Mr. President, tomorrow, President Trump will belatedly report on the state of the Union before a joint session of Congress. The reason for the delay, of course, is the 35-day government shutdown that President Trump precipitated as an attempt to extract taxpayer money for a wall he promised Mexico would pay for, a pointless exercise, if there ever were one--a pointless exercise that punished hundreds of thousands of innocent public servants and took billions of dollars out of our economy. We are all glad that the government is back open and Federal workers are back on the job and getting paid, but the recent government shutdown speaks to the fundamental uncertainty about the state of our Union. Tomorrow, the President will say, predictably, that the state of our Union is strong, but the truth is that the state of the Trump economy is failing America's middle class, that the state of the Trump healthcare system is failing American families, that the state of the Trump administration is embroiled in chaos and incompetence, and that the state of the President's foreign policy is incoherent, inconsistent, and cynical in the extreme and has undermined American power and our national interests. In sum, the state of our Union is in need of drastic repair. Let's begin with the state of the Trump economy. Corporate America has cashed in on the Trump tax bill, but working America has been left behind.…
On the recordFebruary 4, 2019
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