Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Senate Democrats’ Commitment To Fight For American Families While Senate Republicans Continue To Enable Donald Trump’s Costs, Chaos, And Corruption In Their $70 Billion Party-Line Giveaway

Washington, D.C. – Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke on the Senate floor condemning Senate Republicans for continuing to push Trump’s deranged priorities in their reconciliation bill, while Democrats fight to lower costs for the American people. Leader Schumer again warned his Republican colleagues that no matter what they include in this bill, Senate Democrats will bring amendments that will make clear to all Americans: Democrats are fighting for you, while Republicans are fighting for Donald Trump. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Republicans still haven’t released the text of their radical MAGA reconciliation wish list just hours before we’re expected to vote on it.

Where the hell is the bill? Where the hell is the bill? We were supposed to get it yesterday before lunch —no bill. We were supposed to get it yesterday afternoon — no bill. We were supposed to get it before dinnertime — no bill. We were supposed to get it around midnight — still no bill. And now, it's Thursday morning — still no bill.

Why don't we have a bill? I'll tell you why. The Republican party is in complete disarray. They're in complete meltdown. They can't come to an agreement with each other. They're angry with each other. Why? They're pulled between two poles, and they can't decide which to go to. The first pole is the pole they should go to: help the American people. Help the American people with higher costs, whether it's groceries or gasoline, or housing, or health care. Work with Democrats to help get those costs down. That's where they should be, and they should also be with us when we want to end the chaos. The chaos on the streets of our cities, by having ICE and Border Patrol have reasonable guardrails, so they don't kill Americans on the streets.

And of course, end the corruption. They should be angry as we are, as the American people are, at the corruption that's coming out of the White House. So, on the one pole is to work for the American people. But on the other pole is Donald Trump, who is exactly the opposite of what Americans want, and Republicans know it. Trump doesn't give a damn about costs. He's already said that. “Pay more for gasoline,” he says. “I don't care, the American people can pay more for groceries, can pay more for housing.” He doesn't care about that. He's a billionaire. He doesn't go shop for groceries; he doesn't go fill up the pump - fill up gas - get gas at the pump. Chaos. He loves chaos. His Iran war is one of the most chaotic foreign misadventures America's ever gone on. And it gets worse all the time, as gas prices go above $4.50. I heard today it's above $4 in every state.

And he is the originator, the chief cook and bottle washer of corruption. He comes up with corrupt scheme after corrupt scheme to benefit himself, his family, his cronies, criminals who he's encouraged to act criminally. He's the originator of the corruption. The ballroom, they’ve become ballroom Republicans, the Senators, Republican Senators. The MAGA slush fund, to be given out to cronies, probably end up in lot of, would end up in Trump's pocket or his kids' pocket. Your dollars, American taxpayers. So, they're stuck. They're sort of like, you know, that cartoon, the old Popeye cartoon where Olive Oil is pulled in one direction by Popeye, and the other by Bluto, and she's going back and forth. That’s who they are. They don’t know what to do and so there’s no bill. That’s why there’s no bill. They’re stuck. They’re flummoxed.

The leader, Leader Thune, has two choices. Side with Donald Trump and show the American people you're totally, totally out of touch with what they need, or side with the American people, work with us, and get Donald Trump furious at you, and you see what happens when Donald Trump is furious at Republicans. We could ask a couple of Senators what's happens when they don't side with Donald Trump.

So, they're stuck. They're just stuck. And it's a spectacle that the American people are witnessing. And more and more Americans, every day, say the Republican party, many former Republicans, say the Republican party I used to know is so different, so deranged by Donald Trump, that I can't be with them anymore. And that's why we Democrats look like we're in good shape in the House and the Senate as we move forward to November. Republicans, let's go over what they want in their bill.

Republicans want to spend tens of billions of Americans’ tax dollars, but we still don’t know what exactly we’re voting on in mere hours. We do know that this bill won’t include a single penny to make life more affordable for American families. The costs issue, which is number one in the eyes of the American people. The American people don’t need to see the bill text to know where Senate Republicans stand – with Donald Trump, not working families.

I’m pleased a small number of Republicans are starting to wake up to how egregious Trump’s billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded ballroom is, but this MAGA majority has made it abundantly clear they’re willing and eager to fund Trump’s vanity project at the taxpayer’s expense.

Make no mistake: if ballroom funding doesn’t make it into Republicans’ bill, it’s not because of Republicans’ conscience – it’s because Democrats stopped them! They tried to sneak it in. They were caught red-handed. “Oh, it's only for security, it's only for this, only for that.” They're stuck. No one wants the ballroom, except Donald Trump. And they're quaking in their boots to oppose him. And when they oppose him, they're worried about electoral consequences, as we've seen in the last week.

Were it not for Democrats fighting this ballroom every step of the way, Republicans would have wasted a billion taxpayer dollars for Trump’s palace in a heartbeat.

Republicans are foolish if they think they can distance themselves from this boondoggle. Because no matter what’s in the bill, Democrats will force Republicans to vote again and again on their outrageous priorities – Trump’s ballroom, Trump’s insurrectionist slush fund, and Trump’s costly war.

Americans don’t want this bill even without Trump’s vanity project – not when it provides another $70 billion to Trump’s masked agents who sow chaos in the streets.

It’s absurd. It’s absurd to ask Americans who are struggling to make ends meet to shell out another $70 billion to ICE and Border Patrol when these rogue agencies are sitting on $100 billion from the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” But the costs of this war, which the American people are opposed to, and the costs of many other things might have to be funded out of this in the next few months, and so they don't want to take the money for ICE or for Border Patrol, when there is $100 billion sitting there. Instead, they hold up the budget. Instead, they tell Democrats, there's no reform. They tell that to the American people, as well.

As Americans burn through their savings, Republicans want to expand their nest egg for Trump’s private militia.

Every vote and every amendment we bring to the floor today will show that Democrats are standing up for the American people, and Republicans are selling out to Donald Trump. Again, the contrast is glaring. Who is on the side of the American people, for lower costs and for less chaos and to end the corruption? And who is on the side of Donald Trump? Master of corruption, originator of corruption, in certain new, novel, and disgusting ways. As well as somebody who doesn't give a damn about the costs that the American people are suffering through.

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