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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today, President-elect Donald Trump comes to the Capitol to meet with Senate Republicans. We expect they will talk about their first order of business when they assume full control of government.

And what is the Republicans' first order of business going to be?

Will it be helping working people as Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail? Will it be increasing paychecks or strengthening workers' rights or making healthcare more affordable? Will it be investing in more American manufacturing jobs, like Democrats did 3 years ago?

No, no--and, again, no. Donald Trump and Republicans promised to fight for working Americans, but their actions already tell a different story.

Before even entering office, Donald Trump is working with Republicans to give very wealthy people and megacorporations another round of trillion-dollar tax cuts. At the same time that Americans are struggling with inadequate childcare and not enough healthcare and the inability to buy a home, these Republicans are talking about helping the megacorporations and wealthy people get tax cuts.

Many of them are saying: Let's cut Social Security. Let's cut Medicare. Let's cut healthcare. Let's cut the ability of a first-time homeowner to buy a home, to pay for it.

So instead of working in a bipartisan way to put the needs of working Americans first, Republicans are getting ready to use the reconciliation process to reward the richest Americans and give more tax breaks to America's biggest corporations.

It is obscene enough that Republicans want to make tax cuts for the ultrarich their first agenda item, but it gets worse when you remember they already cut taxes for those same people just a few years ago, and we all saw what a disaster it was.

The last time Donald Trump and Republicans cut taxes for the rich, they claimed it would trickle down to the working people, to the middle class. It most certainly did not. Republicans promised that the average household would see $4,000 extra per year, but, in fact, real median wages grew less than half of a half of a percent--less than half of a half of a percent--in the 2 years following these tax cuts. Executive pay and bonuses, meanwhile, soared to record highs. Stock buybacks, which only reward shareholders, hit a record in 2018.

After the Trump tax cuts went into effect, the highest income earners in America paid less, effectively, in taxes than the working class for the first time ever. Imagine that. The highest income earners paid less, effectively, in taxes than the working class for the first time ever after the first Trump tax cut, and Republicans want to repeat that performance?

According to one study by economists at the University of California, the richest 400 families paid a lower tax rate than the bottom half of U.S. households in 2018. The richest 400 families paid a lower rate than the bottom half of U.S. households in 2018--paid a lesser amount, I believe.

There is nothing--nothing--pro-worker about cutting taxes for the wealthiest people in America, but that is precisely what Republicans are preparing to do as one of their first orders of business. They are not debating whether they should do it, just what is the best way to do it--one bill; two bills; choose your poison.

We already see a clear difference between the way Republicans are preparing to govern and how Democrats governed when we had the majority. We put bipartisanship first. We never made party-line votes the only part of our main agenda, as Republicans seem prepared to do.

Let's not forget--in the first year of the Democrats' majority, one of our signature bills was a bipartisan effort to rebuild America's roads, bridges, and highways, to put people to work, and fix our infrastructure. That is putting workers first.

In 2022, Democrats led a bipartisan effort to bring manufacturing back to our shores, to make America the world leader in microchip production once again, to plant the seeds for good-paying tech jobs at America's heartland. That is putting workers first.

In 2023, we even led a bipartisan effort to fix our immigration system with the strongest--the strongest--border security bill in over a decade. That was a bipartisan bill. We were hours away from voting on the bill here in the Senate before Donald Trump killed it for no other reason than a cynical political game.

So it is troubling that so far, we have seen little indication from the Republican majority that they are interested in continuing the bipartisan streak of the last 4 years or that they are really interested in helping the working people of America in any way. Instead, Republicans seem ready to use their majority to go back to the same old GOP playbook: tax cuts for the ultrarich, trickle-down fantasies, and turning their backs on working Americans whom they promised to fight for. Nominations

Mr. President, now on nominations, every time a new administration begins, one of the most important things the Senate does is carefully evaluate, consider, and vote on the President's Cabinet nominees. Strong nominees only come from a strong vetting process here in the Senate.

I have been very clear where Democrats stand. We need thorough background investigations, we need hearings where both sides can prepare to ask strong questions, and we need a vote here on the floor. In other words, we expect regular order. It is deeply troubling, then, to see our Republican colleagues already beginning to shun regular order.

Yesterday, the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources noticed a hearing for Governor Doug Burgum to serve as the next Secretary of the Interior without minority consent, as has long been the standard practice. Senate Democrats on the committee expressed reasonable objections to proceeding to this hearing because the committee had not yet received basic information on Governor Burgum's background.

What are Republicans trying to hide by rushing this and other nominees through committee? It is very reasonable to wait a little, get additional background information so both sides can be ready for the hearing. Why the rush? Are Republicans trying to hide the fact that maybe some of Donald Trump's nominees are not qualified for the positions they seek? Are Republicans trying to cover for nominees who will turn their backs on working Americans and use Agencies like the Department of the Interior to help giant polluters and Big Business?

The American people should know if Cabinet nominees will push policies that kill good-paying clean energy jobs created under President Biden. These are good-paying jobs that support communities in red States and blue States. Repealing these jobs would be profoundly anti-worker and might cause many to lose their jobs.

Americans deserve to know what kind of people are going to serve in President Trump's Cabinet. They need assurances that these nominees will fight for them, will cut costs, and hold the big corporations accountable.

When Republicans try to rush nominees through the process, the American people have to wonder what are Republicans trying to hide. Gulf of Mexico

Mr. President, now finally, I want to make a brief comment about the President-elect's press conference yesterday.

Donald Trump throws out a lot of strange and rather random ideas on a regular basis. He did it yesterday when suggesting we rename the Gulf of Mexico the ``Gulf of America.''

Well, let me say this: I would agree working with Donald Trump on renaming the Gulf of Mexico only if he first agrees to work with us on an actual plan to lower costs for Americans. That is what the American people want us to focus on first, not on renaming bodies of water.

Our priorities--our Democratic priorities--are so much more closely aligned with the concerns of the American people than Donald Trump's seem to be.

The incoming President knows he has a tall task ahead of him. He spent years on the campaign trail making outlandish promises he won't be able to keep. In fact, he is getting ready to do the opposite of what he promised by cutting taxes for the very, very wealthy.

Donald Trump is in over his head, so he is doing what he always does in times like this: distract America with crazy ideas.

Renaming the Gulf of Mexico may be a zany new idea, but it isn't going to help people save money at the grocery store; it is not going to make trips to the pharmacy more affordable; it is not going to help anyone find a good-paying job. Donald Trump says these things because it will get him attention and make him sound like a tough guy.

If Donald Trump wants to rename an ocean to sound more patriotic, I would say we will help him on one condition and only on one condition: Let's come up with a real plan first--not a concept of a plan--to lower prices for Americans. Let's do that first. Then Donald Trump can have his fun.

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