Xavier Becerra: “My colleagues, why the need to circumvent the rules of this House and the Senate? Why not follow the legislative process…”

“My colleagues, why the need to circumvent the rules of this House and the Senate? Why not follow the legislative process in this Congress? Why do we have this bill, so-called reconciliation bill, before us today? Why, especially when this bill's benefits go mostly to the wealthy and not enough to the rest of middle America? Why is it that in this proposal the tax cuts that are within it would benefit the richest of Americans; that 1 percent of Americans would get 44 percent of the benefits of this bill and yet 60 percent of Americans earning some $44,000 or less, 60 percent of America, will receive something on the order of about 16 or 17 percent of the entire wealth in this package? Why are we rushing so quickly to do this? Why must we evade the process? Why can we not go through the committee process? Why can we not have this inspected in the light of day? Why can the sun not shine on what we are doing? Why can we not, in fact, feel the same urgency for our energy crisis as we apparently feel in this Congress towards giving tax cuts which will benefit mostly the wealthy? If we are in need of acting quickly in any regard in this body at this moment it is in regards to the energy crisis, which will affect middle America today. When those blackouts occur, those who have money can buy their way out of them.”