Senator Chuck Schumer sharply criticized Republicans over healthcare, arguing they “have no plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act. He cited recent remarks from GOP Leader John Thune attacking Obamacare, saying Republicans continue to condemn the law without putting forward a workable substitute. Schumer warned that the GOP’s ongoing failure to produce a comprehensive healthcare proposal reveals a “dangerous gap” in their approach to national health policy.
#Schumer #GOP #Healthcare #ACA #Obamacare #Republicans #Thune #Congress #USPolitics #HealthcareDebate #NoPlan #Senate #Policy #Reform #Coverage #PublicHealth #Democrats #Legislation #News #Breaking
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#Schumer #GOP #Healthcare #ACA #Obamacare #Republicans #Thune #Congress #USPolitics #HealthcareDebate #NoPlan #Senate #Policy #Reform #Coverage #PublicHealth #Democrats #Legislation #News #Breaking
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NewsTranscript
00:00Now, tomorrow is a moment of truth for the Republicans here in the Senate.
00:06Are they going to bring health care costs down?
00:09Or will they sit by and let premiums explode for millions of Americans?
00:14This vote is going to be one of the most important votes that they take in the whole term of the Senate,
00:21in the whole two years of the Senate.
00:23We have only three weeks away from a massive and devastating cliff for millions of Americans.
00:30As you will hear from some of our guests here, this is not just sort of an on-paper, accounting, political thing.
00:39This is life and death for people.
00:43This is having a decent life or a life where you can hardly cope if you don't get the health care that you need.
00:53Congress should have solved this problem months ago.
00:56Hakeem Jeffries and I asked the Republican leadership and Donald Trump over and over and over again
01:02to sit down and come up with a solution to the crisis.
01:07They refused.
01:09We were ready.
01:11We said let's negotiate.
01:14Let's find a path.
01:15Republicans refused to lift a finger.
01:18They knew the crisis was coming.
01:20But ever since the fight with Hillary Clinton on health care in 1993, the Republican Party has been just intransigent in not helping people,
01:32but just helping the special interests, whether it be the drug companies or the insurance companies or hedge funds or whatever else.
01:41They just sat there, did nothing.
01:44And now the day of reckoning is coming.
01:47And it's the day of reckoning for millions of Americans who are going to lose their health care,
01:54who are going to have to pay $500 or $1,000.
01:57A working family making, say, $60,000.
02:00They think they're in decent shape in most parts of the country.
02:03But how are they going to afford an additional $10,000 a year?
02:09What are they going to cut back on?
02:11Their health care?
02:13Or their food?
02:15Or their ability to buy some Christmas presents for their kids?
02:19So, with just days left on the clock, the clearest, cleanest, easiest, and best path left is the bill what Democrats are proposing.
02:32A clean extension of current tax credits.
02:36That's it.
02:37No poison pills.
02:38No gimmicks.
02:40Just relief.
02:41Our bill is the only proposal on either side that has party-wide support on both sides of the Capitol.
02:51Democrats are fighting for lower health care costs for the American people.
02:56Republicans are fighting with each other.
03:00They can't even come up with a plan.
03:03So they put in this junk insurance thing, which I'm sure some of my colleagues will talk about,
03:08which does absolutely nothing.
03:12They're just so embarrassed they have no plan that they put in a really bad plan.
03:19That is not going to get any support and is loaded with poison pills.
03:24What they want to do is send people a one-time check.
03:27Maybe, if you're lucky, $80 a month.
03:29How on earth is $80 a month going to help the people here if their premiums are doubling and tripling?
03:37Because they don't do a thing.
03:38They don't extend the tax credits by even a day, a minute, an hour.
03:45They just don't do it.
03:48They're so in the grips of the special interests and of their ideology,
03:53which says you're on your own, baby, that they are stuck.
03:59Our bill is the only bill that will prevent this crisis from happening.
04:04It's the last train out of the station.
04:07We urge our Republican colleagues for the sake of the American people to get on that train.
04:12We ask Americans all over the country to call their Republican senators and say,
04:23this is your last chance.
04:24The vote is tomorrow.
04:27Last chance to help us avoid a crisis that will be devastating for so many of us.
04:35Bottom line is very simple.
04:38We should tell our Republican colleagues, every American should say,
04:44vote to protect your constituents.
04:47Don't let this crisis hit on your watch, because it is now your responsibility.
04:53And there are so many cases across the country.
04:55Every one of us, when we go back to our states, hears about these cases.
