Hoyer Discusses President Trump's State of the Union Address
WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) discussed President Trump's State of the Union Address last night following the speech with WUSA CBS 9, WJLA ABC 7, and WTTG Fox 5. Below are excerpts from the interviews and links to the videos:
WUSA CBS 9
Click here to watch his comments on WUSA CBS 9.
"[President Trump] gives [President] Obama no credit whatsoever for bringing the economy back to health and growing a robust economy. And in fact, when he talks about the GDP, the GDP is about what it was, give or take a tenth of a point, when Barack Obama was President of the United States, so he way overstates it. The fact checkers are gonna have a very busy night."
"There are two things, certainly that we want to work with the President on, work with the Senate on, and that's infrastructure and prescription drugs, and very frankly, protecting [those with] pre-existing conditions. We tried to cooperate with the President on infrastructure. He walked out of the room. We have a bill we sent to the Senate that carries out almost all of the principles he articulated for prescription drug reform. He opposed it. He says he wants to save [protections for people with] pre-existing conditions. We have a bill in the Senate that does exactly that, and he has a court case trying to set aside the Affordable Care Act, which protects [those with] pre-existing conditions. So yes there are some things we at least notionally work on, but there hasn't been much follow through on what he promised the American people."
"We have a duty to the American people – we, who are Democrats and in the Majority of the House of Representatives. The President has a duty to the American people. So, in that sense, whatever our differences are, if we can work together on prescription drug prices coming down, if we can work together on investing in infrastructure, if we can work together ensuring people have health care and are not precluded from getting insurance by pre-existing conditions, yes, in that context we have a responsibility to work together, and I hope we can do that. But we'll see."
WJLA ABC 7
Click here to watch his comments on WJLA ABC 7.
"I hope that he believes he has a duty, as we have a duty, to work together on behalf of the people we represent…the majority in the House, we need to work together on items we can agree on."
WTTG Fox 5
Click here to watch his comments on WTTG Fox 5.
"It is a disappointment that he does not see himself as President of all the people, and probably that's because almost every poll that he's had during the course of his presidency, indicates that the majority of the people are not with him."