Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Senate Democrats Exposing The Devastating Impact Of MAGA Republicans’ Default On America Act

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on steps Democrats are taking to expose the devastating impacts of MAGA Republicans’ “Default on America Act.” Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Last week, House Republicans rammed through a nakedly partisan bill to Default on America, without taking even a moment to explain how their bill would wreak havoc on our country.

That, of course, was by design. Republicans have known for years that their agenda is horribly unpopular with the American people. So the MAGA Party, the GOP, has used this default crisis to sneak their radical proposals through the back door.

Since MAGA Republicans, and House Republicans in general, have refused to level with the American people, Senate Democrats have been doing their work for them, exposing how the Default on America Act will crash the economy, raise costs, and kill millions of good paying jobs.

Yesterday, at an Appropriations Subcommittee hearing with Administrator Regan, Chair Murray and Subcommittee Chair Merkley showed how the Default on America Act will devastate clean water and cut programs that protect kids from harmful PFAS chemicals.

Chair Murray and Senator Heinrich also met with Deputy Secretary Turk and showed how the Default on America Act would slash scientific research and cripple American competitiveness, just after both parties passed CHIPS and Science. Here, we have finally passed good, strong, bipartisan legislation that will help us compete against the Chinese government, and what do the House Republicans, led by the MAGA group, do? They cut so much of that out. The American people don’t want that –  and they don’t even want the American people to know what they’re doing.

Today, the Senate Budget Committee is hearing from experts like Mark Zandi, of Moody’s Analytics—hardly a liberal stalwart—to show how Default on America will lead to hundreds of thousands of job cuts and diminished economic prosperity. And the Default on America Act, as you know, is the Republican “plan.” That is what we are calling it, and that’s what America knows.

And we won’t stop there: Senate Committees will continue next week showing how the MAGA Republican Default on America “plan” utterly reeks of MAGA Republican extremism. And it’s not a plan at all. It’s just a right-wing wish list thrown together in the House.

The stench is foul. Just look at the way the Republican bill treats our seniors.

One million seniors will lose access to Meals on Wheels if Republicans’ Default on America becomes law. These are seniors who often can’t leave their homes by themselves to get groceries, and need a hand from others. It’s incredible; tell seniors who are homebound they can’t get meals so that some right-wing billionaires don’t pay taxes? That’s the way these MAGA Republicans think, and that seems to be where House Republicans are following.

Or, look at the way the Default on America Act turns its back on our nation’s veterans.

If Republicans get their way, and the Default on America Act becomes law, up to 80,000 jobs at the Veterans Health Administration would be cut. Our nation’s veterans have dedicated their lives to keeping our country safe; there is no greater shame than intentionally depriving them of the resources to stay healthy, but that is precisely what the House Republican bill does.

And if anyone wonders whether or not House Republicans truly care about law enforcement and public safety, the Default on America Act would cut thirty thousand law enforcement jobs. Thirty thousand.

Let me emphasize that again, because it is a stunning revelation: if the Default on America Act becomes law, thirty thousand law enforcement jobs would be cut, our border patrol will be left hanging to dry, our communities that are fighting the opioid crisis, drugs, guns, would be less safe. This party, which has railed against those outside of this room who have said defund the police, are defunding the police.

Cuts to seniors. Cuts to veteran’s health. Cuts to federal law enforcement. These are just some of the consequences of the Default on America wish list that has been proposed by the MAGA Republicans and the Republican leadership in the House.

But the horrors don’t end there: the Default on America Act is loaded with poison pills that have nothing to do with averting default and everything to do with the hard right agenda.

The Default on America Act would deregulate fossil fuels and empower big oil, make life easier for wealthy tax cheats, and impose unpopular work requirements on vulnerable families.

There is no way the American people will accept legislation as flawed, as cruel, as hard right as the Republicans Default on America Act.

the Default on America Act cannot be credibly called any sort of plan from Speaker McCarthy to avoid default. It’s much more like a House Freedom Caucus Manifesto.

The solution here is staring Republicans in the face: do what we have already done under President Trump and President Biden, under both Democratic and Republican majorities. We should pass a clean bill to avoid default with no brinkmanship, no hostage taking.

If we do that, there will be no default on the national debt.

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