04:59And you will hear some of them now.
05:02And they really, I just talked to Becky Roberts,
05:04and it breaks your heart to hear what she has to say
05:08and what will happen to her if these credits are not extended.
05:12Becky.
05:14Hi, I'm Becky Roberts.
05:15I'm from Virginia Beach, Virginia.
05:22Hi, sorry.
05:23I'm Becky Roberts.
05:24I'm from Virginia Beach, Virginia.
05:26I was born with a dislocated hip.
05:28They didn't catch it until I was 16.
05:30The deformities continued over time.
05:33I've always worked for small companies.
05:35I could have been on disability my entire life, but I chose to work, and I'm glad I did.
05:41But the companies I've worked for, places I've worked for, have been smaller
05:45and have never been able to offer insurance.
05:48In 2005, when my son was five years old, he's Asperger autistic,
05:52my husband was a cancer survivor, and I had the disability.
05:55At that point, if we could get insurance on the regular market, it would have been $5,000 a month.
06:01Needless to say, we didn't have a spare $5,000 a month.
06:04Years later, I got on the Affordable Care Act.
06:07I've been on the Affordable Care Act for a few years now.
06:10My son has been, my husband has passed, but my son was able to get the treatment that he needed.
06:14Medical technology caught up.
06:16This summer, I had surgery to correct my hip deformity.
06:19I'm currently undergoing physical therapy.
06:22My premium has gone up 110%, which I can probably manage, but some people can't.
06:28If I'm allowed to keep my insurance, if I'm allowed to continue with physical therapy,
06:33within a few months to a year, I'll be out of the wheelchair.
06:36Otherwise, this is where I'm going to be for the rest of my life.
06:40I want to do basic things like walk my dog, simple things like that.
06:45And if I'm allowed to, I can have those dreams, those simple dreams.
06:51My story is the story of millions of people that are being impacted by this,
06:57some that could lose cancer treatments and things even more serious than mine.
07:02But it's a matter of life, and it's a matter of quality of life.
07:06Thank you for being here today, and thank you to the senators.
07:08Thank you so much, Becky, for being willing to join us and share your story.
07:15And it just proves right there.
07:16Have health insurance, be able to get the care you need.
07:19She's going to be able to get out of that wheelchair.
07:22Otherwise, that's where she stays.
07:24So what this is about is just a clear line in the sand.
07:28Democrats are fighting for health care.
07:30We're fighting to reduce premiums, and specifically on the Affordable Care Act,
07:35where we well know that 75% of the people who are on these plans are in red states that Donald Trump won.
07:43And now, while he is on his so-called affordability tour,
07:47in which he has chosen to call affordability a hoax last night,
07:51there are people like Becky and others you're going to hear from today who are struggling.
07:57Americans across the country are being forced to make choices right now.
08:02They're seeing that their premiums have doubled and tripled.
08:06They are weighing what this means for their families.
08:09Should they have no plan?
08:11Should they get a junk plan?
08:12Should they stay in a job when they actually want to go start a business?
08:15Should they have to close down their business?
08:17Maybe they have one employee, like one woman I met in Minnesota,
08:21whose employee just got through cancer, is doing well.
08:24Do they have to drop that employee because of the doubling of the premiums?
08:27They have to start paying the new rate starting next week, Monday, December 15th.
08:33That's why we're doing this vote right now.
08:36Republicans can't kick this problem down the road to January.
08:40It's not a January problem.
08:41It's not a February problem.
08:43It's a now problem.
08:45So we have once again offered a straightforward solution.
08:49Obviously, there's many more things we would do to reform our health care system and make it more affordable.
08:55But right now, to stem this disaster and crisis that Donald Trump has created by refusing to do anything about extending the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act,
09:07we are saying right now we can do this.
09:09So what's going to happen if we don't?
09:11Well, you're going to now hear from Aaron, an Iowa farmer from Polk County, Iowa, a place I've visited a few times, a fifth-generation family farmer.
09:21Twenty-three percent of farmers are on these plans.
09:25An extraordinary number of rural people are on these plans.
09:29And what you've seen in the last month from elections from Virginia and New Jersey to Georgia and Colorado to Miami last night where the first Democrat was elected mayor in 30 years in the Georgia legislative race,
09:43which was off everyone's radars because no one thought it was winnable, the people of this country get it.
09:49It doesn't matter how many tours you go on that have the word affordability.
09:53When you call it a hoax and you actually don't do anything about it, the American people can read their bills.
10:00They can see their premium increases.
