Senator Reverend Warnock joined a crowd of hundreds at the “Say NO to Tax Breaks for Billionaires & Corporations” rally

Senator Reverend Warnock: “Everybody likes tax cuts. The debate is about who ought to get one and who really needs one, and what’s the best way to move our economy forward. [Washington Republicans] want to give a tax cut to millionaires and billionaires”

Watch Senator Reverend Warnock’s rally remarks HERE

Washington, D.C. – Last week, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) spoke in front of a crowd of hundreds about the need for Congress to provide a tax break to working and middle-class families during the “Say NO to Tax Breaks for Billionaires & Corporations” rally on Capitol Hill. 

“Everybody likes tax cuts. The debate is about who ought to get one and who really needs one, and what’s the best way to move our economy forward. [Washington Republicans] want to give a tax cut to millionaires and billionaires […] You’re not trying to cut taxes, you’re not trying to cut waste and fraud and abuse, because if you were trying to cut waste and fraud and abuse, I know an unelected billionaire who’s received $40 billion in federal aid and support and loans, I know where you can find some waste and fraud and abuse,” said Senator Warnock.

As a new voice on the Senate Finance committee, Senator Warnock is committed to championing tax policies that support working families and put more money back into the pockets of middle-class families. In 2021, Senator Warnock fought to secure the Expanded Child Tax Credit as part of the American Rescue Plan. Senator Warnock recently introduced the American Family Act, which would nearly double the Child Tax Credit (CTC) from its current amount and help working moms and dads in a moment where the cost of groceries, housing, and child care is on the rise.

A transcript of Senator Warnock’s remarks during the rally can be found below:

“I just want to say thank you for coming to Washington, D.C. Give yourselves a round of applause just for being here. Mama said, ‘Half a life is showing up’. And I cannot stress to you enough how important it is and how impactful it is for you to show up.”

“Politicians – whether they are Republicans, Democrats or Independents – when you show up, they pay attention. When you call our offices, we pay attention. When you write letters, we pay attention. And when you have the unmitigated audacity to come here and remind the folks over there that that’s not their house, it’s the People’s House, it makes a huge difference. You keep showing up, and I promise you that I and my colleagues are going to keep showing up for you.”

“Give my brother Ben Ray Luján a big round of applause. He and I are both alumni of Head Start., and I probably don’t have to tell you that in the United States Senate, which historically has been a place for the sons of American aristocracy, and I do mean sons, because that weren’t many women, you’re not going to run into many United States Senators who are alums of Head Start. But that’s a program that gives poor children a chance. It inspires them, exposes them to literature and reading and a love of learning, because all children are naturally curious, and if you bump into a child who doesn’t have that, believe me, something or somebody stole it from them. The trauma of being poor [can]rob them of the natural intellectual curiosity about the world that all children have.”

“I’ve got a word for you. God raises up genius and brilliance and talent all over the world, on all sides of town, on both sides of the railroad track. God is an equal opportunity employer, and it makes sense to invest in children because we don’t know what they’re going to contribute.”

“So the folk who want to run roughshod over Head Start don’t get it, and the reason why so many of them don’t get it is not simply because they were born rich. I’m not going to hate on anybody because they were born rich because I didn’t decide to be born poor. But you ought to at least spend enough time with ordinary people so you don’t end up saying dumb things. Like [as Commerce Secretary Lutnick remarked] if my mother-in-law misses one social security check, big deal. Of course, it’s no big deal to her. Her son-in-law is a billionaire. That’s not my story. That’s not the story of the people who are in this crowd.”

“In the words of that great prophet, that poet, Kendrick Lamar, they not like us.”

“We need people in government who, regardless of their background and where they were born, are sensitive to the concerns of ordinary people, hard-working Americans, for people that so many in our government, over the last 40 years, most of my life, have been busy maligning, criminalizing poor people for being poor. That’s why we’re in this mess. That’s why they’re obsessed with giving a tax cut to those who don’t need it, while taking resources away from those who need it so desperately just to survive.”

“And so here’s the thing, here’s the thing that all of us apparently have in common: we all like tax cuts. Everybody likes tax cuts. The debate is about who ought to get one and who really needs one, and what’s the best way to move our economy forward. They want to give a tax cut to millionaires and billionaires, and they’ve been engaged over the last few weeks in creating a lot of theater, tragic theater that has implications for people’s ability to actually live: firing federal workers and making them the enemy, firing folks at the CDC, closing down Social Security offices across Georgia and across our country, and announcing that they were going to do it on the DOGE website. And when I called them out for it, they were at least a little bit embarrassing, because they took it off their website and acted like they didn’t say it. But my staff took screenshots of that website. Yes, you said it. We know what you said, and we know what you are trying to do. You’re not trying to cut taxes, you’re not trying to cut waste and fraud and abuse, because if you were trying to cut waste and fraud and abuse, I know an unelected billionaire who’s received $40 billion in federal aid and support and loans, I know where you can find some waste and fraud and abuse, and his name is Elon Musk!”

“So all of this is a distraction, because Donald Trump is just trying to pay off his friends, trying to pay off millionaires and billionaires. I’m not mad at you because you have money. I just believe that strong hearted bear the infirmities of the weak. I just believe that we are all in this together. The pandemic taught us that, right that we were in a deadly pandemic. We didn’t have the vaccine at the time, it’s an airborne disease. That means that if my neighbor got sick. Even though she was sick, I was potentially in peril because it’s an airborne disease. The pandemic taught us that we didn’t already know that that doesn’t make my neighbor my enemy because she’s sick, that just means that it is in my enlightened self-interest to make sure that she has what she needs, that she has a mask, that she has a vaccine.”

“In other words, my neighbor’s health care coverage is good for my health. It is good for all of us, for everybody to have healthcare. It is good for all of us, no matter how much money you have for children in Georgia to have Medicaid. So that’s what this fight is all about.”

“So keep showing up. Keep fighting the good fight. Keep raising your voice, because this is not about the people who have power. We’ve proven in America over and over again that it’s really about the power in the people, and when the people raise their voices, when the people show up, the people can make a difference!”

“Do you believe that?”

“Are you ready to make some noise?”

“Are you ready to show up?”

“Are you ready to fight for our children?”

“Are you ready to defend Social Security?”

“Are you ready to defend Medicaid?”

“Let do this work y’all!”

“The budget is not just a fiscal document, it’s a moral document. Budget is not just dollars and cents, it’s good morals and common sense. Show me your budget and I’ll show you who you think matters and who you think is dispensable. Show me your budget and I’ll show you what you think about children, what you think about workers, and what you think made America great, and if this budget that they are trying to pass were an EKG, it would suggest that the Congress has a heart problem and is in need of moral surgery. So let’s get the room ready. I know you may not be surgeons, but just help us get the room ready, because the Congress needs an operation, and it’s the people who bring about the change.”

“So you keep showing up over and over again. Don’t give it to those who are trying to weaponize despair. Don’t believe them when they want to convince you that he’s already a king. We have no king! This is the United States of America, and we’re not about to roll over to somebody who wants to be an oligarch.”

“I’m going to stand up for my children. Are you going to stand up for yours? I’m going to stand up for my mother who needs her Social Security. I’m going to stand up for everybody’s children, so that my children are alright. So let’s stand together. Let’s work together. Let’s vote together. Let’s fight together. Let’s pray together. Let’s stay together. Don’t give in to the demagogues. Don’t give in to the division. We rise together.”

“God bless all of you, keep the faith and keep looking up.”