Pallone Statement on State of the Union

WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) issued the following statement in response to President Trump's State of the Union address.

"Like many Americans, I hoped that President Trump would turn the page and propose common sense solutions to help bring our nation together. Unfortunately, President Trump has doubled down on an agenda that abandons working families and deepens the divisions in our country.

"The GOP Tax Scam remains a disaster for the overwhelming majority of New Jersey residents. We should be striving to help working families, not giving huge tax breaks to the rich that will inevitably lead to serious cuts to programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

"The President also continued to stoke irrational fear of and anger towards immigrant communities. This projection of hate and intolerance manifested itself in the ransacking of homes of Indonesian Christians in Highland Park and Edison, NJ last week. It is antithetical to American values that have made our country the envy of the world.

"Rather than attacking immigrants, President Trump should look to the example of my State of the Union guest, Esder Chong. Esder is an outstanding student and a leader in her community. Esder is a courageous young person who has only known as America as her home. She is not criminal. She is not a bargaining chip. The President should abandon his extreme rhetoric on immigration, solve his self -inflicted DACA crisis and then work toward a bipartisan compromise on common sense immigration reform.

"I remain deeply concerned with the President's saber rattling, which is unnecessarily antagonizing our adversaries and alienating our allies. The American people deserve a steady hand on the wheel when it comes to our foreign policy and national defense. The President is falling short.

"We should be able to work together to fix our crumbling infrastructure, but President Trump does not appear to be serious about pushing a bipartisan proposal. Rather than propose the investment needed to modernize our infrastructure, the President is touting harmful environmental rollbacks that will endanger human health and the environment and threaten our communities here in New Jersey. We do not need to sacrifice a safe environment in order to modernize our infrastructure and expand our economy."