Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Republicans Sending America Towards A Shutdown And Healthcare Crisis Because Of Their Refusal To Engage In Bipartisan Negotiations

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor, engaging in a debate with Leader Thune and calling out his Senate Republican colleagues for barreling this country towards a government shutdown and impending healthcare crisis because of their refusal to engage in bipartisan negotiations to fund the government. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Leader Schumer: I thank the Leader for letting me borrow his chart for a minute. So, he's pointed to each of these bar graphs - percentages of Democratic senators who supported Biden in their CRs. Yes, that's true. Guess why? In each case, Democrats negotiated with Republicans and said, "Let's have a bipartisan bill." The Leader says it's a clean bill. It's a partisan bill. Not once were Democrats asked for what input should be in the bill. We were not told about it. We were not asked about it. Nor did Speaker Johnson talk to Hakeem Jeffries. You cannot pass legislation in the Senate when it comes to appropriations unless it is bipartisan. So, the Leader will say it's clean. No, it's not clean, because there was no discussion.

Every one of these times, I went to the Republican Leader and said, "What do you need? What do you want?" And in many cases, we had to significantly change the bill. One of our bills had aid to Ukraine. The Republicans didn't want it. To avoid shutting down the government, we talked to them, negotiated, and took it out. But not once - not once - was there any bipartisan discussion or talk on this bill. We wanted to give our Republican colleagues a chance. That's why some of us back in March said, "Okay." But we saw what happened after that. We saw a decimation of healthcare in the BBB. It's so bad right now that 80% of Americans support renewing the tax credits of the ACA. We saw them use rescissions - pocket rescissions, impoundments - to undo what was done in the legislative process. So, the world has changed.

One way it's changed - and there are several and I'll get to those - is that there was no discussion. And we asked to have meetings. Hakeem Jeffries and I asked the Leader and the Speaker to sit down with us as early as July. They didn't. The job of a Leader is a bipartisan negotiation. And the appropriators he'll say are discussing things. But the issues we care about - extending the ACA credits, broadly popular with the American people - they don't want to talk about it. They want to change the subject. And ending these rescissions and impoundments, which would undo what we would do. The four appropriators, when they got down and discussed it, they said that should be for the four leaders to discuss. That's what Chairman Cole said, the Republican head of appropriations in the House. That's what Chair Collins said. That's what Vice Chair Murray said. That's what Ranking Member DeLauro said. They did not discuss it with us at all. So, to say the appropriations process is working is wrong. It's not working. It's not working because the leaders wouldn't discuss it with us - as we discussed with Republicans on every single one of these what should be in the bill and what should be added to the bill.

Leader Thune: So, the Senator from New York - the way that we have done it, it's a different business model than the one he used. We actually have the Appropriations Committee sit down, and the date that they came up with, November 21st, was agreed upon by the House and Senate appropriators, Republican and Democrat.

Schumer: Would the Leader yield?

Thune: I will. I will. And the Ukraine issue you're talking about wasn't a CR. That was an entirely different issue. So don't throw that into this mix.

Schumer: It was not. It was not an entirely different issue.

Thune: What you're talking about - the Democrat Leader and his colleagues have the same leverage on November 21^st. This is a short-term CR. This is what we do all the time around here, as witnessed by the chart that you're just using there. Twenty-four pages long, funds the government until November the 21^st, at which time you have the same leverage then that you have right now. And we have until the end of the year to fix the ACA credit issue. And we're happy, as I said yesterday and I've said on multiple occasions, to sit down with you to do that.

Schumer: Thank you. Now, reclaiming my time. They did not agree to the bills that the Leader is talking about because they said explicitly, Democrat and Republican, there are two issues they can't resolve: impoundments and rescissions, and ACA tax credits and healthcare. And they all agreed, the four of them, that they couldn't agree to a bill until the leaders discussed it with us. We asked the leaders to discuss it with us in July, in the middle of August, at the end of August, in September. They refused. And now he says, "Give us another 45 days." Well, frankly, the Republicans have had 45 days since March - one 45 days, another 45 days, another 45 days. And in the room yesterday, Speaker Johnson said he doesn't want to do it at all. He doesn't want to have any compromise. So, the time to do it is now. And the idea that we can do it till January, when we talked to the president yesterday, he didn't understand this. But I know that the Leader does.

