Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Announcing Senate Democrats’ Introduction Of A Bill To Repeal Republican Healthcare Cuts On The 60th Anniversary Of The Creation Of Medicare And Medicaid
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to announce he and Senate Democrats will introduce a bill to reverse Republicans’ healthcare cuts passed in the “Big, Ugly Betrayal” as Medicare and Medicaid celebrate 60 years since becoming law. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Sixty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law two of the most popular, successful, and lifesaving programs in the history of America: Medicare and Medicaid.
These programs provide healthcare and dignity for 134 million Americans. They are a lifeline. They are sacrosanct.
But today, Medicare and Medicaid are facing their greatest threat because Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans want to decimate these programs.
The Republicans’ “Big, Ugly Betrayal,” their so-called BBB, codified the largest cut to Medicaid in history.
Imagine calling a bill beautiful that cuts Medicaid more than any other bill in the past. How cruel? How heartless? How much of a bubble are our Republican friends in, not knowing what people go through to try to get decent healthcare?
It included over $1 trillion in healthcare cuts, that will rip away healthcare from more than 15 million Americans, all to pay for tax breaks to billionaires.
So, later this morning, I’ll join my Democratic colleagues at a press conference to introduce legislation to reverse the devastating healthcare cuts in the “Big, Ugly Betrayal.”
Our bill is straightforward: it repeals the entire healthcare subtitle of the Republicans’ bill, and permanently extends the ACA premium tax credits that Republicans are letting expire.
These tax credits will save Americans on the ACA hundreds if not thousands a year. If it's not passed as early as October, people are going to be paying a lot more for their healthcare. Why are Republicans allowing that to happen?
This is real money, life-changing money, and Americans will have to pay. And the money they would have, if it weren’t taken away, would mean greater dignity for working people so they can stay healthy and stay covered.
When Republicans cut people’s healthcare, what they are really doing is assaulting working people’s dignity, just to help the ultra-rich.
Now, we know Republicans want to make their “Big, Ugly Betrayal” seem less destructive, claiming it won’t affect anyone until a few years down the line.
That’s just false. The Republicans’ bill is already having an impact, from one end of the country to the other.
Hospitals and clinics are at risk of closing – and some have already shut their doors in Maine, in Nebraska, and other states.
People in rural communities are worried they will have to travel even further to get care.
Healthcare premiums are going to start spiking as soon as next year.
For many Americans, this legislation is quite literally a matter of life and death.
Seniors, kids, people with disabilities – these are the people who have relied on Medicare and Medicaid for several generations.
It isn’t too late for the Republicans to reverse course, stop these disastrous cuts from taking effect, and save healthcare for millions of Americans.
Democrats, meanwhile, will never – never – stop fighting to fix our broken healthcare system and make healthcare easier to access, easier to navigate, easier to afford.
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