Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Senate Democrats’ Plans To Lower Costs For American Families
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding the need to continue working in a bipartisan way to lower costs for Americans. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
In President Biden’s first year the economy added 6.6 million new jobs—the most ever – ever – for a President’s first year.
This figure surpassed just about every forecast from a year ago. It’s a reflection of how far our economy has come since the start of COVID, and that the right leadership in office makes all the difference.
But we all know Americans still need more help, especially when it comes to lowering the cost of living. Democrats know what the American people know: the pandemic decimated our supply chains, our labor supply and much more, causing prices to increase for everyday items. We've never had a pandemic to this extent in a hundred years, and obviously it interrupted the economy. And its supply chains and labor supply.
For the past year, Democrats have been the party focused on finding solutions to lowering the cost of living for everyday Americans. As early as last summer, Democrats pushed to have the Senate approve legislation to relieve U.S. supply chains and increase domestic manufacturing, which thankfully was bipartisan and which the House passed recently as well. Soon the conference process for that bill will begin.
But this is just one example out of many.
For the past few weeks I’ve heard from my colleagues about a number of proposals they’ve been working on aimed squarely at helping Americans better afford the basics, from medications to the cost of food, to the cost of cars and more.
Later today, Democrats will use our weekly caucus lunch to talk more about some of the ideas my colleagues are working on.
Lowering costs must—must—be a bipartisan effort. Americans in states both blue and red—and in between—need relief as soon as possible. While many on the other side of the aisle have spent a lot of time giving floor speeches and presenting floor charts about rising costs, where are their actual proposals? We don’t hear what they do to solve the problem. Attacking the problem doesn't make it better, proposing solutions does. Republicans should step up and say what their plan is to fight inflation, not just pointing fingers.
Democrats will continue to propose legislation on cost cutting, and we’re going to continue our focus on helping everyday Americans find relief. Some of my Democratic colleagues have already released their proposals publicly and I am sure many of them would welcome Republican cooperation.
Instead of sitting on the sidelines, Republicans should join Democrats in our efforts to help Americans reap the full benefits of our historic recovery. Our goal is to have the wages that have increased stay up but lower the costs down so the average American has more money in her or his pocket.
We Democrats are committed to working in good faith to get things done in this chamber. I hope our Republican colleagues will constructively join us instead of just pointing fingers.
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