Months into his first term, his short time in Washington D.C. has Congressman Hakeem Jeffries convinced the Tea Party is out of control.
“Every day I’m in Washington D.C., I’m focused on two things: battling the Tea Party and standing up for President Obama,” Mr. Jeffries, a Democrat, said last night at a Brooklyn fundraiser for his successor, Assemblyman Walter Mosley. “The Tea Party folks, they’re off the chain. From my perspective, the right thing to do for the country is to make sure we invest in our economy and we stand up for programs like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid–and stand up for the most vulnerable people among us.”
Mr. Jeffries added that he would take the fight to the whole “crew” of Republican leadership, drawing wild applause from his supporters at the Crown Heights restaurant.
“As opposed to what the other side wants to do, which is to basically balance the budget on the backs of children and seniors, working families and the middle class,” he said. “And despite what John Boehner says, despite Paul Ryan, despite that whole crew, we’re not going to let it happen.”
Since replacing the retired Edolphus Towns, Mr. Jeffries has been appointed to the Budget Committee and Judiciary Committee. Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, one of the GOP’s rising stars, chairs the Budget Committee and has aggressively pushed for spending cuts as a way to trigger economic growth.
Mr. Jeffries, needless to say, is no fan of that approach.
