Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) unleashed on Senate Republicans denouncing the newly passed reconciliation package, and issuing warnings about its consequences. The Big Beautiful Bill passed 51-50 with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie breaking vote.
00:00Good afternoon. Today, Senate Republicans betrayed the American people and covered the Senate in utter shame.
00:14They betrayed the American people and covered the Senate in utter shame.
00:19In one fell swoop, Republicans passed the biggest tax break for billionaires ever seen,
00:26paid for by ripping away health care from millions of people and taking food out of the mouths of hungry kids.
00:35This is not a big, beautiful bill at all.
00:39That's why I moved on the floor to strike the title.
00:44It is now called The Act. That's all it's called.
00:48But it is really the big, ugly betrayal, and the American people know it.
00:54This vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come.
00:59Because of this bill, tens of millions will lose health insurance.
01:03Millions of jobs will disappear.
01:06People will get sick and die.
01:09Kids will go hungry, and the debt will explode to levels we have never seen.
01:15So that the billionaires and corporate special interests get a permanent tax break.
01:22This bill is so irredeemable that one Republican literally chose to retire rather than vote yes and decimate his own state.
01:32But there were many, many senators who felt like he did.
01:36They knew how bad it was for their states.
01:39But they didn't have the courage, they didn't have the backbone to vote with the people of their states.
01:45They voted in obeisance to Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies.
01:51Because, as one of the senators said, we are all afraid, speaking of the Republican senators.
01:58One other thing of note, after the back and forth we saw the past 30 hours, those backroom deals, sweetheart negotiations,
02:11we found out that Senate Democrats successfully found a provision that the Senate Republicans were using to try and get Senator Murkowski's vote.
02:23The Medicaid provision in question was a handwritten parenthetical notation, not even disclosed to the Dems, that created a special new preference for Alaska.
02:33We fought and we won.
02:36And it didn't have the samealon of the Democrats and its power.
02:46This is a polar payoff.
02:47And it should not have stood.
02:49And it didn't.
02:50And let me say this.
02:51On the Republican side, when the bill passed, there was a bit of somberness that I don't think was expected.
02:57They knew deep in their hearts how bad this bill is for them, their states, and the Republican Party.
03:05They knew that following Trump would be a very, very bad move.
03:12For the country and for the Republican Party.
03:16When people start losing their Medicaid, when they start losing their jobs, when their electric
03:26bills go up, when their premiums go up, when kids and parents lose SNAP funding, the people
03:34of America will remember this vote.
03:38The American people will remember the Republican betrayal.
03:43And Americans will pay the price for this perfidy for generations, generations.
03:50So we Democrats fought very, very hard.
03:55We won a remarkable number of cases with the parliamentarian over and over and over again.
04:03We broke through with the American people who by a two to one margin don't like this bill.
04:11And because of our relentless focusing on a simple, unified message, billionaires win,
04:17families lose, that the Republicans are taking away your health care to give a tax break to
04:26billionaires, it has sunk in with the American people and it will remain.
04:33And our battle is not over.
04:35We're going to be fighting in July and August and throughout the year, reminding Americans
04:40when their hospitals close, when their health insurance is cut off, when they lose, their
04:47friends lose their jobs because clean energy has been so decimated, they'll remember, they'll
04:54remember.
04:55We will make sure of that.
04:57Questions?
04:58We're going to be in their states in every way.
05:11We are going to organize.
05:13We are going to have all the people who are hurt organized.
05:16You're going to see a constant, constant battle in those states reminding people day in and
05:22day out of what happened.
05:24And that's going to be we Democrats in the Senate.
05:29It's going to be all of the groups who were hurt so badly.
05:35It's going to be just average folks.
05:38You saw how many people marched last month.
05:42There'll be many more marches, many more protests against this big, ugly betrayal.
05:49Yes.
05:50Why did you strike the name one big, beautiful bill?
05:53And is it your hope that it irritates President Trump?
05:56I didn't even think of President Trump.
05:58I thought of the truth.
05:59This is not a beautiful bill.
06:02Anyone who loses their health insurance doesn't think it's beautiful.
06:06Any worker in clean energy, in clean energy industry who loses their job does not think
06:10it's beautiful.
06:12Any mom who can't feed her kid on $5 a day doesn't think it's beautiful.
