'We May Get There Soon Enough': Adam Schiff Says Trump 'Tariff Wars' May Cause A Depression

Forbes Breaking News

In remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) spoke about  President Trump's tariffs as the Senate debates the Big Beautiful Bill.

Transcript

00:00Madam President, today we meet at the center of a great debate at a crossroads that will

00:09determine the direction of the country for another generation. And this debate, this choice goes to

00:15the heart of a central question that has been plaguing families in America over the last three

00:21decades, but that is now just coming to the forefront. And that question is this. If you

00:28are working hard in America, can you still earn a good living for yourself and your family? If you

00:35are working hard in America, can you still buy a home or pay your rent, buy your food and medicine,

00:41get the health care you need, afford fuel for your car, get a decent education, or go on a family

00:47vacation? And if the answer is no, and for all too many millions of people, the answer is no,

00:55what do we do about it? When I was a kid, my father was in the clothing business. He was a traveling

01:04salesman and he made $18,000 a year. On the strength of that single income, my parents bought our first

01:12home for $18,000. He made $18,000 a year and he bought a home. My parents bought a home for $18,000. It

01:22was the American dream and it came true for our family. Today, I'm a U.S. Senator. That too is part

01:30of the American dream that anything is possible in this country. But could anyone buy a home for the cost

01:38of the annual income even of a U.S. Senator? Not a chance in the world. An average home in California

01:45costs three or four times that much. My kids are paying thousands and thousands of dollars a month

01:52in rent. Could they find a home for the cost of their annual income? There is even less of a chance

01:59of that. And what about your grandkids? At the rate we are going, at the rate housing prices are rising,

02:06what chance will they have to afford a home at any income? And of course, it's not just a home.

02:15Health care costs are rising even faster. Millions of families are only one health care crisis

02:20away from failing. And it's not their fault. It's not their fault. They are working hard, harder than

02:29ever. And they can't keep pace with rising premiums, out-of-pocket costs, hospital stays, drug costs,

02:37and charges at the emergency room. Energy prices are going up. It costs more to heat your home in

02:43the winter and a lot more to cool your home in the summer. Utility bills have been rising by double

02:50digits. Well, incomes have remained comparatively flat. It's too much. It's too much. Now, why is this

03:00coming to a head now? Why, when we're not in a Great Depression, not even a Great Recession, although with

03:07Trump's destructive tariff wars, we may get there soon enough. Why now? Why now is this coming to a head?

03:13And the answer is that people feel more squeezed than ever, more pressure than ever, more like a

03:20failure than ever because they're doing their best, working their hardest, and they are still

03:26hanging by a thread. And you know something? It's not their fault. It's not their fault. They are doing

03:36everything they can to provide for their families. And it's just not enough. It's not their fault, but it

03:45is someone's fault. It is someone's responsibility. There is someone who should be held accountable

03:52for the fact that this generation is the first to renege on a compact between generations that we

03:59would leave, we would leave the country better off to the next generation than the one that came before.

04:05And you know who that someone is? It is us. It is us. The world has changed. The nature of work has

04:17changed. And we have not changed with it. We have not kept pace. And in too many ways, through our policy

04:23failures, we have moved the country in the wrong direction. And the question before us today is

04:30whether we continue to barrel down that track towards higher home prices, bigger health care costs,

04:36more hunger and greater hardship, or whether we change direction. Much too late, yes, requiring an

04:44even more profound course correction, certainly. But finally, steer this country to a better quality of life

04:53for all of our citizens. Is this bill that change in direction? Does it lead our country on a new path

05:02towards affordability and prosperity? And the answer, the simple, terrible, but clear as day answer is

05:09no, it most emphatically does not. No, it does nothing to bring down costs. No, it does nothing to make it

05:19easier for your kids or mine to buy a house, pay their rent, buy groceries, afford their medicine,

05:25or fill up the car for a family vacation. Instead, it throws more coal in the engine, barreling down a

05:32track to nowhere. Donald Trump promised he wouldn't cut Medicaid. But this bill cuts hundreds of billions

05:43of dollars from Medicaid. It is shredding the president's commitment made again and again.

