'If You're Retiring Next Month...You Just Got Screwed': Schatz Slams Trump After Stock Market Tanks

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) spoke about the stock market dropping amid uncertainty surrounding Trump's tariffs.

Transcript

00:00Senator from Hawaii.

00:02Mr. President, we're 50 days into Donald Trump's second term,

00:07and the American economy is already in freefall.

00:12Prices are soaring, stocks are plummeting, and people are panicking about a recession.

00:19None of this was inevitable.

00:22All of this is Trump's own making.

00:26This week, after Trump couldn't categorically rule out that his policies would lead to a recession,

00:31Nasdaq had its worst day in years, while the Dow Jones dropped a whopping 1,300 points.

00:39But it's not just the stock market that is taking a hit, it is regular people everywhere.

00:45Consumer confidence is down by 7 points, 7 points in 50 days since Trump took office,

00:51and spending has dropped for the first time in two years.

00:55The dollar is weaker, hiring is slowing, interest rates are unlikely to come down,

01:00and GDP is expected to shrink this quarter for the first time in three years.

01:08You know, usually, presidents get too much blame or too much credit for the state of the economy.

01:18But not this time.

01:21Trump is going out of his way to plunge the economy into chaos and make life harder for everyone.

01:27And whether you're buying groceries or trading stocks or hoping to retire next month, you are getting hit.

01:35When the Commerce Secretary was asked yesterday about a potential recession, he said, quote,

01:41It's worth it.

01:45It's worth it.

01:47They actually think a recession would be worth it.

01:51And if the economic numbers coming in are bad, if they show that the economy is shrinking or the costs are rising,

01:57their solution is to cook the books, to make them seem better.

02:02Because when the data is bad, change it.

02:05Everybody knows that.

02:07Trump is getting to work on lowering prices on day one like he said he would.

02:12The president has spent his days plotting the rebirth of a gilded age with tariffs and tax cuts.

02:21That was a time when the rich got richer while everyone else got screwed.

02:26Trump tells a different story.

02:28Quote, we were at our richest.

02:30We were at our richest from 1870 to 1913, he said.

02:35That's when we were a tariff country.

02:38We were a very wealthy country, and we're going to be that way again, end quote.

02:43And so I just want to make clear, yes, I'm a partisan.

02:46Yes, I think Donald Trump is screwing up the economy.

02:49But it's really important for us to understand they actually do have a theory of the case,

02:53and that is the golden age from 1870 to 1913.

03:00I didn't say that.

03:03The president said that.

03:05I didn't say, hey, these guys think a recession is worth it.

03:10They said a recession is worth it.

03:14It is true that in the gilded age, some people were very wealthy then.

03:19Robber barons and business tycoons built enormous empires on the backs of working people

03:24who had little to show for it.

03:26Profits boomed.

03:28Billionaires emerged.

03:30Regular people suffered in tenements and on factory floors, and poverty was everywhere.

03:37But the gilded age is exactly what the president is trying to recreate.

03:42Whether it's tariffs on our largest trading partners that will jack up the price of our food

03:47or our homes or our cars or mass layoffs of the people who inspect our food

03:52or keep the skies safe or care for our veterans

03:56or the tax cuts for the richest people to ever exist,

04:00funded by slashing regular people's health care and hard-earned retirement savings,

04:05all of this is about taking money from people who don't have enough

04:10and handing it over to people who already have more than anyone has ever had.

04:19Whether you voted for Trump or not,

04:23whether you believed he would be good on the economy or not,

04:27whatever sort of side of the political, tribal, ideological, partisan, algorithmic divide

04:37that we are all experiencing in our little filter bubbles on Instagram and TikTok and Twitter

04:42and wherever else we get our disaggregated information,

04:46this economy sucks.

04:50People are paying too much,

04:53and it is the intentional policy of the president's economic team

05:00to recreate a time when, until just about 50 days ago,

05:05everybody agreed we should never go back to that time.

05:09Kids working on factory floors,

05:12people working 70 hours and not able to feed their family,

05:18unprecedented disparity between the extremely wealthy and everybody else.

05:23That's what they are explicitly going for.

05:27This is not me putting spin on the ball.

05:30That's what they're saying.

05:32That's what the Commerce Secretary is saying.

05:34That's what the Treasury Secretary is saying.

