[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1318-S1321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Trump Administration

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, over the last month, it has become clear 
how Donald Trump and Republicans govern. Donald Trump and Republicans 
have focused on things most Americans don't care about or don't like 
while refusing to focus on things Americans actually do care about.
  Donald Trump and Republicans have focused on things most Americans 
don't care about or don't even like while refusing to focus on things 
Americans actually do care about.
  Exhibit A of these things that Americans don't like is what is 
happening today in the House of Representatives. As soon as today, 
House Republicans will advance a budget resolution clearing the way for 
perhaps the most draconian cuts to Medicaid in American history, all so 
Republicans can cut taxes for their billionaires club and have the 
American people pick up the tab and pay the price. This is in the

[[Page S1319]]

category of things Americans really don't like.
  There is only one proper way to describe the Republican plan that is 
moving through the House this week: radical. Radical. The Republican 
plan radically hurts American families while radically helping the 
billionaires club. Republicans are so eager to cut taxes for 
billionaires that they would increase the deficit by a trillion dollars 
or more to make room for their sweetheart-deal tax cuts for 
billionaires like Elon Musk.
  Republicans are also pushing for trillions in cuts for working- and 
middle-class Americans, endangering everything from Medicaid to 
nutrition programs, to housing assistance, and so much more. The 
Republican bill could cut as much as $880 billion from Medicaid alone. 
That means 80 million Americans--kids, veterans, people with 
disabilities, rural Americans, the elderly--are all at risk.
  And why? Why are Republicans putting these people at such risk and 
hurting things that benefit them--not waste; things that actually go to 
people and help them? They are doing it to make life easier for the 
billionaires club. They are doing it to cut taxes for the ultrawealthy.
  Last week, here in the Senate, during vote-arama, I pushed an 
amendment that said we should have no tax breaks for billionaires. I 
pushed an amendment calling for no billionaire tax breaks if even one 
dollar of Medicaid spending was cut. What is more important: helping 
people get healthcare, helping the elderly stay in nursing homes, 
helping our veterans--especially those who may be out of work--get the 
healthcare they need? What is more important--that or a tax break for 
someone who is very wealthy already?
  Well, on both amendments--the one that said no tax breaks for 
billionaires and the one that said no tax breaks for billionaires if 
even one dollar of Medicaid spending was cut--both times, Republicans 
overwhelmingly said no.
  Let us hope--let us hope--it may be a distant hope, but let us hope 
that House Republicans show more courage, more compassion, and more 
common sense to reject these horrible, harmful, radical cuts.
  This is not what the American people signed up for in this election. 
Billionaire tax cuts is a clear example of things Americans don't like. 
Just look at all the backlash Republicans are seeing in their 
townhalls. And Republicans know this. Republicans know that cutting 
taxes for wealthy billionaires is something most Americans don't like 
at all. They didn't campaign on it. Oh, no. I didn't hear any of our 
Republican colleagues who were running go home and say ``I want to cut 
taxes for the billionaires,'' although that is the first thing they are 
doing when they get here. Yet Republicans seem to be full steam ahead 
all the same.
  This, of course, is part of the pattern I am talking about. Over the 
last month, Donald Trump and Republicans have spent their energy 
focused on things Americans don't like while refusing to focus on 
things Americans actually do care about--like inflation, rising prices.
  We already see that Americans are upset with the Trump administration 
because prices continue to rise, as they have over the last many years. 
Donald Trump promised to bring down costs on day one. He said that the 
first day he is elected, he is going to start bringing costs down, but 
instead, inflation has gone up, grocery prices are up. Chicken, pork, 
steak--all more expensive. Eggs are up 15 percent from last month. All 
the while, Republicans are focused on things that Americans either 
don't like or don't care about.
  Americans don't like, for instance, pardoning violent 
insurrectionists. It was one of the least popular things we have seen; 
a recent poll in the Washington Post is clear. But that was the first 
major decision Donald Trump made as President, the first major 
decision.
  Most Americans don't care whether you call it the Gulf of Mexico or 
the Gulf of America or something else. Most Americans don't care about 
building hotels in Gaza or annexing Canada. Yet these are the things 
that Donald Trump is focused on to distract people from the fact that 
he doesn't actually have real solutions to the things Americans really 
worry about.
