Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, let me begin this morning with a sobering headline from the New York Times. Times headline: ``Millions Would Lose Their Obamacare Coverage Under Trump's Bill.'' That is exactly what Democrats have been warning about for weeks.

What Republicans call their Big Beautiful Bill is really repeal and replace by another name. It is really repeal and replace by another name. It is a big beautiful betrayal, not a big beautiful bill.

Yesterday, we learned that the devastation potentially has only worsened. The nonpartisan CBO has now grown the number of impacted Americans to 16 million. Sixteen million will lose their Medicaid and ACA coverage.

So the more you look at this bill, things keep getting worse, because CBO now says that not 13.7 million would lose coverage but 16 million. The number of impacted people grows the more you look at this bill.

Things keep getting even worse. We learned yesterday the news that Republicans may want to even go after Medicare. Medicare is on the chopping block. That is right--at yesterday's lunch, Republicans raised the possibility of Medicare cuts to pay for their billionaire tax cuts.

The junior Senator from North Dakota reportedly said:

Why don't we go after that? I think we should.

For Republicans to even suggest Medicare be cut to bankroll billionaire tax breaks is frightening and revolting.

There is more. The junior Senator from Louisiana said:

I'm not worried about people losing their healthcare.

Do you know what happens when people lose their healthcare, when they can't afford it? People die. But what do Republicans have to say about that? Well, the junior Senator from Iowa said this:

Well, we're all going to die.

That quote tells you everything you need to know about this plan-- callous, clueless, careless. That is right--this plan is callous, clueless, and careless. But that is the Republican Party for you these days. They don't get it or, more likely, they don't care--just so long as billionaires can pay less in taxes.

Republicans should forget calling this gargoyle of a bill their Big Beautiful Bill. They might as well call it the We're all Going to Die Act after what the Senator from Iowa said. At least that name is more honest, the We're All Going to Die Act.

Donald Trump may claim this bill won't cut anyone from coverage, but he is lying. Sixteen million people will lose coverage, and 11 million people will lose affordable food. Costs will spike, hospitals will close, and people will die. And why? For a tax break for billionaires.

Now, let me finish with this on a separate note. In order to make the ultrarich even richer, their bill, according to CBO, would add over $2.4 trillion to the debt. Even Elon Musk calls this thing an ``abomination''--his word.

As the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day. The Republicans pride themselves as the supposed party of fiscal responsibility, but this bill they have belongs on the Mount Rushmore of fiscally irresponsible bills.

So I close with a warning to Republicans in the Senate: If you proceed with this ``Big Ugly Bill,'' this big betrayal of the American people, it won't be Donald Trump's soothing words that will be enacted in your States but, rather, deep and devastating cuts, millions of job losses. You will rip healthcare from millions, you will explode the debt, and you will shower billionaires with tax breaks. That is what you will be doing no matter what Donald Trump tells you on the telephone, I say to our Republican Senate colleagues. Tread carefully. Tread carefully.

We all know that Donald Trump sees himself as a King more than he does a President. He said it himself. Well, the Republicans' so-called Big Beautiful Bill will effectively place a crown on Donald Trump's head.

Buried deep in the Republicans' bill is a nasty provision that would restrict the power of judges to hold government officials in contempt for violating court orders. The goal of this provision is very obvious: Republicans want to codify Donald Trump's attacks on our judiciary into law.

When Senate Republicans include this lawless provision in their bill, Democrats will use every procedural hurdle in existence to kill it, including the Byrd bath process, because this type of draconian provision is a better fit for a dictatorship than for a democracy.

Republicans want to defang the power of the courts. They want to make it easier, in effect, for the Trump administration to defy court rulings. If judges can't hold intransigent public officials in contempt, the judges' rulings are basically meaningless. Why

bother having courts if you are just going to ignore them?

This is a naked attack on the separation of powers, a very serious and damaging one if it ever would be enacted. If Republicans think they can pull a fast one on our courts by slipping this devious provision into their bill, they are dead wrong. Democrats will fight with every tool we have to stop this provision from ever--ever--becoming law.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, over the past few days, Donald Trump has bent over backwards to try to sell his so-called Big Beautiful Bill with a new lie. He said no one will lose healthcare coverage. He says no benefits will be slashed. He says the bill won't harm a single recipient. He is lying. This is all total nonsense, and Senate Republicans need to reject Donald Trump's snake oil sales pitch.

