Schumer Floor Remarks on Holding Public Hearings on Healthcare Bill, the Upcoming CBO Score, President Trump’s ‘Made in America’ Record, and Anti-Zionism

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered remarks on the Senate floor regarding holding public hearings on the healthcare bill, the upcoming CBO score, President Trump’s ‘Made in America’ record and President Macron condemning anti-Zionism.  Below are his remarks:

First I want to tell my colleague from Florida, it is always a pleasure to listen to him. He is erudite, well researched, and passionate. And on the subject he just spoke about, no state in our entire nation has more experience with the frailties of this planet, given that it’s heating up, as the Senator from Florida. Given all the low lying, heavily populated areas right on the ocean-side and the gulf side. So I thank him for his continued pursuit of that so very important issue to every one of us.

Now, Mr. President, before I begin, I’d like to express my hope, and I think the hope of every member in this chamber, that the Senior Senator from Arizona, my good friend John McCain, has a full and speedy recovery from his recent surgery. There is no one who has done more to serve his country in this chamber than Senator McCain. There is no one who is more passionate in his defense of our soldiers and our defense than John McCain. And he is just an outstanding man, and a very very good friend. So I admire him very much, treasure his friendship, and wish him the best. Godspeed to Senator McCain and his family. 

Now it seems like because of Senator McCain’s recent illness that it will be at least another week until the Republican Majority forces a vote on the Republican Trumpcare bill.

I suggest to my good friend the Republican Leader that he use this time to hold public hearings on the bill.

My Republican friends propose to pass legislation that would reorganize one sixth of our economy and touch the lives of every American, without a single hearing. Isn’t that amazing? Not one hearing. Even though we’ve been talking about the bill for seven months now. No opportunity to hear from experts in a public setting, let alone consider amendments.

So I’d say to my friend Senator McConnell: let’s use this extra week, or extra weeks, to do what Republicans should have done a long time ago: hold public hearings. Allow the stakeholders to come in and express their concerns.

Today, we Democrats sent the Leader a letter to make this request formally, and we’ll include a list of nonpartisan stakeholders we believe should have a chance to air their views on the Senate Republican healthcare bill. Groups known for their followings, and for the good they do, known for not being political at all like the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, the American Hospital Association, AHIP – the largest trade group for insurers -- to name a few. Let’s have these groups testify on the policies in this bill, so the American people have a chance to hear what experts and patient advocates have to say. And I say to my friend the leader, when you don’t have hearings, when you try to hide a bill, it usually results in poor legislation. That’s what’s happening now. A bill done behind closed doors, a handful of Senators, even Republicans Senators didn’t know what they were putting together. It doesn’t work. The wisdom of the founding fathers, the wisdom of this body through the centuries, is do it in public, have a discussion, have a debate and the crucible of the legislative process will make it better. So the suggestion we’re making -- obviously we oppose many parts of the bill, obviously so do the American people -- but maybe something that would be said in a hearing would change things around.

Now additionally, we ask the Majority Leader to wait for a complete score from the Congressional Budget Office before proceeding to his bill. The Republicans now have a week, maybe more, to get their bill scored by the nonpartisan CBO. They have no excuse to proceed to a bill of this significance without knowing its cost or consequence. Now that they have plenty of time to get that done, we Democrats hope that there’ll be a full CBO score before a vote on the Motion to Proceed.

We make these requests respectfully. And let me just say one more thing about CBO, the White House has had an awful tendency, when they don’t like a fact they call it fake and they try to discredit the fact-giver. We’ve never seen a presidency like this. I would say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, don’t let this infection spread to you. CBO is a non-partisan organization. The head of CBO was appointed by the Republican leaders of the House and Senate. To discredit CBO simply because you don’t like the answer they give is not the American way. The American way is to debate the facts, not deny them, not call them fake because you don’t like them. Unfortunately, our President has made this is a hallmark of his presidency. Anything he doesn’t like is fake, even though it’s real.

Let it not spread to this body. CBO is a respected organization. As I said with leaders appointed by the Republicans, not by us. Let’s hear what they have to say and let’s take it seriously, even if we not agree with the outcome of where their facts lead.

Now, Mr. President, I’d like to make some additional points on one of the more controversial parts of the Republican Trumpcare bill – the Cruz amendment.

The Cruz amendment, by allowing insurers to sell junk insurance, would actually increase out-of-pocket costs on average Americans. Premiums might come down for some plans because insurers wouldn’t have to cover very much, but the reduction in premiums would be more than offset by skyrocketing deductibles and copays, so the average American would be paying more not less, the average American would likely, or so many of them would get junk insurance.

My friend the Senator from Delaware, Senator Coons put it best. He said, ‘they said yeah we’ll sell you a car, it’ll be cheaper, but it’ll have no bumper, and no steering wheel and no carburetor.’ Yeah it’ll be cheaper, won’t serve its purpose. It won’t get you where you have to go. These Cruz insurance policies. The insurer can say no hospitalization, no payment for drugs. What good are they? It’s a talking point. It doesn’t help people it hurts them.

 The Cruz amendment would also make insurance unaffordable for the Americans who need it the most, creating what even the very conservative American Action Forum says would be a death spiral in the marketplace.

