CHICAGO — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed confidence on Tuesday that Democrats would gain control of both chambers of Congress in November — and close legislative “loopholes” to make sure a future President Kamala Harris can ram through her economic agenda.
“I think there are many loopholes that can be closed, and I don’t think these proposals will make the deficits worse,” Schumer told The Post when asked about the $1.7 trillion price tag attached to Harris’ plans for housing subsidies, enhanced child tax credits and a federal ban on “price gouging” at grocery stores.
He said he would consider passing the de facto price controls on grocery chains and called the provision providing $25,000 to first-time homeowners for down payments — which could add as much as $200 billion to the deficit — a “great proposal.”
“Donald Trump cut the taxes and never found a way to make up the revenues — we will,” the Senate majority leader vowed.
Schumer, 73, made the pledge to capitalize on a possible Democratic trifecta in 2025 when speaking Tuesday with The Post and other reporters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“We are really excited. I have been to every convention since 1984, and I have not felt the exhilaration, the optimism, the strength of this convention,” Schumer gushed. “We are optimistic about the presidency; we are optimistic about the Senate and optimistic about the House as well, that often follows the presidency.”
“Kamala Harris is just, she’s a great candidate,” Schumer added, praising her “prosecutorial skills” while on the Senate Judiciary Committee and her “feel for what average working families need.”
He made no mention of her new running-mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has faced a slew of bad press reports over “stolen valor” allegations that he lied about his rank in the Army National Guard and left his battalion just before a deployment to Iraq to run for Congress instead.
Should Democrats seize both chambers of Congress, Schumer rattled off a list of legislative priorities he would pursue alongside Harris’ economic proposals, including revisiting the Voting Rights Act and twice-failed bipartisan border deal as well as codifying abortion protections.
Much of the first year would likely be dominated by undoing the 2017 Trump tax cuts, he added, saying he supported as high as a 39% hike to the corporate tax rate and allowing all State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions to expire.
“When state and local deductibility expires, it will be gone,” he promised of the previous $10,000-per-person cap, while claiming no one making under $400,000 per year in income “should pay any increase in taxes.”
Schumer stopped short of saying Democrats would “change the rules” by removing the 60-vote filibuster threshold to push more controversial bills through Congress or pursue them via budget reconciliation, another workaround that can help pass legislation with fewer votes.
But he did note that Democrat-turned-Independent Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are “both gone” after torpedoing a vote to remove the filibuster.
At another point, Schumer also suggested that he wanted to use budget reconciliation to pass an Inflation Reduction Act package redux that would move the US toward carbon neutrality by 2050.
According the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, at least three Senate seats — Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, Montana’s Jon Tester and an open seat in Michigan — will be a toss-up on Election Day.
“They’re mainstream people,” Schumer said of his Democratic incumbent candidates. “They can appeal to … the more progressive wing, but also the more centrist wing.”
Democrats currently hold a 50-49 lead over Republicans, when accounting for the independent senators who caucus with them.
“Our candidates are running even further ahead than we expected at this point,” he said of the close Senate races pitting five Democratic incumbents in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Montana and Nevada against GOP challengers. “Mitch McConnell has recruited a bunch of out of touch billionaires.”
“Everyone feels we can win, and everyone knows unity is the most important thing for us to avoid internecine fights — and there have been very few,” he also said, gesturing at the ouster just last month of President Biden from the 2024 Democratic ticket.