I implore my Senate colleagues, tread carefully with your Big Beautiful Bill. If you pass this bill, it won't be Donald Trump's soothing words that will be enacted in your States but, rather, deep and devastating harm to your constituents. And your constituents, Senate Republicans, will hold you responsible for going along with Donald Trump's ruse.

If you go down this road, he will take away coverage from kids, from seniors, from parents, from moms. You will put doctors and nurses out of work. You will put rural hospitals in particular jeopardy since they depend on Medicaid, Medicare, and government help to stay going. They are often the biggest employer in your rural counties, Senate Republicans. They are often the only source of healthcare.

When Americans see this is all to make the ultrarich even richer, they will know that it was this nasty bill that made it happen.

Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is repeal and replace by another name. Here are the facts:

Under the bill, over 14 million would lose healthcare coverage. As bad as this bill is, we just got news that it will get even worse. CBO today will announce that it is not 14 million people kicked off but more--estimates as high as 15 million.

The Republican bill will kick even more people off healthcare than we originally thought--not only by attacking Medicaid but by destabilizing the ACA, private insurance, and now even Medicare--even Medicare.

So this bad bill is getting worse. The estimates of how many people will lose their healthcare coverage goes up and up and up each time we read the fine print. The closer and closer people look at the bill, the worse and worse it gets.

Tens of millions of Americans who otherwise qualify for healthcare would be mummified in new redtape, shortened enrollment periods, higher premiums, and weaker coverage. People would fall through the cracks and get phased out of coverage altogether in the coming years. It is death by a thousand paper cuts, and that is no accident; that is the intention of the Republican bill.

And let's talk about fraud. Donald Trump says, well, it is just knocking out fraud. Democrats would love to work with Republicans to eliminate fraud and waste in healthcare, but the bill Republicans have right now does not accomplish that. It is aimed at real people--real people who need healthcare, taking that away. This Big Beautiful Bill uses the fraud boogeyman as an excuse to kick people out of healthcare who would otherwise qualify, including people with jobs, including people with kids.

The only fraud happening right now is the fraudulent sales pitch coming from Donald Trump and his statement that he won't boot anyone from coverage. That is the fraud here. The fraud is the lies Donald Trump is telling Republicans about this bill, that people won't lose coverage. That is a lie. That is the fraud. Republicans should know that and reject this awful Big Beautiful Bill before it is too late.

Mr. President, on clean energy, one of Donald Trump's core promises on the campaign trail was that he would lower energy costs, he said, by 50 percent, but the opposite is happening. Energy costs are soaring across the country. People are paying more on their monthly electricity bills. Small businesses are struggling just to keep the lights on. And Donald Trump and the Republicans' ``Big, Ugly, Energy-Killing Bill'' is about to make energy costs go even higher.

Under the Republicans' bill, the average national electricity price will go up about 10 percent. American families will pay $32 billion more in household energy costs. Clean energy projects that would lower costs would face massive new taxes, and that is not to mention the hundreds of thousands of jobs--hundreds of thousands--it is estimated that as many as 800,000 would be lost, and they would occur especially in red States.

Republicans, did you hear that? You are throwing hundreds of thousands of people working in your States in good-paying jobs out of work, all to embrace the ideology of the extremists in the fossil fuel community.

The bottom line is simple: The oil and gas magnates, the fossil fuel community hates clean energy because they know it is the future, because they know it is cheaper, and they know it is the quickest way to get more energy.

Are Republicans so truly beholden to the fossil fuel industry, which harbors blind hatred of clean energy because they know it is the future? Are they so beholden?

If we need more energy for AI and everything else, why are we cutting off one of the main ways we can get new energy in terms of wind and solar, hydro, and things like that?

Are Republicans really willing to send energy costs for families skyrocketing just to satisfy the ideological hatred the fossil fuel industry has for clean energy? The fossil fuel industry knows its days are numbered and

wants to cut off an alternative, and that is going to make prices go up and let China become the leader in clean energy, which our children and grandchildren will pay a dear price for.

So Senate Democrats are going to fight this bill with everything we have got so families don't have to foot the bill for Donald Trump's disastrous energy policies.

Reserving the right to object, I will object for two reasons.

First, a few weeks ago, I announced I am placing holds on all DOJ political nominations because the Attorney General refuses to answer fundamental questions about Donald Trump seeking a luxury plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One. This is a grave national security threat, as everyone knows.