On October 1^st, in a day or two, millions of Americans, millions, are going to get notices that their insurance premiums will rise an average of $400 a month, $5,000 a year. A middle-class family can't afford that. We want to renew those credits, among other things in healthcare, but renew those credits so that people won't pay that horrible increase. You can debate healthcare all you want, but the overwhelming majority of Americans - Democrat, Independent, and even a good number of Republicans want us to renew those credits.

And the impoundments and rescissions, I mean, what does the Leader think? That we should go along, come to an agreement, and then let them undo it unilaterally, as they've done once and now have asked to do it more? No way. That's not how you deal with this. And we never had another president who did it. Leader Thune did not come once to me and say, "Is this bill acceptable? What do you want in the bill?" So, they call it clean. We call it extremely partisan. Not one discussion, House, or Senate, between the two leaders. That is not how you negotiate. And that is not how you pass appropriation bills. And the Appropriations Committee is stalled by their own admission because the Leader will not come and talk to us about it.

Republicans are heading us into a shutdown.

We stand at the precipice of a government shutdown because Republicans are not serious about keeping the government open.

If you want one glaring instance of that, Speaker Johnson sent his people home. They're home right now, even though the government will shut down at midnight.

There is only one conclusion you can draw when the Speaker of the House sends the House home - that he wants a shutdown. He doesn't want to negotiate. All they want to do is force us and try to bully us. They're not going to succeed in making their partisan bill take it or leave it. That is not how this place works.

And that's why we're headed into a shutdown - because Republicans refuse to negotiate a bipartisan bill that deals with the healthcare needs of the American people, which they care about.

Yesterday, Leader Jeffries and I went to the White House to meet with the president and Republican leaders about finding a way out of this impasse.

It was a frank and candid discussion.

It was long overdue. As I've said, we've asked for it for months. We asked the president to meet with us when Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson wouldn't. And according to all reports, Speaker Johnson and Leader Thune, who just followed what Speaker Johnson wanted, said don't do it and the president withdrew.

So, on Friday I called Leader Thune and said let's have a meeting. And we did, but it's at the last minute.

There's still a chance. It's only the president who can do this. We know he runs the show here. And he's got to say to our Republican colleagues to deal with this ACA issue so that people don't get $400 premium increases and to deal with this impoundment and rescission issue, which when we told him about it yesterday, he seemed not familiar with it. But now he knows and we can solve this problem.

But Speaker Johnson won't and Leader Thune won't, and so the president is not going to be able to persuade them unless he tries at the last minute. That's the only hope here.

Look, sitting in the room, it was very clear, that the president hadn't fully grasped the magnitude of disaster he is causing when the government shuts down.

As healthcare costs go up, as people lose their healthcare, rural hospitals are already closing.

Speaker Johnson in the room said to me they're not, and I pointed out to him that Senator Tim Kaine just informed us that three rural clinics in Southwest Virginia were closing, and the head of the clinics said it was because of the bills that the Republicans passed.

The so-called "BBB" is not beautiful and the American people know it's not beautiful. They know, our Republican colleagues, that the American people are fully behind us when it comes to lowering costs, but also when it comes to healthcare and making sure that those premiums don't go way up.

And then I spoke to Speaker Johnson directly in the room. I told him he can't debate healthcare, because he knows it's not the American people on the side of wanting these increases, even Republicans. I told them to stop making up stories, and that too many Republicans are lying through their teeth.

They say the Democrats want undocumented immigrants to get the federal dollars of healthcare. That is utter bull, and they know it. The law prohibits undocumented immigrants from getting payments from Medicare, Medicaid, or the ACA. There is no money - not a penny of federal dollars - that are going there.

So, why do they bring this up? Because they're afraid to talk about the real issue, which is healthcare for American citizens, healthcare for people who need the healthcare and can't afford these premiums.

Let me say it again: undocumented immigrants cannot receive premium tax credits by law.

