Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender told Newsmax on Wednesday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s recent criticism of the Big Beautiful Bill was an “outrageous” mischaracterization and a gross distortion of its intent and effects.
“I mean, it’s just outrageous the depths that Chuck Schumer will go to mischaracterize what we [Republicans] are doing,” Faulkender said on “The Chris Salcedo Show,” responding to Schumer’s warning that the bill would cause widespread harm to Americans.
Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday condemned the GOP legislation, saying:
“This vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come because of this bill. Tens of millions will lose health insurance. Millions of jobs will disappear. People will get sick and die. Kids will go hungry, and the debt will explode to levels we have never seen.”
Faulkender rejected that narrative, defending the bill as a return to sound economic policy and fiscal discipline.
“By extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that we did in 2017 … just [reminds] the American people of the economic success that we generated as a result of that,” Faulkender said. “We had enormous growth in our economy. We had the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. We had the highest wage gains we’d ever seen. … And we did all that in a low-inflation environment.”
He said the new legislation builds on that earlier success by addressing spending, work incentives, and domestic investment.
“We are reducing mandatory spending by $1.6 trillion,” Faulkender said. “We are reimposing work requirements and saying that federal Medicaid benefits should not go to illegal immigrants.”
The bill also contains provisions to boost U.S. manufacturing and energy production.
“We are generating incentives to build manufacturing facilities here in the United States,” Faulkender said. “We are going back to an all-of-the-above energy dominance strategy, where instead of encouraging Chinese-built windmills and solar panels, we are unleashing the liquid gold that’s sitting underneath our land and making sure that we, once again, are the dominant energy provider in the global economy.”
“Everything that we are doing in this bill moves us towards stronger families, stronger economy, stronger national security, and reasserts American leadership,” he said.
He also dismissed Schumer’s claim that the bill would strip people of health insurance.
“No one who actually qualifies for Medicaid will lose their insurance, and people are not going to die,” he said. “What we are doing is clamping down on [fraud and waste] and saying we should not have hardworking American tax dollars providing free medical care to illegal immigrants.”
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act remained stalled Wednesday afternoon as House Republicans continued negotiations with a handful of holdouts needed to advance the legislation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and top GOP leaders were seen in and out of meetings with the seven undecided Republicans off the House floor.
The procedural vote remained open more than 90 minutes after it began. The bill is a top priority for President Donald Trump, who has called for it to reach his desk by July Fourth.
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