The bottom line is very simple on this plane: The President of the United States accepted a luxury jet from a foreign government to use as his personal Air Force One. It wasn't just unethical. It reeked of corruption, of bribery, and threatened our national security.

That whole plane will have to be taken apart piece by piece to make sure listening devices aren't in it and be even more expensive. And yet the Justice Department didn't just look the other way; they approved it. That is so typical of this Justice Department and something that I think if a Democratic President did it, the Senator from Iowa would be the first on the floor to stand here and object.

Now we hear silence--silence. They won't even answer serious questions about this. This plane should be withdrawn, and I have introduced legislation to do that.

But that is not the only reason. Donald Trump has turned the Justice Department upside down. It is politicized. It is weaponized. It is hollowed out. Donald Trump and his acolytes in the Justice Department are less interested in prosecuting criminals and more interested in prosecuting Trump's perceived political opponents.

This is an absolute disgrace. Both sides in past administrations, Democrat and Republican, have worked together to uphold the rule of law at DOJ. But now, the rule of law has been replaced by loyalty tests. Career public servants who have dedicated years to prosecuting criminals are just shoved aside because when Donald Trump asks them to break the law, to undo the law, to set aside rule of law, they refuse.

Investigations and prosecutions are dictated by political convenience and not justice. And now Republicans want the Senate to quietly rubberstamp a political nominee for the DOJ by unanimous consent--no hearing, no debate, no scrutiny.

On an important position like this, this should happen regularly that there should be debate. But with this Justice Department, as horrible as it is, as political as it is, as destructive of American values as it has been--no way.

The nominee is a former staffer for the very same Senator making the request. Now, as my colleague noted, in the past he has been up there when other administrations made ethical violations and did the wrong thing in his judgment. But now there is just silence from my colleague and from all of the Republican Senators.

And they know what is going on. They know what is going on. But blind obeisance to Donald Trump is wrong when it comes to something as sacred as this: rule of law and a Justice Department that seeks to enforce the law, not just go after political enemies.

If Donald Trump and Republicans want to poison and politicize our justice system, I am not participating. I object.

I add one more point with deep regret. What is happening to the Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department is shameful. Inspectors general have been dismissed with no accountability. Again, my colleague who used to uphold the inspectors general and praised them--tons of them are dismissed now.

The American Bar Association has been sidelined. And today, up in the Justice Department, unqualified judicial nominees--some barely out of law school--are being rushed through confirmation. This is not how the Senate should work.

It didn't work that way when there was a Democratic President and my friend was chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

There should be no special treatment--none; not for political allies; not for former staffers; not for anyone. What Trump and Bondi are doing to the Justice Department and the rule of law is dangerous. It undermines the public trust and erodes the rule of law.

The Senate should not be complicit. I object.

Mr. President, I continue to object for the many reasons that I have listed.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague Senator Welch, the great Senator from Vermont, for shining a spotlight on Donald Trump and the Republicans' attack on healthcare in their so- called Big Beautiful Bill.

Let's be honest about what the Republican bill really is. It is repeal and replace by another name--not one fell swoop but death by a thousand papercuts.

They are afraid to say they want to kill healthcare, Medicaid, ACA; so instead, they put so many barriers in the way that, in effect, they are doing the same thing.

They are doing the same thing with Social Security.

We have all heard how this bill will devastate Medicaid. It is the largest cut in history. Every day you learn more about this bill, it gets worse. It includes over $1 trillion--$1 trillion--in healthcare cuts--cuts to the ACA, even cuts to Medicare. We have been learning that Medicare will be hurt as well by the sequestration.

And today, if you didn't think it could get worse with this ``Big Ugly Bill,'' it sure did. The CBO just announced that their bill will kick millions more people off their healthcare than we originally thought, not only by attacking Medicaid, but by crippling the ACA private insurance and even Medicare now.

Yesterday, it was 13.7 million people who would lose coverage. Today, it is as high as 16 million. You know, that is a big number, 16 million. It is families; it is people who need healthcare; people whose kids might have cancer and they are desperate to get something done; elderly who are paying so much for medicine, they can't afford to go to a doctor to see if the medicine is working; families that are just starting out and maybe someone lost his or her job. Yes, 16 million, but that is each person, a family, a group.

The more you look at the House bill, the worse it gets. Enrollment times will be shortened by an entire month. Wait times will be longer for everyone at the hospital. And 22 million people--22 million people--could see their average premium go up by an average of 93 percent. Small business owners--3.3 million--will see their premiums skyrocket. Hospitals, nursing homes, health centers are all at risk.