  Of course, there are things that Republicans are focused on that make 
things actively worse. Most Americans don't think it is a great idea to 
get into a trade war with our closest allies. That is going to make 
trips to the grocery store even more expensive than they are now.
  Of course, most Americans do care about making government more 
efficient. While everyone certainly supports cutting waste, Americans 
don't like the harmful chaos that Elon Musk and DOGE have unleashed. 
They don't want to see a rich billionaire treat Federal workers with 
immense disrespect. And make no mistake, Americans did not sign up for 
DOGE to endanger their Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid 
benefits. That is not government efficiency; that hurts the American 
people.

  What DOGE is doing is chaos, and Americans know that the chaos being 
unleashed by DOGE is causing a lot of harm to the country. Americans 
don't want to see their air traffic safety personnel fired in droves, 
no questions asked. That is not government efficiency; that is chaos 
and danger at the airports and in airplanes, at security checkpoints.
  Our veterans don't want to see the VA starved of resources. Someone 
came over to me the other day and said: My brother is in a VA hospital. 
He has a rare disease. Seven of the people were let go. Who is going to 
take care of him?
  They don't want to hear about cuts to the Veterans Crisis Line, where 
veterans who may have come back from Iraq or Afghanistan with PTSD or 
other problems have a place to go and a place to call. That is not 
government efficiency, cutting the Veterans Crisis Line; that is just 
more chaos, more harm, more hurt. Can you imagine the callousness of 
firing personnel who operate the veterans suicide crisis line, as was 
reported by the staff at the VA? It is a cruel and vindictive way to 
treat America's heroes.
  Of course, our 9/11 families did not sign up for DOGE trying to cut 
the 9/11 survivor health program--the people who rushed to the Towers, 
the brave heroes, police, fire, first responders, and others who rushed 
to the Towers in the days after that horrible day of 9/11 and got 
illnesses in their lungs and gastrointestinal tracts and now are 
getting some help. The 9/11 families didn't sign up to cut that, but 
that is precisely what DOGE tried to do. We pushed back, and I am glad 
that President Trump and DOGE reversed themselves on that issue. They 
should be reversing themselves on many other issues also that hurt 
people so badly.
  But the takeaway is they are very clear: What DOGE is doing is not 
making government more efficient; it is creating more chaos. And if 
there is one thing Americans don't want in these turbulent times, it is 
more chaos.
  Rather than actually cut waste in government in a smart way, a 
careful way, an efficient way; rather than putting the needs of working 
people first, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Republican Party have 
plunged basic government services into chaos and taken a meat ax at 
programs that help workers, middle-class families, and low-income 
Americans, all for the sake of cutting taxes for billionaires and mega 
corporations.
  Republicans are focused on the wrong things. They are helping the 
wrong people, and they are ignoring the vast majority of Americans they 
promised to serve.
  Under Donald Trump's Republican Party, billionaires win, American 
families lose.
  So let me say it once again. Over the last month, it has become clear 
how Donald Trump and Republicans govern. Donald Trump and Republicans 
have focused on things Americans don't care about or don't like while 
refusing to focus on things Americans actually do care about.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I have just come to the floor, having 
listened to the minority leader, the

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Democratic Senator from New York, say something to the effect that he 
thought that President Trump's policies were not popular with the 
American people.
  As he was saying this, I recalled a poll, a Harvard-Harris poll, 
conducted just this past week. Trump's policies--the key thing why he 
won election as President of the United States--huge popularity of what 
the President is doing today: promises that he made prior to the 
election, promises kept now that he is in the White House.
  Let's take a look at No. 1--deportation of illegal immigrants who 
have committed crimes. Mr. President, 81 percent of the American 
people--and that includes a lot of Democrats--say that is a very 
popular position taken by President Trump and now being enforced by 
President Trump.
  Eliminating fraud and waste in government expenditures--76 percent of 
Americans agree. What have we seen happen with DOGE? What we have seen 
is actually pointing out fraud and waste in government. The American 
people are supportive.
  Then, of course, closing the border. Again, 76 percent of Americans--
Republicans, Democrats, Independents--all across the board support what 
President Trump is doing.
  President Trump ran for office against a party that was a party of 
high prices and open borders, and it is because of those things that 
President Trump won and Republicans won the House and the Senate.