10:04So with that, I just tell our Republican friends, you can do it with us on this vote and you can fix at least this current problem.
10:12You can do it with us by putting this on legislation or we are going to march into the midterms against your resistance and win and get this done.
10:21And with that, I am so honored to turn this over to Aaron Lehman, who, as I noted, fifth-generation farmer, talked about the ACA and what it means to his family.
10:32Thank you very much.
10:42Good morning.
10:44My name is Aaron Lehman, and I farm in northern Poe County where I grow corn, soybeans, oats, and hay.
10:50Today, my family and I are farmers because we love to grow things that feed our neighbors, our communities, and the rest of the world.
10:57But that is getting harder because, for my wife and I, our health care costs are about to double.
11:05The Affordable Care Act has been one of the best investments in rural health care in decades.
11:09For farming families, entrepreneurs, and employees at small businesses who don't offer health insurance, the ACA has expanded coverage, lowered costs, encouraged rural islands to take more risk in developing and expanding our farm operations.
11:25And in the Farmers' Union, our members are telling us how important the ACA has been for their families in farming operations.
11:33For myself, my family, having access to the marketplace insurance policies has been a must because the affordability provided by the enhanced premium tax credits make our budget doable.
11:46For example, my wife is a breast cancer survivor.
11:51Without the Affordable Care Act, she likely wouldn't have even been offered an insurance product because of her preexisting condition.
12:00Because of the Affordable Care Act, when she was laid off later because of downsizing, she was able to access affordable insurance and go back to school and get a higher degree.
12:09Now she's an independent contractor, providing care for elderly and other citizens in need, and she still has the access to that coverage, even though she's an independent contractor.
12:23And it allows her to help out on the farm during our busy season because we know that we have coverage.
12:31And on our farm, the ACA has done other things to help us.
12:34It's made it more affordable for us to figure out how to replace and fix aging equipment, to bring new innovations onto the farm, to explore new markets for what we grow, and to take smart steps to bring the next generation onto the farm.
12:51All of this increased economic activity has been beneficial to our rural communities.
12:56But if the enhanced premium tax credits expire, the cost to farmers will be deep, and it will cave in family budgets.
13:06Our rural hospitals and clinics are already struggling with Medicaid cuts and supertight margins and a very thin labor market.
13:14Without the ACA being affordable, our hospitals and clinics will struggle even more.
13:20Extending the enhanced tax credits would benefit farmers in all over America.
13:27Our farmers are already facing low prices because of trade tension, increased input costs, and USDA programs and offices that are struggling to help farmers that they were made to help.
13:40An increase in health care costs is the last thing we need.
13:47You're hard to compete with, Aaron.
13:49You said it really well.
13:50The first comments made yesterday by the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, were once again talking about fraud and his claims about fraud.
14:02The Republican concern about this is basically they go out and kick workers, hardworking workers, off their health care, and they call it anti-fraud.
14:12We, on the other hand, insurance brokers, and the fact is that's the difference between the two political parties.
14:28One of them talks empty rhetoric, the other actually delivers on priorities like busting real fraudsters with criminal penalties.
14:37The insurance offerings in the Republican bill are snake oil.
14:42They will spark a new avalanche of junk insurance plans where insurance companies make out like bandits.
14:51The Republican plan is going to leave millions of people, in my view, racked with poverty.
14:58The reality is if you have, for example, an appendectomy, your tonsils out, you're delivering a baby, you are going to be met with a wave of debt as a result of their payments being so small.
15:13We, on the other hand, have a simple solution, straightforward, we make it clear that people are going to get real relief, and they're going to get relief now.
15:24We're not looking for ideological trophies, as my colleagues have said.
15:28We're looking for real results that provide real relief, and that's why I'd like to introduce Chrissa, who's here to share her story,
15:36and I think, like the other speakers, you're going to see these are the messages from people all over the country who are suffering now, who will suffer more if our legislation doesn't pass.
15:49It stands in sharp contrast to the empty promises we heard yesterday from Senator Thune.
15:56Chrissa.
15:59Thank you, Senator Wyden.
16:01My name is Chrissa Ostenso, and I'm from Ladysmith, a small rural town in northern Wisconsin.
16:08For more than 30 years, my husband and I ran the only optometry clinic in our community, actually in our whole county.
16:16We raised four children there and worked hard to keep our practice open.
16:22It was never easy.
16:23There's a lot to do when you've got a small business.
16:26And, of course, one big problem was figuring out how we were going to afford health care for our family of six over the years.
