Terminating the National Emergency Declared to Impose Duties on Articles Imported From Canada

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Connecticut for his excellent words. Much of what he said could be applied to New York.

I want to thank Senator Kaine for his seeing around the curve, seeing how important this was months ago and persisting and persisting and persisting in getting us to this place.

Now, Mr. President, President Trump just announced his new tariff package a few hours ago, and it is even worse than we thought. In addition to the tariffs that he has already imposed, he now has a 10- percent across-the-board tariff on all products.

What is this going to do to American families? It is going to clobber them. It is estimated that the Trump tariff will add about $5,000 to the average family's costs. And why is he doing it? To reduce taxes on the billionaires. They have said that. Navarro and he have said it over and over again, that they want to reduce those taxes. It is outrageous. It is outrageous.

The average family, sitting at the kitchen table on Friday night, is saying to themselves: Whoa, boy. We had better cut back on our purchases. Maybe we ought to not go out to the restaurant. Maybe we ought not take that vacation we have been saving up for for a year. Maybe we ought not to buy that new car.

Consumer confidence is lower than it has been in many, many years. The average business, because of the chaotic nature--Trump says one thing one day and another thing the next day--are holding back. Businesses, small and large, need certainty, but there is no certainty here with the chaos Donald Trump has created.

Listen to this. When told that it would raise the costs on the American family, Trump himself said he ``couldn't care less'' if prices go up. What kind of bubble is he living in?

These billionaires who are running the country--Trump, Musk, Lutnick--they are in such a bubble, they don't know how the average family is hurting. Yeah, they are billionaires. God bless them. They made a lot of money. But don't think that average people are in the same boat.

The cost of groceries, the cost of prescription drugs, the cost of gasoline, the cost of buying a car, the cost of buying a house, the cost of furniture, the cost of clothing--everything people buy--is going to go up.

Donald Trump said he would reduce prices on day one when he got elected. He is doing just the opposite with these tariffs. He is raising prices through the roof and strangling American families.

My colleague in Connecticut alluded to Smoot-Hawley. The new Smoot- Hawley is Trump-Musk.

These taxes could create a global trade war. Our allies--previous allies--are aligned together at how they are going to get back at Trump and what he has done to the country.

This is not ``Liberation Day,'' as Trump called it. This has made a few-weeks-earlier, in effect, tax day--huge taxes through tariffs on American families. It is a gut punch. It is a gut punch to the average American.

So right now, I know Donald Trump is pressuring Senate Republicans to vote this resolution down. He is treating this like a loyalty test. But my plea to my Senate Republican colleagues: Stand with the American people. You know how bad this is. A few of you have already said you can't vote for this. Please don't be intimidated by Donald Trump, who said he couldn't care less if prices go up on your constituents, my Republican colleagues. Don't listen to him.

This is a disaster--a disaster for working families, a disaster for the Nation's economy, a disaster for our alliances and relationships around the world--all doing so much to hurt America for one darn reason: cutting taxes for the billionaires.

This is a government by the billionaires. Everything they do--whether it is this budget they came out with today or this tariff bill--is in obeisance to the very few wealthy people who seem to control the Republican Party and want another tax cut.

I urge everybody to vote against these horrible, horrible tariffs. Tariffs on Canada have very little to do with fentanyl; we know that. Tariffs on Canada and all the other countries he has now added to the list have everything to do with more tax breaks for billionaires.

I strongly, strongly urge a ``yes'' vote. This is worse than what we had thought. He made it worse when he announced what he was doing a few hours ago.

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