05:37That's what the President of the United States is saying.

05:40This is their plan,

05:42and it is going according to plan.

05:47These people have the ability to short things

05:51and ride the volatility

05:53and monetize all of the craziness

05:56and make side deals and do crypto

05:59and park their assets here and there.

06:01They make money no matter what.

06:03But if you're retiring next month

06:06with a 401K or an IRA or a 403B,

06:11you just got screwed.

06:14Trillions of dollars of wealth was eliminated,

06:19and the President sprung into action.

06:22Why? For what purpose?

06:25To help his buddies sell cars on the White House lawn.

06:30I don't have a preference for electric cars or non-electric cars.

06:34I don't care. That's fine.

06:37But what a weird thing to spring into action about

06:39when everybody's getting kicked in the face,

06:41economically, except his buddies.

06:45Mr. President,

06:47I ask unanimous consent that the following remarks

06:50appear in a different part of the journal.

06:52Without objection.

07:01Mr. President, it wasn't so long ago

07:03that a senator stood on this floor

07:05and said the following.

07:07Foreign aid, as a part of the overall budget,

07:10is less than 1% of the total amount

07:12that the U.S. government spends.

07:14I promise you,

07:16it is going to be a lot harder to recruit someone

07:18to anti-Americanism and anti-American terrorism

07:21if the United States of America

07:23is the reason one is even alive today.

07:26End quote.

07:27The person who said that was not me.

07:29It wasn't another Democrat.

07:31It was then-Senator,

07:33now Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

07:36As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,

07:38Marco Rubio was one of the strongest supporters

07:40of foreign aid,

07:42and specifically,

07:44the United States Agency for International Development,

07:46or USAID.

07:48He introduced bills to leverage USAID

07:50to fight human trafficking,

07:52advance women's economic empowerment,

07:54and reduce violence globally.

07:56He called on the agency to, among other things,

07:58provide humanitarian relief in Colombia,

08:01support free and fair elections in Burma,

08:03promote Internet freedom in Cuba,

08:05advance democratic values in the Indo-Pacific,

08:08and speaking in 2018, he said, quote,

08:11anybody who tells you that we can slash foreign aid

08:14and that will bring us to balance

08:16is lying to you.

08:18It's just not true.

08:20And so, to witness the evisceration of USAID

08:26and foreign aid more broadly

08:28under his leadership as Secretary of State

08:31and acting administrator of USAID

08:34has been honestly shocking.

08:37This is someone who just two months ago

08:39was confirmed by the Senate 99 to 0.

08:43He is someone who throughout his time in the Senate

08:45believed in the power and the jurisdiction

08:47of this institution.

08:49Someone who, while we disagreed on policy a lot,

08:51consistently showed moral clarity

08:53on the basic belief

08:55that America ought to be the side,

08:57on the side of the good guys,

08:59on the side of democracy and freedom.

09:03But he has sidestepped Congress

09:05at every turn on this issue.

09:08As the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee,

09:10overseeing funding for foreign and national security policy,

09:14I've been working with my colleagues to press

09:16Secretary Rubio publicly and privately for answers.

09:20We've sent numerous letters with dozens of questions,

09:22virtually all of which have gone unanswered.

09:25And these aren't, like, these aren't out of the ordinary

09:28partisan gotcha questions.

09:30These are the normal things that your clerk

09:32from the Appropriations Subcommittee would say,

09:34like, hey, can you tell us what this is

09:36and please inform us per the law.

09:38This is, like, normal, mundane,

09:40work-a-day correspondence.

09:42Nothing.

09:45We're supposed to get notifications

09:48about changes,

09:50and we've gotten nothing.

09:54Then on Monday,

09:565 a.m. Eastern Time,

09:58there was a tweet from him saying that the review

10:00of foreign aid that was supposed to take 90 days

10:02is now complete,

10:04and that 5,200 contracts are gone,

10:0683% of the whole enterprise,

10:08and they'll consult with Congress

10:10about what remains.

10:13But the last part is not true.

10:16There has been no consultation

10:18with Congress at all

10:20during this process.

10:22There has to be,

10:24as a matter of law,

10:26and the Secretary ought to come to Congress

10:28and explain to us, not Pete Morocco,

10:34not Pete Morocco,

10:36who we didn't confirm,

10:38who most people in the public

10:40have never heard of,

10:42who is widely viewed as a controversial figure.