16:36You do your absolute best to plan, but the truth is that you never know when life will change in an instant.
16:43This past year has been hard.
16:45My husband passed away unexpectedly last November, soon after I had to close our clinic.
16:50So I've spent the year grieving, trying to sell our practice, and figuring out how to live on a fixed income
16:58at a time when food, gas, electricity, and housing costs keep rising.
17:02Right now, I have $1,300 a month from my Social Security, along with some planned retirement savings.
17:11Because of the tax credits, I can comfortably afford health insurance.
17:16But if Congress chooses to let those go, I will soon be paying $1,500 per month more than I currently am.
17:26That's obviously more than even my Social Security check is, and that will be pretty hard to afford.
17:33The truth is that most of us are just one step away from losing our job, losing a loved one,
17:40having a major life change outside of our control.
17:43And in those moments, programs that help us meet our basic needs, like health care, are more important than ever.
17:51Yet instead of making things easier to access and afford, Republicans are using their full power in Congress
17:59to make our basic needs more expensive and further out of reach, all to give larger tax cuts to the rich.
18:08Our health care system is not perfect, but letting these credits expire will make things worse,
18:15more expensive, more out of reach, and more dangerous.
18:19I know I cannot afford this $1,500 increase, and I know my community can't either.
18:26With these premium hikes, some people will go uninsured, avoid care, and possibly die.
18:31These are not hypotheticals.
18:34We lived this before, and it was devastating.
18:38I'm here today because I worry not just about myself, but about my neighbors,
18:43the small business owners, the seniors, the families who are already stretched thin.
18:49These credits are a lifeline.
18:50They keep rural towns like mine afloat.
18:54Please do not let them expire.
18:56We need policies that make life more affordable, not less.
19:02We need leaders who protect their constituents, not burden them.
19:07Republicans in Congress, there are only a few days left before we pay our first premiums for the new year.
19:14Please vote to extend these tax credits and protect families like mine.
19:21Well, to Becky and Aaron and Krista, thank you for coming here to speak truth to power,
19:29to tell your story and to plead our Republican colleagues to do the right thing.
19:35You heard Krista's story.
19:37She is facing a $1,500 per month increase in her premiums,
19:41and Donald Trump is out there telling America that the cost-increase crisis in this country is a hoax.
19:49In Connecticut, there are about a quarter million people who get their insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
19:56Nationally, about $22 million.
19:58In Connecticut, the average annual premium increase coming starting January 1st is over $6,000.
20:06And Donald Trump is saying that the cost-increase crisis is a hoax.
20:12Donald Trump has no idea what is going on out in America today.
20:16He has no idea the misery that is about to be visited upon American families this January
20:23because all he cares about is padding his own pockets
20:26and padding the pockets of his billionaire and corporate friends.
20:32Now, Republicans could just do the right thing this week.
20:36They could vote for a simple bill to just postpone this disaster.
20:43And instead, they have spent the last month either ignoring this crisis or arguing amongst themselves.
20:52They're apparently going to put a bill on the floor that is a joke.
20:57The Crapo-Cassidy bill is a joke.
21:00It doesn't reduce people's premiums by $1.
21:04It forces families to sign up for worse health care than they have today.
21:12And the question is why.
21:15And the answer is unfortunately simple.
21:17The only thing Republicans care about is protecting tax breaks for billionaires, millionaires, and corporations.
21:23And the way that they are paying for their tax breaks for their billionaire friends
21:29is to rob 22 million people of quality insurance.
21:34And they will do anything and everything, including driving up costs for millions of Americans,
21:41if that's what is necessary, in order to protect the favors that they are giving to their rich and wealthy friends.
21:49We have 24 hours left, and we are here with these heroes, the American heroes,
21:56who are unfortunately just the tip of the iceberg to ask our Republican friends to reconsider.
22:02This is a moment where they can choose to do the right thing.
22:06I'm really pleased to introduce someone who can highlight the sort of unimaginable scope of the catastrophe
22:15that's going to happen in January if Republicans don't do the right thing.
22:19Because, yes, there will be millions of Americans who will lose their health care.
22:23There will be millions of Americans who will have unaffordable cost increases
22:27that will cause them to choose every day between buying food or paying their health bills.
22:32But there will be a broader crisis in our health care system, even for folks that have insurance,
22:37because all those folks who lose their coverage, they're going to show up in the emergency rooms.
22:41There are going to be a lot of clinics that won't be able to keep their doors open.
