Chuck Schumer Torches Republicans Over 'Horrible Cuts' In 'Big, Ugly Bill' And Rescissions Package

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about the Republican budget and rescissions package.

Transcript

00:00This week, Senate Republicans are set to push through the Senate a bill that betrays

00:06rural communities, harms global health, weakens America's standing abroad, and worst of all,

00:13sets the stage for even more harmful cuts down the line.

00:18The so-called rescissions package continues the destructive Republican pattern.

00:24Cut now, ask questions later.

00:25The same thing that's happening with FEMA and the National Weather Service is happening

00:29right here.

00:30Again, use that chainsaw, cut, cut, cut.

00:33Don't look at what you're cutting, what its effect will be, whether it's waste or whether

00:37it's sinew and bone.

00:42And then later say, oh, maybe we shouldn't have done that.

00:47And you know what, Mr. President?

00:50Our Republican senators, most of them, know this is wrong, but they're so afraid of Donald

00:54Trump.

00:55Yesterday, he threatened any of them who voted against the full rescissions package that

01:00we have before us would face his wrath.

01:03What is going on here?

01:04Does anyone stand up to these horrible, horrible cuts that hurt the American people?

01:16Republicans in real time are cutting health care.

01:18They're cutting education.

01:19They're cutting aid for our veterans.

01:24Veterans are not getting, they ask them.

01:25The veterans know they're not getting the health care they used to.

01:29And making things even worse, Donald Trump's tariffs are coming in at the worst possible

01:35time.

01:37And in a few short months, they're going to raise the cost of groceries.

01:39They're going to hurt small businesses and do untold damage to our economy.

01:44And now this package suffocates public broadcast.

01:48Well, did they even know when they said they wanted to cut it?

01:52You know, Donald Trump doesn't seem to like it.

01:54How much it helps our rural communities?

01:56It's the only place they can rely on for local news, for weather reports?

02:02That farmers across rural America depend on public broadcast to get weather reports?

02:10Because there's no other way?

02:14Did they know that it cuts international aid that ensures America's national security?

02:19Did they even think of the consequences?

02:22Just because Donald Trump says he wants it cut and everyone knows he doesn't know the

02:25details of any of this stuff.

02:28The rescission package is certainly troubling, but the pattern behind it is even worse.

02:34It sets the stage for even more party-line, devastating cuts in the future, to health care, to education,

02:41anything Republicans decide they don't like, all on a party-line vote, all because of obeisance

02:46and fear of Donald Trump, not a conviction that he's doing the right thing.

02:51This is a dark omen moving forward.

02:54Our Republican friends say they fight for the middle class.

02:57They say they fight for working people.

02:59Then they turn around and take investments away from the middle class in rural America.

03:03I urge them, urge them, not to proceed with this bill as written.

03:10Now on health care costs.

03:13Republicans' big, ugly betrayal will devastate American health care this year.

03:17Not many years down the line.

03:20Not a few years down the line.

03:21It's going to hurt now.

03:24There's a growing idea among Republican members of Congress and then the lobbyists who talk

03:29to the press all the time that hospitals don't need to worry about the big, ugly bill because

03:34there's time to stave off or change the horrible Medicaid cuts Republicans passed and are now

03:40running away from.

03:41That's garbage.

03:44Donald Trump and Republican leaders forced their members to walk the plank and cut Medicaid

03:50to the bone.

03:51So now they're in damage control mode.

03:53They know how bad it is.

03:55They want to make their big, ugly bill seem less destructive and seem more palpable when

04:01in reality it's quite literally a death sentence for rural hospitals and vulnerable Americans.

04:06And that death sentence for so many of them is not two years away, it's now.

04:11Here are the facts that show Republicans' big, ugly betrayal is having an impact right now,

04:19not later.

04:20At least 300 rural hospitals are at immediate risk of closing because of this bill.

04:26Already, already, not two years from now, now, this week, a few weeks after the bill passed,

04:33hospitals in Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Maine have announced their closing or are

04:39in serious danger of closing, not in 2027, not in 2028, now, now.

04:47Governors in at least eight states, eight states have called special sessions this summer, not

04:52in 2028, not in 2027, they've called special sessions this summer or are pushing stopgap subsidies

05:02to shield doctors and hospitals from the immediate harm.

05:06States don't see the big, ugly bill as a problem for years from now.

05:10To them, to the workers, and most of all, to the people who get healthcare in a lot of

05:15these rural hospitals, it's a problem right now.

05:19And this fall, more problems, not in 2028, folks.

05:24This fall, people will get notices that their insurance premiums for the Affordable Care Act

05:29will go up 75% on average because Republicans chose not to extend tax credits for the ACA.

05:39This will also impact people on private insurance.

05:41If you don't have ACA, Medicaid, Medicare, you're still going to get increases in your insurance.

05:48Everyone is affected by these cuts, just about everyone, unless you're one of those billionaires

05:54who self-insures.

05:55You don't have to have insurance because you've got all the money in the world to pay any medical

05:58bill.

05:59That's not true of the vast majority of Americans.

06:02And what they're doing is just the start.

06:05Republicans have made it clear they want even deeper cuts to Medicaid.

06:09Many in the House Freedom Caucus, those right-wingers, have said they weren't satisfied with

06:15their big, ugly bill.

06:17So, who is to say that Donald Trump and Russell Vogt won't use rescissions or another reconciliation

06:25bill to cut for health care even deeper?

06:29And what are our Republican colleagues going to do when the handful of right-wing Freedom

06:33Caucus people in this body and the other body say they demand cuts or they won't vote for

06:39any bill?

06:40Are they going to cave once again?

06:41Say, okay.

06:43Let me say it again.

06:45All this talk from Republicans that many of their own cuts won't materialize is utter nonsense.

06:53Hospitals are closing now.

06:55States are reacting now.

06:56Insurance companies are adjusting now.

06:58And the harm to the American people will happen now, not later.

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