Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Republicans Continuing To Refuse To Engage In A Bipartisan Negotiation To Fund The Government And Avert The Republican Healthcare Crisis

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to reiterate Congressional Democrats' readiness to find a bipartisan solution to fund the government and avert the Republican-led healthcare crisis, while Republicans continue to lie and avoid negotiations. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today is the sixth day - the sixth day - of Donald Trump's government shutdown.

Senate Democrats returned to Washington ready to negotiate. We're ready to work with Republicans to reopen the government and end the healthcare crisis that faces tens of millions of Americans.

But it takes two sides to have a negotiation. We need the Senate Republicans and House Republicans - and the president - to come to the table.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump and Speaker Johnson seem to be on another planet. Instead of trying to solve this shutdown crisis, Donald Trump spent the weekend golfing and posting memes and deepfakes on the internet. He seems to think this shutdown is some big joke. He's wrong. People will lose their paychecks. Seniors will see Social Security support services slowed down. There will be chaos for travelers. This shutdown is all on Donald Trump's shoulders and Americans agree, according to the polls.

Poll after poll after poll - from CBS to the Washington Post, to Marist, to Morning Consult, and others - consistently show that the public sees the president as most responsible for the shutdown.

He's in charge. His party holds majorities across the government. So, Americans naturally and correctly believe the burden is on him to fix this mess.

Speaker Johnson, meanwhile, has canceled yet another week of session for the House. Why? Because the Speaker knows House Republicans are bitterly divided on healthcare. He knows a large chunk of his conference doesn't want to fix people's premiums at all - the right-wing MAGA folks. Meanwhile, some of his less extreme members feel a necessity to fix this mess. The Speaker knows these divisions in his conference are serious and deep.

So, what does the Speaker do with these divisions in his conference that are almost irreconcilable? He ducks. He chooses the politically expedient way out. He keeps the Congress out of session for weeks at a time. He passes to the Senate a partisan bill with no Democratic input.

That's not leadership. That's derelict.

Even today, the Speaker said that we can deal with the ACA premium crisis sometime later. He said to wait. To kick the can down the road. To postpone any negotiation until the very last minute.

Speaker Johnson, I ask: why the wait? Why not solve this crisis now? If you're not ready to solve it now, how do we know you're going to solve it 45 days from now? When you won't even do it now, and the same reasons that hold you back now will exist then?

Insurers aren't waiting around to set rates for next year. They're doing it right now. Not three months from now.

Delay has always been the Speaker's M.O. Speaker Johnson has survived by kicking the can down the road on every major issue under his speakership, promising everyone that the thing they want is just around the corner. He did it repeatedly with the Freedom Caucus, for instance, and he's doing the same thing with healthcare.

If Speaker Johnson is serious about lowering costs and protecting the healthcare of the American people, why wait? Most of America knows that when Speaker Johnson says later, he means never.

Democrats want to deal with the healthcare problem now.

A recent poll by KFF shows that nearly 80% of Americans want to extend these ACA tax credits, including nearly 60% of MAGA Republicans.

A CBS poll also found that 75% of Americans don't think the administration is focusing enough on lowering costs. Well, lowering healthcare premiums would be one of the best ways to lower costs for households, because those costs are going through the roof. Many estimates show the average American would pay $1,000 more for healthcare. Listen to this: if you're a 55-year-old couple who makes $85,000 a year, your premiums could go up $25,000 a year. Why is Speaker Johnson waiting?

But, yet again, Speaker Johnson and MAGA Republicans continue to lie and change the subject.

The Speaker today once again lied that Democrats' proposal would provide health benefits to undocumented immigrants. He even cited a page number and section within our proposal he says supposedly proves the point.

Of course, our proposal doesn't say that, as the Sunday show commentators Speaker Johnson sat down with this weekend pointed out. And he had no real rebuttal.

Saying that Democrats' proposal provides health insurance to undocumented immigrants is, plain and simple, a blatant lie.

It was a lie yesterday. It's a lie today. It will be a lie tomorrow.

Nothing in our proposal - not even the page Speaker Johnson keeps citing - changes that.

Fact-checkers have repeatedly pointed out - independent fact-checkers, not Democrats, not Republicans, just experts - that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid, Medicare, or ACA tax credits, under current law or under the Democratic continuing resolution proposal.

That has been the law for decades.

Instead, here's what Democrats want to do: we want to reverse the devastating cuts to Americans' healthcare that Republicans passed in their "Big, Ugly Bill."

We want to extend the ACA tax credits that lower costs for eligible Americans.

These are the plain facts.

But Speaker Johnson and Republicans don't want to deal with the facts. They don't want to talk about healthcare, because they know the American people are appalled by their healthcare policies. So instead, they lie and change the subject. And Speaker Johnson and the House Republicans would rather duck out of town that come into session and do their jobs.

You know, when Leader Jeffries and I met with the president, he of all people seemed to at least somewhat appreciate the immense harm of letting these ACA credits expire.

Of course, we had to walk the president through it first, because it seemed he had no clue of the crisis before our meeting.

But frankly, what should happen now is this: the president should lean on Speaker Johnson to relent on his extreme refusal to negotiate.

It is not a sustainable position for the Speaker to literally shut the entire House down and not do anything to solve this crisis.

Again, why wait? Democrats are ready to solve this now.

We urge Donald Trump to get Speaker Johnson and our Republican colleagues to come to the table with Leader Jeffries and I, negotiate, address this problem, and fix it once and for all.

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