SEEC Slams President Donald J. Trump’s One Big Betrayal of the American People
Washington, D.C. – The leaders of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), including Co-Chairs Reps. Doris Matsui, Mike Quigley, and Paul Tonko and Vice Chairs Reps. Don Beyer, Suzanne Bonamici, Sean Casten, Mike Levin, and Chellie Pingree, released the following statement in response to the final passage of President Donald J. Trump’s Republican Budget Bill (H.R. 1), which is the ultimate betrayal of the working families of America and an all-out assault on our children’s future.
“Today, Congressional Republicans followed each other off the budgetary cliff and lost any respectable claim to fiscal responsibility after they overwhelmingly approved their extreme Republican Rate Hike on American families. This big betrayal of a bill jacks up household energy bills by more than $400 a year, adds more than $4 trillion to the national debt, and wipes out 1.5 million American jobs over the next decade, all for the sake of tax breaks and handouts for Trump’s billionaire donors.
“President Trump campaigned on cutting energy prices in half for all Americans, but instead, the Republican Rate Hike bill greenlights sky-high increases in electricity bills for American households and businesses. With electricity demand climbing and prices already rising faster than inflation, now is the time to produce more cheap, American-made energy, not less. And yet, Republicans’ partisan crusade against cheap, clean energy is projected to kill more than half of all the new clean energy projects over the next decade, undermining our energy security and setting the stage for a true energy crisis. Republicans are stuck living in the past, propping up outdated and expensive fossil fuels at the expense of American families.
“For the party that claims to put America first, we are baffled that so much of this bill seems intentionally designed to send American manufacturing jobs overseas to China and other foreign competitors. Our adversaries are celebrating today as America abandons the fastest growing sector of the global economy. More than a million American jobs and billions of dollars in private investments will be offshored to China, but at least America’s billionaires will be well taken care of.
“At every turn, this corrupt Republican Rate Hike puts billionaires and polluters before everyday Americans. It will be the biggest transfer of wealth this country has seen in decades. This bill is an all-out-war on the American dream, as Republicans ensure an affordable and healthy life is increasingly out of reach for the average American family. Republicans will soon have to answer for this historic betrayal of the American people.”