[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 56 (Monday, April 9, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S1995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           COMMONSENSE VALUES

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, like all of my colleagues, I spent the 
past few weeks crisscrossing my State meeting with constituents. I am 
always struck by their commonsense values. Folks want to be able to 
afford quality healthcare. That is probably their greatest worry. They 
know healthcare is so vital to them and for families. They know costs 
keep going up. They are worried about premiums, especially after the 
Republican Congress has done so much to sabotage our healthcare system; 
talking about tearing down the healthcare system but never building it 
up in any way.
  Folks also want a good job with decent benefits and higher wages, but 
they are not seeing much of that in the wake of the Republican tax 
bill. In fact, many of them are disappointed that they are not 
receiving more. They are seeing corporations buy back a lot of their 
stock, which boosts compensation for executives and shareholders, but 
they don't see that much of a bump in their paychecks. The bottom line 
is, they are asking: Why are the wealthy getting so much more money in 
the tax break than we are? I have heard that from one end of my State 
to the other.
  Another problem: folks want to be able to send their kids to school 
and know they will be safe. I talked to one mom whose daughter just 
doesn't want to go to school after what happened in Parkland. She is 
afraid. She is 7 years old.
  A few weeks ago, I marched with hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers 
in the March For Our Lives. Their energy and optimism and dedication 
give me hope that finally the time has come for Congress to take 
meaningful action on gun safety.
  Another example where our Republican colleagues who run this Senate 
haven't done enough--not close to enough--is on the issue of gun 
safety. On these issues and more, the Republican majority has done very 
little. What they have done has been on behalf of entrenched special 
interests: tax cuts for corporations and the superwealthy, gutting 
healthcare to pay for more tax cuts, and holding back on commonsense 
gun safety laws like universal gun safety checks because the NRA 
opposes it.
  The American people are fed up with large, special, and powerful 
interests getting their way, while average folks get left behind. That 
is what I heard while traveling my State.
  In November, the American people will have a chance to move this 
country in a dramatically different direction, away from the corporate 
special interest-driven politics, away from the swamp--I will talk more 
about that later, but President Trump has made it worse, despite claims 
that he is making it better--and toward politics that work for the 
middle class and those struggling to get there. The enthusiasm among so 
many Americans--not just core Democrats but others--of going to the 
polls and making their voices heard because they want a change in 
direction in this country was heartening and strengthening to me. The 
Democratic Senate minority is working to get away from those special 
interest politics. That is what a Democratic majority will deliver if 
elected in November.

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