TRANSCRIPT: Majority Leader Schumer Remarks At Press Conference Unveiling DPCC Report On Devastating Impact Of House GOP Budget Proposals On American Families

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the devastating impact that House GOP budget proposals would have on American families. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Okay, good afternoon everybody, and thank you all for coming. I'm here---I’m joined by Senators Stabenow, Murray, and Whitehouse, as you can see, to unveil a report on devastating impacts the House GOP budget proposal would have on American families. These are not abstract issues, these hurt real people, and they hurt them a lot. First, I want to thank our amazing DPCC leader Deb Stabenow, for her incredible work in helping put this report together, which is not just important to our caucus, but for our country to learn, understand, and actually humanize what the GOP proposal would do to their lives. These things are not abstract. They hurt and they hurt real. And this is the great report that Senator Stabenow has put together.

And let me tell you some of the things that would happen, if the GOP proposal went into effect. First 21,000 law enforcement officers would be eliminated nationwide, hurting American security. One million babies’ access to formula would be denied, because of the cuts of WIC benefits. One million babies not getting their formula. This is not some abstract exercise. This is real pain. It would slash $582 million from opioid epidemic funding. We have a lot of our Republican friends complaining about the lack of good help with opioids.

We're doing a lot, we've done a lot in the last year. But now they want to cut $582 million from that. It would cut $950 million in CBDG grants which helped pay for law enforcement, public service, strengthen communities. So many of our middle sized and smaller communities depend on CBDG. Gone. $472 million from LIHEAP in a state like mine, like Sheldon's, like Debbie's, not so much. It's nice and warm. And yeah, all right. Anyway, all of our states. Yes, I've been in the lowlands and Whidbey Island where she lives, anyway. $472 million from LIHEAP. Senior citizens in particular depend on this money. $108 million from VA medical research for our nation's heroes. There's so much that's done, as this report demonstrates. 3000 CBP border agents, and 640 million in border security.

We hear a lot from the other side about border security on the one hand, and then on the other hand, they want to slash it. It just doesn't add up. Now, this isn't a massive surprise. Right out of the gate, MAGA Republicans in the House show their true colors by voting to benefit rich corporations over hardworking Americans. But I have to admit, these cuts are awful. And even worse than you would think. In other words, when you hear they're going to make cuts, people like us who've been around a while, they say oh, these are going to be bad. But when you actually do the numbers, as this report does, you see how devastating, how awful they are.

So the report makes it very clear the difference between MAGA Republicans and Democrats. I'm proud of that difference. We want to help our veterans, support feeding our children, support our seniors, keep people secure, while the MAGA GOP schemes ways to benefit wealthy tax cheats under the guise of reducing the deficit. That's all they care about. They don't care if they hurt infants, they don't care if they hurt average folks, as long as they can tell their rich friends they're cutting government spending so they can cut their taxes once again. It's just gross. Democrats are fighting for families, will continue to shed light on the radical MAGA agenda that hurts Americans, and we're not stopping anytime soon.

You're going to hear more from us, and more from us, and more from us about how bad these cuts are, and that's why they're having such trouble putting together, showing us, actually, what the cuts would be in deficit reduction, because maybe even some of their more mainstream members would never tolerate cuts like this. Senator Stabenow.

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