Chuck Schumer Assails President Trump And Republicans Over The Big Beautiful Bill

Forbes Breaking News

Senate Democrats held a press briefing on Wednesday.

Transcript

00:00hi hello everybody we're gonna have to be brief because we have the meeting with

00:12the Prime Minister very soon and we have to vote still okay so I want to thank

00:18Senator Klobuchar for coming Senator Blumenthal is expected but he's at the

00:22Armed Services Committee well it's not even been a week since President Trump's

00:29signed his big ugly betrayal and yet Americans are already starting to feel

00:37the impacts last week the Republicans rushed reckless and ran through process

00:43resulted in a bill that was not written with input from the American people but

00:49with billionaires corporations and marching orders from President Trump and

00:53the final product was worse for it facts are becoming clearer and clearer they're

00:58damn clear right now this law will create create havoc wreak havoc on our country

01:05and hurt American families across the nation millions will lose health care

01:09millions more will see their premiums skyrocket utility bills will rise hungry

01:14children will lose access to food aid millions of Americans will lose good

01:18paying jobs and middle-class Americans and future generations will pay a lot more

01:22because of the huge deficit more on mortgages small business loans credit cards

01:27car loans because of the crushing and historic debt dumped on their shoulders the

01:34Republicans tried to tell their members oh this won't take effect for a year and a

01:38half bull you cannot make such large cuts and not have it have immediate effect

01:43because hospitals and any kind of business clean energy has to plan for the

01:48future so here this is just a short time after they passed their big ugly betrayal

01:54there these are a few headlines rural Southwest Nebraska clinic closes blaming

01:59expected Medicaid cuts this one is Maine Medicaid cuts lead to rural Maine hospital

02:07closures and service reductions News 9 Oklahoma Oklahoma health care officials

02:13warn of rural hospital closure and pending Medicaid cuts that's just a few and the

02:19number is going to grow every day every week we'll also be hearing about a lot of

02:23job losses clean energy companies closing right away they can't when they know the

02:28tax credit is going to be cut off shortly they're not going forward right now

02:31with their projects so it's happening everywhere the Nebraska clinic I

02:37mentioned has been in operation for 30 years it serves a town of about 900

02:42people and now it's closing because of the awful bill throughout the campaign

02:48and for months after President Trump and Republicans promised they would not touch

02:53Medicaid that was a lie that was a lie the headlines already prove it and

03:00unfortunately it's just beginning we know that about 17 million Americans will be

03:06ripped off health care tens of thousands will die and premiums and that's going to

03:12happen right away too in the insurance companies have to start its health

03:16insurance insurers have to start setting their premiums in October and

03:20because of this bill going to go way up why to give tax cuts to billionaires it's

03:28profane it's morally bankrupt it's sickening we are already seeing in all the

03:32data that the people are hearing what we say and they don't like what the

03:36Republicans have done we've been very effective over the last month in letting a

03:42America know how bad this is and Amy showed a chart in our caucus that it was

03:46the second most unpopular act that Congress has passed what was first that

03:52would be the most unpopular was the repeal their attempt to repeal the

03:57Affordable Care Act second so was second John McCain comes down that was right

04:02most unpopular and then this one okay and what else is happening Trump is

04:07decimating the VA this week the VA announced plans for wide-scale employ

04:12employee reductions at the VA 30,000 jobs it's going to make health care for

04:18our veterans much much worse and while the big ugly bill jeopardizes health

04:24insurance for veterans while the big ugly bill shuts down hospitals that serve

04:28veterans Trump and Republicans are even putting a greater strain on our veterans by

04:33cutting the VA it's a cynical double whammy our veterans pay the ultimate price for

04:39Trump's cruelty so we're going to keep fighting all of these awful cuts we cannot

04:45accept that this cruelty is the new reality now to Senator Klobuchar thank you

04:52Chuck and thank you for your leadership we have this big beautiful betrayal of a bill

