- 1 year ago
During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) spoke about the cuts to healthcare in the Republicans' budget.
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00:00Mr. President, I'm joining my colleagues today to speak in opposition to the Republicans' catastrophic budget bill that will end health care coverage for millions of American families so that President Trump can orchestrate the largest transfer of wealth from the poor and working class to the ultra-rich that we have ever seen in this country.
00:25This bill has nearly $1 trillion in health care cuts, including over $800 billion in Medicaid cuts.
00:34In total, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that this bill would not only add $2.4 trillion to our national deficit, but it also kicks 16 million Americans off of their health insurance in the next 10 years.
00:53In Nevada, that means about 95,271 people will lose their health care.
01:0266,571 will be kicked off of Medicaid.
01:07These numbers alone should at least give my Republican colleagues pause, make them think about how devastating this bill would be for our working families, and maybe even reconsider moving forward with trying to ram it through Congress.
01:24But there's more to this than just these big numbers, and it needs to be brought to light.
01:31I was just home in Nevada, meeting with Nevadans, hospitals, providers.
01:38With the Medicaid cuts they're anticipating from this billionaire tax giveaway, hospitals are bracing themselves not just for coverage losses, but for the downstream impact on care and costs.
01:52This is going to affect our most vulnerable populations in Nevada, seniors, children, veterans, parents of children with rare diseases, pregnant women, and our elderly in nursing homes.
02:08When people lose coverage, they delay their care.
02:11A single mom who's living paycheck to paycheck and is worried about putting food on the table for her kids is not going to go to the doctor if she has a persistent cough.
02:21She will wait.
02:23But that means that when her cough turns serious, making it harder for her to breathe, she'll have to go to the emergency room for treatment.
02:32By then, it's more dangerous for her and more expensive for everyone involved.
02:39The hospital she goes to has to treat her, regardless of whether or not she has health insurance.
02:46If she can't pay, the hospital is on the hook for the cost of her care.
02:51Now, if you are in a rural or underserved area, of which we have many in Nevada and across the country, and the one hospital for miles can't afford to keep those doors open, it may scale back or close altogether.
03:08And the hospital staff have to choose which services to cut.
03:13Labor and delivery.
03:16Mental health care.
03:18Trauma units.
03:18These are services entire communities rely on.
03:23Or will they be forced to close entirely if they can't make up the costs?
03:28In rural Nevada, people sometimes have to drive two to three, four hours to see their doctor.
03:34A hospital closure would be devastating for rural families trying to access even basic care.
03:39That's the danger we are facing with this bill.
03:42This isn't just about Medicaid patients.
03:44As providers look to cover the cost of treating more uninsured patients, those expenses will shift to everyone.
03:53To working families and to employers.
03:56Premiums and out-of-pocket costs will soar.
04:00Also, that this President and Republicans can pay for tax cuts for billionaires.
04:06You know, this is always also going to impact Nevadans who rely on the Affordable Care Act for their medical insurance.
04:15Republicans, in their bill, cuts almost $300 billion from the ACA marketplace plans.
04:25And that would kick about 29,000 Nevada small business owners, middle-class families, and legal immigrants like dreamers off their health care.
04:36It would also increase Medicare premiums for over 1 million seniors.
04:41And it could end health care coverage for 1.5 million children.
04:45These are real people who are going to lose their coverage as a result of this bill.
04:52And this impact would be lasting.
04:54This bill is so expensive that it would force Congress to make even more Medicare cuts in the future.
05:02For those who don't immediately get kicked off their health insurance as a result of cuts to Medicaid,
05:06my Republican colleagues want to implement burdensome work reporting requirements
05:11so they can take away coverage from even more Americans to pay for those billionaire tax cuts.
05:16In Nevada, over 67% of Medicaid recipients, they're already working.
05:21But if this bill passes, those working families will have to jump through even more government reporting hoops to prove that they work.
05:31We know this from states that have tried this, like Arkansas, that people lost Medicaid not because they didn't meet the requirement,
05:40but because they couldn't keep up with the red tape.
05:44Think about this.
05:47People working who already have access to Medicaid, they're making it harder for them to get it,
05:52which means that then if you lose your Medicaid and your insurance,
05:56there's a possibility that because if your health gets worse, you're going to lose your job.
