Chuck Schumer

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Will my colleague yield again?

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?

Mr. SCHUMER. One final question.

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.

Mr. SCHUMER. ``Chuck'' is OK.

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. Finally, I yield the floor back to him, and I thank him for his courage and strength and effectiveness.

Mr. SCHUMER. Would the gentleman yield for a question?

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.

Mr. SCHUMER. I remember.

Mr. SCHUMER. Will the Senator yield? I am well aware.

Mr. SCHUMER. Would the Senator yield for a question?

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?

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. I wish the Senator strength, and I yield the floor to him.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Would the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. SCHUMER. I have two questions, frankly, one on Medicaid cuts, which we talked about last night, and one on tariffs. First, let me say before I get to this question that your strength, your fortitude, your clarity has just been nothing short of amazing. And all of America is paying attention to what you are saying. All of America needs to know there are so many problems because of the disastrous actions of this administration in terms of how they are helping only the billionaires and hurting average families. You have brought that forth with such clarity. People from one end of America to the other admire you. Our whole caucus is behind you. And we admire your stamina, your strength, your passion, your intelligence. The list of adjectives could go on. My first question relates to the Medicaid cuts. As we talked about last night, I visited three Republican districts--one in Staten Island, one right on the border of two Republican districts in Long Island-- yesterday to talk about Medicaid cuts. I went to nursing homes. It was clear that the Medicaid cuts that are proposed in this proposal--$880 billion in the House--would be devastating. On Staten Island, the nursing home we visited--they love it, Silver Lake nursing home--would close. Three hundred people would lose their jobs; hundreds would be thrown out. And most of them said their children can't take care of them. It is too--their needs are more advanced. Even some who said their children might be able to take care of them didn't have room in the house, et cetera. So it is affecting Staten Island, middle class, voted for Trump. But we made a plea to their congresswoman to not vote for any bill that had these Medicaid cuts in the tax breaks for billionaires. A lot of the people there were--it was bipartisan, both parties there. We estimated that about 18,000 people total would lose their jobs with these Medicaid cuts, creating a recession on Staten Island. We estimated the harm that it would cause. So this was devastating. Same thing on Long Island. Again, Republican areas with Republican Congress people who hold the balance. If those three Congress people alone would say: I am not voting for a bill that cuts Medicaid to give tax breaks for the billionaires, the bill would fail. I know that you in New Jersey and my colleagues in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and elsewhere are doing the same thing, Congressmen and Senators. I talked to Leader Jeffries. He is doing the same with his folks. So my question to you is very simple. If these people in New Jersey, in New York, across America are kicked out of nursing homes and assisted living facilities and healthcare facilities, what would they do? How could they--and how does the Senator, with his passion and everything else, feel when the only reason they are doing this is to give tax breaks to the wealthiest of Americans? Would you please answer my question, sir?

Mr. SCHUMER. I would remind my colleague that we are both New York Giants fans.

Mr. SCHUMER. My colleague, I do have another question on an unrelated subject.

Mr. SCHUMER. First, let me say before I ask my question, Go Bills. Second, given the 15 hours which you have shown such amazing strength of an all-American athlete who could probably, given what you have shown tonight, be a star on our Giants--so I will not even try to rebut where the Giants are.

Mr. SCHUMER. I will ask this question. Going back--before I get to tariffs--one of the leading hospitals in New York told me if there were only a 20-percent cut of Medicaid, less steep than they show, that they would close. They are the only cancer care place in the Bronx, 1.3 million people, and they give great care. They are the only ones. They would close. So the devastation of these cuts, the American people should realize, is just enormous from one end of the country to the other--middle-class communities and upper middle-class communities like Long Island, middle-class like Staten Island, and poor communities like the Bronx. On tariffs, let me ask a question. So here we are, right on the edge of April 2. Today is April Fool's Day, but the tariffs the President is proposing, unfortunately, are not part of an April Fool's trick. They are real, and they are devastating. My question to my colleague is: With these tariffs, which is estimated would cost the American families $6,000 more on average, would raise costs on everything across the board, and would throw devastation into our economy--look at the stock market. It goes down when Trump is serious about tariffs, then goes up when he says maybe he is not so serious. And with the chaos that it has caused so businesses which love certainty--small businesses, medium- sized businesses, large businesses need certainty. So my questions are these. Does the great Senator and great Giants' fan from Newark agree that prices could go way up, all the way up to as much as $6,000? And does he agree that the chaos from Trump's tariffs is discombobulating the economy in very serious ways? And, again, does he agree that the reason they seem to be doing this, they count the revenues. This guy Navarro seems to have no sense of reality, yet he seems to be in charge. And they count the revenues to help them get more tax cuts for the wealthy. Almost everything they do, including tariffs, it seems to me, is aimed at getting those tax cuts for the wealthy. God bless the wealthy, as I heard you say last night when we spoke. We are not against people who make a lot of money. God bless them, but they don't need a tax break.

Mr. SCHUMER. They should realize the beauty of America helped them become or stay billionaires. The money we invested in education and roads and schools and helping kids get food makes a better workforce. So my question to my colleague on these tariffs, A, does he agree that it could raise the price on an average family thousands of dollars--it is estimated $6,000. Does he agree that the chaos caused by Trump's on-again, off-again, this-country, that-country, this-much, that-much, this-product, that-product is hurting the economy and hurting business people doing their jobs? And does he agree that it seems the motivation is tax breaks for the wealthiest people? Will you please answer my question? I yield back to the Senator from New Jersey.

Mr. SCHUMER. You are entitled.

Mr. SCHUMER. You are entitled.

Mr. SCHUMER. Sorry. Does my colleague remember the names of Smoot and Hawley?

Mr. SCHUMER. I thank the Senator for his fortitude, his strength, and the crystalline brilliance by which he has shown the American people the huge dangers that face them with this Trump-DOGE-Musk administration. I yield the floor back to my colleague from New Jersey.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Will the Senator yield for a question?