Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Release Of Finance Committee Portion Of Senate Republicans’ “Big, Ugly Betrayal” Which Extends Deep Cuts To Medicaid, SNAP And Clean Energy

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor following the Senate Republicans’ release of the Senate Finance Committee portion of Donald Trump’s “Big, Ugly Betrayal,” warning that it will strip health care from millions, kill clean energy jobs, slash food assistance, raise costs for working families – all to fund tax breaks for billionaires. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Last night the Senate Finance Committee, the Republicans released their portion of Donald Trump’s Big Ugly Bill, his “Big, Ugly Betrayal,” and, hard to believe, it’s even worse than expected.

After Senate Republicans spent weeks promising they were going to moderate the House bill, they did just the opposite – they turned an ugly House bill into an outright travesty.

Senate Republicans should reject the proposals from the Finance Committee and start over.

Because if they proceed, they will harm tens of millions of Americans, kill millions of good paying jobs, raise prices across on the average American, and help China.

Let’s go over these lowlights, starting with health care.

The House bill already had the biggest cuts to Medicaid in American History. Their regard is devastating.

But the Senate version is even worse than the House version.

It is the House bill on steroids.

The Medicaid cuts are deeper, reach further, and the red tape is even longer than what House Republicans came up with.

Under the Senate bill, tens of millions of Americans will lose health insurance, including working moms and dads.

More hospitals will close – especially rural hospitals. And I tell my colleagues, that’s mainly in red states. And these rural hospitals are the often the only way people get healthcare in rural communities, and they’re often the largest employer in the states as well.

Under their bill, doctors will lose their jobs. Nurses will lose their jobs.

States will carry more and more of the burden with fewer and fewer resources, which mean cutbacks. Premiums will go up.

What the average American pays for health care will inevitably go up, even if you don't have Medicare or Medicaid.

Now, I know there are a number of Senate Republicans who were worried about the Medicaid cuts passed by the House. But because the Senate package is even worse, I urge these Republicans to forcefully reject this proposal quickly.

We know that if only four Republicans went to Leader Thune and said we can't vote for this bill with these Medicaid cuts, some of the cuts at least would be eliminated. If they go along with this package they will be responsible for stealing health care from millions of their own constituents. That’s true with Democrats and Republicans.

Now, what about clean energy jobs?

Remember how the Senate Republicans spent weeks promising they’d ease the clean energy cuts passed by the House?

Well, the Senate Republican clean energy package is a total head fake. That's all it is. They're trying to act like they got better, but they didn't.

No matter what the Senate Republicans try to say about improving the House bill, the underlying substance did not change: the Senate clean energy bill cuts are every bit as destructive as the House proposal.

It phases out tax credits for wind and solar projects within six months.

And these phase-outs are a death sentence for clean energy: wind and solar represent more than 90% of the new electric power in the United States. It's the cheapest, quickest way to bring power.

What do Republicans think will happen when they raise taxes on 90% of our new electricity?

They’re going to send electric bills soaring.

They’re going to kill good paying clean energy jobs. An estimated 850,000 people in the clean energy industry will lose their jobs.

And they are going to surrender U.S. energy independence to China, who will leap ahead of us in wind and solar and dominate the world markets. American consumers will be at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party leaders in terms of what they pay for electricity.

And these cuts will choke America’s energy output right as we need to expand our capacity. We all know AI is going to demand huge amounts of electricity, and yet we cut off the quickest cheapest way to add energy.

Many on the other side say, “all of the above.” This is not “all of the above.” This is just taking the most polluting, the most expensive, most time consuming way of producing energy. That’s what it allows. It takes away the rest.

Eighty percent of the clean energy investments, we know, have been in Republican districts.

But Senate Republicans are going to ship those jobs overseas. Anyone who votes for this bill and has clean energy facilities in their states, they're going to close those factories, limit those factories, send the jobs to China – just the opposite of what Trump says he wants to do.

The bad news keeps coming.

The Senate proposal does nothing to moderate the House SNAP benefits.

It’s still the biggest cuts to SNAP in history, depriving millions of kids and parents of vital food assistance.

Senate Republicans have even found a way to bow down to the radical gun lobby.

Remember: the House bill already had an insane provision that deregulated commonsense rules on silencers that go back almost a century.

But Senate Republicans, refusing to be outdone by their extreme House colleagues, removed registration requirements not just for silencers but short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and other devices.

This is unhinged.

Shame on Senate Republicans for choosing the gun lobby over the lives of our kids. Their proposal will mean gun violence will rise. Police officers will be put at risk. Innocent people will die.

Finally, why are Republicans doing all this? What is their north star?

Tax cuts for billionaires, paid for by working families.

Here is the big difference, folks, between Democrats and Republicans: Democrats believe in lowering taxes, but we need to prioritize Americans who aren’t ultra-rich –working families, the middle class, parents raising their kids and small business owners trying to grow.

But, Republicans, meanwhile, believe in giving most of the help to the people at the very top.

They believe that helping billionaires and big corporations is somehow going to make everyone else better off. It has never worked. Trickledown is discredited. They cling to it because they're in the obeisance of greedy billionaires, who seem to run the Republican party on economic issues.

Under their proposal, the top .1% of earners will get an average tax cut of $400,000.

But families earning less than $75,000 will be worse off. They will actually lose household wealth. If you’re under $75,000, you lose wealth. If you’re in the top .1%, you gain an average cut of $400,000. Do the American people like that? The more they know, the less they like.  

When you put it all together, the Senate Republican version of Donald Trump’s “Big, Ugly Bill” is even worse than the House. It makes even deeper cuts to health care. It destroys American clean energy. It raises costs on working and middle class families. And it rewards those at the very top of the economic ladder.

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