As Mulvaney attempted to respond by claiming that he was “not even sure” about the numbers being pulled from the budget he helped craft, Merkley retorted, “That is the amount in your budget and you should be aware of that when you come to testify here.”

Merkley plowed ahead, asking, “What’s more important, Mr. Director: the heating program or the tax cut to Wells Fargo, which has defrauded hundreds of thousands of people across this country? Which is more important: educating our children or more money for the Koch brothers?”

With his time coming to a close, Merkley concluded: “This is an administration by and for the powerful, and about undermining the opportunity for ordinary families to thrive.”

Watch:

Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.