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Charles Schumer
  U.S. Senate Senator Schumer on the Trump Administration  CSPAN  March 28, 2019 7:48pm-8:01pm EDT

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forward, then that is not turning the clock back to historical norm. i was near this chamber in 1976 and during the '80s seeing this body debate issues. and i would ask that if you bringis this to the floor, as yu are planning to do, that you open u it up for amendments. get a time agreement. i willly certainly encourage my side to agree to such a thing. i take your point about it not just being a delay. i think there are serious possibilities for improving how we work. they should be debated. ii hope you'll open the floor to amendments. >> on monday the trump administration doubled down on their assault on american health care. by supporting an effort to completely eliminate the health care law through the courts. people scratched their head, are they really doing this? after trying for two years unsuccessfully? after losing thesu election? yep, they were. the action is no small matter. the trump administration's
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radical support for the wholesale elimination of the health care law would send our health care system into certain chaos. if the trump administration has its way, it would send premiums soaring for millions of americans. it would revoke coverage for tens of millions more who gaped coverage through med -- who gained coverage. it would strike protections for an estimated 133 million adults in america who have pre-existing medical c conditions, even peope who get coverage from their employer. let me say that again. there are 133 million americans who have pre-existing medical conditions. if the trump administration has its way, the insurance company could just tell those 133 million and their families, cut you off. we don't want to pay for your insurance anymore. because it's too expensive. your daughter has cancer, your wife has severe diabetes. it's a disgrace.
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and let's not forget the system would impose billions of dollars in new prescription drug costs on seniors in medicare. the consequences are dire. and that'shy why we are introducing an amendment to insure that not a dime of the american people's money goes to the trump administration's fight to destroy the entire health care system. not one sent at the department of justice should be used to hurt americans like this. you know, donald trump campaignedld on end obamacare, d then the republican party -- and even we thought trump himself -- they had no replacement. this repeal and replace, there was no replacement. they couldn't come up with one. and so what is now in the republican party standing for? well, here it is. the republican party will become the party of health care, says donald trump.
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absolutely not. here's s what his tweet should y if he's being honest and telling the truth to the american people. the republican party will become the party that ended your health care. you cannot have a situation where the trump administration, president trump says one thing and their attorney general goes to court to do the opposite. you cannot orav should not havea situation r where republican senators get upn and say we need to expand health care for people and then they say not a peep when their own president tries to strip it away from them. president trump says the republican party wants to be the party of health care? well,we i say god help the midde class if republicans are the party of health care. what, dare i ask, is their plan? let me ask leader mcconnell and every republican senator. and i hope their constituents will ask them too, because this is the numberhe one issue across
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the country. we should ask our republican friends and the president, what's your plan to deal with prescription drug costs? costs are an all-time high. instead they're supporting this lawsuit which would impose billions of dollars in prescription drug costs on seniors. we ask president trump and skleader mcconnell, what's your plan to get more people covered on high quality health insurance that they can actually afford? at a time when premiums are still rising because of sabotage by the president trump administration? how will they bring relief in but instead, our republican colleagues by their silence are assenting to a lawsuit that would kick tens of millions of people off insurance. i ask president trump, senator mcconnell and our republican colleagues, what's your plan to protect people with pre-existing conditions? if republicans say over and over
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again that they support keeping safeguards for pre-existing conditions. but instead, they're supporting this lawsuit. or by their silence, assenting toby their president's, their party's president's lawsuit completely wipes the protections for pre-existing conditions away. the american people deserve answers because president trump insisted yesterday that hees has a, h quote, plan that is far better than obamacare. we all know that's to not true. he just talks off the top of his head. he said it at the lunch. well, president trump, what is your plan that's better than obamacare? you may not have all n the details, but give us the main points. when you're president, you havee a responsibility as people's lives are at stake. they need health care. to not simply say we have a better plan, file a lawsuit which gets rid of the existing plans and have no, give people no inically mission --
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inclination, no even clue as to what that plan is. now, why is this? why is this happening? well, one, we know that president trump hasno no fideliy to issues. he talks off the top of his head. he doesn't know what the issues are all about. he's the least informed president we've ever had in american history about issues. he just says what he thinks sounds nice at the moment. but then his administration does the hard right thing all the time, the extreme thing, that's in the t narrow special interess but not in the american people's. president trump's actual administration seems to be far to the right even of the mainstream of the republican why does that happen? well, here's one reason. as reported last night, mick mulvaney -- who is now the chief
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of staff, was omb head and still sort of has a lot of say over that agency -- it was reported last night it was mick mulvaney, against the advice of others, who convinced president trump to take this radical position on health care. so we all know who's holding the strings. who'ss putting in president's head, in president trump's head these hard-right ideas which his administrationen continually effectuates and almost never backs off from. we are now, we now seem to be living in the mick mulvaney administration. the same person who said we need to end medicare as we know it. that, mr. president, should send a chill down every american's spine. let me repeat that again. the mick mulvaney administration, which president trump is a willing follower, if
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you will, says we should end medicare as we know it. do i americans believe that? no. do republicans believe that? not most of them. but this man, mulvaney, not elected, puts ideas in president trump's held, and that's what president trump does. so make no mistake about it. the ultimate respondent is presidenty trump's -- responsibility is president trump's. but when you wonder why the words the president says so tiff from so many administration if policies and it's the policies that are hurting american, the reason is mulvaney. here's what the mull vanny administration looks like, extreme budget cuts, cuts to the department of education, transportation and science. severe cuts. epa.e cuts to cuts to t programs that are most in need, suspect new mexico a.p -- s.n.a.p., cutting
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medicare faster. and repeated government shutdowns. yesterday it was reported the administration is considering no more fannie and freddie, no more help for the middle class to buy a home. another great mulvaney idea. mick mulvaney was one of the five most hard-right people in the house of representatives, one of the authors of the previousfi shutdown. his views are far, far away from the average american. and donald trump, who gets full blame for mulvaney's ideas because he's enacting them, seems to be following him lock, stock and barrel. if b the president actually campaigned in 2016 on these mulvaney ideas, he would have beenen roundly defeated. if he goes -- when he goes to
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michigan tonight and he talks, if he talked about these mull mulvaney ideas, he'd get booed even by his own supporters. but he enacts the mulvaney ideas. i his justice department is now suing to get rid of health care. something mulvaney has always advocated for. president trump, your the mulvaney administration, and that should terrify every single american. finish terrify -- it should terrify any thoughtful republican senator. make no mistake about it, donald trump's hard-right administration which so hurts the middle class and so helps the h narrow, wealthy special ad corporate interests, the brain child of many of these ideas comes from many mulvaney. he puts it into the cipher of donald trump.
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donald trump enacts it and the american people suffer. >> on capitol hill next week, the house will consider reauthorization of the violence against women agent which expired -- act which expired in february. it's aimed at providing resources for victims. members are also expected to take up a senate-passed resolution to end u.s. military involvement in yemen's civil war. in the senate work continues on a bill that would provide nearly $13 billion in aid to areas affected by hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters. also on the agenda, a resolution to shorten the amount of time the senate has to consider certain nominations from 30 hours to 2. you can watch the house live on c-span and the senate live on c-span2. >> c-span's "washington journal" live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, family research council presidentny perkins discusses the trump
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administration's efforts to expand the ban on u.s. funding for abortion services overseas. also sierra club climate policy director will join us u she'll talk about the future of the green new deal and other climate change legislation. be sure to watch "washington journal" live at seven eastern friday morning. join the discussion. .. later, president trump holding a rally in grand rapids, michigan. this weekend, booktv has coverage of t