'We Heard Nothing': Schumer Says GOP Didn't Return Offers To Negotiate On Spending As Shutdown Looms

Forbes Breaking News

During a press conference on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Republicans did not return offers to negotiate with Democrats on a spending bill as the government nears a shutdown.

Transcript

00:00Okay, well I hope everyone had a good break and I want to thank Senators

00:09Murray, Klobuchar and Schatz for joining me. Well, today we learned that

00:14Republicans are trying to rebrand their big ugly bill. This bill is so wildly

00:22unpopular because it's at the very core, at its very core, it's devastating to

00:27American communities and Americans are already feeling it. So they're running

00:31away from it. So instead of trying to actually address what's hurting families

00:37what they what do they want to do? Change the name. Hello, changing the name isn't

00:44going to restore somebody's Medicaid. Changing the name isn't going to have

00:49those premiums not go up. Changing the name is not going to open the rural

00:54hospitals who are closing and laying off people. So it shows what a bubble

00:59they're in. And you know the fact that Donald Trump says a big beautiful bill is

01:05cutting Medicaid is showing the American people just what his values are and

01:11they're not the American people's values. So Americans know damn well that these

01:18cuts to Medicaid and to ACA they're not they are big but they certainly ain't

01:23beautiful. The fact that Republicans think that Medicaid cuts are beautiful as I

01:28said reveals who they are to the American people and the about and the

01:34average about the average American Donald Trump doesn't give a damn. He's in

01:38his own little bubble. He talks to his billionaire friends. They make him happy

01:43when they say thanks Donald. You're doing a great job. You're giving me a tax break.

01:48So it's he's the only one who would really label such a horrible bill as

01:55beautiful. Let's be clear this isn't a branding problem. Okay we spent a month at

02:02home. I did a I did close to 20 meetings on health care mainly in upstate

02:07Republican districts and areas and you heard how bad it was. I went to the state

02:12fair which is a pretty Republican operation. I had a great time. I saw the

02:16butter sculpture. I got to drink chocolate milk which is the one time a

02:21year. My wife will let me drink it. But at the state fair it was clear. So let me

02:27show you his chart. Not the oh it's a different chart. Where's the chart on the pole?

02:33You don't have that? Okay well this chart is the trade war. The price of goods is up 40% for leather

02:40products, 7% for pressed produce, 12% for cars, 18% for consumers and electronics. Can we get the

02:47polling chart? Okay thank you. So here are the polling data which we'll show in a chart. Pew Research, 46%

02:59disprove of this big beautiful bill, 32% approve. Navigator, 52% unfavorable, 33%

03:07favorable. CNN, 61% opposed, 39% approve of the big beautiful bill. And it's

03:16interesting almost all Democrats oppose it but depending on the poll two

03:20thirds to three quarters of independents oppose it and a good chunk of

03:24Republicans oppose it up to 40% in one poll as I understand it. So on the

03:29shutdown, this month Republicans will face their greatest test under the Trump

03:35administration. Will they work in a common sense bipartisan way to keep the

03:42government open? The only way to avoid a shutdown is to work in a bipartisan way.

03:48You need Democrats and Republicans with a bill that gets both support, both parties

03:53support in the Senate. Senate Democrats, we've shown firsthand that we're willing

03:59to work with them in a bipartisan way to keep our government open by advancing the

04:05bipartisan appropriation bills, which Patty will talk about. However, as we near the

04:10funding deadline, Republicans are once again threatening to go at it alone, heading

04:16our country towards a shutdown and making the health care crisis even worse. With

04:21Trump's attempt of so-called pocket rescissions, Republicans are

04:25prioritizing chaos over governing, partisanship over partnership, and their

04:29own power over the American people. For weeks now, Leader Jeffries and I, and we're

04:35working on the same page, we talk all the time, just talked to him last night

04:38again, we've written to the Republican leaders asking them to meet us to start the

04:46negotiation process. We did that in early August. We didn't hear from them. Weeks

04:51later, we wrote a letter asking them to meet with us to start negotiating again.

04:55Nothing. Nothing. Again. Crickets. We heard nothing. Time is short. Republicans need to

05:05stop trying this go-at-it-alone approach. They did that with the big beautiful bill. Look

05:11how that's working out for them. Look how that's working out for them. Chart's not

05:16here yet. Okay. We don't want to shut down. We want bipartisan negotiations and a

05:21bipartisan bill. If Republicans want to keep the government open, they've got to

05:25work with us. We need some action from Republican leaders showing that they're

05:30serious. That they want to prevent a shutdown by working with us. We Democrats are

05:36ready to get to work.

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