I have been at nursing homes in many parts of my State. Guess what? They are all afraid they are going to close because 60 percent, 70 percent of their income is Medicaid. That is how they take care of the elderly. And those people will lose their coverage and be forced to leave because the nursing home will close.

Well, how about those 45-year-old couples with three kids? They have no extra room in the house and Mom has to come back because she has no place to go; and there won't be adequate healthcare there at home.

And job loss. Job loss on this ``Big Ugly Bill''--this betrayal-- 850,000 will lose their jobs in healthcare alone, another 800,000 in clean energy, and many, many more. Millions are losing their jobs.

I don't know what the economists would think, but when you lose 2 million jobs, if that is the case, you are right on the edge of a recession, if not in one.

And despite all this, Donald Trump has the gall to lie and say that his bill wouldn't harm Americans' healthcare. He says no one will lose coverage. Ladies and gentlemen, people of America, Donald Trump is lying. The bill will kick people off their healthcare coverage. It will slash healthcare benefits. It will close rural hospitals. People will get sicker and die.

What did the junior Senator from Iowa say?

Well, we are all going to die.

How about the junior Senator from Louisiana?

I'm not worried about people losing their healthcare.

It shows the callousness of the Republican Senators when it comes to healthcare. They don't seem to care. They seem to say ``Tough luck.''

Republicans should forget calling this their ``One Big Beautiful Bill.'' You know what the new name for this bill is, a more suitable name? The ``We're All Going to Die Act.'' The ``We're All Going to Die Act'' because that just about sums up how callous they are being with the American people.

For many Americans, healthcare is the difference between life and death. Democrats will fight this bill with everything we have. The American people deserve to know the truth.

And one more point. I would say to my colleagues, Donald Trump is selling you Republican colleagues a bill of goods: It is not going to hurt anybody. Don't believe his false words because when you vote for this bill, the effects will actually occur, and the public will realize what you have done. So don't let Donald Trump sell you a bill of goods. We know he makes things up out of the clear blue all the time. He is doing it now. And when he calls you in and tells you that no one is going to be hurt, no one is going to lose coverage, you know that is a crock of you-know-what. I can't say it here. Don't listen to him because your constituents will pay an awful price in healthcare. And they will know you did it.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, on anti-Semitism, the attack in Colorado, the shooting in Washington, and the arson in Pennsylvania have one thing in common: The assailants have cited anti-Israel sentiment as justification for their violence. They have, in other words, used the actions of the Israeli Government they don't like to justify violence against Jewish Americans here at home. This is unfortunately a growing trend since October 7.

As the highest ranking Jewish elected official in American history, I have watched with growing alarm as a poisonous ideology--ancient in its roots but modern in its mutations--has spread across our country. We are witnessing in real time the resurgence of collective blame against the Jewish people. If we do not confront it clearly, unequivocally, and together, we risk opening the door to even darker days.

I have said that it is legitimate and not anti-Semitic to peacefully protest and criticize the actions of any government, including the Israeli Government, but there is a profound and dangerous difference between criticizing a government and condemning an entire people. The idea that Jews everywhere bear responsibility for the policies of the Israeli Government is not only false, it plays on one of the oldest forms of anti-Semitism out there: blaming the Jews collectively for the world's problems.

Whether it is blaming the Jews for the death of Christ, blaming Jews for bringing in immigrants as part of the conspiracy theory of great replacement, or blaming the Jews for actions of the Israeli Government that one may not like, it is all the same: a pretext for hate.

I have long warned that if we aren't careful, what starts as legitimate critiques against the Israeli Government can easily slip into something far more sinister. If disagreements are allowed to morph into intolerance, if intolerance is permitted to spread and linger, if bigoted voices are allowed to take over legitimate debates, history shows that the threat of violence is never too far away. I fear history is beginning to whisper its warnings once again.

Our Nation has been strongest when it has stood against bigotry in all forms. Let us summon that strength again. The way forward is very clear: All Americans of good will must stand together to condemn anti- Semitism and all forms of intolerance, no matter where it rears its ugly head. Let us remember what America is all about and who we are.

Mr. President, on healthcare, Donald Trump and his so-called Big Beautiful Bill is ugly to its very core. Behind the smoke and mirrors lies a cruel and draconian truth: tax breaks for the ultrawealthy, paid for by gutting healthcare for millions of Americans.

