House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press” that House Republicans would require “significant relief to billionaires” as a condition for disaster relief to Californians. He claimed that he was trying to make it a condition of “a tax reduction.”
Host Kristen Welker asked, “Give us your thoughts on disaster relief, Jeffries Leader.'' Chairman Johnson's move to tie it to an increase in the debt limit, which certainly could have strings attached. I just heard it clearly stated that there is a possibility. If it were to come before you, would you vote yes? That is the only way to get disaster relief to Californians. What if you believe it?”
“The California delegation in the House of Representatives has made it clear that we do not support conditioning disaster assistance on Americans whose lives have been upended as a result of California's historic wildfires,” Jeffries said in a statement. And we've never made disaster aid conditional on hurting Americans. Why would we do it now? Why are House Republicans doing that? The answer to this question is: House Republicans are proposing massive attacks on billionaires and wealthy corporations to benefit the rich, wealthy, and well-connected. We want to pass a tax cut and make it stick with working-class Americans and middle-class people who say they want to support it. That's not an effort, and it's not a plan that Democrats support.”
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