  So now the minority leader comes to the floor and says that what 
President Trump is doing is not popular. Well, they sure are in terms 
of wasteful Washington spending and closing the border, which were the 
two reasons that President Trump and Republicans won the elections in 
November.
  Let's talk about the things the American people care about. 
Republicans, President Trump--all of us promised to get America back on 
track. That is what we said we would do. That is what we are doing 
right now. We committed to cutting Washington's wasteful spending. We 
committed to reducing the size of a bloated government. This is going 
to make life more affordable for all Americans.
  President Trump and Republicans are now doing exactly what we 
promised we would do. We are rooting out waste, we are rooting out 
fraud, and we are rooting out abuse by a bureaucracy, all across a 
bureaucracy. We are ripping it out root and stem.
  The Department of Government Efficiency has already uncovered more 
than $55 billion in savings. Who benefits from the savings? The 
American taxpayers.
  U.S. taxpayers were spending $2 million--take a look at this list--$2 
million to develop ``sustainable recycling models'' in the Balkans. 
Well, we have canceled that.
  U.S. taxpayers were spending $19 million on ``biodiversity 
conversation'' in Nepal. Well, that has been canceled.
  U.S. taxpayers were spending $47 million to improve ``learning 
outcomes in Asia.'' We canceled that.
  U.S. taxpayers were spending $1.5 million on ``voter confidence'' in 
Liberia, Africa. Well, we have canceled that.
  U.S. taxpayers were spending $21 million for voter turnout in India. 
Canceled.
  More savings are on the way.
  Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who we 
recently confirmed to that post, uncovered $20 billion--with a ``b''--
$20 billion in taxpayer money that the Biden EPA shoveled out the door 
on their last days before leaving office.
  This was a slush fund, and it was funneled to eight leftwing climate 
groups. Now, all of this was in the service of the left's extreme, 
radical climate agenda--an agenda that makes energy more expensive and 
life less affordable for American families.
  Who received these taxpayer-funded, undeserved gifts? Does anybody 
remember Georgia Democrat Governor candidate Stacey Abrams? Well, she 
was one of them. Her leftwing organization got a $2 billion kickback 
from the Biden administration. I am so glad that Ambassador Zeldin 
caught this scam and is working to claw back the money for the 
taxpayers of this Nation.
  I heard the minority leader admit just this morning--he said: Of 
course there is some wasteful spending. He didn't mention any of those 
things. He didn't actually point out what it is. But I don't hear him 
say what wasteful spending he wants to cut. In fact, I haven't heard 
any Democrats say what wasteful spending, if any, should be cut. What 
about that $2 billion that was sent to Stacey Abrams?
  Democrats added almost $5 trillion to our debt in 4 years. Joe Biden 
and Democrats' reckless spending caused painfully high prices.
  Cutting wasteful Washington spending is long overdue. President Trump 
and Republicans are uncovering massive evidence of wasteful Washington 
spending, and we are stopping it.
  Democrats seem more upset that the waste they support is now being 
exposed than about the massive waste itself. Instead of defending the 
indefensible and the obscene level of spending, what are they doing? 
What do the Democrats do? They are demanding that the courts intervene. 
Hey, let's get the courts involved. This is the next chapter of 
destructive Democrat behavior.
  Democrats have now filed over 80 lawsuits in 1 month against the 
Trump administration. Now, often, they go judge shopping. What are they 
looking for? They are looking for partisan, activist judges.
  So how does that work? Well, last month--and it is unbelievable--last 
month, the State of New Jersey wanted to sue the administration, so 
they filed suit not in New Jersey but in Massachusetts. They sued in a 
district where 11 of the 13 district judges were appointed by Democrat 
Presidents. They didn't think they could accomplish what they wanted to 
accomplish in their own home State, so they go to Massachusetts, one of 
the most liberal States in the country. That is not a coincidence. It 
is intentional. It is premeditated. What is the aim of it? It is to 
obstruct President Trump's popular cost-cutting efforts.
  Let me tell you how far the Democrats are taking this. Earlier this 
month, a Federal judge in New York issued a knee-jerk order that 
forbids political appointees from accessing records within the Treasury 
Department. The judge actually went so far as to block the Secretary of 
the Treasury, Scott Bessent, from accessing important data within the 
Agency that he runs, that he has been confirmed to serve as the 
Secretary of the Treasury by this very body, by the U.S. Senate, and 
you got a judge saying he doesn't have access to the Treasury records.
