00:03Mr. President, first of all, I just want to say how powerful the presentations were talking
00:11about the tragedy of Minnesota and how all of our hearts go out to the families and to
00:20the entire state, because it is obviously something that had a profound impact upon
00:27the entire community, and it is something that has all of us grieving for them.
00:34And I was just touched, as I think everyone who heard it, with the presentations that we
00:41heard.
00:42So, Mr. President, I rise today in opposition to the Republicans' big billionaire boondoggle,
00:52which is economic sabotage and climate denial masquerading as fiscal policy.
01:00Last night's Senate Finance Committee text doesn't just double down on repealing smart,
01:05clean energy tax credits.
01:07It erodes our progress and our chance at a livable future.
01:12Senate Republicans are doubling down on egregious attacks against historic investments in the
01:17Inflation Reduction Act, cutting more than $500 billion in investments and programs, threatening
01:24hundreds of thousands of jobs, and raising monthly household energy bills.
01:30In 2024, this is the big number, in 2024, 94% of all new electricity generation added to our
01:41country was wind and solar and batteries.
01:44I want to repeat that, in 2024, 94% of all of the new electrical generation capacity added
01:53in our country was wind and solar and batteries.
01:56That's 50,000 megawatts of solar, 4,000 megawatts of wind, 11,000 megawatts of batteries.
02:05And you compare that with the fuels of the past?
02:09Last year, only 2,500 megawatts of natural gas were added, and zero from coal.
02:16That is the present state of affairs for electrical generation installation in our country in 2025,
02:25as we begin this debate in the Senate over the reconciliation bill, over the tax policy
02:33for our country.
02:35Unfortunately, it's why the oil and gas and coal industry, through the Republicans, are using
02:42the budget bill to rig the game, while eliminating incentives that lower energy costs and reduce
02:48pollution.
02:50But they're not going to remove the tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry.
02:58So what's about to unfold is that we're going to see the pursuance of a vendetta against wind
03:05and solar energy by cutting incentives for the cleanest and cheapest sources of electricity,
03:10all to pad the pockets of the big oil and big gas industries.
03:18This bill eliminates the residential clean and efficient energy incentives.
03:24Let me say that again.
03:25If you want to put solar panels on your roof, that tax break is going to be gone.
03:30If you want to make your home more energy efficient, that tax break is going to be gone.
03:38Heat pumps, all of it is gone.
03:45Lobby homeowners, homeowners, of the ability to save money on energy bills, breathe safer
03:51air indoors at home, and ensure a livable future for their families.
03:56And it also removes support for families looking to buy a clean vehicle, an electric vehicle,
04:03and saving money at the pump.
04:06And imposes draconian restrictions on large-scale solar and wind incentives.
04:12That is, the solar and wind installations that the utilities may want to install in our country.
04:21So it's a multi-pronged attack upon what is, in 2024, and it's already unfolding again
04:29in 2025, the future.
04:32It's wind and solar and batteries.
04:34And it is unfolding in a way which, again, threatens the incumbent energy sources.
04:43And in place of these programs, there's no solutions.
04:46There's just more pollution that is going to be what happens as a result of what the Republicans
04:54are trying to do with this bill.
04:56And you wind up with higher prices.
04:58You wind up with fewer jobs.
05:00If this bill passes, solar deployment is expected to drop nearly 40% by 2030 than what it was expected
05:09before.
05:10And as energy demand increases, driven by power-hungry AI data centers and natural gas LNG exports,
05:20Republicans are choosing to strangle America's supply of cheap solar and wind, which we're going to need for the AI revolution.
05:29The estimates are that AI itself over the next 10 years could double the need for electricity in our country.
05:37And what this bill will do is take wind and solar and batteries off the field and then say to the natural gas industry and oil industry,
05:44you figure out how to get it done.
05:47But that's not what obviously people in our country want.
05:52They're making decisions that have resulted in 2024 with 94% of all new electricity being wind and solar and batteries.
06:03So it's heading in just the opposite direction of where the American people are heading.
06:07So this is just economics 101.
06:10High demand plus low supply means higher energy prices for everyone.
06:16That's what they're setting up if we take wind and solar out of the mix.
06:19Forcing families, on average, to pay $150 more per month on their energy bills just in five years.
06:28And $260 per month, more each month in 10 years, because there won't be the competition and there won't be the supply.
06:38And the less the supply is, the higher the price for the remaining electricity in our society.
06:44And it will also destroy 840,000 American jobs by the year 2030.
06:50Jobs that would have been people up on roofs installing the solar.
06:54Or having offshore wind work for electricians off of the Atlantic coast.
07:01Or installing home efficiency into homes across our country and just going through the home to make it more energy efficient.
07:12Solar installation, fewer manufacturing jobs for solar and wind all across our country.
07:19Republicans want to frame their cuts as eliminating wasteful democratic spending.
07:23But the communities and constituents they were elected to represent, they are going to stand to lose a great deal.
07:31The states with the higher spikes in energy prices are going to be South Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana under this bill.
07:41We're taking out the alternatives that could have helped to moderate the prices in those states.
07:48And the states with the largest job losses, Texas, Florida, Indiana and Georgia.
07:55So this isn't a red state or a blue state issue, this is creating a national economic crisis.
08:0280% of the IRA funding has gone to red states, 80%, only 20% to blue states.
