[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 79 (Monday, May 12, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2851-S2852]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 BUDGET

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, yesterday, Republicans released the 
text of their plan to eviscerate Medicaid while cutting taxes for the 
ultrarich. The bill is as toxic as we all feared.
  With a straight face, Republicans are telling the American people 
that they want to cut taxes for the ultrarich by trillions of dollars 
and pay for it with the biggest cuts to Medicaid ever--the biggest cuts 
to Medicaid ever. If this bill becomes law, nearly 14 million Americans 
will lose their health insurance--again, the biggest cut to Medicaid in 
American history, 14 million losing their health insurance.
  Hospital after hospital will have to lay off tens of thousands of 
workers. Many of them may be forced to close, particularly in rural 
areas.
  Republicans promised for months they would protect Medicaid, but now 
Americans know the truth: Republicans never intended to keep that 
promise, and this confirms it.
  Almost 14 million Americans lose insurance. Millions more see their 
premiums go up. Hospitals from one end of America to the other will 
close. Thousands will lose their jobs. Millions will lose their access 
to healthcare. Kids will suffer. Seniors suffer. Healthcare workers 
will lose their jobs. Americans with disabilities get hurt. And rural 
Americans are left to fend for themselves.
  Hospitals and nursing homes will shutter. States will scramble with 
their budgets. And American families are left out to dry.
  And why? Tax cuts for the billionaires. That is what happens when 
Project 2025 takes over the Republican mainstream.
  But the cruelness doesn't stop there. Later today, we also expect 
Republicans to unveil their plan to cut SNAP, which feeds about 40 
million Americans in need. If the reports are to be believed, 
Republicans plan to cut Federal food assistance by hundreds of 
billions. If the reports are to be believed, that is what the 
Republicans plan to do.
  Kids will go hungry. Parents will suffer.
  I just got back from Buffalo and Albany in Upstate New York, meeting 
with food banks and religious leaders and church leaders who are on the 
frontlines of the fight against hunger. The priests and nuns I met with 
spoke of the obligation Scripture imparts on us to feed the hungry and 
to give drink to the thirsty. But right now, Republicans want to rob 
the least of our neighbors to make it better for those at the top.
  SNAP should not be a partisan issue. It should not be a political 
issue. It is a moral question: Are we going to let kids, veterans, 
senior citizens, and others go hungry? This is about taking care of the 
most vulnerable in society, especially the children, making sure every 
child in America is afforded basic dignity.
  If a kid goes to bed hungry, they can't learn the next morning in 
school. They can't get along with their friends. They are off to an 
awful start.
  So SNAP has been one of the great things that America has done until 
now, in a bipartisan way--but not with these MAGA people running the 
show and not with the Republicans here in the Senate and in the House 
being supine to what they know is wrong and vicious and mean and 
counterproductive.

[[Page S2852]]

  I urge House Republicans to oppose these devastating cuts to SNAP, 
particularly those New York Republicans whose constituents I have met 
over the past couple of weeks. I was in or near the districts of two of 
them today, and the outrage against what they might do is palpable.
  Given the narrow margins in the House, these swing districts in New 
York have the power to stop these cuts to SNAP. These Republicans can 
do it. They can make sure no kid goes to bed hungry. I urge them to 
stand up and hold the line.
  When you put it all together, there is no other way to put it: This 
bill is a grotesque betrayal of working and middle-class families.
  And a few moments ago, Republicans released the next phase of their 
plan: hiking taxes on electricity and raising energy costs for seniors 
and families. Republicans are so captured by the hard-right ideology 
that they are willing to cede America's energy future to China and tank 
domestic industries that we will need to keep energy costs low in the 
future.
  Not a single Senate Democrat will support this destructive piece of 
legislation. Instead of calling this ``one, big, beautiful bill,'' 
Republicans should tell the truth. This bill is a big, fat grift, and 
it is the American people who are getting ripped off.

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