And again, as my friend the Senior Senator from Iowa said, the Cruz amendment would “annihilate the pre-existing condition requirement.” That’s not Chuck Schumer, that’s not Bill Nelson, that is Chuck Grassley, one of the most senior Republican Senators from the great state of Iowa. It’s not fake. It’s real what he said. You can’t wash it away

And the Cruz amendment winds back the clock in America to the days of the worst practices of insurance companies. It seems to feel the raison d'etre of the Cruz amendment – let insurance companies do whatever they want. Well in the 1890’s that philosophy may have governed and America has learned under Republican and Democrat alike that that doesn’t protect them. It would allow insurers to sell policies without the ban on pre-existing exclusions, without covering essential health benefits, without lifetime limits on out-of-pocket costs; it would even allow insurers to sell policies that include excessive waiting periods of more than 90 days. Your kid has cancer, this policy in its fine print says you have to wait 90 days. You watch your child suffer. What kind of freedom is that? Yeah it’s freedom for the insurance company. It sure isn’t freedom for the family with the child that’s suffering. I find the Cruz amendment, and sometimes my good friend from Texas cares about freedom for very wealthy people, for millionaires. What about average people? You need freedom to be able pay, to have your insurance company pay when your kid has cancer. You need to be free of that. That they can’t pay, or won’t pay, or you have to wait 90 days. But the Cruz Amendment blesses those kinds of restrictions.

Remember, the Cruz amendment was added to a bill that slashes Medicaid in a way that would shatter protections for Americans in nursing homes, those struggling with opioid addiction, and Americans in rural parts of the country.

The Cruz amendment is a cruel insult adding to a devastating injury.

We have another week or more before the Senate will vote on this bill. The Republican Leader can spend that time trying to find new and ever more cynical ways to buy off necessary votes, with bailouts and giveaways to certain states. Or he can do what he’s promised to do repeatedly as Majority Leader -- return this body to regular order, go through the committee process, have hearings and a robust amendment process, and I’d dare say the resulting product would be a lot better than the one we have before us. I’d dare say that’s why the founding fathers set up a Congress – not to have a few people get in a room and then rush through a bill that affects a huge percentage of the American economy.

Now, another matter Mr. President, “Made in America.” The Administration has termed this “Made in America” week. So I’d urge every American to use this opportunity to look at the Administration’s and this President’s “Made in America” record.

President Trump said, in his inaugural address, that his administration would follow two simple rules: “buy American” and “hire American.” But President Trump’s own businesses don’t even follow those rules. If you’re going to preach something, start at home – start at home.

Trump shirts and ties, where are they made? China. Trump furniture, where is it made? Turkey.

While President Trump and his Administration are importuning others to “make it in America,” maybe he should demand it of his businesses first?                                             

The American people should also take a hard look at the Trump Administration’s policies on the issues of trade and outsourcing. Again, the words of the President at his inauguration and his actions contradict each other, just as the actions of his company.

Earlier this year, President Trump refused to insist that pipelines and water infrastructure be made with American steel. “Buy America?” “Hire America?” Why did he refuse to do that? We Democrats wanted it done. I think many Republicans wanted it done.

If President Trump were serious about “Made in America” week, he’d demand that Senate Republicans put Senator Baldwin’s bill, requiring that infrastructure be made with American steel, on the Senate floor.

Another example, the upcoming defense authorization act, prepared by the Republican majority, includes rollbacks, actual rollbacks, to the “Buy America” rules. If President Trump was serious about “Made in America” week, instead of a lot of show and a lot of talking why doesn’t he oppose those rollbacks and threaten to veto any bill that dilutes or rescinds “Buy America” rules, which the defense bill coming to the floor does.

So, again, as “Made in America” week commences, I’d urge the American people to study the policies of this President and the practices of the businesses that bear his name.                                       

…because, at least thus far, the Trump Administration’s push for “Made in America” is a bit like Mr. Putin proposing a cybersecurity task force.

Finally, Mr. President, I’d like to applaud French President Emmanuel Macron for his comments over the weekend about anti-Semitism. “We will yield nothing to anti-Zionism,” he said, “because it is the reinvented form of anti-Semitism.”

President Macron is absolutely right.

Anti-Semitism is a word that’s been used throughout history when Jewish people are judged and measured by one standard and the rest by another. When everyone else was allowed to farm and Jews could not; when everyone else was allowed to live in Moscow and Jews could not; when others could become academics or tradesmen and Jews could not. Praise God that hasn’t happened in America, but it was hallmark of Europe. And the word to describe all these acts is anti-Semitism.

So it is, Mr. President, with anti-Zionism; the idea that all other peoples can seek and defend their right to self-determination but Jews cannot; that other nations have a right to exist, but the Jewish state of Israel does not. That too is a modern form of anti-Semitism, just as President Macron of France said this weekend.

Anti-Zionism, unfortunately, continues to bubble up in many different forms. There is perhaps no greater example than the pernicious effort to delegitimize Israel through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions.

The BDS movement is a deeply biased campaign that I would say, in similar words to Mr. Macron, is a “reinvented form of anti-Semitism” because it seeks to impose boycotts on Israel and not any other nation most of whose practices are abhorrent -- far worse than the democracy of Israel, which recognizes people’s rights.

I hope that states across this country will continue to push back against the BDS movement, by boycotting the boycotters, as my home state of New York has done.

And I know that my fellow Senators, on both sides of the aisle – this is an issue that has, thank god, not lent itself to partisanship – will join me in condemning this modern brand of anti-Semitism, as President Macron did this weekend.

Once again, my thoughts go to John McCain, his speedy recovery, the respect that every single member of this body has for him, and we pray that his recovery is speedy, and full, and permanent.

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