Senate Democratic leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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00:00Okay, I'm happy to be joined. It's one Northeasterner, both versus, and not versus, and three Northwesterners. They win.
00:11Okay, I want to thank everybody for joining us today. Special thanks to the trio from the Northwest, great senators all, Wyden, Cantwell, and Merkley.
00:20Now, look, last week, President Trump revealed the first look at what's to come in his skinny budget. Trump's budget is a gut punch to American families.
00:33They want to cut almost a quarter of all domestic programs that Americans rely on, health care, education, public safety, veterans.
00:43The budget is proof positive that the emperor has no clothes. Proof positive that the emperor has no clothes.
00:53Donald Trump is a con man who does not care one iota for the everyday travails of working people.
01:01But few things crystallize Trump's 2.0 as much as Republican's signature bill, a massive tax break for billionaires, paid for by the middle class, by the biggest cuts that Medicaid has ever seen.
01:17Reality is now coming back to buy our Republican colleagues. Now they had to reveal who they really are.
01:23None of the language, none of the deceptions, none of the vague language, none of the, oh, I care. Uh-uh.
01:32Now they have their budget and they're a total loggerheads about how to move forward because the American people see what they're doing and they don't like it.
01:41There is zero disagreement, of course, among Republicans when it comes to the big gold, big tax breaks for the wealthy.
01:51Where Republicans do disagree is how to screw working Americans, whether it's by being by Medicaid or SNAP or other programs that American folks rely on.
02:02Why do Republicans face such a conundrum where they're so at odds with one another?
02:08Why are they fighting and why are we unified?
02:10Because nobody likes their proposals.
02:13Very few people, a lot of rich people in their, in the Trump administration, not even a lot, a handful.
02:20But people don't like what they're doing and they try to hide from it.
02:24The backlash Republicans are getting from the public should serve as a warning to our colleagues on the other side.
02:31If they proceed with their agenda, the political outcry will be enormous.
02:35Two quick other subjects.
02:38It's National Small Business Week.
02:39Our Republicans are touting it.
02:42We all know that small businesses are the backbone of our economy.
02:46Yet, right now, they're bending over backward to make ends meet because of Trump and Senate Republicans' tariffs.
02:55Right now, 72% of small businesses say erratic tariff policies create a whiplash effect on them.
03:03They can't plan.
03:04They can't make long-term decisions.
03:06They don't have the cushion big businesses have.
03:09So they're hurting.
03:1081% of small businesses said thanks to Trump's tariff tax, they'd be forced to raise prices for consumers.
03:17And many indicated they would.
03:18So instead of the Republicans just saying, hey, it's Small Business Week and screwing small business, small businesses are the backbone of our country.
03:29It's time for Senate Republicans to grow a backbone and oppose Trump's tariffs and support our legislation that says small businesses don't pay tariffs.
03:41And one more point, in a disgraceful moment, the Republicans voted to confirm Bisignano as Social Security Administrator.
03:52This is putting a fox in the henhouse.
03:56Bisignano is slash and burn.
03:58And the Republicans don't want to say directly that they want to kill Social Security, so they strangle it.
04:05There's no better strangler of any program than slash and burn Bisignano.
04:10You know, what the Republicans did is a disgrace, and politically, nobody's going to like what they did.
04:16Senator Wyden.
04:19Thank you very much, Leader.
04:22And on reconciliation, Republicans in the House of Representatives are full steam ahead to give huge tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations,
04:33and they're going to pay for it by cutting health insurance and benefits.
04:38Just this morning, the consequences are coming into full view.
04:44Last night, the big Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, settled with the federal government to the tune of $511 million,
04:56the charges that they helped rich Americans cheat on their taxes by hiding their assets offshore.
05:04Now, this didn't happen by osmosis, folks.
05:08Finance Democrats dug in for more than three years into this issue.
05:14We got the information to the IRS, and that settlement, $511 million that was just reached,
05:22marks a vindication of the finance Democratic position that we've got a big fight ahead to go after wealthy tax cheats.
05:32And this type of investigation and prosecution is why Democrats gave the IRS the tools to go after wealthy individuals
05:41who think that the tax code in America is somehow optional.
05:47Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress are sharpening the knives to cut this very funding
05:53and give the wealthy free reign to pay what they want when they want to.
06:00This would be bad enough on its own, but being paired with the largest cut in the Medicaid program's history
06:08is particularly disastrous.
06:11Republicans are using all kinds of smoke and mirrors to hide some inescapable facts.
06:15Their bill is going to mean benefit cuts for seniors, Americans with disabilities, and kids.
06:23Their bill is going to mean families, working families, are going to lose health insurance.
06:28Their bill is going to mean red tape requirements that force Americans battling cancer
06:33to jump through all kinds of hoops if they're going to be able to keep their health care.
06:39If that's not clear already, it's going to be very clear in the days ahead.
06:45If and when they come to an agreement and release a bill,
06:48the American people are going to see that we're forgiving everybody in America the chance to get ahead,
06:56not just as the Republicans do, the people at the very top.
06:59Thank you, Leader.
07:00Thank you, Senator White.
07:01Senator Cantwell.
07:02We're here today to say it's time for the war on health care to stop.
07:11President Trump's cutting of NIH is causing great impacts to our health care system.
07:19President Trump's tariffs are causing higher costs on prescription drugs.
07:24And the proposed budget that we still haven't seen the details on, $880 billion in Medicaid cuts,
07:33is going to cause a devastating impact to communities all across the United States.
