Schumer Floor Remarks On The State Of The Union Address And President Trump’s Trail Of Empty Promises
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Chuck
Schumer today spoke on the Senate floor regarding tonight’s State of the Union
address and President Trump’s broken promises to the American people.
Below are his remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Later
this evening, in front of a joint session of Congress, President Trump will
report on the state of our union. As is tradition, the president will say that
the state of our union is strong. But the American people know the truth –
unfortunately it is not.
The
American people know the Trump Economy is failing the middle class and those
struggling to get there. In Trump’s economy, multinational corporations and the
already wealthy were given a tax cut while American workers were left behind.
The Federal Reserve reports that over 40% of Americans would have trouble
covering an emergency of just $400. 40% of working Americans – middle-class
Americans – are just one medical bill, one unexpected car accident, one missed
paycheck away from financial uncertainty.
The
state of the Trump economy: failing the middle class.
The
president will say the state of our union is strong, but the American people
know that the state of the Trump healthcare system is failing American
families.
After
two years of relentless sabotage by the Trump administration and Congressional
Republicans, premiums are higher than they should be, copays are higher than
they should be, and for the first time in eight years, fewer Americans have
health insurance than the year before.
The
state of the Trump healthcare system: failing the middle class.
The
president will say the state of our union is strong, but the American people
know the state of the Trump administration is in chaos. No administration has
had as much cabinet turnover as the Trump administration in over a century. Key
positions are unfilled or covered by individuals in an acting capacity: the
chief of staff, the attorney general, the defense secretary, interior
secretary, OMB director, and EPA director. Of the 705 top positions in the
government, close to a fifth, the President has not even nominated somebody.
So,
the state of the Trump Administration: chaos.
The
president will say the state of our union is strong, but the state of the Trump
foreign policy is woefully backward. It’s inside out. Our allies are alienated
and criticized, our adversaries emboldened and praised. Dictators and strongmen
are given license by this administration while our NATO allies receive harsh
words. American values – free speech, free elections, freedom of the press,
humanitarian rights, civil rights – go undefended in the dark corners of the
world.
The
state of the Trump foreign policy: woefully backward.
So
the state of the union is not strong. The state of the Trump economy: failing
America’s middle class. The state of Trump healthcare: failing American
families. The state of the Trump administration: chaos. The state of Trump
foreign policy: woefully backward, inside out.
These
are not the total extent of our nation’s challenges, but even on these four
metrics – the economy, healthcare, governance, and foreign policy – the state
of our union is need of drastic repair.
Still,
knowing this president and his penchant for hyperbole, he will probably say the
state of our union is stronger than it’s ever been before in our nation’s long
history thanks to him. Knowing this president, he will rely on distortions and
made-up facts, mislead the American people. The only question about the
president’s state of the union – how often will he distort? How often will he
make up facts? How often will he resort to fear and divisiveness? And if past
states of the union are prologue, far too many times will he do that. Knowing
this president, he will then make bold new promises and not even make an
attempt to fulfil them. The president has so little integrity that a promise
that he makes at the state of the union means nothing the next morning. Allow
me to mention just a few of the things the President has said in previous state
of the union addresses.
Remember
this one? In his first address to a joint session, President Trump said,
“education is the civil rights issue of our time.” It’s been two years, and we
have heard almost nothing from the president about an education bill.
In
the last State of the Union, just one year ago, the president said: “One of my
greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs…Prices will
come down.” The president’s words. But over the course of the last month,
nearly thirty drug-makers have taken steps to raise the prices of their
medicines.
In
the last State of the Union, the president promised, “[manufacturing] plants
will be opening up all over the country.” I don’t know about you, Mr.
President, but I haven’t seen a re-manufacturing policy from the White House.
Meanwhile, Nissan has announced hundreds of layoffs in Mississippi. GM has
announced the closure of five factories and the loss of 15,000 jobs.
In
the last State of the Union, the president said, “We will protect American
workers and American intellectual property through strong enforcement of our
trade rules.” That’s something I strongly agree with, but six months after the
president said that, he decided to let a Chinese telecom giant – ZTE –
a company that violated multiple trade sanctions and put our nation’s
security at risk – off the hook and begin operating in the US. And now, while
some in the administration are pushing him to be tough on China, there are some
who just want to sell out for a decrease in the trade deficit. That will not do
the job. The president always promised he would.
In
the last State of the Union, the president said, “No regime has oppressed its
own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North
Korea. We are waging a campaign of maximum pressure to prevent that from
happening.” After that, what happened? The president hosted a largely symbolic
summit with Kim Jong-un and is already planning a second summit. North Korea
has failed to dismantle its nuclear program. Some reports say it’s growing. And
the US is not engaging in a pressure campaign – maximum or otherwise.
President
Trump called for a compromise immigration bill that dealt with Dreamers and
border security; Congress produced one along the lines he proposed, and then he
threatened to veto it.
In
the last State of the Union, the president said, “it is time to rebuild our
crumbling infrastructure” and called for new legislation to spur investment.
He
said, “let us support working families by supporting paid family leave.”
He
said, “we will continue our fight until ISIS is defeated.”
What
are the facts? No infrastructure bill, though he promised one in a previous
state of the union. No paid family leave proposal, though he promised one in a
previous state of the union. And he’s withdrawing from Syria even though he
promised we would continue to fight until ISIS is defeated. And by all reports,
including our own intelligence, it is not.
I
could go on. The list of broken or empty promises is long. The gap between the
president’s rhetoric and the state of the union and reality is cavernous. Every
president uses the state of the union to set goals, but few have done it so
cheaply and indifferently. Many of those promises were discarded mere weeks
after they were uttered. So forgive us if we Democrats and the American people
have real doubts about any promise that the president makes, real doubt about
him following through or really meaning it. How can we not? In previous states
of the union, he has thrown around promises and not fulfilled them, more than
any other president I know.
Perhaps
even more empty than his policy promises are President Trump’s calls for unity
each year.
It
seems every year the president wakes up and discovers the desire for unity on
the morning of the state of the union. Then the president spends the other 364
days of the year dividing us, and sowing a state of disunion.
…whether
that’s using public servants as political pawns, the president’s false
equivalence after Charlottesville, his attacks on the federal judiciary, the
free press and the rule of law, or his near-daily twitter provocations.
The
blatant hypocrisy of this president calling for unity is that he is one of the
chief reasons Americans feels so divided now.
So
tonight, it’s logical to believe based on his past speeches, the president’s
speech will ignore the reality of his administration, the reality of our
economy, the reality of our world, and instead weave a web of fiction. If past
speeches are an indication, the president will be in his own bubble.
Democrats
are not focused on the president’s rhetoric, we are focused on fighting for
workers in this unequal economy, fighting for American families struggling to
afford healthcare, fighting to bring a measure of accountability to this
government and fighting for a foreign policy that reflects both our interests
and our values.
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