Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Republican Efforts To Cut Taxes For Billionaires At The Expense Of Working And Middle-Class Americans

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor condemning Republicans’ push to provide tax breaks for billionaires while neglecting working and middle-class Americans and announcing Democratic amendments to block these efforts and protect critical programs like Medicaid. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

In a few moments, Senators will begin voting on amendments to the Republican plan that cuts taxes for the ultra-rich.

Everything Donald Trump and the Republicans have done over the last month – all the chaos, all the lawlessness that we have seen – serves one crooked goal: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Republicans are trying to give their billionaire buddies a tax break and have you, the American people, pay the cost.

It can be summed up very simply in this wonderful chart that my friend from Oregon has put together. What the chart says: under the Republican plan: Families lose, billionaires win.

What could be further from what Americans want? What could be further?

Tonight, Democrats are going to force Republicans to defend their tax cuts for billionaires like Elon Musk. 

We’re going to be here all night. We’re going to put forward amendments forcing Republicans to defend their unpopular agenda, exposing Republicans’ plan for what it is: a massive, massive billionaire giveaway, paid for on the backs of working class and middle class Americans.

The Republicans know they want to hide this. They know it's not popular. They know 80% of the American people dislike this plan.

So, Donald Trump and others obfuscate. They want us to pay attention to Gulf of America, building hotels in Gaza, annexing Canada. Why? Why are they doing these bits of foolishness?

They don't want the American people to see that the Republican plan has families lose and billionaires win.

Our Amendments will come in three categories: one focused on tax cuts for the billionaires, trying to undo those.

One focused on the damage Republicans will inflict on American families, in order to pay for their tax cuts.

And one bucket, the final bucket, focused on lawlessness and corruption, done in service to create chaos so they can cut taxes for billionaires.

Those are the categories. One focused on tax cuts for billionaires, one focused on damage Republicans inflict on American families to pay for those tax cuts, and one on President Trump's lawlessness and corruption, done in service to create chaos so they can cut taxes for billionaires.

Let me repeat: tonight, Democrats will force Republicans to defend their cuts for billionaires.

Tonight will just be the first time. We'll be doing this over and over again because we know Republicans don't want the American people to know that that’s their North Star. Almost everything they do is aimed at getting those tax breaks for the billionaires.

We’re also going to force Republicans to defend their cuts on American families, cutting health care, and Medicaid, and education, and housing, and more, all to pay for the tax cuts for their billionaires buddies.

Finally, Democrats will force the Republicans to defend Donald Trump’s scorched earth assault on the rule of law, an assault he is waging in order to put more money in the pockets of billionaires.

That is what tonight is all about: how Republicans want to help billionaires win, American families lose, and the rule of law burn to the ground.

I thank my colleagues for bringing the amendments to the floor.

We're going to be here all night. We have lots of amendments that are in these three categories.

It will be a long night, but it’s a debate the American people need to see and deserve to see. And that's why we're here.

We Democrats are glad to have this debate. Let's have it two or three more times, when they come up with this new reconciliation and when the House and Senate Republicans finally get their act together. Bring it on.

I am proud to offer tonight’s very first amendment, one that makes a simple proposal: no billionaire should get another tax break.

That’s it. That’s the amendment.

You make a billion dollars, God bless you. You're doing fine, but you don't deserve a tax break.

I’d love to hear the Republicans argue why, of all people who need a tax break right now, it’s the billionaire class.

In this era of high inflation and growing inequality, billionaires aren’t the ones who should be getting the massive tax giveaway. They are doing just fine.

Instead, we should be helping working and middle class Americans get better jobs, earn higher paychecks, pay lower costs.

So tonight, the very first question Republicans must answer is this: do you agree, Mr. And Mrs. Republican Senator –that billionaires should not be getting another tax break, yes or no?

And if you don’t think a billionaire should get a tax break, just vote with us in supporting this amendment.

We will get our answer very, very soon. And that answer the American people are going to see over and over and over again. Over the next hours, the next days, the next weeks, the next months.

The second amendment will be offered by Senator Klobuchar, to prevent Republicans from lowering taxes for billionaires if the price of food keeps going up.

Donald Trump said when he was campaigning, he’d bring inflation down on day one.

But inflation is going President Trump, it's going up. What about your promise? It's going to go down on day one?

Grocery prices are up.

Chicken, pork, steak more expensive.

Eggs are up 15% from last month.

While Americans continue to struggle paying for groceries, feeding their kids, the last thing we should be doing is cutting taxes for the richest of the rich in this country.

And I will offer the third amendment of the evening: one that stops Republicans from kicking people off Medicaid to pay for their billionaire tax breaks.

Eighty million Americans, a little less than a quarter of all Americans, get health insurance through Medicaid, from newborn kids to working moms to seniors in nursing homes and assisted living homes.

Republicans have made it crystal-clear that gutting Medicaid is one of their main strategies for paying for their massive tax cuts.

Look no further than the House Republican proposal. It has a huge amount of the cuts to Medicaid.

What do you tell people who use community health centers, which give efficient health care, Mr. Musk?

What do you tell a family who has a mom in a nursing home and that nursing home will get cuts, so the mom has to come home and live with that family, build a new room in the house? And wood prices are going up if President Trump puts in his tariffs.

What do you tell them? And remember, I would remind my colleagues, when you tried this in 2017 – tax cuts for the rich, cutting health care, in that case, ACA – America didn't like it. They're not going to like it again.

My amendment will ask Republicans: do they really want to cut taxes for billionaires so badly that they’re willing to take health care away from kids, that they’re willing kick grandparents out of nursing homes, abandon Americans with disabilities, and take away health care from rural America?

We will see what they do.

Republicans can spin their agenda however they want.

They certainly will try to change the subject. They won't admit that their tax breaks are aimed at the wealthiest.

They can try to pass two bills. They can try to pass fifty bills. It doesn't matter.

They can slice and dice their policies in whatever order they wish.

It doesn’t matter in the end.

Republicans’ North Star is singular, unchanging: they’re trying to give their billionaire buddies a tax break and have you, the American people, American families, pay the cost.

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