Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Highlighting The Skyrocketing Costs, Unchecked Chaos, And Rampant Corruption Of Donald Trump And Republicans

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke on the Senate floor on the costs, chaos and corruption that is a hallmark of this Trump administration and empowered by Senate Republicans, and the work that Senate Democrats have done and will continue to do to fight for American families. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks:

Twenty months ago, Republicans won control of Washington on a promise to bring down costs, make government more efficient, and end senseless wars.

But over the past two years, Republicans betrayed the trust of the American people.

For the past twenty months, Senate Republicans catered to Donald Trump's every wish, but Senate Democrats stood up for the American people.

The Trump administration - empowered by his feckless Republican majorities in Congress - has been a catastrophe for working families everywhere.

Rising costs, increasing chaos, and rampant corruption characterized the Trump administration and its Republican acolytes.

Though we lacked a majority in both the House and Senate, Democrats came together like never before to hold Trump and Republicans' feet to the fire and do everything we could to stop them.

We fought Republicans' radical agenda on front after front and blunted some of their worst attacks on the American people.

We worked tirelessly and fiercely to call attention to how Republicans' disastrous agenda is making costs skyrocket.

Americans have watched the price of everything, everything explode these past two years: groceries, gasoline, health care, electricity, housing, child care, everything is more expensive.

Americans are crying out for relief.

And instead of listening to Americans, my Republican colleagues across the aisle backed the very same administration policies that have cost families an average [of] $4,200 in higher prices since Trump took office. $4,200 in higher prices because of Republican and Trump policies.

Senate Republicans backed Trump's horrendous tariff tax to the hilt. Democrats fought Trump's tariff tax in court - and won.

Americans shouldn't have to shell out a fortune at the grocery store so Trump can pound his chest about his senseless trade wars.

As Trump has pursued new tariffs, Republicans in Congress have abetted these tax increases on families and small businesses, while Democrats have pushed to end them.

We fought back when Trump and Congressional Republicans gleefully cut a trillion dollars - a trillion dollars - from our health care system, so they could cut taxes for billionaires and the biggest corporations.

The result? Five million Americans have already lost their health care coverage. Can you imagine being a family with no health care when your kid gets sick? And another 10 million more will lose it in the coming years. Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans with ACA coverage had to shell out more than a thousand dollars extra because of soaring premiums and deductibles.

Medicaid, food assistance, every program designed to help Americans keep their heads above water - all cut to the bones by Republicans in the Senate and in the country.

Let's not forget how Americans' electricity bills are up 18% under Donald Trump because Republicans gutted the historic investments Democrats made in the cheapest, fastest forms to energy to get on the grid.

We fought hard to secure those investments, and you better believe we're going to fight to bring them back.

Republicans are also charging the American people for the senseless foreign wars that they promised to end.

The Republican majority continues to back Trump's disastrous war with Iran that's made gas prices skyrocket and mortgage rates soar.

Democrats know just how badly Americans are hurting right now.

Republicans can turn a blind eye to the affordability crisis all they want, but fixing it means offering a positive vision to lower costs. That's what Democrats will continue to do.

Senate Democrats have also been unrelenting in exposing Trump's unprecedented corruption. Senate Republicans have aided and abetted Trump's efforts to rob the American people and enrich himself every step of the way.

The Trump family has profited four billion dollars off the presidency in the past two years. Trump couldn't have done it without the Senate GOP stroking his ego and lining his pockets.

The list of Trump's scams and taxpayer-funded vanity projects is truly egregious. Billions of dollars in upgrades to Trump's 400-million-dollar foreign luxury jet. Trump's gaudy triumphal arch and his billion-dollar ballroom. His recent propaganda ads. Sweetheart deals for his sons' companies from foreign governments. His two-billion-dollar MAGA slush fund to funnel American tax dollars to himself, his billionaire friends, and January 6 insurrectionists.

The list, unfortunately, goes on and on and on - and Trump charged it all to the American taxpayer. Senate Democrats have laid Trump's grifting bare for the whole world to see.

Now everyone knows that this is the most corrupt administration in American history. Americans are already drowning in higher costs. They shouldn't have to pay for Trump's corruption too.

Democrats are ready to actually drain the swamp, to really do it, to root out corruption, and ensure government works for the people, not special interests.

With a record so terrible, with an agenda so deeply unpopular, Trump has resorted to sowing chaos everywhere he can. Chaos in our financial markets. Chaos in our streets, where he unleashed his rogue ICE agents to go after Americans. Chaos abroad, where his war has put our economy at risk, all because he didn't think to keep the Strait of Hormuz open when he began.

Republicans have embraced Trump's chaos at every turn, but Senate Democrats have done everything we can to restore stability - especially in our elections.

Trump has waged an all-out war on free and fair elections in the United States.

He's tried to disenfranchise millions of Americans, kill vote-by-mail, and make it harder for people to make their voices heard in their democracy.

Trump has given up on winning over the electorate, so he's trying to silence it.

Republicans tried to jam through Trump's SAVE Act: the most devious anti-voting rights legislation Trump ever dreamed up to purge millions of voters from the rolls.

We told Republicans that the SAVE Act ain't going to happen. It didn't. We killed the SAVE Act in Congress. We took Trump to court over his attacks on his voter suppression executive orders. We protected mail-in voting. And we defeated Trump's attacks on our elections in case after case after case.

Senate Democrats launched our Election Protection Task Force to plan how we'll protect our elections on Election Day from Trump. We held table top exercises to prepare for Trump's efforts to interfere with our elections. And we launched a historic election observers program to train and deploy Senate staff volunteers across the country to monitor for any meddling in our electoral system.

In America, Donald Trump, you should know, [but] he doesn't: voters pick their leaders, leaders don't pick their voters. Hear that Trump? Voters pick their leaders, leaders don't pick their voters. Senate Democrats have taken every precaution to make sure it stays that way.

Make no mistake, the past two years have been hard - extremely hard - on Americans.

Costs are through the roof. Millions are losing their health care.

Trump's masked agents have gunned down Americans in the streets.

At least nineteen Americans have been killed, hundreds more have been wounded, the global economy is in tatters, and Americans are watching costs climb even further because Trump launched a reckless, illegal war with absolutely no plan.

We're fighting Trump tooth and nail on every front. But we're the first to recognize that stopping the worst of the worst isn't enough.

We are ready to hit the ground running to lower costs, rein in chaos, and stop the corruption.

Republicans broke [their] faith with the American people. We know we need to build that trust with the Americans back up, and we will.

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