07:39The fact that in my state, five to seven hospitals could close as a result of that,
07:46and many other impacts on rural health care has caused a group of citizens to send a letter to my House colleagues
07:54urging them to oppose cuts to Medicaid rates, any adjustment to the federal medical assistance program,
08:06or direct Medicaid payment programs.
08:09Who are these people?
08:12Some of them are hospital CEOs.
08:16But guess who else they are?
08:17Republican state representatives, Republican county commissioners, city council people from the communities.
08:25They all know this is the wrong idea.
08:28And they are not interested in a sneak attack by the Republicans of saying that they can successfully cut $880 billion
08:38and not have an impact on our communities.
08:43They are going to have an impact, as I said, on closing hospitals, kicking people off of Medicaid
08:48as we've had a record expansion to hold down the cost of expensive insurance by covering them with Medicaid,
08:55and in addition, the impacts to long-term care.
08:59We know now that Medicaid is on such a short fuse of basically only having a very limited budget
09:09and every penny counts, but 52% of that revenue comes from Medicaid.
09:16So if Medicaid is cut at any percentage, the impact to long-term care
09:21and kicking people off of their Medicaid for long-term care is going to have a devastating effect.
09:26And lastly, the same individuals who are involved with running our response to the fentanyl crisis
09:33know that if you cut Medicaid, you're also going to cut the recovery and treatment
09:39and also the housing that occurs in our jails of having the Medicaid resource to fight fentanyl,
09:46a scourge on our society.
09:48It's time for people to come clean in the House of Representatives
09:51and clarify that they, too, oppose Medicaid cuts.
09:58Thank you, Maria.
09:59Senator Murphy, D. Orwell.
10:02Families lose.
10:04Billionaires win.
10:05That's the Trump economic agenda.
10:08And in just three months, he's destroyed the momentum and economic growth
10:12from the last three years.
10:15The economy is down.
10:17Prices are up.
10:18Trumpflation has arrived.
10:20Make no mistake, that's the Trump economy.
10:24And then there's the reconciliation bill that will make things worse.
10:28So we're in the spring here with baseball, so let me put it very simply.
10:32Strike one, the reconciliation bill knocks down $2 trillion from health care, housing, and education.
10:40Strike two, it gives that money to the very richest Americans, the billionaires.
10:45And strike three, it runs up enormous debt, some $52 trillion, according to CBO, over 30 years.
10:55You know, the bill has specific problems as well.
10:58Take health care.
10:59Take Medicaid.
10:59They're demanding devastating cuts.
11:01It would wipe out our rural hospitals and health care clinics and do enormous damage to our veterans,
11:06those with disabilities, those in drug recovery programs.
11:09To our children, a third of the children in my state are on Oregon Health Plan or Medicaid.
11:15State and local taxes.
11:17The president wants families to pay more so billionaires can pay less.
11:21Take Pell grants.
11:23Republicans want to decrease them in order to make education more expensive.
11:29And that agenda makes no sense.
11:33We have a better idea than families lose and billionaires win.
11:36And it's families thrive and billionaires pay their fair share.
11:40Instead of slashing Medicaid, let's work together to improve health care for low-income families
11:45and for others in our society.
11:48Instead of slashing Pell grants, let's make education more of an opportunity for every child in America.
11:53Instead of exploding the debt to give massive tax breaks to billionaires,
11:57let's invest in the foundations for families to thrive.
12:01It's a positive vision to take America together forward.
12:06Let's make that happen, not families lose and billionaires win.
12:10Thank you, Jeff.
12:12Questions?
12:13Yes.
12:14How do you think of the fact that the two years of turning on knees from New York
12:18that you've propelled with boots before are now from those under knees?
12:22Look, the Justice Department has been totally politicized.
12:28It's been an attack dog for the President.
12:31I've never seen a Justice Department be so low.
12:33And I don't intend to support the things they do.
12:36Yes?
12:37You raised concerns about this crypto-stable one bill.
12:41Are you just trying to make small changes to this bill,
12:45or are you trying to hold Trump accountable?
12:47Look, right now Democrats and Republicans are talking to each other about the bill.
12:53Yes?
12:53Senator Schumer, President Trump over the weekend said part of the problem with giving due process
12:58to people who are being deported is that there are so many illegal immigrants in the country.
13:01He said there would be two to three million trials.
13:04The system just can't handle it.
13:05Would you support some sort of fast-track process to give people due process?
13:09Look, I'm not going to deal in hypotheticals,
13:12but due process is a hallmark of our country, has been for a very long time,
13:17and people are entitled to it, plain and simple.
13:19Yes?
13:20Is it harder for Democrats to support the stable coin bill
13:24when the President has his own stable coin that is making money from Abu Dhabi?
13:29He has his own mean coin where he's going to have this gala dinner
13:32for the United States, and all those people say about Abu Dhabi?
13:37Yeah, look, we all know the level of corruption in the Trump administration
13:40is higher than any administration probably in American history,
13:44but on stable coins, Democrats and Republicans are talking to each other.
13:47Yes?
13:48No?
13:48I have the same question, but I guess just on stable coins,
13:52I mean, can Democrats vote for a bill that is directly going to impact and profit for the president?
13:57As I said, we're talking to each other.
13:59We had a very good caucus, very good unified caucus.
14:02Thank you, everybody.
14:03Do you have concerns about Senator Petter?