Schumer Floor Remarks on Health Care and the Slow Pace of Cabinet Nominations
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered remarks on the Senate floor regarding the GOP healthcare bill and the slow pace of cabinet nominations. Below are his remarks:
Mr. President, first I thank my good friend from Florida for his inspiring words. He’s always trying to work together on bipartisan solutions. He represents one of the largest and most diverse states in the country, a state that very much depends on having good healthcare, and I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will heed his words.
Now first Mr. President, I want to send my sincere condolences to the Marine Corps, who lost 15 of their finest today in a plane crash in Mississippi, as well as one Navy corpsman.
It was the deadliest crash in the Marine Corp family since 2005.
According to reports, the aircraft that crashed this morning was based at Stewart Airport Base, in my home state of New York.
Our hearts break for the families of these sailors and marines. We mourn their loss, wish comfort to their families and their loved ones in this time of tragedy. May they rest in peace.
Now, Mr. President, on an entirely different matter. Well, the Majority Leader today said that we’re gonna stay an extra two weeks in the August break. We Democrats are willing to stay two weeks, two months, two years to get a good healthcare bill. But in all due respect to my good friend, the Majority Leader from Kentucky, it’s not time that’s the problem here.
Our Republican colleagues for 7 years said ‘repeal Obamacare’ and they had nothing to put in its place. Then President Trump was elected, a Republican majority in the House and the Senate, and since January 4th when they deliberately excluded us from all discussions by enacting a reconciliation bill. They’ve been trying to put together a healthcare bill – they cant. It’s not because of lack of time – two weeks isn’t going to help. The problem is the substance of the bill.
The bill provides massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and, just as bad, if not worse, puts a dagger in the heart of the Medicaid program which has become a program that affects so many Americans. Kids, poor kids, that’s where it started, but now its people who have mom and dad in the nursing home who might face thousands of dollars of expenses, those on opioid treatment, those who have kids with disabilities, and many many many with preexisting conditions.
Those are all helped by Medicaid, and our Republican colleagues here want to slash them. Well, just like my colleague from Florida, I was in some very conservative parts of New York State, places that voted for Trump by over 60%. The revulsion– revulsion is the word – the fear that this healthcare bill has put in the heart of those folks in Republican areas was dramatic.
And so I’d say to my good friend, the Leader, we’re willing to stay as long as he wants, but he’s not gonna solve his problem until he abandons tax cuts on the rich, abandons the decimation of Medicaid, and works with us to improve the existing law.
His problem, our Republican colleague’s problem is not time it’s the substance of the bill, and I’d say one more thing Mr. President. If I were a Republican I wouldn’t want to go home either.
Every time they go home they’re lambasted because the American people have such a negative feeling about the bill, so of course they’d want to stay here, but that’s not the answer. The answer is change the bill. Work with us. We’ve been begging, pleading, asking, cajoling, for a month or two, when it was clear their bill was going to fail. So I would say that that is very important.
Now, I heard the Majority Leader complain about the slow pace of nominations. Our Republican friends, when they’re worried about the slow pace of nominations ought to look in the mirror.
This President has nominated fewer nominees than anyone else, and so many of these – 7 of the major nominees and to withdraw their nominations -- many more were brought here to the Senate without the necessary documentation, the paperwork, the ethics reports, the FBI reports, and the chaos in the White House is now spreading to the Republican Senate.
So again, our President seems to when his administration make a mess they blame somebody else, let’s not do that here, let’s not do that here. Again, the number of nominees that this President has submitted is lower than any President in recent memory.
My college complained about this nominee from Idaho. He was outraged that he had to file cloture.
I’d remind the Majority Leader this District Judge was nominated by President Obama, in the last Congress, that he was the Majority Leader in the last Congress responsible for putting nominees on the Senate calendar.
The District Court Judge is only one of many nominees the Republicans failed to move in the last Congress, a Congress which confirmed the fewest number of judges of any Congress since the Eisenhower Administration.
And that goes to show how desperate our Republican leadership is to shift the blame and attention away from their healthcare bill to hypocritical and preposterous complaints on nominations to distract from the healthcare bill. They can try other tactics.
And one more point. I’d remind my colleagues that it’s the Majority Leader who has the power to put nominees on the floor.
In the Department of Defense we’ve been asked about three nominees. Leader McConnell had the power to put them on the floor instead of this judge from Idaho, instead of the nominee OMB, and instead of the ambassador to Japan tomorrow if he chose. His choice, and if he puts them on the floor, these defense nominees in regular order next week they will be approved.
So again, to deflect from healthcare and the mess our poor Republican colleagues are in, to point falsely at the nomination process which has been slow walked by President Trump and many of the committees, is not gonna succeed.
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