Commonsense Values

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, like all of my colleagues, I spent the past few weeks crisscrossing my State meeting with constituents. I am always struck by their commonsense values. Folks want to be able to afford quality healthcare. That is probably their greatest worry. They know healthcare is so vital to them and for families. They know costs keep going up. They are worried about premiums, especially after the Republican Congress has done so much to sabotage our healthcare system; talking about tearing down the healthcare system but never building it up in any way.

Folks also want a good job with decent benefits and higher wages, but they are not seeing much of that in the wake of the Republican tax bill. In fact, many of them are disappointed that they are not receiving more. They are seeing corporations buy back a lot of their stock, which boosts compensation for executives and shareholders, but they don't see that much of a bump in their paychecks. The bottom line is, they are asking: Why are the wealthy getting so much more money in the tax break than we are? I have heard that from one end of my State to the other.

Another problem: folks want to be able to send their kids to school and know they will be safe. I talked to one mom whose daughter just doesn't want to go to school after what happened in Parkland. She is afraid. She is 7 years old.

A few weeks ago, I marched with hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in the March For Our Lives. Their energy and optimism and dedication give me hope that finally the time has come for Congress to take meaningful action on gun safety.

Another example where our Republican colleagues who run this Senate haven't done enough--not close to enough--is on the issue of gun safety. On these issues and more, the Republican majority has done very little. What they have done has been on behalf of entrenched special interests: tax cuts for corporations and the superwealthy, gutting healthcare to pay for more tax cuts, and holding back on commonsense gun safety laws like universal gun safety checks because the NRA opposes it.

The American people are fed up with large, special, and powerful interests getting their way, while average folks get left behind. That is what I heard while traveling my State.

In November, the American people will have a chance to move this country in a dramatically different direction, away from the corporate special interest-driven politics, away from the swamp--I will talk more about that later, but President Trump has made it worse, despite claims that he is making it better--and toward politics that work for the middle class and those struggling to get there. The enthusiasm among so many Americans--not just core Democrats but others--of going to the polls and making their voices heard because they want a change in direction in this country was heartening and strengthening to me. The Democratic Senate minority is working to get away from those special interest politics. That is what a Democratic majority will deliver if elected in November.

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