08:10And by the way, that's how the bill was designed.
08:12The extra tax breaks went to the states that would be energy transition states.
08:19And there's been an explosion by the hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
08:27And the Republican bill would make the United States the laggard, not the leader in innovation.
08:31Already China is investing over four times more than the United States in renewable energy.
08:37Here's China's plan, they plan on investing a trillion dollars a year for the next ten years every year.
08:47Ten trillion dollars.
08:49And the same thing is true for Japan.
08:51They've already made an announcement that they're going to invest a trillion dollars over the next ten years.
08:59So we might as well just be gift wrapping the clean energy industry, gift wrapping it for China and for other countries to be the global leader.
09:08So that's where we are.
09:10Instead of catching up and overtaking China, this bill will cede more jobs and more progress.
09:17And Republicans are putting our health and our planet up for sale.
09:20This bill would increase emissions equivalent to putting 72 million more cars on the road and eliminates pollution reduction programs leading to approximately 930 additional premature deaths every single year.
09:38So that's the plan when it comes to clean energy and it is going to be an absolute disaster for us.
09:48And additionally, as affirmed last night, Republicans want to slash over one trillion dollars from our health care system.
10:00And the House already passed cuts that would rip 800 billion dollars from Medicaid and 500 billion dollars from Medicare.
10:08The Senate Republicans released texts last night that doesn't just support these cuts but makes them actually worse.
10:15And their changes would make it harder for people to stay on their insurance.
10:20It would create more paperwork for patients to fill out.
10:23It would make it more difficult for states to fund their health care programs.
10:26And it would leave less people with access to health care across our nation.
10:33It would take 16 or 17 million people and take away their insurance in our country.
10:39So this isn't just line items or a spreadsheet.
10:43This is people's lives.
10:44If we cut people off their health insurance and less money goes to hospitals, nursing homes, health clinics, people will not be able to get health care.
10:52People will lose their local hospitals, nursing homes and clinics.
10:56Health workers will lose their jobs.
10:59And rural communities could lose their biggest employers.
11:01People will be forced to make impossible decisions about whether their health care is worth going into bankruptcy or medical debt.
11:10And if Republicans pass this bill, instead of addressing our country's health care crisis, we will be supercharging.
11:16But they don't need to listen to me.
11:19Here's what the experts have found.
11:21A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that Republican cuts would increase the number of people skipping medical care because of costs from nearly 129,000 people to nearly 839,000 people a year.
11:35A study from Yale and Penn found that federal budget cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act would lead to 51,000 deaths per year.
11:43And just last year, just last week, rather, I released data produced by the Sheps Center at the University of North Carolina about how substantial cuts to Medicare and Medicaid could force 338 hospitals across the country into financial distress, leading them to cut services or close the hospital altogether.
12:08Where are those hospitals?
12:09Well, in Kentucky, there are 35 of them that could be at risk for their viability.
12:18In Louisiana, it's 33 hospitals.
12:20These are rural hospitals.
12:22They rely upon Medicaid.
12:24They rely upon the Affordable Care Act to pay the bills.
12:27So, this is something that is going to be very, very dangerous for hundreds of rural hospitals put on the brink because of the decisions made by the
12:39Republicans in this Congress and in this White House.
12:43This is a lethal risk to take on to pay the tax breaks for billionaires.
12:48If this bill passes and even one patient loses their insurance because of burdensome paperwork in a single hospital or nursing home, the responsibility will fall on anyone who voted yes on this bill.
13:02Our state and local public health officials know this risk, which is why they're asking to stop these cuts.
13:07The Louisiana State House, with a Republican majority, passed a resolution just this week asking Congress to, quote, oppose sweeping or indiscriminate cuts to Medicaid and to instead work in partnership with states to strengthen and preserve the program for the future.
13:23That's the Louisiana State House Republicans.
13:26The Houghton County Board of Commissioners in Michigan voted to oppose Medicaid cuts.
13:3152 organizations in Alabama, including the Alabama Cancer Society and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, churches, all across the state wrote to the governor urging opposition to health care cuts, citing the need for more care and less bureaucracy.
13:48And on June 12th, 900 state and local elected officials from across the country, including mayors and state senators and representatives, attorney generals, all stood up to come out against, quote, the damaging and reckless plan.
14:07And these proposed cuts are as dangerous as they are pointless.
14:11So I'm going to conclude on this.
14:13Donald Trump and Republicans only need to rush these cuts through to guarantee tax breaks for billionaires.
14:19So the people who will benefit the most are the upper 0.1 percent.
14:27And as millions more Americans lose their health care and billionaires who can afford concierge medicine will get a handout from the government.
14:36The rich will get richer while the sick, that is the poorest, are going to be left without their health care.
14:43They are the ones who are going to lose their insurance.
14:46This is what this billionaire boondoggle is all about.
14:49It takes financial security from children, rips dinner off the family table and crushes people's opportunities for health and financial security and sells it away to the ultra wealthy.
15:01This is not a big, beautiful bill, as Donald Trump would call it.
15:05It is a big billionaire buy off and a bludgeoning of our health, our economy, our future.
15:11We don't have to do this.
15:13Making these cuts is optional.
15:15And I'm asking my Republican colleagues to please vote no.
15:18We can do a lot better with this legislation.
15:21Please, please let us negotiate a sensible resolution of this legislation.
