.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it's great to be with you. It was an unhinged speech that was, of course, untethered from reality and truth. You know, Donald Trump has made things worse for the American people. He refuses to acknowledge that the tariffs that he is solely responsible for have actually increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year. At the same time, when it comes to this healthcare crisis, it's one that Republicans have created. It was Donald Trump's One Big Ugly Bill that enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. In that same bill, they ripped food away from hungry children, seniors and veterans, and all of this was done so that Donald Trump and Republicans could reward their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks, which they've now made permanent. At the same period of time, it was Donald Trump who promised to lower the high cost of living on day one, to lower costs on day one. Those aren't my words. Those are his words. But he broke that promise, and life isn't getting more affordable in the United States of America. It's getting more expensive. And that is the problem that Donald Trump refuses to confront.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: He said, and these were his exact words, Democrats are demanding increases in health insurance costs.
LEADER JEFFRIES: It's the most ridiculous thing in the world, and everybody knows it. The overwhelming majority of the American people support the Democratic position, which is to make sure that we are driving down healthcare costs, in part by ensuring that we extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits so that tens of millions of Americans don't experience dramatically increased health insurance premiums, copays, and deductibles. The problem that we've confronted is that Donald Trump and the Republicans are blocking our efforts to try to protect the healthcare of the American people. But earlier today, of course, we were successful in reaching the 218 signatures necessary to hit the discharge petition threshold, where we will now force an up-and-down vote on extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Now you know, I saw some coverage about the discharge petition today, which I have to say is an extraordinary achievement by the Democrats in the minority to be able to do that ever. And now you're on a series of discharge petitions after the successful one to get the Epstein files. When the discharge petition for the Epstein files was being considered in the House and when it was getting close to the required number of signatures, all the coverage of that story indicated that it was, it didn't really matter, because the Senate would kill that bill, the Senate would kill the Epstein bill. As it happens, the Senate passed it unanimously. Tonight, people are saying the same thing again. They're saying, well, if the House gets this discharge petition, it doesn't have a chance in the Senate. We have seen that prediction be very, very wrong already this year. Do you think it's possible that the way this story develops day by day, week by week—and this discharge petition vote in the House is now weeks away in January—that by the time we get to that vote we could be in a different political landscape and the Senate will definitely be in a different political landscape by then.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, Republicans are on the run right now. They're losing elections all across the country. The American people are rejecting their extremism and embracing the Democratic agenda to drive down the high cost of living, fix our broken healthcare system and, of course, extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. Abraham Lincoln, as you know, Lawrence, once made the observation that public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. And we know that public sentiment is on our side in terms of extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits and decisively confronting the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating working-class Americans, middle-class American and everyday Americans. And so we know both that the votes exist to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits in a straightforward way, consistent with our legislation, a three-year extension in House. And that there's already a bipartisan majority in the Senate that had previously voted in support of a three-year extension. And as public pressure continues to mount, particularly after the House acts, we believe that there's real opportunity to get this done.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: So the current Speaker, Mike Johnson, is on his way to setting a record for the most discharge petitions succeeding against him. Let's listen to what he said today about his control of the House.
VIDEO OF SPEAKER JOHNSON: I have not lost control of the house.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Your reaction to that?
