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Voices from NYC Protest Against House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Visit to NYC Charter School

Web ExclusiveMay 11, 2017
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In New York City, hundreds of people protested House Speaker Paul Ryan’s visit to a Harlem charter school Tuesday. The protesters were demonstrating against Congressmember Ryan’s healthcare plan, which would strip healthcare from millions of Americans, and his backing of charter school companies, such as Success Academy, which operates the Harlem school and 33 other schools across New York City.

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This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

PROTESTERS: Paul Ryan, shame on you! Greedy, cruel, selfish, too! Paul Ryan, shame on you!

WILHELMINA PERRY: I’m Dr. Wilhelmina Perry, and I’m a community activist, and I represent LGBT faith leaders of African descent. I’m here because I object to the policies that are regressive of this administration. And I believe that Ryan and DeVos are not to be able to come to Harlem and find that we are accepting. We are protesting against their being here.

PROTESTERS: You work for us! You work for us! You work for us!

TIM MURPHY: I’m Tim Murphy, with the anti-Trump, anti-extreme-right group RiseAndResist.org. And we’re here today with other groups to tell Paul Ryan we think he is shameful. Watching him and those other men drink beer last night and laugh and toast each other, when they just succeeded in taking a step toward stripping millions of poor, vulnerable people that rely on Obamacare and expanded Medicaid—to see them celebrating that, to see them celebrating nothing but stripping people of basic healthcare, is sickening.

PROTESTERS: Hands off our healthcare! Hands off our schools!

MARIA BAUTISTA: My name is Maria Bautista. I’m with the Alliance for Quality Education. Eva Moskowitz, the CEO—CEO of a school—has invited Paul Ryan, who has attacked people’s dignity and access to healthcare, right? That’s a basic human need. Actually brings him into a school that’s a majority black and brown community, that are going to be disproportionately impacted by Paul Ryan’s policies, by Trumpcare. And we’re saying, no, we’re not having it.

PROTESTERS: For trying to kill the ACA, Paul Ryan, you will pay!

MARY SOMOZA: My name is Mary Somoza, and this is Alba Samosa, my daughter. Her twin sister cannot be here today, Anastasia Somoza, who spoke at the DNC on behalf of people with disabilities, 56 million Americans with disabilities. I am the mother of four children, that include two with significant disabilities—cerebral palsy from birth, pre-existing conditions. My daughters are Medicaid recipients. All their services—wheelchairs, healthcare, visiting doctors—will be gone, because they’re going to put block grants on Medicaid, and they’re taking $800 billion out of the Medicaid system. So, what that comes down to, it’s always the most vulnerable people who suffer. And there are many of them in this state and around the country, including Trump supporters.

PROTESTERS: Paul Ryan, shame on you!

PROTESTER: Paul Ryan! Paul Ryan!

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