10:44He came in,

10:46closed-door briefing, one hour,

10:48and you know what?

10:50He had a hard stop, had to go at 11.

10:52You know what he did at 11?

10:54He went with federal marshals

10:56to another federal agency

10:58and barged in the door,

11:00and that was found to be illegal.

11:02That was his hard stop.

11:04He only had an hour to talk to members

11:06of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

11:08because he had to get on

11:10to commandeering a building

11:12with federal marshals.

11:14As of today,

11:16we still have no idea

11:18which programs were cut

11:20and which still remain.

11:22It was like we were in a classified session.

11:24When you're in a classified session,

11:26they might give you paper,

11:28and then their staff,

11:30politely but firmly,

11:32take the paper back

11:34so you don't accidentally

11:36take a bunch of classified stuff

11:38out of the building.

11:40They acted like the stuff they're doing

11:42on appropriations

11:44is somehow top secret.

11:46It's not top secret.

11:48They just don't want anyone to know.

11:50They program the funds

11:52from the programs that were eliminated.

11:54We're still waiting to hear how he intends

11:56to operate the remaining programs going forward.

11:58Weeks and months have passed,

12:00and we still don't even have

12:02the most basic information.

12:04Here's what we do know.

12:08I'll try to calm down here.

12:10Here's what we do know.

12:12Multiple laws are being violated

12:14at once.

12:16The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act

12:18of 1998, which established

12:20USAID as an independent agency.

12:22The Impoundment Control Act,

12:24which says a president can't delay

12:26or refuse to spend funds Congress appropriates

12:28just because they have a different

12:30policy view.

12:32The Impoundment Control Act is not ambiguous.

12:34It says

12:36that a president cannot decide

12:38what they spend

12:40based on a policy preference.

12:42If it's in the law, it's in the law.

12:44They've got to execute on it.

12:46If their opportunity

12:48to exercise their

12:50leverage as a separate and co-equal

12:52branch is to threaten to

12:54veto a bill if it has something they don't want to

12:56spend money on, but once that law

12:58is enacted, their discretion

13:00is gone.

13:02The Appropriations Bills for

13:04State and Foreign Ops, which,

13:06among other things, sets minimum

13:08funding levels, prohibits the creation

13:10of new programs, the suspension

13:12or elimination of existing programs,

13:14and changes to agencies without

13:16prior consultation with

13:18and notification of Congress. Nobody

13:20did that.

13:24You can love these cuts.

13:26I assume some people love these

13:28cuts. You can hate these cuts.

13:30I hate these cuts.

13:32But one thing you cannot say

13:34is that this administration is following

13:36the law and fulfilling

13:38its duties in consulting

13:40with Congress. And in the meantime, millions

13:42of people will die.

13:46Millions of people will die.

13:48Our sudden

13:50withdrawal has pushed people in Syria,

13:52Sudan, South Africa, and so many other

13:54places to the verge of

13:56starvation, disease,

13:58and death.

14:00I understand.

14:02I learned when I was 28

14:04that when you're in elected office, you better be

14:06very careful what you say. I said

14:08some casual words one time.

14:10I don't remember what I said. I won't repeat them.

14:12I was on Hawaii News Now, and someone

14:14asked me a question, and I was tired.

14:16It was the morning show, and I said

14:18something just overly

14:20casually, and it really hurt people.

14:22And so ever since then,

14:24I've tried to be as precise as I can be.

14:26And now that

14:28I'm in the Senate, even more so do I have

14:30an obligation to not say

14:32anything that's untrue, but also to just be

14:34careful not to be too provocative.

14:36And so I say this

14:38unwisely, millions of people will die

14:42because of the United

14:44States government executive branch.

14:46This is a global

14:48humanitarian catastrophe

14:50about to happen

14:52on America's watch.

14:54When I became ranking

14:56member of the subcommittee,

14:58one of the first things I talked to

15:00Chairman Lindsey Graham about was

15:02how do we make things work better?

15:04Where can we better align

15:06our priorities?

15:08I am open for business

15:10if the enterprise is

15:12lawmaking.

15:14And I am absolutely opposed

15:16if the enterprise

15:18is lawbreaking.

15:20I yield the floor.

Category

Transcript

Recommended