Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Republican Tax Plan To Slash Essential Programs For Working Americans And Give Tax Breaks To The Ultra-Wealthy, While Doing Nothing To Alleviate Rising Costs

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor following the Senate Budget Committee’s markup of Republicans’ reconciliation bill, which provides tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy while gutting programs that help working Americans, such as Medicaid, school lunches, prescription drug reform, and cancer research. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

Well, my colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, my fellow Americans, welcome to the age of Trumpflation.

If there was one mandate that Donald Trump had after winning the election, it was to fight inflation.

Remember what he said on the campaign: “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.”

Starting on day one, he said, he will bring prices down. Well, today is day twenty-five.

And inflation is not down, but actually up by 3% – higher than what economists were expecting.

At the grocery store, the price of pork and chicken and beef are all up.

Eggs are up 15% from last month.

Gas prices are up 2% from last month.

Used cars are up and auto insurance has become more expensive.

And what is Donald Trump doing about all this? He’s making the problem worse by threatening trade wars with our own allies.

The CEO of Ford Motor Company warned yesterday that “A 25% tariff across the Mexico and Canadian borders will blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen.” That's the head of Ford Motor – that’s not some liberal democratic economist.

The head of Ford Motor says that tariffs will blow a huge hole in the U.S. auto industry. What he is doing on tariffs is, again, sort of like everything else: it's sort of a meat axe approach, a slash-and-burn approach, not looking at each individual case and seeing what's good and what's bad.

Inflation is the number one issue on people’s minds. It was the biggest issue during the election.

And already Donald Trump is breaking his promise to do something about it.

And the American people are starting to take notice already, even though we are only on day twenty-five of President Trump’s term.

A recent CBS poll showed that 66% of voters do not think President Trump is focused enough on lowering prices.

66% of voters do not think President Trump is focused enough on lowering prices.

And you know what? They are absolutely right.

In the three weeks that Donald Trump has been president, he’s been focused on pretty much everything but fighting inflation, which is the number one thing people care about.

We’ve seen this maneuver so many times before from Donald Trump. He knows that he has no real answers for fixing inflation, so what does he do?

He distracts. He distorts. He says ridiculous and wild and strange things hoping to distract the country from the fact that he’s not doing his job.

It’s why he talks about things like renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

It’s why he’s talking about hotels in Gaza.

It’s why he’s talking about annexing Canada.

None of these things have anything to do with the thing that matters most: lowering the cost of living for average American families.

And meanwhile, what are the Republicans doing here in Congress? What are my Senate Republican colleagues doing?

Are they fighting inflation, maybe?

No way.

Republicans are full steam ahead with cutting taxes for the ultra-rich, paid for on the backs of working and middle class families.

Just look at the gargoyle-like budget proposal that the House Republicans released yesterday.

Republicans want to make billionaires even wealthier by raising costs for working people.

The Republican budget slashes nutrition programs that help forty million Americans put food on the table.

The Republican budget proposes massive cuts to Medicaid, threatening health care for tens of millions of people.

It will make food, health care, energy, and housing more expensive.

And it’s all to cut taxes for the ultra-rich. It’s about hurting the middle class, raising costs for the middle class, all to help the ultra-wealthy.

The Republican budget plan can be described in one word: radical.

Republicans should remember well what happened the last time they cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy: it backfired with the rest of America.

If Republicans try to cut taxes for the ultra-rich again, history is going to repeat itself and it will cost them dearly at the ballot box.

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