05:50In January, the president said Republicans will love and cherish Medicaid. In February, he said,

05:57we're not going to touch it. Even a few weeks ago, the president said, we're not changing Medicaid,

06:02we're leaving it. But we see in the black and white in this text they released in the dark of night

06:12that that simply isn't true. This bill will result in millions losing their health care

06:19from cuts to Medicaid. We know that. The Republicans know that. Tom Tillis has made this point

06:25over and over again tonight, as have other Republicans in this body. This bill will close

06:32down hospitals in the poorest counties and states. It will raise health care costs for families

06:37everywhere and by the thousands of dollars. It takes food away from the hungry. It kills clean energy

06:45so that we have to rely on oil and gas for everything, enriching that industry and impoverishing the rest

06:52of us with higher prices at the pump. It raises taxes on working families and the middle class

07:00by lowering taxes on the very wealthy and corporations. If you are in the top 0.1% of income earners

07:09making more than $5 million a year, you will get a $346,000 tax cut. How is that fair? How is that right?

07:21And it borrows the money from our kids to pay for that $346,000 tax cut to pay for the habits of really rich

07:33people. Where is the fairness, the morality in that? When is enough enough? My father was part of the

07:45greatest generation. We would appear are part of the most selfish. And I'm fed up with it. I'm fed up with it.

07:56What happened to any sense of responsibility in this generation? What happened to love of country? Can we

08:03love our country and impoverish it? Can we love our children and grandchildren if we take from them only to give

08:12to ourselves? In this bill, we borrow trillions from our kids. And for what? So the rich can have a bigger

08:23boat? So corporate CEOs can have more money? So a company can buy back more of its stock? So we can

08:30be richer than our neighbor while his neighbor has no home at all? The test of our progress, Franklin

08:40Roosevelt said in 1937, is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much. It is

08:48whether we provide enough for those who have too little. Last week, a landscaper in Los Angeles was

08:54tackled to the ground because he was undocumented. He's the father of three Marines. Three Marines.

09:04When one of those Marines was finally able to speak to his father after his detention,

09:08he had one ask of his son, please go back to the work site and finish the job.

09:16That was his ask. That is the work ethic that has made this country great, not the ethic that brought

09:26him to the ground. Raising three Marines? That is the patriotism that has made this country great,

09:35great, not the rancor that beat him while he lay there.

09:42But if this bill is not the answer, and it most certainly is not, if this bill only

09:48matters, makes matters worse, far worse, then what is the answer? What direction shall we go?

09:55How can we begin to make the country work for people once again?

10:03Well, we can give instead of take. We can build instead of tear down. We can recapture once again

10:11the sense of possibility in this country. If Eisenhower was part of the generation that won the war and

10:19built the roads and highways, let us be the generation that wins the peace by creating the next giant boom in

10:27housing in America, making the investment necessary, tapping into the great potential of the government and

10:34industry working together, breaking down each obstacle in the way, millions and millions of new homes that my

10:41children can afford and your children. Let us build new hospitals instead of closing them down. And in so doing, bring the cost of

10:51health care down with them. Let us train new doctors and nurses so it is not so expensive to visit them and new home

10:59health care workers to take care of us even as we take care of them. Let us grow more food and feed more people at home and abroad and

11:08bring down the cost of our groceries. Let us thank our farm workers instead of chasing them through the fields to

11:16separate them from those they love. None of this, none of this is beyond our capacity.

11:27It may mean that we can't afford yet another tax break for the wealthy or a giveaway to the oil industry

11:34or a giveaway to any other industry and its corporate titans. It may call for some sacrifice

11:42on our part, but a fraction of what our parents and grandparents gave to this country.

11:49It means that we pay more attention to our kids and their needs and less our own. That we once again show

11:56concern and compassion for our neighbor. And remember that we were once strangers in a strange land.

12:02that we show humility about our own achievements and recognize that none of us got here on our own.

12:10That all of us can prosper without someone else being made to suffer. You know, the way it used to be.

12:19The way it could be once again. Madam President, I yield back.

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