Terming Trump’s budget proposal “dumb,” the Indian American congressman says he is worried about the president’s proposal to block foreign aid.
Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna, who represents the 17th Congressional District of California, called out the Republicans for rubber-stamping President Trump and said they are making a “bargain with the devil” to achieve their vision of dismantling the state.
“And this is why I think Republicans give Trump so much allowance. You talk to members of congress and they don’t agree with everything he says. Even Republicans. They are as embarrassed,” Khanna said in a video interview to TYT Politics, which was posted on the web on Monday. “Why aren’t they speaking out? It’s because he is helping achieve their vision which is the dismantling of the administrative state. The dismantling of the new deal, in a way that Ronald Reagan even didn’t. So they are saying, OK, we are gonna make the bargain with the devil. He is giving us what we want. Let’s ignore everything else.”
Responding to a question on what bothers him the most about the recent budget proposal, which might get passed, too, Khanna said “foreign aid.”
“I mean, I can’t think of a more dump proposal than, frankly, than cutting that [foreign aid].” He said that he is worried that the Republicans would not push back on cutting the US foreign aid. He said, on humanitarian grounds, the US should continue to extend help to other countries.
Khanna compared Trump’s policies with that of President George W. Bush, who, he said, had helped people with HIV in Africa. “And here, you know, George Bush, I disagreed with him about everything Bush-Cheney did. The one thing he did, what we should all give him credit for is he helped save people in Africa with HIV,” Khanna said. “We put billions of dollars in foreign aid to help people with the anti-viral drugs.”
Questioning Trump’s proposal to cut foreign aid, he said that it is un-American. He said that America’s foreign aid budget is less than one percent and it should be defended as it goes for “humanitarian causes.”
The 40-year-old Khanna said that he felt “annoyed” after Trump said that his “America First” policy is in “America’s national interest” and advised other nations to follow their self-interest. “Well I thought the whole idea about American exceptionalism is that we are not all nations. Yeah, other nations just follow their national interest. We care about morality. We care about humanity. That’s what makes America exceptional. So, we should care about the moral case of what we are gonna do for other countries.”
Khanna, who ran his first election at the age of 27, was elected to the United States House of Representative from 17th District race in November 2016. He defeated incumbent Mike Honda with an impressive margin. During the interview, Khanna said that he prefers to respond and stay connected with the grassroots, and that helped him during his elections too.
“I think we all have to try better to build grassroots networks in our districts. And to realize that you don’t have to put money on TV. The way I beat the incumbent Mike Honda was by I responded to every Facebook comment by myself. I tweeted at people who tweeted at me,” Khanna said.
The congressman is one of the only six members of the US House of Representatives who do not accept PAC money.
(This post has been updated.)
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