Concurrent Resolution on the Budget, Fiscal Year 2016--Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I thank my great colleague from Michigan for her outstanding words and leadership. She is a senior member of the Budget Committee. She knows just what is wrong with this budget and she knows how to reach the American people in terms of revealing and showing just that. I thank her.

I thank my dear friend Senator Sanders, a fellow graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn, for his great leadership on the Budget Committee as well.

Look, in a certain sense, this Republican budget is a gift to us and to the American people because it shows their real priorities, and their priorities are so far away from what average Americans want that this budget will resound from one end of the country to the other between now and November of 2016.

The budget the House and Senate Republicans have put together helps the very wealthy and powerful in our country who, frankly, don't need any help. This idea that cutting taxes on the very wealthy will somehow make America a better place, how many Americans actually believe that? We understand a lot of our colleagues do. They hang out with these people, I guess. But that is not what most Americans think, that is for sure.

The budget should reflect the economic reality right now. Middle-class incomes are declining. It is harder to stay in the middle class. It is harder to reach the middle class. A budget should help those folks who are in the middle class stay there, and it should help those who are trying to get to the middle class create ladders so they can get there.

Again, this budget seems to focus all of its attention and all of its goodies on the very wealthy. The economy is getting stronger but mainly at the very high end. So we need to cut their taxes because they are hurting? And at the same time we need to raise taxes on 16 million Americans who are working and making $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 a year--raise their taxes by $900? How many Americans would say we should cut taxes on the 4,000 wealthiest people an average of $3 million, at the cost of $260 billion over 10 years, and raise taxes by $900 on people making $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 a year? Is it 1 percent of America who thinks that way? Maybe. But it seems our colleagues on the other side of the aisle followed that Pied Piper, that 1 percent, in putting together their budget. It makes no sense.

The Republican budget is a document of willful ignorance. It was constructed in an ideological house of mirrors where no one sees reality. No one who put together this budget sees any reality. They don't see middle-class people struggling.

Making it harder to pay for college? What the heck is going on here in this great America? Our colleagues are trying to pass a budget that says we should make it harder to pay for college, that veterans should lose food stamps--veterans, the people who served us. I am sure the vast majority of them are looking for jobs and income. That is who veterans are. They don't want a handout. But when they are down on their luck--maybe they had injuries, maybe it was rough adjusting to family life back home again--you cut their food stamps? Wow. What kind of budget is this? As I said, it is a budget in an ideological house of mirrors.

Cap student loan payments? There are 30- and 40-year-olds with huge burdens of debt. They cannot even buy a home. Maybe they even put off having kids. In this budget, our Republican friends are saying we should eliminate and cut programs so we can reduce some of that debt burden. Wow. What world are you folks living in? It sure isn't the world of reality. It is an ideological house of mirrors. It is a budget document of willful ignorance.

I could go on and on and on with this budget. How many families have elderly parents in nursing homes who have Alzheimer's? We know that tragedy. This budget makes it harder for those people to stay in those nursing homes by cutting Medicaid, which many of them are on. And then these young families are going to have the burden of taking their dear parents, their loved ones, back into their homes. Do we want that?

Well, you say, we have to cut somewhere. How about not giving the 4,000 richest families $260 billion over 10 years and putting some of the money into cancer research, putting some of the money into helping veterans feed themselves, putting some of the money into helping make it easier to pay for college?

Republicans are going to have to figure out a way to convince the American people that they are doing something, anything, to help the middle class. So far they are striking out.

There is only one bit of good news. Our colleagues, when they are forced to actually put real numbers to these budget numbers in the appropriations process, will not be able to do it. They will not dare do it. I hope--this will be up to our ranking member Senator Mikulski and the members of our Appropriations Committee--they take this budget and actually craft it into the appropriations bill and put it out there, and let's see how many of our colleagues actually vote for it.

How many of our colleagues will vote to make it harder to pay for college? How many of our colleagues will make it harder for veterans to feed themselves when they are out of luck? How many of our colleagues will vote to raise taxes by $900 on people making $30,000, $40,000 a year? I doubt many.

This is a fun day for our Republican colleagues. They get to beat their ideological breasts, show the hard right they really mean it, and then maybe we can go back to governing the country and helping the middle class.

I yield the floor.

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