Hank Johnson: “I thank the gentlewoman for convening us for this Special Order today and for her very thoughtful comments. Today, I…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for convening us for this Special Order today and for her very thoughtful comments. Today, I rise to voice my alarm about the rapid descent of our democracy into a dictatorship. While co-President Donald Trump focuses on expanding his business opportunities globally while ignoring his campaign promise to lower the cost of living for ordinary Americans, co-president Elon Musk has taken a wrecking ball to the Federal Government one agency at a time. Congress established the agencies that Musk is trying to delete, and it is only Congress, under our Constitution, not an unelected co- president, that has the constitutional authority to abolish a Federal agency. We still live in a democracy, which is government of, by, and for the people who have the right, the precious right, to vote for their leaders. We tell our constituents to vote. We tell them their votes and voices matter, that their choices shape the future of this country, but what does that mean when an unelected billionaire can waltz into our agencies and slash and burn the whole thing to the ground like a Taliban terrorist, threatening 2 million Federal employees to resign under false pretenses, putting other folks out of work, and stopping payments to small businesses and nonprofits while illegally putting in purchase orders for the State Department to spend $400 million in taxpayer money for Tesla pickup trucks? This level of corruption is shocking.…”