Chuck Schumer & Senate Democratic Leaders Hold Press Briefing After Trump's Visit To Capitol Hill

Forbes Breaking News

Senate Democratic leaders hold their weekly press briefing.

Transcript

00:00okay thank you everybody for being here I want to thank Senator Coons Baldwin and

00:12Warnock for joining me today so this morning President Trump came to the

00:17Capitol to push for their one big beautiful bill it's not beautiful it's

00:22ugly it's nothing short of one big grift on the American people she's very nice I

00:40like her Trump can meet with House Republicans as many times as he likes

00:46but it doesn't change the facts this bill kills jobs explodes the deficit and

00:52overwhelmingly helps the rich their plan is simple billionaires win American

00:59families lose on jobs Trump and the Republicans want to pay for billionaire

01:04tax cuts but killing critical clean energy projects throughout the country

01:10under Trump Chinese government Chinese industry is far outpacing the United

01:17States on clean energy he's literally ceding our leadership to Chinese

01:22companies in 10 years from now because clean energy is the future it's cheaper

01:26and better it's going to hurt our country our families our children in so many ways

01:32this ideological obsession that the hard right led by the oil gas and coal

01:38industry have against clean energy is going to be very harmful it's going to be

01:42one of the worst there are many one of the worst things that this administration is

01:46doing in history will show it and then of course the tax giveaways to the budget

01:52proposal that would add 52 trillion dollars to the national debt over the next 30 years

01:58despite claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility this administration Trump

02:04and the Republicans would add 50 trillion dollars 50 trillion dollars to the debt

02:10this plan isn't for all Americans it's not even for most Americans according to a study by Wharton

02:17under the Republicans plan the top 10 percent of Americans get 65 percent of the benefit of the

02:23tax breaks and many Americans making less than fifty one thousand dollars a year would actually see

02:29their incomes go down go down and despite campaigning on it Trump just this morning completely backed down

02:38from his promises on state and local tax deduction he came to Long Island he

02:43campaigned he said he wants to help the policemen and the firemen and the

02:47teachers the small business folks by getting by making sure that that cap is

02:54raised and he just did 180 degree reversal pulling the rug out from under the New

02:59York and New Jersey and California Congress members who said that Republican

03:04Congress members said they needed this let's see if they stand strong they

03:08said they're going to do everything they can to get that salt cap up let's see where

03:12they are it was incredible I don't believe let's okay we'll leave it at that it was

03:19Donald Trump who created this disaster when he put the salt caps in during his

03:24first term it's like the arson is promising to put out the fire when he says now he

03:29wants to change it so Senate Democrats will fight all of these cuts in their utter cruelty of

03:36this legislation Senator Coons thank you Senator Schumer Donald Trump promised in

03:45his campaign he would reduce costs facing working families on day one instead he's

03:51pushing House Republicans to pour more gasoline on our national debt and deficit

03:57and inevitably raise costs for borrowing and for all the American people Moody's has

04:04already sounded the alarm on the utter lack of fiscal responsibility in the

04:08House reconciliation bill by downgrading our national debt for the first time in

04:13over a hundred years because the Republican proposal would add so much to our

04:19national debt it increases the debt by over 7% over the next decade jobs will

04:25fall by more than 800,000 and recent polls show that 90% of Americans are worried

04:32about a recession because of this most expensive bill in American history what

04:38are its priorities well it throws something like 13 million Americans off

04:43of health care whether because it gets rid of tax cuts that make the Affordable Care

04:47Act affordable or because it changes the way Medicaid works for our country

04:52that'll impact every single American wait times and emergency rooms will go up the

04:57cost will be spread out and all of us will bear higher health care costs at the

05:03end of the day I can't think of a faith that teaches that it is good to take away

05:09food from hungry children and seniors to take away access to health care for those

05:15who are at the dawn of life for the end of life and to take those resources and

05:19instead give them to those who are already among the wealthiest in our society

05:24Penn Wharton which has a detailed model of how budget proposals will impact our

05:29economy in our country says the poorest fifth of Americans will lose a thousand

05:34dollars next year if this bill passes while the top 1% will each get at least

05:39four hundred thousand dollars the end of the day all these numbers amount to one

05:43thing the reconciliation bill that the Republicans are trying to send over from

05:47the House is a bad deal for America it's a bad deal for working families it's not

05:53righteous it's not just and it's not sustainable thank you

05:59thank you so good afternoon I am here to speak on behalf of the nearly 14 million

