Chuck Schumer Rails Against Donald Trump's 'Dumb And Costly Tariffs,' As China Retaliates

yesterday

During remarks on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about the impacts of President Trump's new tariffs.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you. I ask, I thank my colleague from Oregon for his excellent words on

00:04these on this issue on tax issues and so many other policies, trade and

00:08everything else. He's one of our real experts in the entire Congress, so thank

00:11you. Now, I thank my colleagues for speaking this morning. We now continue to

00:19take on, to talk about Donald Trump's assault on American families. Last night

00:24we talked about Medicaid, this morning about taxes. Now we'll move on to Donald

00:30Trump's dumb and costly tariffs, the Trump tariff tax. After that, we'll

00:36proceed to talk about the need to stand up for our veterans and national

00:40security. Then, on the unprecedented corruption and self-dealing that Donald

00:45Trump has unleashed on our government, helping his billionaire friends make

00:49money off the government to become richer. And finally, on the existential

00:54fight to protect Social Security from the chainsaw of Elon Musk. Now, on

01:01tariffs, the Trump tariff tax. This week, Donald Trump made one of the dumbest

01:08decisions he's ever made as president, and that's saying a lot. Instead of

01:13fixing inflation, which he promised to do, Trump unleashed a wave of tariffs

01:20that will make inflation much worse. And how do Senate Republicans respond to

01:26Trump's tariffs? By cutting Medicaid and giving billionaires a tax cut. That's why

01:32he's doing this. Why would he raise the cost on American families by

01:37$5,000 as it's estimated? Simply because his very wealthy billionaire friends

01:44want a greater tax break. Here's what Chairman Powell just said about

01:50the Trump tariff tax. Powell said it would increase inflation and slow growth.

01:58And then Donald Trump responded, in his billionaire bubble, he asked Powell to

02:04lower interest rates. What planet is he on? The non-political, bipartisan,

02:13non-partisan chairman of the Fed says it's going to raise inflation and slow

02:18growth, and Trump says lower interest rates. It's going to do just the opposite.

02:22That's what the chairman of the Federal Reserve said. And what

02:30Donald Trump has created with these tariffs is a brutal pincer move, with

02:35American families trapped in the middle. Trump's tariffs raise costs on one side,

02:40and Trump's budget cuts rob people of health care, nutrition, Medicaid,

02:46more than the other, and it squeezes them in a pincer. You know, there are smart

02:51ways to use tariffs, and there are dumb ways to use tariffs. Donald Trump is

02:55using tariffs in the dumbest way possible. In fact, Trump slapped tariffs

03:01on penguins, but not on Putin. Yep, that's true. He sanctioned the Heard and

03:07McDonald Islands, only inhabited by penguins, but he left Putin's evil Russia

03:13alone. That's what happens when you have no clue to what you're doing. You fire

03:19air traffic controllers and dismantle disease outbreak monitoring, sabotage

03:23Social Security and VA and censor climate data, defund public

03:29schools, and now declare a trade war on penguins. These tariffs are a massive tax

03:38hike, pure and simple. JP Morgan themselves, a conservative banking

03:44organization, called them equivalent to the largest tax increase since 1998.

03:50Everything is going to go up, my colleagues. This is 10% across the board,

03:55plus a whole lot of other tariffs. Fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, more

04:02expensive. Clothing and shoes, more expensive. Gasoline and new cars, more

04:07expensive. Electronics, like iPhones and TVs, more expensive. Donald Trump has

04:13single-handedly started a financial forest fire. Yesterday, the markets

04:19reported their worst day since the pandemic. The Dow S&P and Nasdaq dropped

04:24four, five, and six percent. Today's getting even worse because, quite

04:30naturally, other countries, including China, and I have no love for China and

04:34its policies, well, they put on a retaliatory tariff. We could be going

04:40into the greatest trade war in history. We all know that the Great Depression

04:45was caused by a trade war like this, when Herbert Hoover slapped on these

04:50tariffs, and the whole world responded. And the Great Depression, which had

04:55started, was much, was greatly worsened. Donald Trump seems to have never, he

05:01doesn't even know history, he hasn't learned history, but we could be on the

05:05edge of the greatest trade war the world has ever seen. And who will pay the price?

05:08The average American family. Because not only will prices go up, but the economy

05:15will decline. Already, estimates that the recession is more likely than before are

05:22upon us. Today's actions by China make a recession even more likely, and the

05:31American people suffer, all because he wants to give tax breaks to the

05:37billionaires. What bubble do these billionaires, including Donald Trump, live

05:43in? How could they not understand how this affects American families? He's

05:51raising these, he's imposing these tariffs, raising the cost of American

05:56families, an average of about $5,000, the number's probably going to go up after

06:00what China did today, all to give tax breaks to billionaires. The American

06:07people are learning this. They're realizing Trump doesn't, he's not on

06:12their side. They're realizing that Donald Trump is not keeping any of his

06:16campaign promises, such as prices go down on day one. They realize Donald Trump is

06:21betraying the working class, all for his billionaire friends.

Chuck Schumer Rails Against Donald Trump's 'Dumb And Costly Tariffs,' As China Retaliates

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