'The math doesn't math': Dem scorches GOP's $7 trillion tax cuts at oversight hearing

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) blasted Republicans for a plan to partially pay for tax cuts for the wealthy by forcing federal workers to either receive less generous retirement benefits or lose their civil service protections.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, members considered the proposal that would create a new pension surcharge for workers who did not choose to serve on an at-will basis.

"So first of all, what's important to understand is that over the last couple of months, the president has transmitted to the Hill a list of asks and they really focus on making permanent tax breaks that were originally put into place in 2017 that are about to sunset," Stansbury explained. "So these tax breaks are for billionaires, millionaires, mega corporations, and it's gonna cost $7 trillion."

"And to pay for it, they wanna try to offset some of those costs because our friends across the aisle are trying to claim that they're being fiscally responsible," she continued. "But let's be clear, the math doesn't math because the offsets that they're seeking only add up to about 1.5 to $2 trillion."

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"And when you add it all up over 30 years, we're talking over $30 trillion in new spending for the United States government."

Stansbury argued that Republicans were trying to pay for the tax cuts "on our federal workers' backs."

"What that means is that they wanna strip away the protections for our federal workers so they can be fired at will at any moment, okay?" she said. "And if you do not, as a federal employee, elect to be at-will, if this passes, if this piece of legislation passes, you're gonna have your retirement taxed, essentially, an additional 5%. So that means your pay is gonna get cut unless you elect to be fireable."

"So basically what this package is doing is extortion," the lawmaker added. "This is called extortion."

Watch the video below from House Oversight or click the link here.