Ayanna Pressley rips Trump budget chief over cuts: ‘There’s nothing Christian about this’

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Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) on Wednesday hammered Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought over the Trump administration’s budget cuts, invoking faith and Vought’s past writings to excoriate him and President Trump’s “reckless policies.”

Speaking to the OMB chief at a House Committee on Financial Services hearing, where Vought was testifying on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) budget in his capacity as acting head of the agency, the Massachusetts Democrat focused her remarks largely on Americans’ medical debt.

Pressley asked Vought if he had one “good reason” why the CFPB last fall issued a nonbinding interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act saying that states and Washington, D.C., cannot lift medical debt from credit reports.

The move marked a reversal from the Biden administration, which had issued a rule permitting medical debt to be wiped from credit reports before a federal judge struck it down.

Unsatisfied with Vought’s answer, Pressley brought up Christianity.

“You avow that you are a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist,” she said, seemingly referring to Vought’s 2021 opinion piece entitled, “Is There Anything Actually Wrong With ‘Christian Nationalism?’”

“I’m sure you spent some time in Sunday school,” Pressley added, to which Vought responded, “That’s a pejorative and you know it, congresswoman.”

“Did you happen upon a scripture that said, ‘Thou shall make their neighbor poorer, hungrier, sicker and less safe’?” the House Democrat asked.

Pressley cut Vought off as he attempted to respond, saying, “That’s actually what you’ve done. I didn’t ask you to speak.”

“You have dedicated your career to helping corporations get richer, making families sicker, hungrier or poorer or less safe, and there is nothing Christian about that,” she added later while raising her voice.

Asked by Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.) if he would like to defend his faith following Pressley’s questions, Vought said, “No need to. She’s using pejoratives that the other side has continued to use. That’s okay.”

The tense back-and-forth comes weeks after House Democrats pressed Vought on the administration’s decision to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which a report from House Oversight Democrats found had likely contributed to 600,000 “entirely preventable” deaths worldwide.

“Isn’t it wrong to facilitate the death of children?” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) asked Vought at the hearing, nodding to the related studies.

Pocan then referenced Vought’s writings on Christian nationalism while questioning whether the administration’s actions aligned with his religious beliefs.

“Isaiah 58:7 commands, quote, ‘Share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter.’ Are you saying God was misquoted or wrong?” Pocan asked, referring to a Bible verse.

Vought rejected the premise that the administration’s funding cuts directly or indirectly resulted in the deaths of children, and he accused the lawmaker of slander.

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Ayanna Pressley

Ayanna Pressley

CFPB

christian nationalism

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

John Rose

Mark Pocan

OMB

Russ Vought

Russ Vought

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