22:46And so to talk to you for a minute about what the impact on providers are going to be,
22:51I want to introduce to you a critical care physician focusing on pediatrics, Dr. Heidi Appel.
23:02Hi.
23:03I'm Heidi Appel, a critical care pediatrician in D.C.
23:07I live in Virginia.
23:08I want to thank these leaders for continuing to shine a hard light on a looming disaster
23:13that threatens the lives, health, and safety of millions of American families.
23:17As a doctor who has served my community for years and takes care of some of the sickest children,
23:22I see and hear firsthand how health care cuts hurt people.
23:27My patients, their families, and even some of my coworkers are growing worried and fearful
23:31about being able to afford their health care.
23:33For years, health care has been growing more expensive and harder to access.
23:40Families and communities across Virginia, D.C., and the whole nation are at risk of losing their health care.
23:45One of my patients, a teenage boy with insulin-dependent diabetes,
23:50rationed his insulin because his family couldn't afford the cost.
23:53He went into a diabetic coma and was found unresponsive.
23:57In the hospital, there was nothing we could do to reverse the damage caused by a lack of insulin.
24:02His brain herniated and he died.
24:05While I wish no parent would ever make the cry of anguish that I hear in the pediatric ICU,
24:12I do wish that policymakers had to hear the sound of a parent who has lost their child
24:17or watch me tell a parent that their child has died because they couldn't access the health care they deserve.
24:25Without the Affordable Care Act tax credits, families I see every day will face impossible choices.
24:32Do they keep their insurance or do they keep a roof over their heads?
24:35Do they buy the medicines their child needs or do they buy groceries for the week?
24:40No parent should ever have to make those choices, and yet that is exactly what will happen if these supports disappear.
24:47These kids don't have lobbyists.
24:50They don't have political power.
24:52What they have are parents who love them fiercely and doctors like me who will fight for them with everything we have.
24:59But no matter how hard I fight in the PICU, I can't fight policy decisions to strip away their access to care.
25:06These lawmakers must be held accountable.
25:08Good morning, everyone.
25:19We're on the eve of such a consequential vote that will define and determine the future of health care in this country
25:25about the Affordable Care Act that has helped millions of Americans.
25:30This vote reminds me of a similar time eight years ago.
25:35I was not in Congress at the time.
25:36I was a father of a newborn baby, a baby that had health issues right out of the gate.
25:44And I remember at that time being at the hospital and looking up at the TV screen,
25:50and on the screen I saw my own congressman at the time leading the charge on trying to gut the Affordable Care Act under Trump's first term.
25:58In fact, he was the author of the legislation that gutted pre-existing condition protections.
26:04And I'm a son of a polio survivor.
26:06I'm the father of a little boy that was struggling with his health at such a young age.
26:11And I couldn't believe that my own representative was leading this charge that wouldn't hurt my family and so many other families.
26:18So I decided to stand up and challenge him.
26:22I never ran for office before.
26:24This was a district my congressman had won by 20 points in his previous election.
26:28No one thought it was winnable.
26:29But we showed that health care is important to everybody, that it doesn't matter, Democrats or Republicans, that it's about the care that we received.
26:39And I was proud to be able to stand up and hold him accountable and that we were able to win that race and to be able to be here in Congress.
26:47Now, eight years later, I can't tell you how surreal it is to continue to go through this problem.
26:53I'm sick and tired of this.
26:55I'm sick and tired of leaders here trying everything that they can to be able to take health care away from people that need it the most.
27:02And I'm appreciative of what you shared, that Dr. shared here about the concern that she has about not just those on the marketplace, but all of us.
27:12And I stand before you as not just as a father of now that eight-year-old child now who is doing so much better with his care.
27:20But I also stand before you as a son of a nearly 80-year-old father who I spoke on the floor yesterday about talking about how he was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's and how devastating that is for me and my family.
27:33But for millions of Americans across this country, I am part of that sandwich generation that so many can attest to the difficulties that we're trying to do to provide care for young kids as well as care for our aging parents.
27:50And as I hear from so many others, nobody wants to be able to be in a position where they have to worry about the care.
27:58But instead, I have to worry about not just the care that I can provide my father, but the care that I can provide my father that I can afford.
28:05We're the richest, most powerful country in the world.
28:07No one should have to think about that.
28:10I was just in a hearing in the health committee, in the health care committee, going through these different proposals of the Republicans.
28:16And I asked every single one of the witnesses, including the witnesses brought by the Republicans, is it the fault of these people on the marketplace that their premiums are going up?
