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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Now, Mr. President, for months, the American people have demanded House Republicans stop their hostage-taking and show us a plan to avoid default.
Last week, House Republicans failed in their assignment yet again. Speaker McCarthy rolled out a wish list straight out of the Freedom Caucus playbook. It might as well be called the ``Default on America Act'' because that is exactly what it is: DOA.
Instead of doing what both sides have done many times before-- avoiding default without preconditions--Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans want to force working Americans to accept either a punch to the gut or a blow to the head. Either the United States defaults on national debt for the first time in American history or MAGA Republicans get their way and America defaults on everything else--on our future and our security, on our promise to care for veterans and law enforcement and the American middle class. Either way, Republicans are promising real pain for American families when they bring their Default on America Act to the House floor this week. According to one study by Moody's Analytics, the DOA could send us into a damaging recession.
So let me say it one more time. What Republicans released last week was not so much a plan as it was a threat to default on America. Either we default on the national debt or we default on everything else through extreme cuts that will harm millions of people. That is so unpopular with the American people that the Republican House has had to hide it.
For all of the GOP's lipservice about public safety, the House DOA Act defaults on America's law enforcement and first responders. Nearly 30,000 law enforcement jobs across the country would be cut under the Republicans' DOA Act. Over $8 billion in funding for the DOJ would be eliminated. Donald Trump called for Republicans to defund law enforcement, and now it looks like House Republicans are following through.
But that is just the start. The House Default on America Act would also spell disaster for American families and American healthcare. Parents who struggle affording childcare would see over 100,000 childcare slots eliminated under the GOP proposal, preventing moms and dads from getting a job or finishing their education since they can't afford to pick up their kids in daycare. Over 21 million Americans would be at risk of losing their health coverage--21 million Americans losing health coverage--while hospitals would see billions in funding disappear. Hospitals, patient groups, doctors--you name it, they are all coming out in droves to oppose this measure.
We just endured a global pandemic that claimed the lives of over 1 million Americans, and House Republicans want to cut funding for healthcare and hospitals? Utterly revolting.
But the damage isn't just limited to American families. The Republican DOA Act would cripple America's ability to stay ahead of the Chinese Communist Party.
After all the work we did last year on CHIPS and Science, the Republican bill would slash billions--billions--from cutting-edge research and prevent us from fully implementing CHIPS and Science. The damage would be measured in countless jobs lost and billions in squandered private investment. That is the last thing we can afford as President Xi and the CCP work to outcompete America on the world stage--squandering all that great private investment that is now coming to America.
Let's not forget, should this Republican DOA bill go into effect, taxes will go up for small businesses that no longer benefit from the green energy tax credits Democrats passed last year. Many of these green tax credits support job creation in Republican districts--jobs that Republicans are happy to take credit for while working behind the scenes to destroy them. It is the dictionary definition of ``hypocrisy.''
Finally, the House Default on America Act would break America's promise to our veterans, gutting funding for new VA facilities, funding for housing and food security and addiction treatment, and even endangering 81,000 jobs across the Veterans' Administration. How could House Republicans possibly think it is OK to cut funding for our veterans in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling? What kind of message does that send to our military families, our servicemembers?
If MAGA Republicans want to sell their cuts to the American people, they should not do so in the middle of discussions to avoid default. That discussion properly belongs in conversations about the budget, not here. And we will be happy to discuss those cuts with them, oppose them, as we might, in the budget--not as a prelude to default.
In the meantime, I urge Speaker McCarthy to stop wasting any more time on this DOA--dead on arrival--bill. Time is running out for Congress to work together to avoid catastrophe.
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