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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, today, President Biden released his budget for fiscal year 2025. President Biden's budget can be summarized in three words: bold, optimistic, responsible.

President Biden's budget highlights the sharp contrast between the Democrats' positive, proactive vision and the Republicans' negative, regressive vision for our country.

Democrats are focused on growing the economy in a responsible way, while making smart investments in the American people and our future. That is why a centerpiece of President Biden's budget focuses on creating opportunity for working Americans by ending the reckless Trump-era tax scam, which overwhelmingly cut taxes for the wealthiest few and large corporations and added trillions to the national debt.

It was recently confirmed that the Republican tax law did not pay for itself, as we heard over and over again from our Republican colleagues. Democrats know that we can and must do better.

As the President pointed out during his State of the Union Address last week, a fair Tax Code is how we can better invest in things like healthcare, education, and economic opportunity for more Americans. President Trump's tax scam proved everything but fair. It rewarded the wealthy and well-connected, while leaving working families with the tab.

Time has shown that this tax scam was a dud for our economy and a political loser for the Republican Party because the American people saw it for what it was.

Republicans also talk a big game about lowering the deficit, but President Biden's budget actually proposes measures to do it. It proposes measures to reduce the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade.

That budget will help improve the solvency of vital programs like Medicare and Social Security, which tens of millions of Americans rely on every single day.

It will reinstate the child tax credit we passed in the American Rescue Plan, which greatly reduced child poverty before expiring.

That is not all. President Biden's budget builds on the progress Democrats have made to help grow America from the middle out and the bottom up. From the infrastructure law, to the CHIPS and Science Act, to the Inflation Reduction Act, to the PACT Act, and more, Democrats made a lot of good investments that are already paying off for the American people. Inflation is cooling down. Manufacturing is surging. Consumer sentiment is growing. The cost of insulin and other drugs is falling. We have created a record 15 million new jobs since President Biden took office. President Biden's budget will help ensure we continue to make good on the investments from our agenda and build an economy that works for everyone.

Here is the bottom line: President Biden's budget shows there are two clear choices for America's future and highlights Democrats' vision for a better America.

Democrats want to keep taxes low for middle-class families and make the ultrawealthy pay their fair share, while Republicans fight to make it easier for wealthy tax cheats to pay less than middle-class families. Democrats will protect Medicare and Social Security, while Republicans look to cut these hard-earned benefits. Democrats want to make investments so every American family can do better, while Republicans want those who have already done very well to do even better.

So I thank President Biden for releasing a bold, optimistic, responsible budget for the Nation.

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