Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Trump Shutdown And The Urgent Need For Republicans To Address Looming Healthcare Crisis
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the ongoing Trump shutdown and urged Senate Republicans to work with Democrats to reopen the government and prevent devastating healthcare premium increases set to impact millions of Americans. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
On day fourteen of the Trump shutdown, I want to remind everybody why we're here in the first place. Democrats made it very clear, day in and day out, we want to open the government and have a serious negotiation to fix the healthcare premium crisis that is set to wallop the American people.
Nearly everyone agrees that looming ACA premium hikes is a devastating problem – the public knows it, we Democrats know it, the White House privately knows it, even many Republicans here in Congress know it. They admit it.
And yet, Republicans remain dug in and insist there is nothing to negotiate when it comes to healthcare. That they won't even sit down and talk to Democrats about it. That makes no sense. That's not the way we always get our CRs done.
The Republican Leader has now scheduled seven votes on the Republican partisan CR, and it has failed to secure enough votes to pass this chamber each time. That means, like it or not, the Republican Leader needs to work with Democrats in a bipartisan way to reopen the government – just like we did when we passed 13 CRs when I was Majority Leader.
Last week, we saw what happens when Republicans choose to work with Democrats in a serious way: we passed the NDAA with a strong bipartisan vote. We need the same enthusiasm from Republicans that we saw in NDAA here in the healthcare issue.
And of course, the biggest roadblock right now to reopening the government is the Speaker of the House. The Speaker has now kept Congress on vacation for three weeks. It’s just incredible.
Government workers must work without getting paid, but House Republicans get paid without working.
Speaker Johnson continues to insist that there is nothing to negotiate. But I want to make one point very clear: Republican Leaders can say all they want that there is nothing to negotiate, but if Republicans don’t change course, then very soon twenty million Americans are going to face financial catastrophe when their healthcare premiums go through the roof. And many more Americans will face it than 20 million, but 20 million are on the front lines here because of the ACA.
That is a reality Republicans can’t make disappear just by digging in. The ACA premium crisis is not a “fix it later” issue, but rather a “fix it now” issue, because open enrollment starts in less than a month and window shopping has already begun in several states where people have the awful choice: should I go without healthcare altogether with my family? What if my kid, my spouse, or myself get sick? Or should I cut back on almost everything else, because I need to pay huge increases in my healthcare insurance?
So, Republicans may think that they can dig in until the next ice age, but a fork in the road is coming their way whether they like it or not: either work with Democrats to fix ACA premiums, or sit by as twenty million Americans pay thousands of dollars more out of pocket.
If Republicans remain dug in, the American people will hold them responsible for rising healthcare costs. If Republicans do nothing, then they will be the ones responsible for triggering a massive healthcare panic that will be felt from coast to coast.
This is a nonnegotiable fact. Democrats want to avoid reaching that point. We want to work in a serious way with our Republican colleagues and with President Trump to diffuse this healthcare crisis before it starts.
But we are running out of time.
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