Senate Democratic leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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00:00Okay. All right. Hello, everybody. Thanks for being here. Thanks to Senator Klobuchar and
00:12Cantwell. Well, I hear something happened while we were at lunch, which led me to make some news
00:21here today and say something I didn't think was imaginable. I agree with Elon Musk. Within
00:31an hour, within the hour, he put on X the following. I have it right here so you can all see it.
00:37He said, I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled
00:45congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for
00:53it. You did wrong, he said to them. You know it. It will massively increase the already gigantic
01:02budget deficit to 2.5 trillion and burdened American citizens with crushingly unsustainable
01:10debt. It's right here. He's right. Here, I'll leave it here. Republicans should listen to him
01:18and actually to their former selves, outraged about the national debt. Because it's here,
01:26Donald Trump's big, ugly bill is in the Senate. Behind the smoke and mirrors lies a cruel and
01:34draconian truth. Tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, paid by gutting health care for millions of
01:41Americans. Over the past few days, President Trump has tried to sell his bill saying people won't lose
01:48coverage, children won't go hungry, costs won't go up. Let's call that for what it is, lies. All of them
01:56lies. 14 million Americans will lose health care as they decimate Medicaid and now try to dismantle the
02:04Affordable Care Act. So this is an anti-healthcare bill, not just an anti-Medicaid bill, but an anti-healthcare
02:10bill. 20 million Americans will see their health care costs go up, many of them dramatically, so they
02:17might not even be able to afford health care. 11 million Americans, 4 million kids, could lose
02:25access to federal food assistance. Hungry kids? Telling them to go hungry so billionaires can get
02:32an additional tax break? God bless the billionaires, they got plenty of money, they don't need a tax break.
02:37Our kids need to be fed. And all 40 million Americans who are receiving food assistance will get less
02:44every month when benefits are already just a couple of bucks a day. Energy costs will go up. What they did
02:53to clean energy, they decimated it. They just, they couldn't say they were killing it outright, so they
02:59strangled it to death. And what will happen? Energy costs will go up for American families, both electricity
03:08and gasoline. 800,000 jobs in domestic energy and manufacturing will be cut. 800,000 jobs.
03:17And even more in hospitals and nursing homes and community health centers. That's really risking
03:23our economy, such large amounts of people losing jobs all at once. All to pay for tax cuts for the
03:30richest. And for big oil. Big oil hates clean energy. Fossil fuel industry hates clean energy because they
03:37know it's the future. And they know it's cheaper, at least in terms of solar panels. Cheaper and quicker.
03:45So they want to kill it. But everyone knows America needs clean energy in order to meet demands
03:53moving forward. Nothing's cheap and quick to build as clean energy. We need 10 times as much electricity
03:59to continuing powering breakthroughs in AI and stay ahead of China. With their bill, the Republicans want
04:06to raise taxes on the domestic energy sources that are set to deliver more than 80 percent of the power,
04:13of the new power in the next year. So let me be clear. If this bill passes, your electricity costs
04:19are going up. Look at the facts. The Republican plan will increase average national electricity prices
04:27by about 10 percent and total energy costs by 32 billion, all to please the ideological blindness
04:35of big oil billionaires. It would jeopardize 840 million dollars in private investment across America
04:43with more than 85 percent of that massive cut in Republican states and districts. It's not theoretical.
04:51It's already happening. More than 12 billion in private investment, 13,000 jobs in clean energy
04:57and manufacturing have already been canceled since January. But that's just the beginning if this bill passes.
05:05So this is DEFCON 1 for thousands and thousands of American workers whose jobs depend on federal
05:12support for domestic energy incentives. In fact, about 200 solar manufacturing factories representing more
05:20than 40,000 jobs and 35 billion investment are dead if the Republican plan becomes law and another 100 would be
05:27at risk. Getting clean energy manufacturing is not American energy dominance. It's surrender to China.
05:36What a terrible price to pay just to lower taxes for the ultra-rich, just to line the pockets and the
05:43ideological hunger of the fossil fuel industry and to lose out on American energy dominance. Senator Klobuchar.
05:53Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator Schumer. And to be very clear, this is not a big, beautiful bill.
05:59It's a big, beautiful betrayal of the middle class and working people in this country. It's a betrayal of
06:06seniors in nursing homes where half of those in assisted living rely on Medicaid. It's a betrayal of families
06:15struggling to put food on the table. And it's a betrayal of the middle class. Americans know,
06:22and I'm going to focus here on something that I just don't think has gotten enough attention,
06:27in addition to the health care cuts that Senator Schumer so well articulated it,
06:32this is the cuts on food assistance. In addition to a nearly $3,000 Trump tariff tax on every single
06:42family in America and food prices going up by more than $200 because of the tariff tax,
06:51this betrayal when it comes to food assistance is going to be very expensive and very out of reach for
06:59a lot of people. 40% of SNAP participants are kids, almost 20% are seniors, and 10% are adults with
07:08disabilities. This is a $300 billion, not million, $300 billion cut. So you've heard about the effect it
07:18has on hungry people, but there's something that's sleight of hand that everyone needs to know. And that is
07:25that over half of these cuts come from a fake shift over to the states, a shift to the states that the
07:32states can't pay for because 40 of them have balanced budget amendments. How much money are we talking
07:38about? $100 million would have to go to Kansas to pay for, just like that. $170 million to the state of
07:47Kentucky. $580 million extra to be paid for the state of North Carolina. That is why so many governors
07:57are speaking out. Governor Laura Kelly, who heads up the state Democratic Governors Association out of
08:05Kansas, a very moderate governor, she says, we don't have the money. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein
08:14says, our state will be forced into perilous budget decisions. Should North Carolinians lose access to
08:21food or should we get rid of other essential services? Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, it's going to leave
08:28more of our kids and seniors going hungry. Farmers will be losing revenue at $35 billion over 10 years.
