Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Republicans’ “Big, Beautiful Bill” To Gut Medicaid And Slash SNAP In Order To Give Tax Breaks To Billionaires
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to condemn Republicans’ newly released “big, beautiful bill,” warning that it would be the largest Medicaid cut in history and gut food assistance for millions of Americans —all to bankroll tax breaks for the ultra-rich. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Yesterday, Republicans released the text of their plan to eviscerate Medicaid while cutting taxes for the ultra-rich.
This bill is as toxic as we all feared.
With a straight face, Republicans are telling the American people they want to cut taxes for the ultra-rich by trillions of dollars, and pay for it with the biggest cuts to Medicaid ever.
If this bill becomes law, nearly fourteen million Americans will lose their health insurance. Again, the biggest cut to Medicaid in American history.
Let me repeat that: if this bill becomes law, nearly fourteen million Americans will lose their health insurance. This is the biggest cut to Medicaid in American history.
Fourteen million people losing their health insurance. Hospital after hospital will have to lay off tens of thousands of workers. Many of them may be forced to close, particularly in rural areas.
Republicans promised for months that they would protect Medicaid. But now Americans know the truth: Republicans never intended to keep that promise, and this confirms it.
Almost fourteen million Americans will lose insurance. Millions more will see their premiums go up.
Hospitals from one end of America to the other will close. Thousands will lose their jobs, millions will lose their access to health care.
Kids will suffer, seniors will suffer, health care workers will lose their jobs, Americans with disabilities will get hurt, and rural Americans will be left to fend for themselves.
Hospitals and nursing homes will shutter. States will scramble with their budgets. American families will be left out to dry.
And why? Tax cuts for billionaires.
That’s what happens when Project 2025 takes over the Republican mainstream.
But the cruelness doesn’t stop there. Later today, we also expect Republicans to unveil their plan to cut SNAP, which feeds about forty million Americans in need.
If the Republicans are to be believed, Republicans plan to cut federal food assistance by hundreds of billions. If the reports are to be believed, that’s what the Republicans plan to do.
Kids will go hungry. Parents will suffer.
I just got back from Buffalo and Albany in Upstate New York, meeting with food banks and religious leaders who are on the frontlines of the fight against hunger.
The priests and the nuns I met with spoke of the obligation that scripture imparts on us to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty. But right now, Republicans want to rob the least of our neighbors to make life better for those at the top.
SNAP shouldn’t be a partisan issue or a political issue –it’s a moral question. Are we going to let kids, veterans, senior citizens, and others go hungry?
This is about taking care of the most vulnerable in society, especially our children. It’s about making sure every child in America is afforded basic dignity. If a kid goes to bed hungry, they can't learn the next morning in school. They can't get along with their friends. They're off to an awful start.
So, SNAP has been one of the great things America has done – until now – in a bipartisan way. But not with these MAGA people running the show, and not with the Republicans here in the Senate and the House being supine to what they know is wrong, vicious, mean and counterproductive.
I urge House Republicans to oppose these devastating cuts to SNAP, particularly those New York Republicans whose constituents I’ve met over the past couple weeks. I was in or near the districts of two of them, and the outrage against what they might do was palpable.
Given the narrow margins in the House, these swing districts in New York have the power to stop these cuts to SNAP. These Republicans can do it. They can make sure no kid goes to bed hungry. I urge them to stand up and hold the line.
When you put it all together, there is no other way to put it: this bill is a grotesque betrayal of working and middle class families.
And a few moments ago, Republicans released the next phase of their plan: hiking taxes on electricity and raising energy costs for seniors and families.
Republicans are so captured by the hard-right ideology that they’re willing to cede America’s energy future to China and tank domestic industries that we’ll need to keep energy costs low in the future.
Not a single Senate Democrat will support this destructive piece of legislation.
Instead of calling this one big beautiful bill, Republicans should tell the truth. This bill is a big fat grift, and it’s the American people who are getting ripped off.
###