04:59and as you all saw the president on 4th of July strutting out there well the

05:06American people are on to this and despite the fact that we have Republicans

05:11that have actually said well you know they're not going to notice it anyway

05:16they're going to forget about it later that's not true when you look at

05:20history as Senator Schumer just mentioned most unpopular bill ever was when they

05:26tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act you look at the numbers on this

05:32legislation and it's quite extraordinary it is less possible very much less

05:38popular than the 2017 Trump tax cuts it is significantly less popular than other

05:45bills that were actually above water when they passed that would be things like the

05:49bipartisan infrastructure law and COVID relief the American people two to one are

05:56against this bill they believe it's going to help the wealthiest and they're

05:59right they are on to this they have marched our constituents in more than 15

06:06thousand rallies this year three times as many as 2017 they've turned out in

06:12elections and this includes independence and moderate Republicans in

06:16states like Wisconsin that flipped 10 counties in the Supreme Court race Iowa

06:22Pennsylvania flipping state Senate seats and Nebraska flipping the Omaha mayor and

06:27that is just the beginning so no one should get sucked down into this vortex that

06:33the American people are going to be duped that they're not going to figure out

06:36what happened here that it financed a bunch of tax cuts for the wealthy and the one

06:41thing that we think it is important for people to know now that not all of this as

06:46much as they tried to make it take effect after the midterms not all of it is

06:50after the midterms these hospitals they can't just decide well we're going to

06:54wait a year and a half for the Medicaid cuts to come in no they have to make as

06:59Chuck pointed out these investment decisions right now and they are making

07:02them across the country and our numbers show we're going to see the closure of

07:06hundreds of rural hospitals as well as nursing homes at the end of this year

07:11health insurance premiums will rise for 24 million Americans who get insurance

07:16through the Affordable Care Act 90% increase for rural Americans Americans

07:23will be notified of these higher premiums in November of this year and an

07:27estimated 4 million people won't be able to afford those higher bills and will

07:31lose their coverage entirely food assistance a number of the food

07:35assistance provisions while that mockery of the state shift with allowing the

07:41high error rate states including Alaska to get two years off by virtue of the

07:46fact that they have high error rates well that takes effect in a few years part of

07:51the food assistance cuts will take part immediately at a time when grocery

07:55prices are nowhere near going down with the Trump tariffs at the end of this year

08:00the bill will also end a number of tax credits that are lowering energy costs for

08:05families that's part of the reasons you see the numbers on the utility bills that's

08:09what we're seeing right now right in front of it this bill breaks promises made by

08:14Republicans who work in this building to the American people promises made by

08:20Donald Trump and those voters that voted for him in my state that also voted for

08:24me they voted for him because they thought he was going to bring down costs that is

08:28not happening with this bill they voted for him because they thought he'd do

08:31something about health care it's going to make it worse for them especially in the

08:35rural areas we will continue to fight every attempt to raise costs on American

08:40people we have our own ideas we have our own agenda but the important thing to

08:45remember right now if they try to say no no one notices because they're out at

08:49their barbecues now they notice and it's showing up right now in these

08:54elections this year it's showing up in the polls and it is clearly gonna sadly show up

08:59in their pocket books thank you we only have time for a few questions we got a

09:03vote etc yes

09:07it is not okay ask the Republicans why they are heading on this path we are doing

09:29everything we can to keep the bipartisan appropriations process going and they're

09:36undermining it with recession with rescissions with pocket rescissions with

09:41impoundment in every other way yes

09:43it's been about a month since New York City you have yet to endorse the Democratic nominee

09:49what is holding you back and what will it take for you to get to that place

09:52I'll be meeting with them soon yes

09:55the bottom line is Democrats are united we are fighting the high costs that

10:12American people pay we are fighting the health care cuts Republicans are making

10:17we are fighting the horrible bill that they just passed Democrats are united and

10:22we will and we have been far more united frankly than the Republicans

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