08:38Look what they're already facing. Market shrinking because of the Trump tariff, input costs up, weather
08:45issues, cuts to the USDA, veterinarians leaving, and now this. It will also cost jobs and wages for
08:55grocers. I visited a number of grocery stores in my state, independent groceries, because all we need
09:01is to not have more consolidation. We want to have these independent grocers,
09:07and they're the ones that would be literally the roadkill if this goes through, because especially
09:12in rural areas, so many of their customers use SNAP. So this bill is one betrayal of families
09:20who are facing these costs, of people who need health care, either they're on the Affordable Care Act
09:25and the rates are going to go way up, or they're in a nursing home, and I mentioned, and they're on
09:30Medicaid. Instead of rubber stamping the Trump agenda, instead of just raising their hands up in the air
09:39and saying, ah, people will die, it only takes four Republicans in the House or four in the Senate to
09:46stand up and say no to this and work with us on a better budget. Thank you, Senator Klobuchar. Senator
09:54Cantwell. Thank you. It's great to be here with Leader Schumer and my colleague from Minnesota,
10:00Senator Klobuchar. We're here today to talk about the reconciliation bill that makes Medicaid cuts.
10:07That is literally just another attempt to repeal the advancements of the Affordable Care Act.
10:15American families said no before to repealing the Affordable Care Act,
10:20and families are saying no now to repealing parts of the Affordable Care Act. Here are some of the facts
10:28from the Urban Institute. By covering more people, the Affordable Care Act improved access to care,
10:36covered millions more of Americans, and helped us lower costs. But the provisions in the House
10:42Reconciliation Bill will reverse those gains. And for what? To give a tax break to the ultra-wealthy,
10:50or to corporations that don't need it. CBO estimates that because of these changes in the House
10:58Reconciliation Bill, there will be 15.9 million more Americans who don't have insurance over the next
11:0510 years. That is more than a 50 percent increase in the number of people who are currently uninsured.
11:14That would reverse the coverage gains by the Affordable Care Act.
11:19This would raise costs on all of us. The decision of the Affordable Care Act to be expanded
11:26was a good idea. Missouri providers thought so. Emergency room visits in that state
11:33state dropped by 15 percent on the uninsured. States that expanded Medicaid overall saw a 55 percent drop in
11:42hospital uncompensated care costs. In Missouri, after the Medicaid expansion, they saw their uninsured rate
11:50decline from about 50 percent to 35 percent. So now what is going to happen when you cut Medicaid and more of
11:59those people are now going to return to the ranks of the uninsured? Missouri chose to participate in the
12:06expansion, and over 300,000 people gained that insurance, but now they are at risk of losing it
12:12again. If this bill is enacted reversing the gains of the Affordable Care Act, it will increase our
12:21the
12:324% increase.
12:36That's all.
12:38we are now-
12:49could cause a $1 trillion decrease in health care services, leaving states to try to grapple
12:57with that hit. And rural areas will be the most hard hit. The result in declining revenue
13:03would have adverse consequences for at-risk hospitals and rural communities. We have all
13:10heard from our rural hospitals warning us about this. How is it that our Republican
13:15Senate colleagues are not listening to those rural hospitals? The Center for Health Care
13:22Quality and Payment Reform has reported that one-third of all rural hospitals in the country
13:27are already at risk, closing because of the pressures they face from financial losses on
13:33patient care, limited revenues, and other low financial reserves. So this bill puts already
13:40at risk rural hospitals in even a more potential state of possible closure. Do our Republican
13:47colleagues not care about delivery of health care in our rural community and the spillover
13:52effect it has to their economies? This is not scare tactics. This is a bill, if enacted,
13:59will not result in savings. It will result in an increase in the uninsured. It will result
14:06in financial stresses on our system. And it will increase costs on all of us. And yes, it
14:14will cost lives.
14:16Thank you, Maria. Ready for your questions.
14:19Mr. Schumer?
14:20Yes.
14:21You say you're going to do everything in your power and stuff. What does that
14:26mean?
14:27Look, we're doing everything we can. As I said, that involves obviously going to the floor.
14:33It involves letting the spot light hearings. We're having one tomorrow on SNAP where we're
14:39letting the American public know. It most of all entails being back in our states and going
14:46into other states and showing the public how bad this bill is. Abe Lincoln said it best.
14:53Public sentiment is everything. And the more the public learns about this bill, the more
14:58they hate it, and the more they tell their Republican senators not to vote for it. No. No. Back
15:05there. Okay. We'll go to you.
15:08Thank you. Some Republicans are already talking about removing the
15:11dead seat. If that happens, will the Democrats provide the votes?
15:17Let's wait and see what they do. Yes.
15:20How does Musk's opposition change your approach to fighting against this bill?
15:25Well, Musk's opposition shows how bad. Even Elon Musk, who's been part of the whole process
15:32and is Trump's buddy, says the bill is bad, you can imagine how bad this bill is.
15:37Well, I think that Musk is disagreeing with the spending cuts, right? I don't know if you
15:42want to. Look, I just read you what Musk said. He said people should be ashamed to vote for
15:47this bill. I agree with him. Our members have commented about the debt and the fact that
15:53they are actually adding more tax cuts for the wealthiest, which makes it worse on the
15:58debt. So in that way, when Musk is talking about the debt, we think this bill is a problem
16:03because of the debt as well. It's a problem because of the debt and many other things. And
16:09it's Musk said people shouldn't vote for the bill. Let's hope the Republicans follow him,
16:13not Trump. Thank you, everybody.