In Senate floor remarks on Thursday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) slammed the GOP budget resolution.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, I rise in strong opposition to our colleagues' budget, the Republican
00:11budget, the Trump budget, a plan where billionaires win and families lose.
00:18We are voting on this budget resolution because our colleagues are once again telling us whose
00:26problems they are focused on solving.
00:29Spoiler alert, it is not the problems of everyday Americans.
00:36Two-thirds of these tax cuts go to billionaires.
00:41After an election where the American people sent a clear message that they were concerned
00:46about the high price of essentials like healthcare, my Republican colleagues are focused on another
00:53round of tax cuts for billionaires.
00:57This proposal gives the top 0.1 percent of income earners a new tax break worth an average
01:06of $180,000.
01:10It gives a $50 million tax break to Elon Musk over the next 10 years.
01:17That's right.
01:1810 years, $50 million.
01:20I bet a lot of Americans would like that, but it's going to Elon Musk.
01:24And it pays for it by threatening the healthcare of 80 million Americans, including 31 million
01:30children.
01:33This is not what the Americans signed up for when they voted.
01:38I have heard this from constituents.
01:40I know because some of the people who, a number of them, a lot of them, voted for Donald Trump
01:47and me.
01:48What did they want?
01:49They wanted us to work on costs.
01:51They wanted us to bring down the costs of groceries and bring down the costs of healthcare,
01:58bring down the costs of everything from housing to childcare.
02:06They wanted us to stand up for them.
02:09Instead, we get this billionaire tax scam bill.
02:14So let's talk about Medicaid.
02:16It's not maybe the first word on everyone's minds when they wake up in the morning.
02:21Because they actually, sometimes people don't know that Medicaid is helping for their, helping
02:26their parents and their grandparents pay for their assisted living.
02:30In my case, I knew that my dad, who was in assisted living that was paid for by his savings,
02:38he had late onset Alzheimer's.
02:41And I knew the exact day when that savings would run out.
02:45He got married three times.
02:47That's for another story.
02:49But he had limited savings.
02:51And the savings would get him through a certain date.
02:54And then Medicaid would kick in.
02:57That was the date where he was going to actually have to move.
03:01And I found another place for him.
03:03He actually died a year before that happened.
03:06We miss him every single day.
03:08But I knew that Medicaid was there for him when those savings ran out, that he had a
03:13place to go.
03:14It might not have been the place that he had been at for a few years, but it was a place
03:20that was safe for him.
03:23Medicaid provides health care for 20%, one in five of the people in rural Minnesota.
03:31And it provides the long term care for one out of two, 50% of the people in my state
03:42who are in long term care.
03:45It's pretty important.
03:46I spent about two weeks ago, I went on a 14 county tour in rural Minnesota.
03:53I went to a number of senior facilities and assisted livings and heard their stories.
04:00So many of them needed Medicaid.
04:04But this partisan budget, it would force rural hospitals to shut their doors.
04:10And it would be particularly dangerous for people with chronic conditions and families
04:16caring for a child with a rare disease.
04:20All to pay for more than $2 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest people in our country.
04:29Slashing Medicare and Medicaid would devastate families across our country.
04:35These are programs that millions of people rely on, like our neighbors, like our parents,
04:43like our grandparents.
04:46This is real.
04:47And I think people know that.
04:49They understand that.
04:52I think about a constituent from Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, who told me that Medicaid
04:59helps her to afford the cost of her father's Medicare and memory care.
05:05She said, I'm not sure what we would do if we could not receive this benefit.
05:12And I think about what I heard from another constituent, a working mom of two, whose parents
05:19rely on Medicaid for health care.
05:22She told me she doesn't think that it's fair to shift the cost of care to families like
05:27hers to pay for tax cuts to wealthy.
05:31You know, that's the incredible thing about democracy.
05:35People write in, they send emails, they call our offices, they show up at town hall meetings,
05:42and they tell us what they think.
05:46In this email, she said, we need to draw the line and say, this is enough.
05:53I couldn't agree more.
05:55Today, the day has been a really hard time.
06:02I was on a TV program earlier, and there were a lot of major Wall Street traders and Jim
06:09Kramer, who are experts on Wall Street, and they talked about what a devastating day this
06:16has been.
06:17It's actually the toughest day, the biggest tumble the stock market has taken since 2020
06:26in the pandemic.
06:27But this was not a pandemic.
06:29This was not a global pandemic.
06:33This was a self-inflicted wound from the President of the United States.
06:38And it sadly affected people, not just on Wall Street, but on Main Street.
