04.02.25

Cantwell Joins Booker in Marathon Floor Speech Against Trump Agenda

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) is one hour away from breaking the record for the longest floor speech ever.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), senior member of the Senate Finance Committee and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, joined Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) on the Senate floor to speak out against President Trump’s budget resolution, which proposes up to an $880 billion cut from Medicaid, and DOGE’s proposals to shut down Social Security offices and lay off 7,000 workers, making it harder for Americans to access the benefits they earned and are entitled to.

“I so appreciate?the Senator from New Jersey trying to articulate the urgency of this moment,” Sen. Cantwell said. “People are trying to rearrange essential services, contractual obligations, things like Social Security, Medicaid, or even Medicare by basically saying we have this efficiency strategy -- when in reality, they're over there with numbers just trying to carve something out of the budget.”

“Elon Musk called it a Ponzi scheme. The richest man in the world, and the most powerful man in the world, himself a billionaire, are attacking the programs that millions and millions of our citizens rely on,” said Sen. Booker.

Sen. Cantwell continued: “So in my state, I'm hearing from hospitals that that means they could close, that means essential Medicaid services that are used even in our jails or for fentanyl treatment or Medicaid that is used as an Obamacare expansion for health care, that so many – literally, red Republican states, Republican governors, have said we want that.”

“I keep saying over and over --- America, this is not right or left. It's right or wrong. It's not a partisan moment. It's an American moment. It's a moral moment,” Sen. Booker continued. “What is it going to take for us to say ‘no’ with such a firm voice, such a chorus of conviction – thousands, hundreds of thousands of Americans -- red, white and blue, every state saying, do not do this for no good reason but to give the majority of your tax cuts to billionaires like Elon Musk. It makes no sense.”

Video of Sen. Cantwell’s exchange on the Senate floor with Sen. Booker is available HERE, audio HERE, and a full transcript is HERE.

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