06:02They're going backwards.
06:05This bill adds complex paperwork, frequent deadlines, and little flexibility
06:10to the everyday lives of hardworking mothers, veterans, and families across the country.
06:16And why?
06:17Again, because the Republicans' goal is to take Medicaid away from as many people as possible
06:24so that they can find revenue to pay for the tax cuts for billionaires.
06:31Think about what I said at the beginning.
06:33It's the biggest shift, shift in our country of wealth from the poor and the working class to the billionaire class.
06:42Instead of making the billionaires pay for this, they're taking it off the backs of the very people that are working in this country
06:52and the middle class, and they're preventing the poor from getting into the middle class,
06:56and they're making it harder for the middle class.
06:58This is absolutely absurd.
07:02It is un-American, and we cannot, we cannot accept this as our new normal.
07:09So, my Democratic colleagues and I are going to continue to stand against this outrageous and dangerous bill
07:19because we know that the American public deserves better.
07:25Americans deserve a Congress that is helping to lift the poor into the middle class
07:33and helping the middle class have their lives a little bit easier.
07:41And if we're talking about who should pay their fair share,
07:44well, I can guarantee you if we polled Americans, they would say it was a billionaire class.
07:51A billionaire class should pay their fair share.
07:53And not make it harder, not make it harder for the poor and the working class just to get by
08:00and just to get through the day.
08:03With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
08:12Mr. President.
08:13Senator Frum, Wisconsin.
08:14I rise today on behalf of the 228,000 Wisconsinites
08:21whose health care is on the chopping block if Republicans get their way.
08:28At a time when Wisconsin families are asking us to take on the skyrocketing costs of health care and prescription drugs,
08:38congressional Republicans are doing just the opposite.
08:41My Republican colleagues are not using their time and energy to go after greedy corporations,
08:48not to take on the big drug companies,
08:51and not to expand access to affordable health care.
08:55But they are instead forging ahead with a bill that will kick millions of Americans off of their insurance
09:03and jack up the cost of health care for millions more.
09:10I keep hearing my colleagues falsely claim that we are exaggerating how horrible this plan is for working families.
09:19They want to pretend these cuts are just going after waste, fraud, and abuse.
09:27And I'm not here to engage in a he said, she said about this.
09:33The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan analyst, released a new report today
09:41and found that the Republican plan will result in 16 million Americans losing their health care.
09:51That means that those last-minute changes that were made in the middle of the night in the House
09:58resulted in 2 million more people being kicked off their health care.
10:04Of those 16 million, nearly 150,000 Wisconsinites will lose their Medicaid coverage.
10:14And sadly, it doesn't stop there.
10:16This bill is yet another attempt to chip away at the Affordable Care Act.
10:20In my state, over 80,000 Wisconsinites will be priced out of their affordable care.
10:29And more will see their marketplace coverage costs skyrocket.
10:36We are talking about children with disabilities, grandparents, working families, and so many more
10:45whose health care is literally right now in jeopardy.
10:51I heard from Annette in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
10:55She has three children, including a sixth grader with severe special needs.
11:00She wrote to me about her daughter Maya's first year before they got access to Medicaid.
11:07She says, and I quote,
11:10We paid $16,000 out-of-pocket after insurance for her hospital bills, surgery, and appointments.
11:20It destroyed our savings and pushed us to the brink of losing everything.
11:26Medicaid is not fraud, waste, or abuse.
11:29Medicaid supports kids like Maya, who are in desperate need, and the families who love them.
11:37End quote.
11:39She told me that she doesn't plan to stay on Medicaid forever,
11:43but that program has been, quote,
11:46a godsend to us right now.
11:49It was a rigorous process to qualify.
11:51I hope other families like mine will have the support they need to keep their families healthy.
11:59End quote.
12:00I also heard from Evan in Madison, Wisconsin,
12:04who's undergone two brain surgeries and subsequent radiation over the last 10 years
12:10to treat brain tumors, in part paid for by Medicaid.
12:15He wrote to me, and I quote,
12:18I sacrificed a lot to hopefully become a part of the working class.
