The Democrats Will Always Promise Free Stuff, They Will Always Come Up Short

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a brand-new episode of the Republican Study Committee's (RSC) Right to the Point podcast, Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-24) sits down with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11) to discuss the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the historical repercussions of socialist policies.

Drawing from personal experiences, the Congresswomen describe how socialism serves as the transitional stage for the government to abolish private property and concentrate economic authority, ultimately paving the way for communism and total government control of people’s daily lives. They discuss how they are already seeing the consequences of socialist policies in New York under Mamdani.

The Congresswomen discuss how President Trump and Republicans delivered the Working Families Tax Cuts Act to ensure hardworking Americans got to keep more of their money, restored law and order at the U.S. southern border to improve safety in American communities, and rooted out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs to protect taxpayer dollars. They warn that this progress could be undone if the DSA continues to gain power in the federal government.

You can listen to the full episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Read highlights from the conversation below:

Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-24): “Define socialism. What is it? You have a unique family background. You have a unique exposure to it with your mother being a refugee from Cuba many years ago. Tell us about it a little bit.”

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11): “My mother fled Communist Cuba in 1959. And the way that my mother actually defines socialism is that it’s communism light. It is sort of the baby steps where they begin to implement changes. They begin to take away freedoms. They begin to ration things, to implement price controls that are very destructive to the economy. And they do this in a way to test it and see how far they can get. And if they’re successful and they're able to consolidate more power then they move on to communism, which obviously, that's when you really start to lose your freedoms, whether it be freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble and protest. And sadly, there are countries where they’ve gone that far. Communist Cuba is one of them. And Venezuela, quite frankly, is also one of them. In fact, Venezuela was the richest country in South America prior to the rise of Hugo Chavez and then Nicolas Maduro.”

Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-24): “I hate the DSA because it’s communism. It’s the left, most extreme wing of its party, and it’s becoming mainstream. Explain what you think led to this modern insurgence of socialism, communism. And why do you think we’re seeing a rise in and across the country? Why is it so captivating, especially to young voters and the youth…Why are they getting so manipulated by this narrative?”

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11): “I think the idea of free stuff is attractive to young people, and I think a lot of it starts with our education system, that these young people are being indoctrinated there. And sadly, they’re born here in the United States, have never known anything else, so they don’t know what it’s like…I think it’s important we look at our education system. We also look at foreign money that is coming from, let’s say, communist China, funneling through nonprofits to political activity.”

Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-24): “The DSA recently came out with their policy platform that would fundamentally dismantle America as we know it. They called for abolishing the US Senate, granting amnesty to illegal immigrants with the continued open borders…replacing the President and the Supreme Court with Congress and defunding our military. This is a direct attack on our Constitution…How do you square that with our constitutional system, when the DSA is really just a subversive movement trying to really destroy the foundations of America?”

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11): “They’re actually anarchists who want to destroy America…This is a type of anti-American rhetoric, and it's coming to Congress. These are people who are going to be in the halls of Congress. They’re going to [be] voting members of Congress next year…They’re taking these pages right out of the playbook of Karl Marx and the communists. So, government-run supermarkets, that's what they've had in these countries, whether it was the Soviet Union, whether it was communist Cuba, whether it was Venezuela, it led to bare shelves and starvation and massive weight loss among the people.”

Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-24): “So under President Trump, we have the most secure border in modern history. We've seen historic efforts to root out waste, fraud and abuse across the government. And we’ve seen a restoration of law and order after mission creep by the Biden administration. Congressional Republicans are working to clean up that mess. And I think people should know that no other president in American history has done more to actually cut the federal government than President Trump, between his first and second terms, to reduce the size of government and really enhance our freedom… Do we risk losing progress?”

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11): “It’s bad enough that they’re going to be in Congress pushing this crazy radical ideology. But now if they're in the majority, they’re going to be in a position of power to be to be actually implementing some of these crazy things into law. I mean, they’re going to be the ones basically controlling the funding of the government. They’re going to be the ones who can do reconciliation and do all sorts of destruction there. They will raise taxes. They will reopen the border, right, and allow those drug traffickers and those criminal gangs and those transnational organizations, criminal organizations back into this country…These people are going to have access to very sensitive, classified intelligence and information that could certainly get in the wrong hands.”