As the Democrats drift further leftward into openly embracing socialism, House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) warns the political battle ahead of the midterm elections just two weeks from now is no longer a traditional partisan battle. Instead it is one where the country must confront and reject extreme ideas from the left.
“The debate today is different than the one we had before with Republicans versus Democrats on the size of what government can be,” McCarthy said in an exclusive interview on Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel on Tuesday. “You hit the nail on the head: It’s no longer Republicans versus the Democrats, it’s America versus socialism. The movement in this Democratic Party toward clear socialism, that’s what they’re doing on healthcare–government-run, it’s all government telling you what to do and when to do it instead of unshackling and unleashing the great powers of liberty and freedom.”
With the latest caravan of thousands of prospective illegal aliens streaming from Central America through Mexico to the U.S. border right now, McCarthy said people in the United States “should be upset because in Congress we had put a bill on the floor for immigration reform that would deal with this and end catch-and-release and not one Democrat voted for it.”
McCarthy, as Breitbart News has previously exclusively reported, has put forward legislation that would fully fund President Donald Trump’s planned border wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
“It’s very simple,” McCarthy said of his bill, which is titled “Build the Wall, Enforce the Law” and would fully fund the border wall and include enforcement measures like Kate’s Law and blocking sanctuary cities among others. He continued:
It would fully fund the wall. You’re watching individuals try to come and just cross the Rio Grande, and not have any wall there and just move across. But what it also does is say ‘enforce the law.’ Think about the MS-13 gang members that will be a part of this caravan, or those who are smuggling fentanyl. This increases the ability to send them back, a bill that we voted on before, but it also deals with sanctuary cities who are a magnet for bringing people in and I just heard a report where they were interviewing some people in the caravan and they have been deported three, four, five times and now they’re coming back through. We know what happens there, with Kate’s Law we need it and why we need it, but then it also goes through and makes sure we’re supporting ICE. If anyone has not been to the border and spent some time with Border Patrol, you don’t understand the challenge that you have when you have a lawless society and no protection along that southern border. That’s why I put the bill in, I think the American people want to see it, and we got a lot of places where we can go to help and move this bill when we get back to session.
McCarthy predicted the midterm election is very much, in addition to a bigger picture battle of ideas between those who believe in America and those who believe in socialism, a referendum on immigration policy. He said:
There has never been a more clear contrast for two weeks from now. Think of this: If the Democrats, and they follow history and are able to take the majority inside Congress, Nancy Pelosi will become the Speaker. Look at just two of the bills that I put on the floor recently. One, going through and supporting ICE. More than 170 Democrats voted against that or voted ‘present.’ Or what about what we’re finding in these very liberal-controlled cities like San Francisco that allows illegals to vote in their school board races? Well, I put condemning that on the floor a resolution, 140 Democrats voted against condemning it or present. This is the city, and the person who represents this city is Nancy Pelosi, she would become Speaker. So what would she try to do with the rest of our election laws throughout? There is encouragement [from Democrats] of who’s coming through in this caravan, of making this happen. I mean, here we had a bill that was put on the floor that would deal with our security along the border but also fix our immigration system but not one Democrat would vote for it because Pelosi would not allow them to even though it was a common sense bill that actually put us in a new place for this country. This is what the contrast is about in just two weeks. If you’re watching that caravan, if you’re watching what’s coming through, you’re watching the battle–and remember, it wasn’t that many years ago where Democrats actually voted for security along the border like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, who are now opposed to it. It’s a clear contrast of what direction this country is going to go.
McCarthy added that in addition to immigration, all the economic successes of the Trump administration’s first two years are at stake in November’s midterm elections.
“That’s just one element: Also think about this, we just got rated by the economic forum that we are the most competitive country in the world–we have not been here in a decade,” McCarthy said. “And how did we achieve that? It was with President Trump and what he’s been able to accomplish along with the Republican majority in the House and the Senate. We do not want to go backwards. That’s the fear I have two weeks from now.”