12:24If Trump meddles further with my health care,
12:28I won't be able to afford my medication that literally gives me the ability to go out
12:33and be a part of my community.
12:37Or take Kevin in De Pere, Wisconsin,
12:40whose 19-year-old son has Down syndrome and relies on Medicaid for care.
12:46Kevin had a message from my colleagues who are considering advancing any cuts to Medicaid.
12:52He wrote,
12:53I ask you to remember that Medicaid is not about dollars.
12:58It's about dignity, about opportunity,
13:01and ensuring that all individuals, regardless of ability, can thrive.
13:05For Americans like Kevin and Annette and Evan, Medicaid is a lifeline.
13:15Without it, millions of families would forego the care
13:19or face almost certain financial ruin.
13:24But congressional Republicans are putting all of that on the line,
13:29making Americans jump through more hoops and over more red tape
13:34to access their life-saving care.
13:38And why?
13:40To kick enough eligible people off Medicaid
13:43to pay for their tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit corporations
13:49and their special interest donors,
13:52the very same corporations that jack up the cost of health care
13:57on Americans in the first place.
14:00And as deep as these cuts are,
14:03they fall far short of the total cost of the handouts
14:09that the Republicans are proposing
14:11in the form of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
14:16Their plan won't just kick 16 million Americans
14:21off their health insurance
14:22or 4 million Americans off of food assistance.
14:27The Republicans' plan will also balloon the deficit
14:31by $3 trillion over the next decade.
14:36While Republicans spend the rest of their summer
14:40figuring out how to pass their agenda
14:43that puts their campaign donors and corporations
14:45ahead of working families all keep raising the alarm bells
14:52about the real Wisconsinites
14:55whose health and lives are in the balance
14:59if they get their way.
15:02And I yield the floor.
15:03Mr. President.
15:15Senator from Vermont.
15:16Thank you, Mr. President.
15:18I want to join my colleagues
15:20in talking about one of the terrible elements of this bill,
15:24and that is it's going to take away
15:26Medicaid coverage, health care.
15:30For this morning, it was 13.7 million people across this country,
15:37including Vermont and including Missouri.
15:40But we just got an update.
15:43It's 16 million people.
15:4516 million people are going to lose health care.
15:50And this Medicaid program that provides access to low-income folks,
15:58to kids with disabilities,
16:01and, of course, those parents who do so much to care for their child
16:05with special needs need that Medicaid
16:08to be able to keep body and soul together
16:10and give that child that they love the best they can possibly have.
16:15It provides health care for two out of three seniors
16:18who are in nursing homes.
16:20Medicaid pays for those hospital beds.
16:25So how is it that at a time when health care is expensive,
16:29it's getting out of reach for more and more people,
16:31it is the biggest expense many families face,
16:35that we are actually considering in the United States Senate
16:41a bill that would take away health care from 16 million people.
16:48It's hard to believe that the United States Senate
16:52has any degree of appreciation for the reality of the everyday lives
16:58of folks who depend on this health care.
17:03The legislation also takes away subsidies
17:07that have made it affordable for people
17:10to buy into the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
17:15It's the margin that is necessary for thousands, millions of people
17:21to be able to continue to get health care coverage
17:25through the Affordable Care Act.
17:27So we literally have a piece of legislation
17:30that is going to take away this health care for individuals.
17:34It's going to take away health care from families
17:38who are getting access through the Affordable Care Act.
17:44This bill also is cutting nutrition programs.
17:49You know, the SNAP benefits really matter for lower-income families.
17:53It's how they feed their kids.
17:55And in your community and in mine,
17:58we have thousands of volunteers who put together food shelves,
18:03community food programs.
18:06They do Meals on Wheels.
18:08They volunteer to do everything they possibly can
18:11to help our kids in school with nutrition,
18:14to help with the Meals on Wheels for our seniors,
18:17and then, of course, to distribute and help with the SNAP program.
18:23Millions of Americans are going to lose that.
18:25And by the way, that SNAP benefit, it amounts to about six bucks a day,
18:29maybe a little more.
18:31Hardly a big bonanza,
18:33but an incredibly important component of keeping body and soul together.
