Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Senate Democrats Exposing Republicans' Cruel And Dangerous Budget Resolution

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor ahead of tonight’s vote-a-rama to lay out how Senate Democrats will shine a light on the Republican budget resolution for what it is: a cruel, dangerous scheme to gut Medicaid, rip away health care from millions, and hand billions in tax breaks to the ultra-rich—all at the expense of hardworking American families. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

The Republican bill that now sits before the Senate is poison.

Last night, Senate Republicans began the process to pass legislation eviscerating Medicaid, crushing the health care of the young and old alike, and squandering their future and our future.

First thing this morning, we will talk about why they are doing this: so they can achieve tax cuts for the ultra rich. 

Slashing Medicaid so cruelly and callously would be bad enough.

But as Americans learn that they are doing it simply to give tax cuts to the ultra rich, an electric shock is going to go through the American people, and they will cry out, “what the hell is going on? Donald Trump is betraying us.”

This is the Republican agenda, plain and simple: billionaires win, American families lose.

Republicans have failed to be honest with the country, about the true nature of their cuts.

Today, this morning, Senate Democrats will come to the floor to put the Republican agenda on trial before the court of public opinion.

Democrats will expose the dark corners of Republicans’ plan.

We will explain the devastating consequences and highlight the many injustices that Republicans will inflict on people’s health, on their financial security, on their children’s’ future, and, in fact, on the very future of the American Dream itself.

I spoke, many of us spoke, on the issue of Medicaid last night, and I thank my colleagues who did the same: Senators Merkley and Durbin, Baldwin, Hassan, Kim, Reed, Cortez-Masto, Slotkin, Klobuchar, Welch, Warnock, and Bennet.

We will continue today, this morning, exposing Republicans’ morally bankrupt tax breaks for billionaires and then Donald Trump’s dumb and costly tariffs.

They have tried to hide the Medicaid cuts. They have tried to hide their billionaire tax giveaways. If Republicans won't be straight with the American people about their agenda, Democrats are glad to do it for them. Today, Senate Democrats will come to the floor to put the Republican agenda on trial before the court of public opinion, as I said before.

So, we continue today, first by exposing Republicans' morally bankrupt tax breaks for billionaires.

Then Donald Trump's dumb costly tariffs.

We will proceed then to talk about the need to stand up for our veterans and national security. Donald Trump has made even the most conservative veterans organizations angry.

We will then talk about the unprecedented corruption and self-dealing Donald Trump has unleashed in our government. He and Musk seem to want to make themselves richer using their government positions, and their families as well to gain even more wealth.

And finally, on the existential fight to protect Social Security from the chainsaw of Elon Musk.

We'll speak on all of these issues as the day goes on. Democrats will expose the dark corners of Republicans’ plan.

This is the fight the American people need to see.

Because people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake.

The health care that protects our kids is in danger.

The benefits that keep our seniors whole are at risk.

The investments that unlock America’s future is hanging by a thread, and Republicans are about to cut it.

Why? Why do they do all of this? What is the purpose to all this nastiness?

It cannot be said enough: Republicans are trying to give the ultra-rich another tax break.

Another tax break. They have plenty of money. Taking away someone's Social Security, cutting their Medicaid, telling veterans they don't get health care all to give tax cuts to the wealthy. What an awful scheme.

Why are they doing this? Frankly, they are in a billionaire’s bubble. It’s a small group of greedy billionaires, which always sought to control the Republican Party.

A lot of them have been plotting to do this for over a decade, with their think tanks and their right-wing media voices, and they are taking over other media and social media. But they have been trying to do it for a long time, these super rich, super greedy billionaires. And with Donald Trump, they've succeeded.

These billionaires are running the show, plain and simple. These billionaires, who don't have any understanding of what the average family goes through when they sit at the dinner table and say how are we going to buy the new car, how are we going to go on that little vacation to visit grandma, how are we going to give our kids the best school supplies and education they need? They have no understanding of this.

It’s exemplified when Howard Lutnick, another one of these billionaires, told his mother-in-law she might not get another Social Security payment and she said she doesn't need it. Of course, if your son-in-law is a billionaire, Mr. Lutnick, yeah, it's easy. What about everybody else? This billionaires' bubble is so limited, they only talk to each other. They don't even think of the harm they're doing to average people, or they don't want to know about it. So, they listen to one another and refuse to understand working people, and that is sickening.

And when Democrats expose all these cuts to health care and veteran's aid and nutrition assistance for the American people to see, the American people will think it’s sickening too.

That is the fight Democrats will have here on the senate floor today, tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year.

Democrats will fight every which way against these vicious attack on American families, where billionaires win and families lose.

We will fight this awful bill and shine a light on these terrible cuts for all the American people to see.

And, when the American people see it they won’t like it, they will despise it. Senate Republicans – your embrace of the billionaires' agenda puts you on a path of despair and defeat: despair among the millions of Americans you cruelly flay, and defeat for you and your agenda.

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