During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about President Trump's tariffs.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Donald Trump's trade war has many casualties.
00:04Families will be hit with the largest tax hike in over half a century,
00:09$5,000 extra a year.
00:13Prices will go up for food and for medicine, for clothing and for furniture,
00:17for gasoline, for cars, for travel, you name it.
00:21The economy is in danger of a recession.
00:2560% odds.
00:27Yesterday, a leading person on Wall Street said the majority of CEOs he has spoken to
00:32believe the recession is already happening.
00:36A recession means small businesses will shudder.
00:39Main streets will ossify.
00:42And all the progress we've made since COVID will disappear.
00:48But one of the biggest casualties of Donald Trump's trade war
00:51are American seniors and Americans planning retirement in the near future.
00:57If you were planning to retire this year or thinking about retiring soon,
01:03Donald Trump's tariffs are like a brick over the head.
01:07This year, 4 million Americans will turn 65.
01:11That's a record.
01:13Another 80 million Americans are between 45 and 60
01:17and thus approaching retirement and keeping their eyes on the future.
01:22And right now, Americans are watching helplessly
01:26as Donald Trump lights their retirement accounts
01:30and their dreams of a secure future on fire.
01:34To put it in perspective, for Americans nearing retirement,
01:39Donald Trump's market crash has vaporized a whopping $104,000
01:45from the average retirement account.
01:48That's when you factor in the 17% drop in the Standard & Poor's 500
01:53since the middle of February.
01:55Let me say that again.
01:57For Americans nearing retirement,
02:00Donald Trump's market crash has vaporized a whopping $104,000
02:05from the average retirement account.
02:09That's years, sometimes decades, of people's savings gone in a flash.
02:14That's money retirees need to pay for health care,
02:18for prescription drugs,
02:19to see the grandkids, to buy groceries,
02:22and to live with a little bit of dignity.
02:25A little bit of dignity.
02:27Meanwhile, as tariffs eat away at the 401ks,
02:31Elon Musk and Doge are taking a blowtorch
02:34to people's Social Security,
02:36the last safety net for Americans in retirement.
02:41They're crashing the website.
02:42They're closing down local offices.
02:45They're disconnecting services done over the phone.
02:49It's a pincer.
02:52Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Vice President Vance
02:57continue lying about rampant fraud within Social Security
03:01without any evidence.
03:02Even Doge's hand-picked head of Social Security admitted some of their claims,
03:08like saying checks are going to 150-year-olds, are wrong, dead wrong.
03:14So Donald Trump is coming at American seniors from every direction.
03:19He's draining 401ks.
03:22He's sabotaging Social Security.
03:25He's gutting health care.
03:27He's driving up inflation.
03:29He's hitting seniors six ways from Sunday.
03:32Even if you're not thinking about retirement right now, things are still awful.
03:37According to Bloomberg, the chaos of Donald Trump's tariffs
03:40have more and more Americans tapping into their 401ks early.
03:45Hardship withdrawals are about 15% to 20% above historical averages.
03:52That means eating into savings at the worst possible time.
04:05The damage of the past few days will take a very long time to heal.
04:09But millions of seniors hoping to retire soon don't have that kind of time.
04:14They may not have enough to ride out a recession.
04:18They may never recover.
04:19And what makes this particular market crash especially painful
04:23is that it was wholly unnecessary.
04:27Donald Trump did not need to start a global trade war with no plan whatsoever.
04:32Donald Trump did not need to send the markets reeling.
04:34Of all the ways he could have gone about these tariffs,
04:38he picked perhaps the single, dumbest, most destructive approach possible.
04:43Americans wanted Donald Trump to focus on one thing
04:46when he became president.
04:48Costs.
04:49Inflation.
04:51Keeping the economy whole.
04:53Donald Trump has spectacularly failed already
04:56at the one thing people wanted him to do.
04:59Instead of lowering inflation, he's made it much worse.
05:02Instead of strengthening the economy,
05:05he has single-handedly teed us up for a recession.
05:11And few will suffer as much and as quickly
05:13as the millions of seniors who are planning to retire this year
05:17and in the years to come.
05:19Retirement is supposed to be sacred in America.
05:23Part of the American dream is working hard all your life,
05:27chipping in, saving little by little,
05:28knowing that when you retire,
05:30there'll be something there, not to make you rich,
05:33but so you can live a life of some degree of dignity.
05:35But Donald Trump has stolen years from people's retirement
05:39with his boneheaded tariffs.
05:41For them, the damage could be permanent.
05:45I yield the floor.
05:45To the American dream is also towards