06:07Americans whose health care is on the chopping block right now in this bill

06:12Republicans are advancing a plan to take away care from millions of working

06:17families so that the super wealthy can get richer so big corporations many of

06:23which we know jack up the costs of health care and drugs in the first place

06:27don't have to pay their fair share these are giveaways for their wealthy

06:34friends at the cost of Americans health and their lives that's the deal while

06:40Republicans squabble over just how many Americans they're willing to kick off their

06:47insurance will continue holding their feet to the fire who will pay the price so rich

06:54folks can get richer a single mom who has two jobs and no time for extra

07:00paperwork a working family who can only afford their coverage thanks to the

07:06marketplace tax credits rural hospitals that depend upon Medicaid to keep their

07:12doors open all these Americans health care and more are on the chopping block so

07:19that big corporations can become more profitable the truth is Republicans know

07:25this is unpopular we are watching them outright lie to their constituents about

07:32what their bill actually does we are watching them hide from their constituents and try to tell

07:39people not to believe their lying eyes today's latest proof point comes from the

07:46president himself he sees the writing on the wall he said to House Republicans

07:54earlier today and I paraphrase don't f around on Medicaid welcome to the party mr.

08:03president I pledged to work with anyone to do right by Wisconsin and I welcome the

08:10president's sudden epiphany I hope president Trump for once uses his iron grip over Republicans to

08:19help and not hurt Americans and not got Medicaid if not these cuts to Medicaid are his legacy and he owns that

08:32that the issue is not going away quietly into the night we'll continue raising the alarms telling the

08:40stories of the real people who are getting the rug pulled out from under them and fighting back

08:46so the so the Republicans have a real problem they are trying to cut 880 billion dollars out of Medicaid and

09:02there is not enough waste fraud and abuse to cut 880 billion dollars from Medicaid not even close

09:10and so they are coming after people's health care pure and simple and they'll find many ways to talk

09:20about this they'll talk about work requirements but let's be clear what they're talking about they're

09:27they're really talking about work reporting requirements we have already seen this experiment in Georgia our

09:35governor has a program called pathways to coverage he ought to call it roadblocks to coverage we've got

09:43over 500,000 people in Georgia who are in the health care coverage gap a lot of those folks could be covered right

09:50now if Georgia would just accept the Medicaid expansion and said instead we've seen this program and 20

09:59months later they've covered a whopping 7,000 people that's it 7,000 people and so all of these are just

10:09tricks these efforts of putting red tape up asking people to certify their hours month after month after

10:16month does not incentivize work but it does a very good job of keeping working people off of their health

10:25care and as a result of that our workforce grows sicker and poorer and it's a drag on our economy every

10:34time I hear this I think about Heather Payne who is a traveling nurse in Georgia and ironically she spent her

10:43whole career working in health care and one day she got sick and to make a long story short she discovered

10:50she had had a series of many strokes and she needed to see a neurologist but she didn't have health care

10:56and so all of this time later she she's struggling trying to get her life back together Heather Payne traveling

11:05nurse from Georgia doesn't need work requirements she needs health care so that she can get back

11:13to work the data is very clear on this I released a report on this last week I want to see people work my

11:23daddy drilled that into me and so we're not gonna let people moralize and preach to us about work

11:29requirements while they're giving billionaires a tax cut the way to get people back to work is to have a

11:36healthy workforce and so we all must raise our voices on this budget a budget is not just a fiscal document it's a

11:46moral document show me your budget and I'll show you who you think matters and who does not and if this

11:53budget that they're trying to push through using reconciliation we're an EKG it would suggest that the

12:01Republican Party has a heart problem and that they are in need of moral repair and so we will continue

12:08to raise the voices of ordinary people and stand on the side of the people who sent us here so that

12:13they can get back to work and do the best by their families thank you senator Warnock yes

12:20the heel number one in answer to your first question it's going nuclear plain and simple

12:36it's overruling the parliamentarian and second what goes around comes around yes what is your response to

12:44the arrest and hold to the charges filed against Compton and McIver do you think Democrats can do

12:49anything look I think what they're doing is outrageous and I think that you know this is typical of the

12:56Justice Department trying to intimidate anybody who might oppose them whether they be an elected official

13:01a judge or anybody else yes the bottom line is that Donald Trump is engaged in such graft corruption

13:13with so many of these items that I wanted the bill to be a lot stronger now it was improved when we

13:19voted no the first time many of my colleagues made improvements but it was not at all tough enough

13:24on Donald Trump and his family thank you everybody

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