06:44We call this the Trump Tariff Tax, TTT, easy to remember, Trump Tariff Tax.
06:56Estimates are now based on the announcement made yesterday that this is a $4,000 tax per
07:06average American family.
07:09It is a $20,000 additional fee on every single home that someone wants to buy.
07:19That's the average.
07:21Thousands of dollars for a car.
07:23Why?
07:24Because our supply chains are forever integrated with the rest of the world.
07:30We get stuff from Canada, and we were able to see four of our colleagues stand up and
07:37vote with all Democrats to say the basis for the Trump Tariff Tax on Americans based
07:48on Canada was wrong.
07:52We actually made a statement last night.
07:56And then what happens?
07:58We see the effects of the Trump Tariff Tax, 4% down stock market.
08:05Some of it's 5% down.
08:09The Republican budget doubles down on this because while we are seeing this assault on
08:15American savings, and on average American families who work hard every single day, we're
08:22also now hearing about a budget that would add in 30 years, $37 trillion to the debt.
08:32$37 trillion to the debt.
08:36While cutting Medicaid, why do I say that?
08:39Because in order to meet the targets that were outlined over in the House, the Congressional
08:45Budget Office that has long been nonpartisan, used by Democrats and Republicans in Congress,
08:55have made it clear that this would have to involve cuts to Medicaid.
09:00You add that to the firings at the Department of Health and Human Services that will undercut
09:06health services and research.
09:08I just met with a man this weekend from a small town right close to Brainerd, Minnesota,
09:16whose wife had just died in January.
09:19In order to figure out the death benefit, what he got under Social Security, he first
09:26emailed.
09:27He's very much with it at age 79, took too long, on and on.
09:33He called hours and hours and hours.
09:37He went into the office, he drove 30 miles, he was asked to show his ID online.
09:45It went on and on and on for days until he called our office and we got involved and
09:51tried to help him.
09:52A man who's grieving, who just lost his wife.
09:58That is what these cuts are going to mean for regular people.
10:04And yes, it's a disaster for Wall Street, but it is more of a disaster on Main Street.
10:13For decades, and here's one example, big pharma companies had a sweetheart deal written into
10:19law that allowed them to charge seniors whatever they wanted for life-saving prescription drugs.
10:27Along with many of my Democratic colleagues, I led the bill to have finally Medicare negotiations
10:34under Medicare Part D. What happened?
10:38The last administration took this on, top 10 drugs, everything from Eliquis to Genuvia
10:44to Xarelto to Jardians.
10:47They finally negotiated the prices and negotiated prices for those 10 drugs, which went down
10:5360%, 70% will save 9 million seniors $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs in just the
11:05first year alone.
11:06No one has refuted these stats because this was the negotiation.
11:11Now this torch, this incredible effort to finally bring down pharmaceutical prices has
11:18been passed on to this administration.
11:22They have been given 15 drugs.
11:23That's the next allotment, including Ozempic to negotiate the prices down for seniors.
11:31They also have to do the year after that and the year after that, and there is no sign
11:37based on testimony in the health committee, based on what we've seen out there, that they're
11:46going to have the wherewithal to do this.
11:48I hope they do, but there is no sign that they're going to do this.
11:53I see that Senator Welch just entered the chamber.
11:56He was the lead author on this bill in the House of Representatives and understands
12:01exactly what I'm talking about.
12:04That is an example when you look at the Medicaid and the use for, yes, children with disabilities,
12:10kids throughout our land, but also our seniors for nursing homes and assisted living.
12:16And then you look at the Medicare and Homeport, and then you look at the progress we've made
12:22on things like prescription drugs.
12:24All of these are on the line.
12:26At the same time, Americans have seen the biggest drop to their savings, the biggest
12:30drop to the stock market, a self-inflicted wound, a reckless act based on things that
12:38Donald Trump has said to his, I don't know, the people he hangs out with, his friends.
12:43Well, the people that voted for him in my state did not sign up for this.
12:49Instead of building on our progress, Republicans are driving up costs by not standing up on
12:56these tariffs, although four of them did on Canada, by not standing up when it comes
13:02to this assault on programs for our seniors like Medicaid.
13:08This is unacceptable, and we should not be here advancing policies that are going to
13:14force more Americans to have to choose between filling their prescriptions and putting food
13:19on their table.
13:24Too many Americans struggle with the cost of health care.
13:28Instead of looking out for billionaires, let's look out for them.
13:34Thank you, Mr. President.
13:35I yield the floor.