Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Exposing The Republican Tax Plan To Provide Tax Breaks For The Ultra-Wealthy At The Expense Of The American People

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to expose Republicans’ reconciliation bill, emphasizing that it would provide tax breaks for the billionaire class while slashing essential programs for working Americans, like Medicaid, housing funding and the NIH. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

This week will mark one month since Donald Trump was sworn in as president.

In his first month, Donald Trump has waged a scorched earth campaign against the rule of law and against the very system of checks and balances that has kept America together for two and a half centuries.

Why? Why are they doing this?

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Republicans are doing it all for one simple goal: they’re trying to give their billionaire buddies a tax break and have you, the American people, pay the cost.

This week – Senate Republicans will take the next major step to achieving Donald Trump’s agenda here on the Senate floor.

Senate Democrats will expose Republicans’ reconciliation budget bill exactly for what it is – a sinister front for clearing the way to cut taxes for Donald Trump’s billionaire friends.

This is going to be a long, drawn out fight. This reconciliation budget bill is only the first step, albeit an important one.

Democrats are glad to have this debate with the Republicans.

We will show the hollowness of Republicans’ arguments on cutting waste.

We will expose Republican attempts to cut health care, to cut Medicaid, to cut housing, to cut NIH, to empower DOGE so it incinerates basic services that help tens of millions of people, all so Republicans can help their billionaire buddies with another tax break.

Of course, Republicans will deny all this and try to change the subject.

Just like when Donald Trump tries to change the subject by talking about the Gulf of Mexico, or hotels in Gaza, or annexing Canada.

These are all distractions so people don’t see the Republicans’ real goal. And what is their goal? It’s worth repeating again and again and again, and we will: Donald Trump and Republicans are trying to give billionaires a tax break and have you pay the cost.

They can do it in one bill, they can do it in two bills, they can do it in fifty bills, it doesn’t matter.

The end game is the same: tax cuts for billionaires paid for on the backs of working and middle class Americans.

In fact, everything we have seen so far in Donald Trump’s presidency has been about rigging the game for the billionaire class.

From firing independent government watchdogs, to illegally freezing trillions for veterans care and Head Start and Community Health Centers, to giving Elon Musk Americans’ Social Security numbers – and even, potentially, people’s private tax and health records – to defying court orders, to demonizing judges—everything Donald Trump has done so far is meant to dismantle the rule of law so that billionaires can run the show in Donald Trump’s America.

If you don’t believe me, Elon Musk is already holding court in the Oval Office and meeting one-on-one with heads of state.

All the while, DOGE is taking a meat axe to health care and education and aviation safety and so many other services, without thinking about the consequences for American families and for America.

DOGE talks on and on and on about cutting wasteful spending, but look at what is actually happening.

FAA workers – people who keep our skies safe – are being fired in droves, even as aviation accidents increase. 

Apparently DOGE thinks that’s government waste.

The VA, meanwhile, has fired over a thousand staffers, including people who manage the Veterans Crisis Line.

Apparently DOGE thinks that’s government waste.

The FDA, under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is firing staffers who keep our food safe and review medical devices.

Apparently, again, DOGE thinks that’s government waste. No one else does. They do.

Donald Trump and DOGE even tried to fire hundreds of staffers who safeguard America’s nuclear stockpile. Imagine firing people who guard our nuclear stockpile, all to help their billionaire buddies with another tax cut.

Can you believe how dangerous and foolish this is?

Donald Trump and Elon Musk were willing to risk the safety of America, all in the name of tax cuts.

This example shows clear as day that DOGE doesn’t actually care about increasing efficiency.

DOGE is simply taking a meat axe at government in defiance of the law and without thinking of the consequences, all so that Donald Trump and Republicans can give their billionaire buddies a big tax break.

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