At a town hall event in Summerton, South Carolina, on Thursday, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) discussed what citizens can do to push back on the Trump Administration.
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00:00Thank you, Congressman. Thank you, Mr. Tomlin. Do I have Moses Levy, Jr. from Manning here?
00:12Moses Levy, Jr. There he is. Can somebody get a mic over there for me?
00:16Can you see him?
00:20Need a microphone down here, please. All the way to the front.
00:30Congressman Cliven, good evening and welcome home to Clarendon County.
00:41You just answered my question, believe it or not.
00:45My question was what we as citizens of these United States need to do to offset what is going on in Washington, D.C.
00:55You just answered the question for me when you said break the silence.
01:00And speak out. Thank you very much.
01:07Akadra, look at me. I want these two things to go up because I really want to make a point for those two things.
01:14We have got to stop just accepting it. I don't know why people think you've got to, there's something wrong with challenging people.
01:30Make people defend the statements they made.
01:39And I want you to see this truck here.
01:42This is a billboard that's traveling throughout the 6th Congressional District.
01:47Someone took this picture in Columbia a couple of days ago and sent it to me.
01:53Now what this truck says is asking you to tell me to vote for this new tax bill that they're getting ready to introduce
02:10to continue the 2017 tax law.
02:17Now I want to show you all what was in the 2017 tax law because nobody talks about this.
02:22Now hand me the paper so I can see you.
02:30I want to show you what was in that tax law that nobody talks about.
02:34The vast majority of the tax cuts that were enacted in 2017 were for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations.
02:49Now how many of you in here tonight are billionaires?
02:55How many multi-millionaires we got in here?
03:00Because the upper 1% in this country got over 70% of that tax break.
03:13And now what they're trying to do with this law that they're getting ready to introduce
03:18is to make those tax breaks permanent.
03:24Permanent.
03:24So if you're now sitting on $10 billion, it means even if you get the $50 billion, your tax break will be permanent.
03:40And let me show you what else they did.
03:43If y'all got this sheet, look at it.
03:45They never talk about the fact that there were some tax increases in that bill.
03:50They cut the tax on wealthy people, but they increased the taxes on places of worship,
04:01on non-profits, 501c3 non-profits that many of you have in your churches,
04:11the non-profits to feed the poor,
04:14the non-profits that you set up to provide housing, affordable housing.
04:22They increased the taxes on them.
04:24And let me tell you what they all did.
04:26They went to the church parking lot.
04:28And anybody who had a reserved parking space,
04:33the Minister of Music,
04:36that parking space got taxed.
04:38Oh yeah, that parking space, Reverend Johnson, you didn't know that?
04:47I see you.
04:49Yes.
04:52And the last thing you see there,
04:55two years after this, I authored a bill to repeal that tax.
04:59And that's what I called it.
05:01Start the tax hike on charities and places of worship at.
05:08And people told me,
05:10it took me two years,
05:11but I got it eliminated.
05:14Now, that to me should have been talked about.
05:29How many of you knew those two,
05:31those tax increases were in that bill?
05:35Nobody talks about that.
05:37Now I'm going to tell you something else.
05:40I shouldn't have to say it to put this up.
05:42You all may recall that right after that tax hike went into,
05:46that tax cut went into,
05:48I call it a tax hike,
05:50but after that bill went into effect,
05:52all affordable housing in the country
05:55came to a screeching halt.
05:58Because in the tax bill,
06:00they also took away the tax credits
06:03that developers could get
06:06for building affordable housing.
06:10We encouraged the building of affordable housing
06:15by saying to developers,
06:17if you were to build housing
06:21for low-income people
06:23so that they can afford the housing,
06:26you will get a tax break for doing it.
06:29They took away that tax break in that bill.
06:32And we just started back
06:35to doing affordable housing
06:36about a year ago.
06:39Now, I don't know where all
06:41there may have been programs stopped,
06:42but I saw the ones
06:43that were stopping in Richland County
06:45because one of those communities
06:47right there on Mason Road,
06:49near where I live in Columbia,
06:50came to a screeching halt.
06:54But we went back,
06:57fixed that,
06:59and nobody talked about it.
07:00People keep saying,
07:01well, you haven't done anything.
07:04Well, that's one of the things I did.
07:07So the Minister of Music
07:08would have to put it.