Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Senate Democrats’ Continued Focus On Working To Lower Costs For The American People

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding Senate Democrats’ continued focus on working to lower costs, build on historic job growth, and expand opportunity for the middle class. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday we saw another instance of Republicans going out of their way to show the American people where their priorities truly lie.

A few months ago, the junior Senator from Florida callously called inflation quote a “gold mine” for the Republican Party. People are suffering in pain more, and the Senator from Florida says it's a gold mine for the Republicans?

A few weeks ago, we saw what he meant. That same Senator released a party platform that openly called for raising taxes on millions of American families potentially by more than $1,000 a year. People can’t afford that!

And yesterday, the junior Senator from Wisconsin called for the GOP to revive their failed efforts to rip away affordable health care for tens of millions of Americans, a fresh reminder of an old desire that Republicans have harbored for over a decade.

Cheerleading inflation. Raising taxes on working Americans. Repealing affordable health care.

Is that the platform of today’s Republican Party?

At this point perhaps the Senator from Wisconsin should join the Senator from Florida in creating a new Hurting Working Families Caucus, so we can more easily keep track of their truly repressive vision for the American people.

Meanwhile, Democrats believe we should be lowering costs for Americans, not raising them. We should be working, on a bipartisan basis, to fight inflation, not root for it to go up.

So tomorrow, Democrats will hold our annual DPCC retreat to discuss our plan to lower costs, building on historic job growth, and expand opportunity for the middle class.

Over the next few months, my colleagues will begin holding hearings and markups on many of our cost cutting proposals. Among the ideas we are working on include bills to cap insulin costs at $35 a month, lowering the cost of meat at the grocery store, reforming unfair shipping practices that raise the cost of American good for everybody, and fixing domestic supply chains.

These are the issues that the American people need help with, it is what Democrats will maintain a focus on, and I thank my Republican colleagues for helping us remind the American people which party truly stands in their corner.

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