The minority leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries (D-Ny), said Sunday about “this week” of ABC that President Donald Trump was “starring the economy in real time.”
Partial transcription as follows:
Jonathan Karl: Jeffries leader, thanks for being here. Allow me to succeed in what you were saying because I also heard you say that Republicans are breaking the economy and will possess all the damage that is causing the US people. So what are the Democrats to do about it?
Jeffries: Well, we will continue to clear that the cost of living in the United States of America is too high. Donald Trump and the Republicans promised to reduce the cost of living. In fact, on the first day, costs are not going down. They are going up. And they are colliding the economy in real time and, in fact, they take us to a recession.
Democrats have a different vision. We want to build an affordable economy for US workers’ taxpayers, and we are ready to work with any person in good faith to do so. But that is not happening in Congress at this time, so things are directed in a bad direction.
Karl: But let me ask you about a Gallup survey that came out recently, asling how many confidence they have in several people to deal with the economy. And only Donald Trump, you know, 44 percent have a lot of confidence, but that was, the leaders of the Republican party were the following, the president of the Fed, the president of the Chamber. And when you get to the bottom, democratic leaders Chuck Schumer at the bottom. You only had 30 percent. So what do the Democrats have to do to convince the American people that they have a better plan on the economy than the Republicans?
Jeffries: Well, this week, we will have a week of cost of living action, and we have to continue talking with the American people about our plans. We recognize that housing costs are too high, groceries are too high, public services costs are too high, child care costs are too high, insurance costs are too high. The United States is too expensive.
Now, Donald Trump is the president. And in terms of its approach as it deals with the economy, it was its greatest strength on January 20. Now, it is its greatest weakness.
There is a variety or different surveys that exist, more recently including a morning consultation survey, which showed that Congress Democrats actually trust the Republicans of Congress in the economy for the first time in four years.
We will continue to press our case on the economy, to continuously press our case to protect and strengthen Social Security, what we are committed to do. Republicans are trying to trigger social security as we know it. And certainly, we will protect the medical attention of the American people.
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