WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday joined NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker to discuss the Trump administration and congressional Republicans’ plan to give the ultra-wealthy a giant tax break paid for by slashing Medicaid and programs millions of Americans rely on, and President Trump’s corruption of U.S. foreign policy.

Murphy slammed the disastrous Republican tax plan: “Well, what we're standing in the way of is the most massive transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich in the history of the country. This budget bill is an absolute disaster. It is going to kick over 10 million people off of their health care — Medicaid covers about a quarter of all Americans — in order to pass along a new trillion-dollar tax cut for the richest 1%. Nobody in this country is asking for that…These guys are running the economy recklessly because all they care about is the health of the Mar-a-Lago billionaire class. They only care about their corporate friends. They're going to destroy this economy, they're going to throw millions of people off of health care, just so that they can pass along a benefit to a small handful of very rich Americans.”

Murphy pushed back on claims by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the growing deficit is due to Democratic policies: “I think it's important to remember that some of the most important legislative achievements during Joe Biden's presidency were done in a way that reduced the deficit. In fact, the Inflation Reduction Act – which made massive investments in renewable energy, reduced prescription drug costs – was done in a way that drove down the deficit, not driving the deficit up. Most of the deficit was added under Joe Biden's presidency was in those early days when we were still recovering from the pandemic. But there's just no doubt that it was Donald Trump who added more to the deficit than any president in the history of the country, and he is on pace to do it for a second time. It's going to crater the economy. And listen, it won't have an impact on his billionaire friends. His Mar-a-Lago crowd will come out all right, but it will impact the regular people I represent in New Britain, Bristol and Bridgeport, Connecticut.”

On Trump’s corrupt trip to the Middle East, Murphy said: “So why did he choose these three countries to go to for his first major foreign trip? It's not because these are our most important allies, are the most important countries in the world. It’s because these are the three countries willing to pay him off. Every single one of these countries is giving Trump money — the plane from Qatar and investment in his cryptocurrency scam from the UAE, and they are asking for national security concessions in return. This is the definition of corruption. Foreign governments putting money in the President's pocket and in the United States, giving them national concerning concessions that hurt our own security.”

He continued: “By the way, the plane is not a gift to the American people, as the Secretary said. It is going directly to Donald Trump. That library will take a decade to build, and so once he leaves the White House until the library is built, he gets to use that plane to fly around all of his billionaire friends while his policies result in millions of Americans losing their health care and having to pay higher costs. That is the definition of corruption.”

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