During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized the Republicans' budget that narrowly passed the House early Thursday morning.
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00:00In reconciliation, a few hours ago, while most Americans were fast asleep,
00:05House Republicans rammed through their so-called big, beautiful bill
00:09through the House of Representatives.
00:12In the dead of night, in the hopes that nobody would notice,
00:16House Republicans took a bill that was already rotten to the core
00:20and made it even worse, to appease the most radical factions of their party.
00:27It will bring deeper, harder, and even faster pain to the American people.
00:34It seems the heart right over there wanted even quicker pain.
00:38It's truly jarring to watch House Republicans cheer and pat each other on the back
00:44while bond markets spiral and working families are left to worry about how they'll make ends meet.
00:52So, this morning, let's take a look at a few ways this bill has gotten even worse
00:58as it has reached final passage.
01:02We will surely learn more in the coming days,
01:05but let me share a few changes Republicans made that Americans deserve to hear.
01:11First, this bill was already the largest cut in Medicaid in American history,
01:16but now these cuts have been rushed forward and will happen as soon as next year.
01:24Moving up the timeline now means that hospitals, particularly rural hospitals,
01:29have even less time to prepare and increases the chance that they will close
01:35and that hundreds in each county will lose their jobs.
01:41Up to 14 million Americans are in danger of losing their health insurance.
01:46This bill will shut down rural hospitals, community health centers, urgent care clinics, and more.
01:52But while hospital beds are closing,
01:55Republicans are prioritizing a repeal on tanning bed taxes.
01:58And, of course, at the last minute, the anti-choice radicals snuck in a new provision,
02:04penalizing enrollees in private plans on the ACA exchanges covering reproductive care.
02:11Defunding Planned Parenthood wasn't enough.
02:14The radicals got their pitchforks and added a provision to effectively ban
02:18every insurance premium on every ACA exchange for covering abortion.
02:24This is catastrophic.
02:26It even increases the anti-choice provisions in the bill by a dramatic amount.
02:34It will mean that nearly one in seven Americans
02:36who have been insured through ACA since 2014 will be subject to this change.
02:42And while our communities get sicker, our kids get hungrier.
02:48Republicans weren't satisfied with simply making 4 million kids go hungry.
02:53They decided they needed to move up the timeline
02:55Cuts to snap will take effect as soon as next year.
02:59That makes it even harder for food pantries to adapt.
03:03More chaos, more hunger, and more closures
03:06among our food pantries and kitchens that serve the hungry.
03:12Widespread hunger is now on a fast track.
03:16Republicans seem to be saying
03:17that the average person who needs food gets only $5 a day.
03:22A dozen eggs cost more than $5 a day.
03:26And that's the price Republicans accept so they can cut taxes on the wealthy.
03:32Republicans are stealing from hungry kids,
03:35stealing from low-income families to give trillions in tax giveaways to the wealthy.
03:39This is not beautiful.
03:41It's ugly. It's revolting.
03:43And as the bill proceeds, perhaps the most dramatic changes that occurred overnight
03:48is the surrender of America's clean energy future to China.
03:54Republicans are condemning Americans to higher energy costs
03:58and killing hundreds of thousands, even millions, of good-paying jobs.
04:04Last night, the Republicans did something else, too.
04:07They added a clean job kill switch.
04:11At the very last minute, Republicans added a provision that says
04:14any project that doesn't break ground within 60 days of this passage
04:18will lose the entire tax credit.
04:21That's getting rid of the tax credit.
04:23No project can start in 60 days.
04:26Please, that's not how it works.
04:28They know that.
04:30They know that the clean energy tax credits are popular.
04:33They know that the clean energy tax credits will reduce costs for American families.
04:39So instead of saying kill it outright, they say you must start within 60 days.
04:43That is saying kill it outright.
04:45Everyone knows that.
04:47And I saw that some of the hard-right people from the oil-patch states
04:50were gloating, gloating that clean energy is gone.
04:56It's one of the most devastating things added at the last minute in this bill,
05:00snuck in the dark of night.
05:01And we in the Senate, and I hope our Republican colleagues will join us in this,
05:05are going to fight this every step of the way.
05:09Much of the clean energy industry will be dead.
05:12As I said, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs will be lost.
05:15And China, 10 years from now, will be dictating what happens in our energy markets to our children.
05:25To make matters even worse, of course, the bill also raises taxes on some projects that are underway.
05:31Donald Trump says he wants America to dominate energy, and then he does this?
05:40Taxing energy projects, raising costs for families?
05:44Nope.
05:45Donald Trump, what you're doing is absolutely stupid and counterproductive.
05:49You don't even know what you're doing.
05:53You just think, oh, clean energy, let's get rid of it.
05:55We'll rely on oil, gas, and coal.
05:59Well, there ain't enough oil, gas, and coal to fuel the world,
06:02and it's more expensive to do it.
06:04Donald Trump, what the heck are you doing?
06:07This is an American energy kill switch.
06:13Jobs vanish in solar.
06:16Jobs vanish in wind.
06:17Manufacturing jobs go to China.
06:19Just the opposite of what the president says he wants.
06:22And people's electric bills go up.
06:25So, America, when your electric bill starts going up,
06:28talk to Donald Trump.
06:29Talk to the Republicans in the House.
06:31And please, talk to Republicans in the Senate
06:35and tell them not to move forward on this folly.
06:41Republicans call their bill a tax break.
06:44But in reality, it's a tax hike, a job killer,
06:49except for China, where it's a job creator.
06:52China wins.
06:53America loses.
06:55In the coming days, Americans will take a look
06:58at Republicans' big, beautiful bill and discover
07:01it gets uglier and uglier the closer they look.
07:05The bill, hopefully, has a doomed future in the Senate.
07:10Senate Democrats will let hell freeze over
07:13and fight this in every way that we can.
07:18Donald Trump told House Republicans
07:20that voting no on his bill would be the ultimate betrayal.
07:23But the real betrayal this morning
07:25was Republicans voting yes,
07:28a betrayal of the American people.
07:30Because there's nothing beautiful
07:32about the biggest cuts to Medicaid
07:34in American history.
07:35Nothing beautiful about cutting snap benefits
07:38so children go hungry,
07:39can't learn or have productive lives.
07:42Nothing beautiful about
07:43cutting snap benefits
07:46by over $200 billion.
07:48Senate Democrats will oppose
07:50this morally bankrupt bill
07:52with every fiber in our being.
07:54Every fiber.
07:58.
08:00.
08:02.
08:07.