STAEMENT FROM U.S> REP. TOM MALINOWSKI (D-7):

“At the State of the Union, President Trump called for unity. He honored our veterans by acknowledging our World War II heroes, and he highlighted our country’s achievements by celebrating those who had gone where no man had gone before. I applauded the president’s call that we work as patriots, not partisans, on issues like infrastructure and health care. But then I heard far more specifics about building walls than about building bridges.

“The President asked us to choose greatness. To me, greatness does not mean mortgaging the future of our middle class by giving tax cuts to our wealthiest citizens. It does not include betraying our values by banning immigrants based on their religion, or trying to discredit our law enforcement institutions and the patriots of our intelligence community. It is not advanced by shutting down our government for 35 days to force your will on the Congress and the American people.  It is not achieved by denying the right to health care to our most vulnerable citizens.

“My guest for the evening was Hing Foo Lee, whose brother John Lee passed away two weeks ago after a brave battle with cancer. After his diagnosis, John spent the remainder of his life fighting to secure the rights of those with preexisting conditions.

“I believe in our country’s greatness. We need to rebuild America by investing in infrastructure, including the Gateway Project, which is essential to America’s economic prosperity. We need to lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs instead of making it easier for insurance companies to charge more for less inclusive coverage. We need to protect immigrants who come here seeking a better life, rather than turning our backs on refugees and closing our borders and our hearts to others. We need to protect our alliances with those friends who have stood by us for decades, not threaten to abandon them in search of a ‘better deal’.

“I will continue to fight in this Congress to make sure not only New Jersey, but our country, lives up to the ideals we have long stood for.”