So, they should stop these lies and address the real issue which of course they're afraid to do, a standard Republican M.O.

A standard Republican M.O. is to make something up because the American people are on our side.

Now this week, here's what House Republicans sent out guidance to their members. They said "not to make the message about healthcare, because Republicans lose that argument."

They're right. Their position is callous, malicious, unpopular.

So, not only are they refusing to talk about healthcare, but apparently when they do, it's only to spread misinformation and to spread lies.

I said this yesterday to Speaker Johnson in the Oval Office yesterday.

I told him it was total bull. I think that's the word I used to say that we want undocumented immigrants to get federal benefits. It can't happen by law, and nothing we proposed in our bill changes that.

He sort of smirked, because he knows the truth. He knows the truth, and they're lying to the American people, these Republicans who use this, because they know how unpopular their position is.

The Kaiser Family Foundation poll showed that 75% of Americans support extending the ACA premium tax credits, including 63% of Republicans.

Republicans have chosen the losing side of the healthcare debate.

Because they're trying to take away people's healthcare.

They are going to let people's premiums rise.

And this idea that we can do this in January? No - the notices [start to] go out October 1^st as to how much increases people will get in 29 states. And they only have a short time, long before January, to decide if they are going to drop their healthcare because they can't afford it or if they are going to take a lesser plan, where they pay more through deductibles and copayments, or if they are going to keep that plan and cut back on buying a car, going on vacation, or worse.

Republicans have chosen, simply put, folks, the losing side of the healthcare debate.

And in the White House meeting yesterday, Speaker Johnson made it perfectly clear he didn't care if people's premiums go up, because his conference is against it.

And so, again, the House isn't even set to come back until October 7^th. You tell me which side is actively manufacturing a shutdown.

Why did the House do that? Because they want to negotiate? I don't think so. They wanted to jam it through, but they're not going to be able to.

Yesterday, during a House Republican Conference meeting, Representative Lisa McClain made it explicit. She said don't talk about healthcare to her Republican colleagues. They don't want to talk about it, so they make these other things up, facts out of thin air.

So the Republicans have until midnight tonight to get serious with us about solving this crisis and keep the government open.

But right now, they're not even talking to us. They're sort of in la-la-land.

Yesterday, the president posted an offensive deepfake AI video of Leader Jeffries and me, with sombreros and fake music - impersonating my voice through AI, it wasn't me - talking even more lies about healthcare and immigration.

Listen to this, America. Hours away from a shutdown - which we don't want and the American people don't want - the president is busy trolling away on the internet like a ten-year-old. And that's exactly why Americans are going to blame him if the government shuts down.

That's another proof point as to who is to blame: his video and Speaker Johnson going away and adjourning the House until next week.

We have less than a day to figure this out, and Donald Trump is tweeting deepfakes.

It's not like he's in touch with reality. He's in a bubble.

He doesn't understand that if the government shuts down, people's healthcare premiums will go up.

When we told him about it, Hakeem and I yesterday, by his body language, he didn't seem aware of the ramifications.

If the president were smart, he'd move heaven and earth to fix this healthcare crisis right away, because Americans are going to hold him responsible when they start paying $400, $500, $600 a month more on their health insurance.

So, we have less than a day.

If there was ever a moment for Donald Trump and Republicans to get serious about healthcare, it is now.

But even right now, even this morning, even here on the precipice of crisis, the president would rather troll on the internet and lie about healthcare than tell the truth and get to work.

That's why polls are abundantly clear that Americans will hold Donald Trump and Republicans responsible if the government shuts down.

Senate Republicans could stop this crisis now.

The president should get on the phone with Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson and tell them to work with Democrats to fix the crisis before it's too late.

Let me just say once again: we tried over and over and over again to meet with the Republican leadership. They said no.

The appropriators said they couldn't resolve the issues until the leaders met, so we asked the leaders to meet again, and they said no because they didn't want to negotiate. They wanted it their way or no way.

That's not how the Senate works. If Republicans cause a shutdown, they'll probably keep lying and distracting because they know Democrats are on the side of the American people.

But we will continue to focus on healthcare. And the American people will be completely on our side.

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