[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 211 (Monday, December 15, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8701-S8702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                NEW YORK

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now on my 62-county tour and the cost of 
healthcare: Well, today is a special day for me as I completed my 
annual 62-county tour. Every year, I visit every one of New York's 62 
counties, and today's 62nd county was Columbia County, with a visit to 
the Ooms Dairy Farm in Columbia County.
  When I first ran for the Senate, I promised New Yorkers I would visit 
every single county at least once a year, and I have kept that promise 
up for 27 years. This is the 27th year I have had that tour. I love it 
today just as much as I loved it then. You learn so much. You see 
people face to face. Sitting behind a desk, just answering the phone, 
doesn't suffice if you want to be a good Senator. You have to get out 
there, meet people, shake hands, hear about their concerns, hear about 
their anguish, hear about their happiness and joys, and that is what I 
do in every county.
  New York is a tremendously diverse State. We have one of the largest 
rural populations in America. Our upstate cities are like Midwestern 
cities, and, of course, we have New York City and its suburbs--the 
largest metropolis in the country--so I get to see and learn 
everything. I consider what I do in visiting each county a work 
requirement. I can't do my job if I don't talk to New Yorkers face to 
face and see firsthand what is going on with them every single day.
  Now, I have to say this: This year's 62-county was somewhat different 
than the ones in the past. This year, I heard from New Yorkers in every 
corner of the State, of every profession and every age, of every race, 
creed, color, gender, and preference about the rising cost of living. 
It was a universal chorus of complaints that our country is not doing 
enough about the cost of living.
  Every county I visited--all 62--had the same story. People are 
struggling to pay for the things they need. Some of their worst moments 
are while simply sitting around the dinner table after a Friday evening 
dinner and saying: How are we going to pay this bill? Maybe we should 
pay this one and not that one or do without this or do without that. 
For families with children, it is particularly hard when their kids 
need things that will be good for them, and they can't afford them.
  Here are some instances, and I met so many: a man named Thomas, who 
is the owner of a beautiful brewery, the 1812 brewery in Watertown, NY, 
on the shores of Lake Ontario, where the War of 1812 was fought. His 
beer was taken off the shelves in Canada because of Donald Trump's 
stupidity and name-calling of the Canadians.

[[Page S8702]]

  In northern New York, we have had a great border--a peaceful, 
wonderful, prosperous border--between Canada and New York. Trump just 
about destroyed it in a minute with some jerky comment that he always 
typically makes.
  Well, Thomas's costs have gone up in his brewery, in addition to the 
anger for the Canadians not buying his beer. Tariffs have made it more 
expensive for him to can his beer and buy the grain he needs to brew 
his beautiful product.
  I have met scores of businesspeople like Thomas, some of whom have 
gone out of business. A chocolatier who just loved making her 
chocolates but who can no longer afford it had to fire the people who 
had worked so hard in her company.
  I met with another New Yorker, a man named Jeremy. He lives in the 
Hudson Valley, in Kingston, NY, who relies on the ACA tax credits to 
pay for health insurance. As his tax credits expire, Jeremy is going to 
pay more than double. Nearly $1,000 every single month is what he is 
going to have to pay, and that is not an expense he can deal with or 
that people like him can deal with. He makes a good salary, and he is a 
hard-working guy, but he can't afford such a dramatic jump in the price 
of his healthcare insurance. That is the kind of financial shock that 
Jeremy will have about which I heard over and over and over and over 
again.
  What do you do--sign up for healthcare you can't afford or go 
uninsured? Go broke or go uninsured?
  What a terrible choice our Republican colleagues are forcing people 
like Jeremy and thousands and thousands of other New Yorkers to make.
  And, finally, I met a woman named Roberta who lives in Wyoming 
County, one of our big dairy counties, by the way. She told me she 
relies on SNAP benefits to put food on the table. I took a picture with 
her. She had six of her seven beautiful children there, many of them 
redheads, like their mom.
  She told me that, now, with rising grocery prices and budget cuts to 
SNAP, she can't put food on the table for all of her seven kids. She is 
living on the edge--what a horrible story to hear.
  Can you imagine those beautiful redheaded kids? And they have to 
decide who is going to get the eggs, who is going to get the 
vegetables, because she doesn't have enough money, and SNAP doesn't 
give her the food she needs to feed her family.
  So here is what I say to you, Donald Trump: If you are serious about 
focusing on affordability, come take a road trip with me through 
Upstate New York so you can see what a disaster your policies have 
been.
  The stories were the same everywhere I went.
  Under Donald Trump, costs are up, and financial security is down. 
People are having such a tough time affording the things they very much 
need--not luxuries, not frivolities--things they need: food, medicine; 
got to fix the car that just broke down and which you need to get to 
work, and you don't have the money to do it--over and over and over 
again.
  And, of course, the tip of the spear in these higher costs is what is 
becoming of healthcare. Nowhere do costs matter more. In no place have 
they accelerated more greatly than with healthcare.
  Last week, the Senate had one last chance to halt the imminent spike 
of people's healthcare costs by supporting our legislation to extend 
the ACA premiums by 3 years--the ACA tax credits by 3 years. But 
Republicans blew it by voting our bill down, and now they have all but 
guaranteed that millions of people, including countless New Yorkers, 
will see their premiums go up.
  In fact, sadly, today is the last day for Americans to sign up for 
January Marketplace coverage. And over the next 2 weeks, this holiday 
season--this Christmas season, this Hanukkah season--millions of people 
will see their skyrocketing premium amounts deducted from their bank 
accounts, wondering how they are going to make the numbers work, how 
they are going to balance their own books. That is shameful--shameful.
  The No. 1 thing I heard this year during my 62-county tour is that 
people are worried about paying for the things they need--healthcare, 
above all.
  Donald Trump and Republicans, meanwhile, have intentionally sent 
people's costs up and up and up. The idea of reducing costs on day one, 
which Donald Trump promised in the campaign and many people voted for 
because of that promise, is out the window. No one is even paying any 
attention to it. Donald Trump really is not paying attention to it.
  People don't believe it anymore. They don't believe any of the 
promises that Donald Trump has made. Donald Trump has broken faith with 
the very same people he promised to fight for, and I have felt that 
frustration through my 62-county tour this year.
  If Donald Trump and Republicans stay the course, the frustration 
people feel right now is probably only the beginning.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.

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