At a Senate Finance Committee executive session on Friday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) spoke about the nomination of Michael Faulkender to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's very clear in my mind that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are intent on violating taxpayer privacy laws and weaponizing the IRS against American taxpayers.
00:14Look at what happened yesterday. They forced out the nonpartisan officials in the only two Senate-confirmed positions at the IRS, Commissioner and Chief Counsel.
00:25Yesterday they installed the person as Chief Counsel who appears willing to help them break laws that were designed specifically to prevent somebody like Donald Trump from committing this very abuse of power.
00:38In my view, this is going to end with Donald Trump and Elon Musk driving innocent taxpayers to misery.
00:45And that's setting aside the hardship that's going to be inflicted on taxpayers by decimating taxpayer service.
00:51And the debt spiral they're risking by destroying tax enforcement among corporations and the very wealthy.
00:58Now with respect to my opposition to the Falkenberg nomination.
01:02He's somebody who's a veteran of the first Trump administration who's been working in the Treasury building since January 21st.
01:09Yet he did a whole lot of dodging and weaving when it came to the damage Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing.
01:16He dodged questions here on the Doge infiltration of the Treasury Department.
01:21Despite the Treasury's admission that Doge showed up with the intent to illegally impound funds appropriated by Congress.
01:29He dodged questions about rumored plans to slash the IRS workforce and gut billionaire tax enforcement.
01:36That's despite the fact that he's already serving unofficially in a role that directly oversees the IRS.
01:43I asked him, for example, whether the president has the authority to impound funds.
01:48A clear violation of Congress's Article 1 authority over federal spending.
01:52His answer was, and I quote,
01:55I do not know the legal authority of the president when it comes to impoundment.
02:00But during a television interview last year, he said he supported impoundment.
02:05And talked about how the president should use it to trample over congressional appropriations and our constitutional authority.
02:12So he didn't give many forthcoming answers.
02:15That means he spent his hearing basically covering up for nearly two months of reckless and anti-constitutional behavior from the Trump administration.
02:24But it wasn't all ducking and dodging by Mr. Faulkner.
02:28Even though the Treasury Department has no role in overseeing important programs like health care.
02:34Dr. Faulkner went out of his way to defend the Republican plan to slash Medicaid and kick tens of millions of Americans off their health care.
02:43For example, in response to strong questioning from Senator Warnock, who asked, and I quote,
02:48Do you think that it's a good idea to take families off of Medicaid?
02:52Dr. Faulkner answered with the same old Republican spin about self-sufficiency and getting off of government dependency.
03:00I can't imagine that he would say that to senior citizens.
03:03Colleagues, Medicaid covers 38 million kids in America, including half of all kids with special health needs.
03:10It pays for half of all nursing home beds.
03:13It's an essential source of health coverage for people with disabilities and a lifeline for rural hospitals and doctors.
03:20The Republican lingo we heard from Dr. Faulkner simply papers over the fact that if Republicans follow through with gutting Medicaid,
03:29rural communities will become health care deserts and a lot of children, seniors, and those with disabilities are going to be driven into misery.
03:38Many of them, in my view, are likely to die as a result.
03:43The reality is if he's confirmed, Dr. Faulkner is going to be right in the middle of that agenda.
03:48It'll be about paying more for handouts to billionaires and multinational corporations.
03:53I cannot support a nominee who has already dirtied his hands on that very work.
03:59So I oppose this nomination. I urge my colleagues to do the same.