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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last week, House Republicans rammed through a nakedly partisan bill to default on America, without taking even a moment to explain how their bill would wreak havoc on our country. That, of course, was by design.

Republicans have known for years that their agenda is horribly unpopular with the American people. So the MAGA part of the GOP has used this default crisis to sneak their radical proposals through the back door.

Since MAGA Republicans--and House Republicans, in general--have refused to level with the American people, Senate Democrats have been doing their work for them: exposing how ``Default on America'' will crash the economy, raise costs, and kill millions of good-paying jobs.

Yesterday, at an Appropriations subcommittee hearing with Administrator Regan, Chair Murray and Subcommittee Chair Merkley showed how ``Default on America'' would devastate clean water and cut programs that protect kids from harmful PFAS chemicals.

Chair Murray and Senator Heinrich also met with Deputy Secretary Turk and showed how ``Default on America'' would slash scientific research and cripple American competitiveness, just as both parties passed CHIPS and Science.

Here we have finally passed good, strong bipartisan legislation that will help us compete against the Chinese Government. And what do the House Republicans, led by the MAGA group, do? They cut so much of that out. The American people don't want that. And they don't even want the American people to know what they are doing.

Today, the Senate Budget Committee is hearing from experts like Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics--hardly a liberal stalwart--to show how ``Default on America'' would lead to hundreds of thousands of job cuts and diminish economic prosperity. And ``Default on America,'' as you know, is the Republican plan. That is what we are calling it, and that is what America knows.

And we won't stop there. Senate committees will continue, next week, showing how the MAGA Republican ``Default on America'' plan utterly wreaks of MAGA Republican extremism. And it is not a plan at all. It is just a rightwing wish list thrown together in the House. The stench is foul.

Just look at the way the Republican bill treats our seniors. One million seniors will lose access to Meals on Wheels if Republicans' ``Default on America'' becomes law. These are seniors who often can't leave their homes by themselves to get groceries and need a hand from others.

It is incredible--tell seniors who are homebound they can't get meals so that some rightwing billionaires don't have to pay taxes?

That is the way these MAGA Republicans think, and that seems to be where House Republicans are following.

Or look at the way ``Default on America'' turns its back on our Nation's veterans. If Republicans get their way and ``Default on America'' becomes law, up to 80,000 jobs at the Veterans Health Administration would be cut.

Our Nation's veterans have dedicated their lives to keeping our country safe. There is no greater shame than intentionally depriving them of the resources to stay healthy, but that is precisely what the House Republican bill does.

And if anyone wonders whether or not House Republicans truly care about law enforcement and public safety, ``Default on America'' would cut 30,000 law enforcement jobs--30,000.

Let me emphasize that again because it is a stunning revelation.

If ``Default on America'' becomes law, 30,000 law enforcement jobs would be cut. Our Border Patrol would be left hanging to dry. Our communities that are fighting the opioid crisis, drugs, and guns would be less safe.

This party, which is railing against ``those outside of this room who have said defund the police,'' are defunding the police.

Cuts to seniors, cuts to veterans' health, cuts to Federal law enforcement--these are just some of the consequences of the ``Default on America'' wish list that has been proposed by the MAGA Republicans and the Republican leadership in the House.

But the horrors don't end there. ``Default on America'' is loaded with poison pills that have nothing to do with averting default and everything to do with the hard-right agenda. ``Default on America'' would deregulate fossil fuels and empower Big Oil, make life easier for wealthy tax cheats, and impose unpopular work requirements on vulnerable families.

There is no way the American people will accept legislation as flawed, as cruel, as hard right as the Republican ``Default on America Act.'' ``Default on America'' cannot credibly be called any sort of plan from Speaker McCarthy to avoid default. It reads much more like a House Freedom Caucus manifesto.

The solution here is staring Republicans in the face: Do what we have already done under President Trump and President Biden, under both Democratic and Republican majorities. We should pass a clean bill to avoid default--no brinksmanship, no hostage-taking. If we do that, there will be no default on the national debt.

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