Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Republicans Ignoring The Healthcare Needs Of Americans While Donald Trump Renovates The WH Ballroom, Bails Out Argentina, And Celebrates Shutdown With Republicans At Rose Garden

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor condemning Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans for refusing to work with Democrats to negotiate a bipartisan solution to address the Republican healthcare crisis and end the government shutdown, all while the Trump administration spends millions on private jets and ballroom renovations. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

I just heard my friend, the Republican Leader, Senator Thune, here on the floor. I heard him say that Democrats are somehow pushing “far left” demands here in the Senate. What the heck is he talking about? How is it far left to say we want lower healthcare premiums and to spare tens of millions of people from financial ruin?

Far left? Tell that to an American family whose premiums will go up from $200 a month to $1,400 – that fixing that is far left? Tell that to young couples whose parents are about to get kicked out of nursing homes. Tell that to people who live in rural America and see their hospitals closing. That's far left? I'm afraid the Republican Leader doesn't know what the American people want and where they are on healthcare.

There is nothing far left or far right or center about wanting to lower premiums. It’s common sense. It's what the American people overwhelmingly want. Fifty-eight percent of Trump voters – they're not far left – want the ACA tax credits extended, according to The Washington Post. And we cannot and must not delay like Republicans want to do.

And beyond that, Leader Thune – I don’t know what got into him today – also claimed that “Republicans are ready to get to work.” Really? Tell that to Speaker Johnson and the House Republicans, who have been on vacation for nearly a month. So, if they want to get to work, then get Speaker Johnson back here and get the House Republicans back here. The American people see right through that one.

Now, it is day twenty-one of Donald Trump’s government shutdown.

While millions of Americans are feeling the squeeze, as I said, the House Republicans remain on vacation. And Senate Republicans? They’re headed to the White House today – not for negotiations, not to work on any path out of a shutdown or to avert their healthcare crisis – but for a Rose Garden pep rally with Donald Trump. That’s right, Senate Republicans today will join the president to celebrate “staying strong” and being “unified.”

Staying strong against helping Americans who desperately need a fix to the healthcare crisis? Staying strong against the young couples whose parents are getting kicked out of a nursing home? Staying strong against people in rural America who are seeing their hospitals close? As millions of Americans continue to endure the pain of one of the longest shutdowns in American history, Republicans will be celebrating keeping the shutdown going. Republicans may not have time to fix people’s healthcare, but apparently, they got plenty of time for a mini pep rally with Donald Trump.

In the meantime, the pain for Americans is getting more and more real. More and more states are notifying their residents about the disastrous premium hikes coming their way. And the pressure is building on Republicans – the party in the majority – to do something about this shutdown and about the cost of living.

A CNBC poll from Friday found Americans now hold Donald Trump and Republicans responsible for the shutdown by a 53-37% margin. Sixty-two percent of Americans in the same poll disapprove of the President’s handling of inflation. And another 56% of Americans disapprove of the President’s tariffs.

In other words, what do Americans care about most? Costs, inflation, and healthcare – the very things Republicans here in the Senate and in the House are refusing to address because they want to shut the government down to avoid discussing the healthcare issue and having a serious negotiation about it.

Our Republican colleagues can dig in all they want, but at the end of the day, Americans know Republicans are in power. They know the Republicans set the agenda. They know the Republicans have the majority in the House and Senate. And the burden is on Republicans to work with Democrats in a serious way to reopen the government and fix people’s premiums.

That’s why, when I was Majority Leader, we passed 13 CRs precisely through bipartisan consultation. When Democrats were in the majority, we talked with leadership on the other side. We negotiated. We worked together. We didn’t have a shutdown. That’s not happening here. It's a take it or leave it partisan bill with no input from Democrats whatsoever.

Now, yesterday on the floor, the Republican Leader kept using the word “galling” to describe Democrats’ push to find a bipartisan fix to ACA premiums. The Republican Leader wants to talk about galling? What’s galling is doing nothing – nothing – as twenty million Americans face the prospect of paying $1,000 or more a month just to have health insurance. What’s galling is saying there is nothing to negotiate on healthcare while, as we speak, people from New York to Georgia and beyond are going online and seeing that their premiums are now going from $600 a month to $2,200 a month.

What’s galling is Republicans being OK with people like Kristi Noem getting a private jet, Donald Trump getting a fancy expensive new ballroom, Argentina getting a $40 billion bailout, but then saying Americans don’t deserve cheaper healthcare. That's what's galling, I would say to my friend, the Republican Leader.

And if my Republican colleagues take issue with any of that, perhaps they should not have spent their whole summer passing the biggest healthcare cuts in history. Perhaps this Republican majority should have acted when they had not one, not two, but three chances to extend these ACA premium tax credits.

Democrats were ready to work with the other side to get it done. But Republicans continue to act like these ACA premiums are not their problem.

They're the problem of the American people and a problem with every legislator, Democrat or Republican who serves here. They continue to act like the ACA premiums are not their problem, and that, more than anything else, is what’s galling to the American people about this entire debate.

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