During remarks on the House floor, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) ripped into the Trump Administration and Republicans over healthcare cuts in the reconciliation package.
00:00The chair recognizes the gentleman from Connecticut, Mr. Courtney, for five minutes.
00:04Thank you, Madam Speaker.
00:05Madam Speaker, after an extraordinary lengthy recess that Speaker Johnson ordered at the third week of July,
00:14Congress is finally back in session with a huge to-do list.
00:18If there was any benefit in terms of having members back home, though,
00:21it was an opportunity to go out and listen to what's on people's minds.
00:24Town hall meetings, community gatherings offer, again, members of Congress a chance to listen to people
00:31in terms of what they care about the most.
00:34And I had a number of those events in Mansfield, Connecticut, Colchester, Connecticut, Old Saybrook, Connecticut,
00:41with very packed rooms.
00:43And the issue that was of most concern was H.R. 1, what President Trump calls the one big, beautiful bill.
00:50While we were away, the Congressional Budget Office had a chance to finally zero in on final numbers
00:57in terms of the impact of H.R. 1, the one big, beautiful bill.
01:00Again, it was being written over and over again and changing up until the final minutes,
01:05but they finally got some clarity.
01:07And what they determined was that the number of people who will lose their health insurance coverage
01:11because of H.R. 1 is 10 million, 7.5 million of people on Medicaid
01:17and another 2 million people who get their insurance through private health plans on the exchange.
01:23They also calculated the debt impact in terms of H.R. 1 because of the massive giveaway
01:28to billionaires in the top 1% of this country.
01:32And they determined that, again, the bill is going to add $3.4 trillion to America's deficits between 2025 and 2023.
01:42The debt service on that additional debt is an additional $718 billion.
01:48That's just pure interest, has no value in terms of services or programs that actually help the American people.
01:56Because of that debt figure, the bill triggered another law called PAYGO, the PAY-as-you-go law,
02:04which was passed in the 1990s, to put pressure on Congress not to pass legislation with that big of a deficit impact.
02:13Unfortunately, the majority ignored the PAYGO rule.
02:16And what CBO told us on August 15th is that will trigger automatic cuts to other programs.
02:24That's the way the PAYGO law was designed.
02:26To, again, create some deterrent on Congress from excessive deficit spending.
02:32And the Medicare program, the program that helps people over age 65, is the one that's going to take the hit.
02:38A 4% across the board, $45 billion PAYGO cut because of this measure.
02:46Now, in addition to those numbers, what we're also hearing about is from the groups that are going to be impacted.
02:54Madam Speaker, in this morning's Connecticut Press, there's a story,
02:59What Worries Connecticut Hospital Leaders, about Trump's big, beautiful bill, which I would ask to be admitted to the record.
03:07Thank you, Madam Speaker.
03:08And, again, this article went out and interviewed hospitals across the state, urban, rural, suburban.
03:15And what all of them are reporting is that the hit of a trillion dollars of Medicaid is going to ripple through the system and cause impact for everybody who, again, relies on those critical services.
03:26Dan Keenan from Trinity Health Services, St. Francis Hospital in Hartford is one of their big members.
03:33I was born there a number of years ago.
03:35Stated, the impact goes far beyond those who lose coverage.
03:38Our entire health system and every community we serve will feel the effects.
03:42Reduced services, longer wait lines, staff reductions, and potential closures of programs and facilities.
03:48He pointed to emergency rooms as an example.
03:50When people don't have coverage, they turn to emergency rooms for basic care, resulting in crowding, service delays, and staffing issues that will impact the entire system.
04:00That affects everyone, and it will spill over into people's employer-based commercial insurance premiums, which, again, the article goes through in great detail.
04:09Madam Speaker, President Trump the other day said he actually doesn't think he wants to call the bill the one big, beautiful bill anymore,
04:16because, as he said, it was good for getting it approved, but it's not really good for explaining it to people,
04:22because people have figured out enough in terms of deficit impact, taking away people's health insurance coverage,
04:29and the impact on services, particularly in the hospital sector, which they warned us about before the bill was passed,
04:36and yet the majority in the White House turned a deaf ear.
04:40We have a lot of work to do when we get back into town starting tonight.
04:44And, again, one of them would be nice is if all the members who had town halls, and I know Republicans heard about this as well as Democrats,
04:52that we recognize that this bill is not the Ten Commandments.
04:56We have the ability, we have the legal authority to make changes and listen to the people who are warning us
05:02that it is actually going to harm the American people, and there is nothing beautiful about it.
