Privileges of the Floor
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Would my colleague yield for a question?
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Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you.
I first want to thank my colleague for taking the floor and showing the American people how horrible this administration is treating average families--working families--in so many ways, and I know he intends to hold the floor for a long time to make sure that that is the case in letting America know how bad this is.
Now, our healthcare is the main focus right now, and it is amazing, I would say to my colleague: Isn't it incredible that all of these cuts they are proposing in healthcare are done with a purpose in mind, and that is to reduce the taxes on billionaires? Doesn't it bother my colleague that these people whom he has been documenting who so desperately need healthcare are going to lose that if our Republican colleagues have their way simply to cut taxes for the very wealthy?
That is my question.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Would my colleague continue to yield for another question?
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Mr. SCHUMER. From what I understand--and tell me if this is correct-- if they did this tricky thing that even our Republican colleagues are calling fakery and hocus-pocus, our conservative Republican colleagues, it might increase the deficit by $30 trillion; is that accurate?
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Mr. SCHUMER. Would the Senator yield for another question?
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Mr. SCHUMER. Despite this fiscal hocus-pocus, this fakery, this trickery which my colleague has alluded to, when they cut Medicaid, when they cut Social Security, when they cut Medicare, those cuts remain just as devastating--is that accurate?--no matter what kind of bunk they put on their balance sheets to say it doesn't matter.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Will my colleague yield again?
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Mr. SCHUMER. So, just today, I visited a nursing home on Staten Island and a nursing home on Long Island--both in Republican congressional districts--and I spoke to people there.
At the nursing home I visited, if Medicaid were cut significantly, the nursing home would close, according to the head of this nursing home. He was there. Three hundred people would lose their jobs, and these people--hundreds of people in this nursing home--would have nowhere to go. Isn't it accurate that they say, ``Oh, they can move in with their kids''?
First, isn't it accurate that many of them are in a condition where the kids can't take care of them?
Second, given the housing shortages we face--and the tariffs will make that worse with the wood--isn't it true that many families just don't have room to take an elderly person, particularly one who needs care, into their homes and that this would cause chaos to all sorts of people who are not on Medicaid themselves but who have loved ones who need it in assisted living, in nursing homes, in care facilities?
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Mr. SCHUMER. One final question.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Share something personal with us. You are taking the floor tonight to bring up all these inequities that will hurt people-- that will so hurt the middle class, that will so hurt poor people--that will hurt America, that will hurt our fiscal condition as you have documented. Just give us a little inkling. Give us a little feeling for the strength and conviction that drives you to do this unusual taking of the floor for a long time to let the people know how bad these things are going to be.
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Mr. SCHUMER. ``Chuck'' is OK.
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Mr. SCHUMER. So I thank my colleague for his strength, his courage, and his effectiveness in letting the American people know how badly this upcoming bill will affect them if our Republican colleagues insist on passing it.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Would the gentleman yield for a question?
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Mr. SCHUMER. First, your impassioned remarks are so meaningful. I hope all of America is watching. If some people are not up at this hour, watch it tomorrow. It is inspiring.
And I would just ask my colleague a question. I was there. I spent 4 hours with John McCain before he voted. We talked and talked and talked and went over the courage of his father and his grandfather in the Navy and the courage that he hoped to show, as they did.
I ask my colleague this question: Isn't it eerily reminiscent that after John McCain did his courageous act, that here we are years later--almost a decade later, a few years less--and they are doing the same thing again, cutting people's healthcare to give tax breaks to the wealthiest people? Isn't it true that John McCain saw the suffering of people who wouldn't get healthcare and urged people to come together on a bipartisan solution? Wouldn't it be much better if our colleagues from across the aisle--they may not agree with us on everything--but instead of trying to jam another bill down our throats like they did back in 2017, came and worked with us for the betterment of the country, for the betterment of the 80 percent of the people who need healthcare, who will struggle without that healthcare?
Some will be ill, some will die--will die--so does it strike the gentleman that how could the people on the other side of the aisle try to do this again after John McCain made such a courageous stance. It is not echoing. It doesn't seem to be echoing in their ears, is it?
I ask my colleague just to answer that general line of questions.
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Mr. SCHUMER. I remember.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Will the Senator yield? I am well aware.
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Mr. SCHUMER. Would the Senator yield for a question?
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Mr. SCHUMER. Isn't it true, when McCain talked about waste in the military, he studied it; he documented it; he said this is a good thing; this is a bad thing? He helped guide me on many of these things. I voted for some weapons systems, getting some people upset because he showed me they worked, and I voted against a lot of them because he showed me they didn't.
But isn't it so that our colleagues on the other side, when they talk about waste in the healthcare system, they don't document a thing? They use just a meat-ax or a chain saw, as Elon Musk perversely but proudly said he is going to carry one. They don't document the waste that they say exists. They just slash things that people need that is not waste at all but that is life support for people. Isn't that a huge difference between the way McCain looked at waste, whether it was in the military or anything else, and what we are hearing here today?
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Mr. SCHUMER. I thank the Senator. There is a hope--it may be forlorn--that maybe one of John McCain's words will influence a few folks over there before we proceed disastrously.
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