Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Calling Out Republicans’ Lack Of A Healthcare Plan And Urging Them To Vote With Democrats To Extend ACA Subsidies

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor slamming Leader Thune and Republicans for their division and inability to agree on a plan that addresses rising healthcare costs for Americans, calling on them to support Democrats’ plan to extend ACA tax credits for 3 years. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

We are at the start of an extremely important week for Donald Trump and for Republicans when it comes to our nation’s healthcare crisis. On Thursday, the Senate will vote on Democrats’ bill for a clean three-year extension of the ACA premium tax credits.

The question Republicans face this week is very simple: will they support our bill and lower people’s premiums, or will they block our bill and send premiums through the roof? That’s what’s at stake on the vote this Thursday.

Leader Thune just gave a speech blasting ACA, but Leader Thune, well, where is the Republican plan? Republicans have no plan. They are so divided between themselves, they can’t even put a plan together.

We Democrats do have a plan, and it’s this bill for a clean, three-year extension. This is the only way to solve this problem now, before premiums go way up and in January people are faced with such high bills. Our bill prevents costs from going up right now.

Here is the reality: most Americans want to see these tax credits extended. Leader Thune blasts the ACA, but has no plan. And amazingly, he has no plan, when fifty-five percent of Trump voters, MAGA voters, want to see the credits extended. So, I urge my Republican colleagues not to follow Leader Thune. You have one chance, Republican colleagues, to get this right. But left to their own devices, Republicans don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of fixing the healthcare crisis. Not a snowball’s chance in hell of fixing this crisis because they’re so divided.

Even the plans they claim are reasonable can’t move forward because one-half of the Republicans want one thing, a third of the Republicans want another thing, a sixth of the Republicans want a third thing, and they can’t agree.

The contrast is stark: Republicans are divided, Democrats are united. We want to extend these tax credits. It’s the right thing to do for the American people as they stand on the edge of a cliff.

And meanwhile, one of the biggest failures of leadership on healthcare has been Donald Trump. As our country faces a crisis that will touch the lives of millions of people, he’s sitting on the sidelines. For months, we’ve urged him to meet with us, to talk with us, to come to an agreement on fixing ACA premiums. Instead, he’s isolated himself in the White House, blasted the ACA on Truth Social while doing nothing to prevent this from happening and nothing to present a real plan.

Republicans are nowhere on healthcare, and the clock is ticking. Americans’ livelihoods are at stake. Our healthcare system is at stake. The future of our hospitals—many of which will be overrun when people lose insurance—is also at stake. Republicans who claim to worry about healthcare costs have one last chance to act—and that is to join Democrats in supporting our bill for a clean, three-year extension.

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