18:39It's the meals that are so essential to the well-being,
18:43not just of our seniors, but to our children.
18:46So all of this is being done as a way of, quote,
18:50paying for legislation that is going to lower taxes.
18:53And I don't know how it works for you in Missouri,
18:58but when I'm talking to Vermonters,
19:00nobody has come up to me and said,
19:02Peter, you have got to get to work on getting me that tax cut.
19:06Nobody believes there's a tax cut in this bill
19:09that's going to be anything at all meaningful to them
19:11in their struggles with affording,
19:14paying their bills at the end of each month.
19:17Now, if you're in the uber-wealthy class,
19:20you'll get $250,000.
19:22You know, that's real money,
19:24although for some of those folks
19:25who are making millions of dollars a year,
19:27there won't even be anything they notice.
19:30But why is it that we're pushing through this legislation
19:35that will provide a tax cut to folks
19:39who, by and large, don't need it,
19:42will do very little for working-class people,
19:45will have a negative impact on their ability to pay their bills,
19:49especially ones who are going to lose access to Medicaid,
19:52especially folks who are going to lose access to the food stamps
19:56or the SNAP benefits that are so essential to their well-being.
20:00And that's on top of all of those folks having to pay more
20:04because of the tariffs.
20:06So this is an assault on the budgets of working families in America.
20:11That's what it really is.
20:12It's going to shrink their take-home pay at the end of the month.
20:18That's literally what it is we're doing.
20:20And for what?
20:22To provide a tax cut that's not going to be meaningful
20:26for the vast majority of Americans
20:30who really will end up paying more through tariffs
20:33and lost access to health care and nutrition programs
20:37than they will ever even in the wildest stretch of imagination
20:41get from the so-called tax cut bill,
20:46the big, beautiful bill.
20:48But there's another part of this that's so damaging,
20:51especially for those of us from representing rural America.
20:58Individuals need health care,
21:00but they can't get health care
21:01unless they can go to a community hospital,
21:04unless they can go to a community health center,
21:06unless they can go to a private practitioner
21:09who accepts a Medicaid reimbursement.
21:12All of those people who lose access to Medicaid
21:16to pay those bills
21:17are going to continue to show up at the doctor's office.
21:20They're going to show up at the emergency room.
21:22They're going to go to our community hospitals.
21:24They're going to go to our community health centers.
21:27And those health centers and those doctors
21:29will continue to do everything that they can
21:31to provide care even if they don't get paid.
21:33But at a certain point, they can't continue.
21:37They can't keep the doors open.
21:39They can't pay salaries to staff.
21:42They can't pay the light bill.
21:44So what this does
21:46is not only take away access to health care for individuals,
21:51it starts to unravel the health care system
21:54to deliver health care to people in the community.
21:56Those institutions that lose the modest revenue reimbursements
22:02that you get from Medicaid,
22:03far less than Medicare, far less than private pay,
22:07are going to lose that revenue
22:09in those institutions, those hospitals,
22:13those practices,
22:16already operating on a very thin margin,
22:19are going to go out of business.
22:20And then what happens?
22:22We put all of the pressure
22:24for paying for the health care system
22:27on the private sector.
22:29And what we have seen over and over again
22:32is the so-called cost shift.
22:33It's a real thing.
22:34It's not a so-called cost shift.
22:35It's real.
22:36So the more money you take out of Medicaid,
22:39the more money and more burden
22:42you put on the private insurance market.
22:45And who pays that?
22:46A lot of our employers.
22:49You know, in Vermont,
22:50and I'm sure this is true in Missouri,
22:52our employers really care about,
22:54our employers care about their employees.
22:57And there's a struggle every year
22:58for employers
23:01who want to provide
23:03employer-sponsored health care
23:05when they get the sticker shock
23:07of a 10, a 15, a 25% increase in premiums.
23:11And that always then forces the discussion
23:15about do we want to give a raise
23:17or do we want to just maintain benefits
23:19but pay for the higher premium
23:21with what would have been your raise?
23:24So that's further pressure.
23:26So this bill does real harm to individuals,
23:30but it really also starts to continue
23:34to accelerate the unraveling
23:36of a financially insecure
23:39medical payment system.
