Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the Republicans’ “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which will raise costs across the country, while also gutting health care for 16 million Americans. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Now, let's talk about the costs of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” and why every American is going to pay a lot more. Trump ran saying he was going to fight inflation, but now he's passing a bill that will increase Americans’ costs.
Last week, Senate Democrats zeroed in on the way Donald Trump’s “Big, Ugly Bill” will rip away health care from tens of millions of Americans – at least sixteen million Americans in total, no health care.
This week, Senate Democrats will focus on how Donald Trump’s bill will kill millions of jobs and send costs spiking for tens of millions of families.
If Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” passes, Americans will pay thousands more out of pocket for everything from health care to energy to even their mortgage.
It’s not just cutting Medicaid – Republicans are taking a meat cleaver to the ACA too.
Under this bill, the average health care costs for people on the ACA will go up by $700 a year for over 20 million Americans.
For New York families, it’s much worse.
New York couples covered through the ACA will pay $2,700 more a year. That’s about $230 a month.
Two thousand seven hundred dollars extra a year for New Yorkers, just to make life better for the billionaire class.
And it’s not just Americans who have ACA who will see costs go up.
If you have private insurance, if you don't even have a federal insurance or ACA, you could pay hundreds more a year too. Just about everyone's health care costs are going to go up. People don't like paying the high cost of health insurance, but now they're going to pay more because of Donald Trump and what he wants to do to help his billionaire buddies.
While that’s happening, hundreds of thousands health care jobs will be lost, with some projections estimating 850,000 jobs will be lost in the health care economy.
All while billionaires get more tax breaks.
Here’s another fact: we're talking a lot about energy and clean energy, the cheapest way to produce new energy. Well, if the “Big, Beautiful Bill,”so-called, becomes law, the average family’s energy costs will go up by $400 in the upcoming years.
Starting next year, average electricity prices will go up by 10%.
Hear that, America? You don’t like it when your utility bill goes up? Well, Donald Trump and his right-wing ideologues are making it go up further. Because Donald Trump and the oil magnates he hangs around harbor a deranged hatred of clean energy, and they wants to raise taxes on clean energy.
Clean energy is the cheapest way to produce new energy, including solar – cheaper than any other way – and they're cutting it off. That's going to raise your prices and the cost of your energy bill, ladies and gentlemen, all Americans.
What’s more, in addition to raising your energy prices, what they’re doing is projected to cost our economy an additional 800,000 jobs. Between health care jobs and energy jobs, millions of good paying jobs will be killed by this bill. Some economists I’ve spoken to say the job losses could push us into a recession.
Even many Republicans know this would be destructive. But they need to speak up and use their leverage.
Republicans who claim to fight for jobs and families back home should oppose any proposal that makes energy costs go up. It's amazing.
Even Trump and his people say we need a lot more new energy for AI, et cetera. And then they cut off the quickest, cheapest, easiest way to produce new energy. Why? Because the right-wing fossil fuel magnates in Trump's ear hate clean energy because they know it's the future. They know that oil, gas, and coal are not the future. And yet, they try to kill it.
Also, if Republicans’ bill becomes law, homeowners could see an extra $600 to $1200 a year through higher interest rates on their home loan.
Last week, the CBO estimated that Republicans’ billionaire tax cuts will add $2.4 trillion to the debt over the next decade. When you consider the cost of the increased debt service, this rotten bill will add $3 trillion to the debt over the next decade. And that will make it harder for Americans to buy a home, buy a car, or start a business, dooming the middle-class to a life time of higher rates.
And let's not forget the insurance crisis as well.
Insurance rates are going up for many people in many areas, particularly coastal areas. And now this Trump bill will make that worse because we're cutting off clean energy. It doesn't make much sense. And many people can't sell their house or buy a house because of floods and tornadoes. Insurance companies have raised the cost of insurance, and here we go again: cut off clean energy, make it worse, make people's insurance costs go up further.
So, Elon Musk, wrong as he is on so many things, says this bill is dangerous.
Hear that, Republicans? Elon Musk, who you guys are supposed to love, says it is dangerous.
So, when you step back and look at the big picture, there is nothing beautiful about the Republican bill.
If Senate Republicans pass this heaping pile of legislative junk, it’s not going to grow the economy. It’s not going to help the middle class. It’s not going to help working families climb the ladder.
All its going to do is make families pay more, while billionaires pay less.
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