28:29Is it Becky's fault that their premiums are going up?
28:32Every single one of them said, of course not.
28:35And then I asked them, these plans that the Republicans are bringing forward right now, are any of them implementable in the next few weeks?
28:41Are any of them going to offset the cost increases that these families are going to experience?
28:46Every single one has said, no, it's not feasible to be able to have any of this implemented to offset the cost increase.
28:55So then I asked, why are we doing this?
28:58Why are the Republicans pushing this forward, literally pulling the rug out from under these American families with no fault of their own?
29:06We are playing with other people's chips here.
29:10The Republicans are playing with other people's chips.
29:12They don't understand what people are going through.
29:16So I just wanted to join my colleagues here and join the others here.
29:20We will say we can choose to be able to support Americans.
29:25Health care, this is about political will.
29:28It's a choice, and that choice will be before the U.S. Senate tomorrow.
29:32We know what choice the Republicans are making, and we know that it's the wrong choice for America.
29:39Okay.
29:40Questions on this topic, and I hope our friends that have come to make their cases here, Becky and Aaron and Krista and Dr. Applesey,
29:51the passion that our Democrats bring to this fight, our true belief that if we could just get this extended,
29:58if they just voted yes, as Senator Murphy pointed out, within the next 24 hours,
30:05that we could make things better for a whole bunch of people, millions and millions of people.
30:10So that's a decision they're faced with.
30:12So questions on this of anyone up here?
30:15Is there something of an obstacle in the height of amendment in terms of getting to a bipartisan solution?
30:20You know, the Republicans are going to have to decide.
30:24Do they want to play politics with this when they know very well where the votes are when it comes to abortion care,
30:32where they know very well what the state of the law is right now on the height amendment, already applying to some of this?
30:38So I don't understand when you've had a number of Republicans in the House and the Senate say they get it,
30:44this is a disaster to have these premiums double and triple,
30:48why they want to mess around right now and put abortion politics into the middle of this.
30:52But they know that that's not going to work.
30:54Senator Klobuchar, if I can just add, Andrew, they've never been serious about this.
30:59At one point they wanted to put Hyde in the tax code, something nobody's ever considered.
31:04As Senator Klobuchar talked about, we're trying to lower people's premiums, not look for an ideological trophy.
31:11Okay.
31:13Let me agree with you on the call.
31:15Are there any more prepared to go into another government shutdown on the next Senate deadline?
31:20You know, right now we're focused on, number one, getting this vote and waiting.
31:28We've been waiting.
31:29They said after the shutdown they would come to us with serious proposals,
31:32as pointed out by Senator Kim, these are not serious proposals that they've put forward.
31:38And that's what we're focused on right now.
31:40And I will say we're also negotiating appropriations bills with Senator Murray's great leadership and the Senate Dems.
31:47So that's what's happening right now.
31:49And that's not what we're focused on.
31:51We want to save people's health care right now.
31:53We want to make sure that Becky is going to be able to continue her treatment so she can get out of that wheelchair.
32:02Are you tactically engaged with any of the colleagues probably out of the Senate?
32:09The Senate is a small place.
32:11There's 100 people.
32:12Doors are open.
32:13Senator Schumer's door is open at any time.
32:15And I think you have, we don't know of some secret plan that's going on here.
32:19They have put out this proposal that we do not think one bit helps all these people who are seeing these premium increases.
32:28And other than that, they have not come with us.
32:30We put out three years.
32:32You know, they want to negotiate the number of years.
32:34They want to negotiate something.
32:36But that is not what's happening right now.
32:38So we're asking them to vote with us on the only real proposal that's out there.
32:42And I'll just say, I mean, this is such a simple proposal.
32:46I mean, this doesn't fix everything that's badly broken in our health care system.
32:50Of course, there are members of our caucus who want to do much more than this.
32:55We're offering a very simple proposal that would stop this catastrophe in its tracks on January 1st.
33:04And they are fighting amongst themselves, arguing over a set of policies that wouldn't fix the problem.
33:17So we're going to be united tomorrow.
33:19We're going to deliver 47 votes to stop these health care increases.
33:26We don't need 53 of them.
33:28We don't even need 30 of them.
33:31We just need 13 Republicans.
33:34That's it.
33:35We will deliver the bulk of the votes to stop this catastrophe.
33:40And it would be a pretty sad statement about where the Republican Party is today if there aren't just a dozen of them that are willing to stand up and do the right thing.
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