On healthcare, McCarthy addressed the lie that Democrats continue to tell about pre-existing conditions–Democrats continue to falsely claim that Republicans want to take away coverage of pre-existing conditions–and laid out the GOP vision on healthcare, and why it is better than the socialist plans put forward by Democrats. He said:
Republicans want to protect pre-existing conditions, we voted to protect pre-existing conditions, and you heard it from the president. But remember the president that we had before? ‘If you like your healthcare, you can keep it.’ What about those millions of Americans that they lied to? What we want to do is make the patient in charge of their healthcare system. Lower the cost and raise the quality. That’s what we were able to move through and unfortunately we lost by one vote in the Senate. But remember where the Democrats are now on healthcare, where more than 130 Democrats have cosponsored–they want a government-run healthcare that, for any of your listeners right now who are on Medicare, they are going to bankrupt Medicare. Any of your listeners right now who have healthcare through their company, which 55 percent of this country does, you will [under the Democrats’ plan] no longer have the ability to do that. And then it comes into question if you’re a veteran and you’re going through the V.A., they want it government controlled. Now, how do they even pay for that? Because if you doubled all the taxes, it still wouldn’t pay for it. It’s $32 trillion over 10 years. Think about what Republicans have done: We have worked through this Congress and we reauthorized the Children’s Health Insurance Program, CHIP, for 10 years, the longest there’s ever been. You know what the Democrats did? They fought it. They voted against it three times. That deals with the local clinics and others where a lot of individuals get their healthcare.
McCarthy also noted that when it comes generally to health matters, the Democrats have been opposed to common-sense reforms like stopping human trafficking and the opioid crisis.
“Think of this, of what else the Democrats have been moving against us on–what about human trafficking?” McCarthy asked. “We see that a lot coming across the border, that’s what ICE agents stop and also the fentanyl. That had been growing online–we have ended that. There is no more, and it’s 100,000 people a year. But what about the opioid crisis? You’re going to see in the White House this week, the president signing the most comprehensive reform to opioids. There was more than 50-some bills and I remember when we were taking this up the Democrats were throwing a big fit inside Energy and Commerce and were trying to shut down the markup.”
Despite all this Democrat obstruction, McCarthy says, Republicans have powered through in the first two years of the Trump administration and achieved extraordinary results.
“But we fought through it [the Democrat obstruction on opioids], just like we did with tax,” McCarthy said. “Remember, the economy we are sitting in today, where there are more people working than in the history of America, where there are more jobs offered than the number of people looking for it, not one Democrat voted for that tax reform bill in the House nor in the Senate. And do you know that in 49 of the 50 states your electrical bills are now lower because of that tax bill? There are so many different elements that have moved America back on a competitive basis that unfortunately two weeks from now could change the course. If we are successful, and we have the results to prove it–while the Democrats have the resistance–which place does America want to place their hopes for the future in? Just to resist what’s going on? Watch what Nancy Pelosi said the other day–all she’s looking at is using a subpoena to try to slow government down instead of put America and make America have the next century be ours.”
That sets up Nov. 6, the midterm election, as a choice between the leftist “mob” filled with socialists on the Democrat side, or continued prosperity economically and otherwise on the Republican side McCarthy said. Signs to this effect–“Jobs Not Mobs”–appeared at President Trump’s rally in Texas with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Monday evening the night before.
It’s not that Republicans want jobs, they’re creating jobs. How are we doing it? By making government smaller, finding common-sense legislation and empowering the individual–the creativity of America. If you just look at the August numbers, manufacturing is coming back to America. Barack Obama said you could never achieve this–he thought a small business owner didn’t create this, it’s government that did. It’s a clear contrast. We have found no, when we unshackle the things that have held this country back, yes we are exceptional and yes we can make the next century ours. We are now number one in the world in energy when before people like Jimmy Carter would tell us to put a sweater on and turn the heater down and that the best days of America were behind us. But remember what Ronald Reagan said–he said no pastels, fly with bold colors, and go to that shining city on a hill. But you know what? That light was dimmed during the Obama administration. But we have proven in the last two years that we have recharged that light. We have to continue to move forward.
McCarthy is on the campaign trail in Florida and Georgia on Tuesday helping a number of House GOP candidates defeat their Democrat opponents in the midterm election.
LISTEN TO HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY ON BREITBART NEWS DAILY:
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