06:17We wanted the American people to know the truth.
06:19Yes.
06:20I just spoke with Dan Sullivan and he said the Republicans tried four times to get the
06:25FMAP for Alaska, the special FMAP for Alaska through the parliamentarian.
06:30It was rejected four times and he said that they doubled the rural hospital fund.
06:34Can you walk through that process?
06:36Yeah.
06:37Yeah.
06:38The rural hospital fund is a fig leaf.
06:40It's putting a bandaid on an amputation.
06:44$50 billion when a trillion dollars is cut in health care.
06:48Give me a break.
06:49They know it.
06:50They know that that money is not going to cover so many of the people who lose their jobs and
06:56so many of the hospitals closed.
06:58It's not enough.
06:59But the right wing MAGA people didn't want.
07:02They wanted to slash Medicare.
07:05They wanted to slash Medicaid.
07:07And they also, also were unwilling to do what the more mainstream people want.
07:15So they came up with this fig leaf.
07:18It's not going to work.
07:19The American Hospital Association who runs the hospitals came out against it because they
07:23thought it was a fake.
07:24Could you talk a little bit more about that?
07:25Well, let me go to other people.
07:26Leader Schumer, with the soft cap being extended and if the tax cuts are extended too, will your
07:32constituents benefit from that though?
07:33Look, the bottom line is my constituents are going to be hurt dramatically.
07:38New York has 7 million odd people, 7 million plus people on Medicaid.
07:43They're going to get hurt.
07:45New York has hundreds of thousands of people on SNAP.
07:48They're going to get hurt.
07:50New York has tens of thousands of clean energy jobs.
07:53Many of them will be gone.
07:56They're going to get hurt.
07:57So this bill is very bad for New York and very bad for America.
08:03It's bad for every state.
08:05Ask Tom Tillis.
08:06Yes.
08:07That's my question.
08:08Is Tom Tillis, was he helpful for you in comparing his midterms, given his core speech
08:13and all the statements that we've made about this bill?
08:16Well, Tillis spoke truth to power.
08:19Unfortunately, not any other Republicans had the courage to do that.
08:23But obviously, what Tillis said is true.
08:28And it's not just him who said it, it's lots of people who said it.
08:30But of course, what Tom Tillis said will reverberate around America and we're going to make sure
08:36of that.
08:37Yes.
08:38You mentioned taking this to voters.
08:40Do you believe that this bill, if it becomes law, will help your party flip the majority
08:44and can also get your reaction to Colin Allred running in Texas?
08:47Okay.
08:48On the first one, look, we didn't do this for electoral purposes.
08:53We did this because we passionately believe how bad this is.
08:57That's motivated us.
08:58And again, as you saw on the floor all during the debate, we were on our front foot.
09:03We were filled with enthusiasm.
09:05The Republicans weren't.
09:06They were defensive throughout the debate.
09:08And as I said, even when the bill passed, there was a little bit of somberness there
09:13because they know how bad it is.
09:15But will it affect the elections?
09:17Well, that's what America is all about.
09:18When something as big and ugly and betraying as this passes, of course, it'll be an issue
09:24in the election.
09:25I'm not going to comment on the Texas race.
09:27Yeah.
09:28You talked a lot about the precedence that leader Boone and Republican leadership broke
09:32in this process, especially with current policy baseline.
09:35Can you talk a little bit about your willingness to use that going forward when you win?
09:40Look, what they did, as I said, eroded the Senate in a dramatic way.
09:45And they should be ashamed of themselves.
09:47Yes?
09:48Back to Senator Tillis.
09:49Do Senate Democrats see him as a potential ally?
09:51Are you going to try to work with him more in the future?
09:53Look, the man was a truth speaker.
09:56And I respect that.
09:57And I'm not going to talk about using him or anything else.
10:00He spoke the truth and America is hearing it.
10:03Last one.
10:04House Democrats have far fewer options than Democrats do when it comes to so-on legislation.
10:10What are you advising House Democrats to do this week?
10:13I'm urging every House Democrat to vote no.
10:16And I'm urging Republican House members.
10:18We have six in New York.
10:20This bill clobbers New York.
10:22They should, if they vote, if they vote for it, they're betraying New York.
