Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Extreme MAGA House Republicans Sowing Chaos With Threats Of A Default Crisis

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the House Republicans doubling down on their debt ceiling brinkmanship in the aftermath of shocks to the banking system. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

In the aftermath of major bank collapses, House Republicans have spent this week not calling for calm, but sowing chaos. Chaos seems to be their calling card.

Earlier this week, House GOP members, including the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, said now is “the best time” to double down on debt ceiling brinkmanship and hostage taking.

They suggest, absurdly, that Democrats and Democratic policies are somehow to blame for what went wrong with Silicon Valley Bank. And they are trying to arbitrarily link the banks’ collapse with the debt ceiling debate.

This is a stupendously bad idea. This is an idea that has no logic, has no linear thinking in it at all. It’s just throwing things together, throwing spaghetti on the wall. Threatening the full faith and credit of the United States is never appropriate, but at a time when markets require stability, it’s supremely reckless.

Republicans should remember that poor management, and deregulation under President Trump, made these bank collapses possible. It wasn’t Democratic policies. And I would remind my Republican colleagues of this very important and telling fact: Inflation and interest rates are impacting institutions everywhere—but the vast majority of banks that have been properly managed are not in crisis.

So, the Republican convoluted argument falls very, very flat. If this environment is so bad for banks, why aren’t all the banks affected? No, it’s the few who are mismanaged. It’s the few who are not regulated properly by the regulators. So, to link the collapses with the debt ceiling—to suggest that these incidents should justify even more brinkmanship and hostage taking—is stunningly reckless.

Instead of trying to provoke financial catastrophe, Republican leaders should stop hiding from the American people, stop coming up with diversions and subterfuges, and finally show us your plan!

Today is March 23. It’s been long enough.

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