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Floor Speech
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, it is 100 days since Donald Trump took office. I think back to the promises that were made, not just during the campaign but the first day. I think of my constituents who voted for me and voted for him--who actually believed he was going to bring costs down and put them first and do something about housing and do something about healthcare and do something about childcare.
Those were some of the main things they brought up to me. They were hoping that would happen. But, instead, we have seen the most divisive, chaotic Presidency.
Yes, chaos is up, corruption is up, costs are up, and, sadly, people's retirements are down. Americans are paying the price.
Trump's tariff taxes, which is especially concerning to those in the rural areas of my State who sometimes just get by on a margin--those tariff taxes, $4,000 a family, $200 in grocery costs--that is what is going to happen. That is what is happening now, and they know it. That is why you see these numbers. It is not like the American people haven't noticed.
In his 100 days, President Trump, sadly, has the worst approval rating of any President since polling began. Two-thirds of them don't like how he is handling the economy. Two-thirds of them, by multiple polls, don't like these tariff taxes.
I was just on a 19-county rural tour in my State. I visited farms and small businesses. Everywhere I went, I heard people--some of them quieter than others--and I think that is important to know. On TV and on social media, you see these big people yelling into a microphone. I don't blame them. They are mad; they are sad. That is all. They are showing how they feel.
But there is another group of people maybe are a little quieter. Maybe they just tell us--maybe they tell people behind closed doors, maybe they show up. They don't know why the person next to them has a sign that says ``This is not normal.''
I heard a farmer ask this woman: Why do you have that sign? She said: Because it is not normal. He said: I am normal. And she said: This is not normal.
They are showing up because they cannot believe what is happening.
Here is the problem. Some of the biggest entities, the big companies--Tim Cook, it is good for phones, good for Apple--he is able to call the President, go over there. My soybean farmer who relies on a market that is quickly dwindling--that already dwindled under the last Trump administration--he doesn't have that phone number. He can't get over there in the Oval Office. He can't get an exception. Or I doubt that the Treasury Secretary has heard about Beth Benike, who runs our ``Minnesota Small Business Person of the Year'' company, called Busy Baby, an online company that gets stuff that she makes into things for high chairs for babies--a successful small business. She is not going to make it. She wasn't invited by the Treasury Secretary to that secret JPMorgan investor meeting. She didn't get in the door. She doesn't know what the scoop is. She is just trying to get by.
Among other things that all my colleagues are hearing right now from individuals and people living on fixed incomes and seniors who are depending on Social Security and can't get through--one of my constituents, when their wife died, he couldn't even get through. He tries on email for days, tries to get through, just trying to figure out what he does when his wife has died, and he can't find one person to talk to in the government and has to call our office. Besides all of that horror show, what really people have to understand--people ask me: What is the worst thing no one is talking about? It is the small businesses, the small ranchers, the small farmers that are the roadkill here. They are the ones who do not have the margins.
In the case of farmers and ranchers, it may be because input costs are already difficult, or maybe because of the weather. Or in the case of our poultry producers, it may be because of the avian flu and the like. But this is just like the last straw that they can't handle. That is what is going on right now.
So if you wonder why these opinion polls are saying what our colleagues on the Democratic side here have been saying forever and asking our Republican colleagues to stop rubberstamping everything he does and to stand up, which did happen on the tariff vote that Senator Kaine and I and Senator Warner pushed forward when it comes to Canada-- we are going to have another vote like that, which covers more countries when it comes to tariffs--they want people to stand up. They don't want any more rubberstamps.
And the thing that is really galling to them is, when you look at what these tax breaks will do for the billionaires, and the thought that that is being paid for by--as the Congressional Budget Office has said when looking at the House numbers, it would be hundreds of billions of dollars of cuts to Medicaid or paid for from food assistance, with grocery prices up. And people need--and I tell you, they need them in the rural areas just as much as they need them in the urban areas. That is just the last straw. And from what I have heard, we are going to really see the worse of it when you start to not see those goods come in.
So I know that my businesses, big and small, are seeing this coming. They are stopping investing. You know what that means. When America was on this cusp of greatness and we had come from the pandemic--we were dealing with inflation; that is true. To me, we were going to the next level of problems, which is making sure we had a workforce for the jobs we had and that they had housing and that they had childcare. Instead, we are going backward.
We were on the cusp at NIH, with the research and with the combination of mapping the human genome and AI and all of these incredible innovations that are going on. And as long as we put some rules of the road in place, we were in the place to lead in the world on some incredible new things. But now we are going backward if we don't even have FDA people who can improve the new gadgets and the new medical devices. Or if we don't have any rules in place when it comes to AI, we are going to go backward, not forward.
So when I look at these 100 days, I wish for my constituents it wasn't so.
My State is fourth in the country for ag exports. We have 15 Fortune 500 companies. I know the differences in this economy and how hard it is anyway. But when I look at those people showing up at the rural smalltown townhalls or showing up at farmers' events and telling me what is going on, that is where I realize: This 100 days isn't just some campaign brochure. This 100 days isn't just sound bites on social media or a post. This is their lives, and we need to stand up for them.
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