Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On President Trump’s Year-End Speech And Calling Him Out On His Broken Promises On
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor following Donald Trump’s speech last night, calling him out on his lies to the American people when it comes to lowering costs, especially focusing on the impending health care crisis Republicans have created by allowing the ACA tax credits to expire. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Last night, Donald Trump gave a speech about how supposedly great his first year has been. So of course, the speech was short because there’s not much to say about how great Trump has been!
For eighteen minutes, the President last night tried to convince Americans that the sky is green, the trees can walk—he yelled at the camera and said that things are somehow going great even though costs are up, and he’s doing a great job in office, all of which is obviously false. And the American people didn’t buy it.
It was clear watching the speech that the President didn’t want to be there. The only thing Americans saw last night was a very rich president trapped in a bubble, forced by his advisors to give a speech he didn’t want to give. It’s like your cousin who can’t sit still for a Christmas photo, only this is the President of the United States.
Our country is in a lot of trouble right now—but instead of giving Americans a plan for how we will lower costs Donald Trump played the blame game that’s so typical of him. Instead of solving a problem, which is what a good President is supposed to do, he just points the fingers at other people and that doesn’t do a bit of good to get the American people back on track.
It’s never a good sign when the President to begins a speech by saying “I inherited a mess” because that’s just another way of telling people “I don’t want to be responsible for any of this.”
Again—President Trump’s speech showed he lives in a bubble, a billionaire bubble, completely disconnected from reality that everyday Americans are seeing and feeling.
People are feeling squeezed harder and harder every day and Donald Trump, last night, took a victory lap.
Now, let’s talk about one of the most important issues for Americans when it comes to cost: health care.
Last night, Donald Trump offered exactly zero solutions for how we're going to lower Americans' health care premiums.
He kept blaming Democrats, he kept saying the health care crisis is not his fault, but here are the facts. Immutable facts, Donald Trump. No amount of finger pointing, lying, hyping it up, patting yourself on the back is going to undo the fact that the American people are going to pay a lot more for health care come January 1st.
Because on January 1st, the ACA enhanced premium tax credits are going to expire because Donald Trump chose to let them die. Even our Republican colleagues have told us time and time again if Trump would do something here and support and extension of the tax credits, as we Democrats have been fighting for, then maybe they’d be able to do something, but he doesn’t. And now tens of millions are going to see their insurance premiums double on average.
Four million people will lose insurance, because Donald Trump let it happen, and he’s there sitting in front of the camera patting himself on the back. Unbelievable.
Millions more with private insurance will see their premiums go up, because Donald Trump let it happen.
Emergency rooms are going to be even more overrun. People are going to be kicked out of nursing homes. Rural hospitals will close, and there is Donald Trump congratulating himself on how great he is.
And look, because of Republicans total inaction on healthcare, the huge damage has been done. And nothing we do after January 1st can undo so much of that damage. As I’ve said before, the toothpaste is out of the tube. However you want to say it, the point is this: because of Republicans, it is now impossible, sadly, to prevent people from having to pay hundreds if not thousands more on their premiums next year. It’s going to start January 1st.
Even if we can figure out a way to stop the bleeding next year—and that is a very big if, Republicans are still in shambles and have no plan themselves, for too many people it’s too late because Republicans chose to let these ACA tax credits expire. They had an easy opportunity to join us in our three year clean extension of the ACA credits and they refused.
Well, Americans heard none of what they wanted to hear last night during Trump’s speech—nothing about how he will lower premiums, nothing about how he’ll lower their cost of living, nothing about how Republicans could have fixed this crisis but didn’t.
Donald Trump kept playing the blame game, and many a president have tried to do that, all with disastrous results. People want solutions. Donald Trump gave them none.
Democrats meanwhile are not going to stop fighting to lower people’s premiums and we’re not going to stop fighting to lower costs across the board and help Americans pay for the things they need, to avoid those moments on Friday night when families sit around the kitchen table and say how the hell am I going to pay this bill, I don’t have the money for it, and I need what the bill has asked me to pay for. Look, we Democrats will not stop fighting to lower costs and help Americans pay for the things they need.
These will be our watchwords for 2026: lower costs and lower health care costs in particular. This issue isn’t going to go away Republicans, we’re going to keep on it and on it and on it, until maybe you join us to really solve the problem. Republicans: health care is not going to go away. People need help to afford premiums and Democrats are going to keep fighting and pushing this issue for all of 2026 and beyond.
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