  So a Federal judge blocks a Senate-confirmed Secretary of Treasury 
from getting the information he needs to run the U.S. Department of the 
Treasury. That is where the Democrats are headed.
  District courts should not get to micromanage the executive branch. 
Yet that is what Democrats want to do with the courts, and that is why 
they have filed 80 lawsuits so far. It is not based on the law. It is 
not based on policy disagreements. This is based solely on political 
disagreements.
  This is the real crisis we are facing in America. It is what I hear 
about in Wyoming. I heard about it this past weekend. It is unelected, 
unaccountable, heavyhanded Federal bureaucrats who have taken America 
off track. We are getting America back on track.
  The American people are being strangled by Washington's wasteful 
spending, by burdensome redtape. According to a poll last month from 
the Associate Press, almost two in three Americans say government 
inefficiency is a major problem.
  The bureaucracy must be accountable to the American people, and they 
are there to serve the American people. Americans voted in November for 
more accountability. They voted to drain the swamp. This is the swamp I 
am talking about, and that is exactly what President Trump is doing.
  Working with President Trump, Senate Republicans are going to deliver 
on our mandate, and it is going to involve massive change in Washington 
because it is time, Mr. President, to get America back on track.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, did you see over the weekend Elon Musk, 
the richest man in the world, dancing on a stage with a chain saw? Did 
you see that? Most Americans did. That was his approach to DOGE 
government efficiency--take a chain saw to it, put an

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Agency like USAID in the ``wood chipper,'' in his words. Does this 
sound like a thoughtful approach to making government more efficient or 
does this sound like a meat-ax approach from a man who has no business 
being there, an unelected individual who somehow has been given 
authority by this President to lop off tens of thousands of jobs day in 
day out?
  Yes, we have gone to court. Many of the Agencies in the government--
the employees and their representatives--have gone to court to question 
this ham-handed approach to making this government work, and they have 
been successful in the overwhelming percentage to receive temporary 
restraining orders and the like because on its face, serious questions 
are raised as to the authority of this President.
  We have time-honored traditions when it comes to things like 
impoundment of Federal funds. The President cannot make that decision 
unilaterally. The power of the purse happens to be with the article I 
agency of the government, the legislature, not with the article II 
agency, the executive. As a consequence, when the President decides to 
do this unilaterally, he is being challenged in court, and he should be 
challenged in court.
  This is not just a political issue, as one Senator just described; it 
is more importantly a constitutional issue and a legal issue, and it is 
going to be resolved ultimately by the court. Perhaps the President 
will win some of his cases and lose others. But this is a legitimate 
exercise of the authority in the Constitution.
  I might add that this notion that we are going to start lopping off 
air traffic controllers and people who are responsible for aviation 
safety--I would just say to those who are for that and believe that is 
draining the swamp: Pay attention to what is happening across America. 
These terrible aviation disasters like the one that happened here in 
Washington, DC, should be taken seriously by us every day, and putting 
people in charge of these Departments who don't have adequate staff to 
monitor the flights of our Nation is active irresponsibility, as far as 
I am concerned.
  The same thing is true with avian flu. Yes, the price of eggs is 
terrible. One of the reasons is avian flu is killing off the flocks of 
laying hens. As a consequence, we have fewer eggs and higher prices.
  It is a very real concern because the avian flu is going to jump from 
these birds and fowl into the human chain, and we will face another 
pandemic. Do we want that? For God's sake, no. But the notion that we 
are going to lop off employees that are responsible for public health 
one after the other and somehow make this a safer nation is 
irresponsible on its face. Should it be challenged in court? Of course 
it should be, and I stand by that.
  I just want to say to the Senator and others who make these comments: 
Think about what you are inviting here, to give the President the 
authority this Congress has, the authority under the Constitution--to 
just give it away. Are we going to give away our responsibility under 
the Constitution because of the popularity of this President with some 
Members? I pray that we won't.
  (The remarks of Mr. Durbin pertaining to the introduction of S. 710 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. DURBIN. I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sheehy). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MULLIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.