LEADER JEFFRIES: And you know what was interesting, Lawrence, is that he went on to say that this is the narrowest majority that any party has ever had in modern political history. It's probably the only truthful thing that he said in that back and forth. And the reality is, that's been the case throughout the entirety of the year, but Mike Johnson, to start this year, started to, you know, brag about the fact that they've got some historic mandate. And that the American people were ready to embrace their extremism. Nothing can be further from the truth. And things have been falling apart over the last several months, clearly, and that was accelerated by the decisive defeat by Democrats of Republicans, all across the country, up and down the ballot. Now, to your point about the discharge petition, what's been interesting is that we've basically had three successive weeks of Democratic-led discharge petitions in partnership with a handful of Republicans behaving in a principled way that have been successful. First, it was a discharge petition that enabled the Epstein files to be released as mandated by the legislation, compelling the Department of Justice to do exactly what the survivors have been asking for, so there can be transparency and accountability. Then, last week, 20 Republicans joined Democrats in successfully moving legislation that wiped out Donald Trump's executive order, which took away collective bargaining rights from more than a million hardworking federal employees. That legislation passed the House and is now sitting in the Senate. This week, of course, we've achieved the 218 signatures necessary to force an up-or-down vote on extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits. So you've had three successful discharge petitions over the last three weeks. That's more, Lawrence, as you know, than in the last 30 years combined. So Mike Johnson has already broken a record.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Yeah, that's what you call losing control of the House, to put it mildly. So you picked up four Republicans on this discharge petition for the Affordable Care Act subsidies, three of them from Pennsylvania, one of them from your state of New York. Those Members, they voted for the bill that took those subsidies away. Is this the kind of thing that can rectify that vote for them with their constituents when they're facing re-election?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I definitely think, and each of them will be able to speak for themselves, but the pressure has mounted on people throughout the Congress, particularly my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, who are being held responsible for this devastating Republican healthcare crisis, and this significant pressure that has been brought to bear by the American people, who overwhelmingly, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, support an extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits, because they know It's unacceptable to have millions of people who may face dramatic increases in their health insurance premiums in January. In some cases, premiums may increase by $1,000 or $2,000 per month. These are working-class Americans. Ninety percent of the people who benefit from the tax credits make around $63,000 per year. And so, I think that the public pressure will continue to mount on my Republican colleagues in the House and in the Senate to do the right thing. We believe that Mike Johnson needs to bring the bill to a vote this week, tomorrow. We should not leave town until we vote on extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: So there's Mike Johnson desperately trying to say, I have not lost control of the House. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of his most prominent Republican Members of the House has said, the 'dam has broken.' She joined—she's one of the first Republicans to join—a Democratic discharge petition on the Epstein files. She believes the dam has broken and we're going to see more of this.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, I think that's correct. Here's the problem, and I've said this repeatedly to Mike Johnson, that this my-way-or-the-highway approach, where you're trying to jam right-wing extremism down the throat of the American people, is not working. And you can either continue to lose complete control of the House of Representatives, or try to course-correct and find a bipartisan path forward to actually getting things done for the American people. We're trying to help them help the American people, help their own constituents, because a significant number of the people who will actually be hurt by a failure to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, just like a significant number of people who are hurt by the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, which was part of their One Big Ugly Bill, are the folks they represent in Republican-run states. So this is not a partisan fight for us. It's a patriotic fight. And we're going to continue to stand up for the healthcare of the American people and continue to stand up to drive down the high cost of living in this country, which is out of control and getting worse because of Donald Trump and failed Republican policies.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: So Donald Trump said tonight that what he wants to do is just give people money to buy health insurance. Just give them money. He actually didn't say what for. He said he wants to give them money and not give money to health insurance companies. Of course, the money he wants to give them, they then have to use to buy health insurance. So yes, that money, if you did that, would end up at the health insurance company. He doesn't seem to understand that the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, healthcare costs, that is exactly what that is. A tax credit is giving people money to help them pay their health insurance premiums. That is exactly what you're proposing. Donald Trump doesn't seem to even understand what these tax credits are.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, he seems clueless about that. The only thing they understand are tax breaks that are massive for the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected in order to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and shameless. But when it comes to tax credits for everyday Americans, he claims to be clueless about the thing, and he actually may be, because perhaps there's no interest. The reality is, the Affordable Care Act tax credits can be taken either on a monthly basis to lower your health insurance costs, which most Americans elect to do, or you can receive the tax credits when you file your taxes in April. And so, that already exists as an option under law. Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand that. Now, we believe as Democrats, yes, we have a broken healthcare system. We need to fix it, and we need to fix it anchored in the principle that in this great country, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, access to high-quality and affordable healthcare cannot simply be a privilege for the wealthiest amongst us. It has to be a right available for every single American. And that's what we're gonna continue to work on, anchored in that principle and that value.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: Donald Trump's White House Chief of Staff said in her interviews that have now been published in Vanity Fair that Donald Trump knows nothing, absolutely nothing, about policy and about what the agencies do. That's her quote, that Donald Trump knows nothing and never will know anything. Did you hear anything tonight about any policy that indicated Donald Trump actually knew what he was talking about?
LEADER JEFFRIES: No, not at all, and, you know, again, he's running away from the fact that he promised to lower costs on day one. Now he wants to act like the affordability crisis is a Democratic hoax. But last year, all he did was talk about how he was gonna drive down the high cost of living, how America was too expensive and out of control. And by the way, Lawrence, people are tired of him trying to throw President Joe Biden under the bus. What's been clear in public opinion survey after public opinion survey, the American people know this is Donald Trump's economy. This is the Republicans' economy, and it's been a complete and total disaster. That dog doesn't hunt anymore. And Donald Trump is struggling to find someone who he can actually blame his failed policies on. But unfortunately for him, the American people aren't buying it.
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, thank you very much for starting off our coverage tonight.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.
Full interview can be watched here.