Over the past few days, Donald Trump has tried to sell this bill to Republican Senators with a new lie. He has been telling Republican Senators and the American people that no one will lose coverage; that no benefits will be slashed; that the bill won't harm recipients. Let's call it what it is: a lie. People will lose coverage. Millions will. Donald Trump is lying to the American people when he says no one will lose coverage under this ugly bill. There is no way for Republicans to seek the cuts they want without removing millions of people off their healthcare in one way or another.

I warn my Republican colleagues: Do not buy Donald Trump's snake oil sales pitch.

Republicans want to cut out waste, fraud, and abuse. Good. We will help them do it. This bill certainly isn't that.

Make no mistake, this Big Beautiful Bill is, in reality, repeal and replace by another name. This is a healthcare bill to its core.

To cut through their lies, let's talk facts. Fact: 20 million Americans will see their healthcare costs go up. Fact: 14 million Americans, including children and seniors, will lose their coverage entirely. Fact: Adult Medicaid recipients--the vast majority, the overwhelming majority--already work. Many of them will be thrown off coverage anyway. Fact: This bill has millions losing healthcare.

If Donald Trump wants to talk fraud, if Republicans want to talk fraud, fine. The fraud we actually see in Medicaid isn't coming from families making ends meet; it is coming from the top--from large providers, unscrupulous bigwigs. The reality is that most fraud in Medicaid happens not with individual enrollees but at the level of healthcare providers--not all of them, not most of them, but a handful who do fraud. It is more than a handful, but it is not all of them at all.

But Donald Trump is doing nothing to hold them accountable. Just the opposite. The other day, he pardoned a nursing home executive who skimmed $10 million from the paychecks of nurses, doctors, and other employees. Hear that, folks? Donald Trump, who says he wants to reduce fraud, just pardoned a nursing home executive who skimmed $10 million from the paychecks of his employees.

The reality is simple: There is not enough fraud in Medicaid and ACA to make Republicans' math work. They know it. Republicans may not want to admit it publicly, but they know that, under their current proposal, millions of Americans, including millions who are employed, who have families will lose their healthcare coverage.

Republicans want to shorten the enrollment period. They want to bury families in redtape. They want to drown States in new administrative hurdles. The Republicans' strategy, in large part, is to make it so difficult for people to sign up for healthcare and so easy to fall through the cracks that tens of millions of Americans will simply lose coverage, and it would be by design. Just ask Vought. Just look at 2025. Senate Republicans can make jokes all they want that we are going to die anyway, but for many working-class Americans, healthcare is the difference between life and death.

Let me be clear: Democrats are ready. When Republicans finally release the full text of their so-called Big Beautiful Bill, the American people will see the truth. They will see how ugly it is, and we will fight it with facts, with urgency, and with the voices of millions of Americans who deserve better than this cruel, cynical attack on their healthcare and on their dignity.

Mr. President, on clean energy, Donald Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill should really be called one big, ugly energy killer. With this monstrosity of a bill, Donald Trump and Republicans seem ready to kill clean energy in its tracks and raise people's energy costs in the process. The only people celebrating the Republican bill's energy policies are the fossil fuel industry because it will be the fossil fuel industry whose pockets are lined. The fossil fuel industry simply has blind hatred of clean energy. Do you know why? They know it is the future. They know it is cheaper. They know it is where we are going, that America needs clean energy in order to meet our demands moving forward.

We all know America has a huge and growing demand for new energy. We are going to need 10 times as much electricity to continue powering breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, which isn't going away anytime soon; but with their bill, Republicans want to cut off one of the major ways--the newest, cheapest, and fastest growing way--to produce new energy because they want to tax new, clean electricity, stifling the supply of new energy and putting us at risk of falling behind in AI to countries like China.

And what would the Republicans' plan mean for an average American family or a small business? Simple: higher energy costs.

To the American people, I say: If this bill passes, your electricity costs are going up.

Look at the facts: The Republican plan will increase average national electricity prices by about 10 percent. The Republican plan will increase total household energy costs by $32 billion. That means American families will pay $32 billion more--all to please the ideological blindness of the fossil fuel industry. And that is not to mention that the Republican plan would cost America about 800,000 jobs by 2030, all across America in red States and in blue States. What a terrible price to pay just to lower taxes for the ultrarich, just to line the pockets of the fossil fuel industry, to satisfy the ideological hatred that the fossil fuel industry has for clean energy, and to lose out on American energy dominance.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.