23:45So why do we do this?
23:50It's hard to answer.
23:53You know, it's a theoretical benefit
23:56that the theory here is
23:58if you lower taxes,
23:59we're going to boost the economy.
24:01We've been hearing that since Reagan,
24:03and that's very much in dispute,
24:05especially when the lower taxes
24:07go to folks who don't need it
24:08and the folks who are struggling
24:10to pay their bills
24:10aren't getting much relief
24:12and are getting higher costs
24:14from tariffs
24:14and getting higher costs
24:16because they're losing access
24:17to health care
24:18and where this is going
24:19to weaken our communities.
24:22And then, of course, finally,
24:24what we're going to see
24:25is a significant increase in our debt.
24:27And the recent CBO scores,
24:30I think, put it at $2.8 trillion.
24:33And what are we getting for that?
24:35You know, sometimes a country has to borrow
24:37like we did in World War II.
24:39Sometimes you have to borrow
24:41like we did during COVID.
24:43Sometimes you have to borrow
24:44to rescue the economy
24:45like we did after the 2008
24:47Wall Street crash.
24:49and you know why you're doing it.
24:52But when you're in better times
24:54where you don't have this market collapse,
24:57you don't have this mass pandemic,
24:59that is not the time
25:01to be adding to the debt.
25:02And what it does
25:03is it means that in the future,
25:06if we do have to borrow
25:07for an emergency,
25:08our capacity to do it
25:09is more limited.
25:10And what it is also doing
25:12right now
25:13is raising interest rates.
25:15And as interest rates go up,
25:17the cost of debt service
25:19on our budget goes up.
25:21And right now,
25:22right now,
25:23the biggest expenditure
25:24of taxpayer money
25:26is to pay interest on the debt
25:28that is escalating exponentially.
25:33So we're spending more
25:34on debt service
25:35than we do on the military.
25:37We're spending more
25:38on debt service
25:39than we do on Medicare
25:40and way more
25:41than we are on Medicaid.
25:42And by adding to the debt,
25:45it's clearly putting pressure
25:47on interest rates,
25:49raising what it is
25:50taxpayers have to pay.
25:52So there's nothing good
25:55in this bill
25:55for the working person
25:58or for their small businesses
26:00that when they need
26:02to borrow money
26:03are much better off
26:04if they can get
26:05a lower rate of interest.
26:06Or when a family
26:07has to get a car loan,
26:09they can get a lower
26:09rate of interest.
26:11Or a mortgage.
26:11Can they get
26:13a lower rate of interest?
26:14It's the exact opposite.
26:16So we've got families
26:18who are paying more
26:19because of tariffs,
26:21losing a lot
26:22because of losing
26:24their Medicaid eligibility
26:27and losing their access
26:29to the Affordable Care Act.
26:32And then everybody
26:33paying more
26:33because of the high interest
26:35associated with
26:36the escalation in the debt.
26:38Mr. President,
26:39we should kill this bill.
26:40And I would urge
26:41all of my colleagues
26:42to take into consideration
26:44how this is going
26:45to affect the people
26:46who each of us represents.
26:49You know,
26:50there's a bipartisan element
26:51to this bill.
26:53The bipartisan
26:54aspect of this bill
26:56is that everybody
26:58is going to share
26:59the pain
27:00of what this bill does.
27:02It's folks in
27:03a red state,
27:05it's folks in a blue state,
27:06whether they voted for
27:08Harris or they voted
27:11for Trump.
27:11They lose their Medicaid,
27:12that hurts.
27:13They lose their community
27:13hospital, that hurts.
27:15They pay higher interest rates,
27:16that hurts.
27:18Mr. President,
27:19let's come to our census
27:20and vote against this bill.
27:22I yield back.
27:23Well,
27:23it's going to be
27:24just like,
27:25well,
27:25I yield back.
27:26good decided I
27:27to run it.
27:28All right,
27:28well,
27:28I yield back
27:29to them for
27:30matters,
27:30that all capsurn
27:30also goes around
27:32the news.
27:33The 3rd,
27:35the 3rd,
27:36that itself goes
27:46to «you »
27:48on the раз
27:49the 3rd.
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