TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer And Senate Democrats Condemn Republicans’ Vote To Block ACA Tax Credits Extension And Sound The Alarm On Impending Premium Increases

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today slammed Republicans for failing to join Democrats’ efforts to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits and sounded the alarm on looming price spikes for millions of American families. Below is a transcript of the Leaders Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Leader Schumer: Unfortunately, our Republican colleagues refused to do what they should have done. I want everyone here to understand just what happened on the Senate floor. Senate Republicans just shoved the American people off the side of a cliff with no parachute and with an anchor tied to their feet. Republicans just blocked the Democrats' bill for a clean, simple extension of the ACA tax credits, the last chance they had to ensure people's premiums do not skyrocket in the coming months. Democrats did the work, but now Republicans chose the consequences. Now Republicans have all but guaranteed that tens of millions of people will see their premiums double or triple or more next year. Republicans now own America's health care crisis. Democrats tried all year to stop this health care crisis. We put real legislation on the floor to ensure these tax credits do not expire. And Republicans blocked it not once, not twice, but thirteen times throughout the year. Thirteen times they voted against our extensions of the ACA credits. Thirteen times. We tried over and over again. Then we tried one year. We tried two years. We tried three years. We tried everything. They kept saying no.

And of course, Republicans had every opportunity to negotiate, to join us, or for a serious plan to prevent premiums from rising after January 1st. Instead, today Republicans voted down the only plan that would have stopped the premium spikes while having no plan of their own. Until a few days ago, they had no plan at all to put on the floor. They were so embarrassed they had no plan, they put a little bubble gum and scotch tape together and put together a ridiculous, phony plan that simply helps the insurance companies. It was a right-wing wish list—more junk insurance, fewer protections, restrictions on women's health care. Their junk insurance plan, it's called a junk insurance plan, has been ridiculed over and over and over again. And it couldn't even pass the Republican Senate. Our vote had a majority and was bipartisan. And theirs was not. After today's vote, the American health care crisis is now 100 percent on Republican shoulders. On January 1st, premiums are going to go up. All of us have had people crying in front of us, in our arms, saying, what are they going to do when they've cut off the money that pays for my daughter's cancer treatment? What am I going to do? They've told me that my dad or mom is going to be kicked out of their nursing home, which is going to close. What am I going to do when I have to change doctors who I've worked with for years on curing a disease that my spouse has?

Well, coverage got a lot harder to afford and families are facing a lot of impossible, horrible choices. And Republicans owned every bit of it because of the way they voted today. Shameful. Shame on them. They all seem to, so many of them seem to be in a bubble. You know, we know Trump's in a bubble when he calls affordability a hoax and he says he doesn't want to do anything to help people with health care. They're in a bubble too. The suffering of people is going to be enormous and heart-wrenching. How can Republicans look themselves in the mirror knowing they have to go back home and tell people over the holidays, I voted to send your premiums up, Republicans are going to say. Are they going to tell their constituents they voted to double their monthly premiums? Are they going to tell their constituents they voted to kick you off insurance? Are they going to tell their constituents I voted to get you sick and go broke? Because that's what Republicans did by blocking a clean extension of the tax credits. When families open their health insurance bills in January and see the sky-high premiums staring back at them, they will know. The American people will know that Democrats fought to stop these hikes, but Republicans fought to guarantee that they happen. Republicans blocked the solution. They blocked the backup solution. They blocked any negotiations, no matter how hard we tried. And now the next chapter begins. Republicans will have to answer to the American people, explain to the country, why they chose higher health care costs over real solutions.

Republicans must answer for why people will lose coverage. Republicans must answer why families see premiums double and triple over the next year. Democrats' focus does not change. We fought like hell to stop these hikes, and we're going to continue to fight like hell to bring costs down for the American people on health care, on housing, on electric rates, on groceries. But Republicans are fighting like hell to send those costs right through the roof. They're fighting like hell to kick people off insurance. They're fighting like hell to cut taxes and give sweet giveaways to billionaires and the ultra-rich. January 1st is coming. Republicans are responsible for what happens next. This is their crisis now, and they're going to have to answer for it.

Q & A

Reporter: Leader Thune says you're making this a political issue. These votes on the floor make it clear that a clean extension does not have a path forward. Neither do just reforms without an extension. So are you open to both?

Leader Schumer: Leader Thune ought to start talking to the American people. When your health care premiums double, when you can't afford medicine, when you have to switch doctors who's been on your case for so many years, that ain't political, John Thune. That's humane, and that's democracy, doing what the people want. Yes, yes, next.

Reporter: The health care debate was at the center of the government shutdown. The government was shut down over this issue. Do you have any regrets about how you handled this issue, given that you knew likely this kind of vote was going to go?

Schumer: The bottom line is nobody wants a shutdown. And when the Republicans wouldn't talk to us, it was their shutdown, and the people see it. But we are going to continue one thing that happened. The health care issue became front and center. The American people saw who was on their side and who isn't. And we are going to keep fighting as a unified caucus to get better health care for the American people, as Reverend Warnock said, plain and simple. Yes, next question.

Reporter: So, why don’t you see if Republicans will come on board?

Schumer: Look, the Republicans voted against this 13 times. The onus is on them. Yes.

Reporter: Leader Schumer, when I talk to the Republicans, they keep coming back to saying, well, this is representative of Obamacare failing. What do you say about that, saying that they're just trying to extend this, trying to get away a failed program?

Schumer: You know, they're in their own political bubble. They're so ideologically wrapped around this axle. Go talk to the people. 55% of Trump voters want us to extend the ACA. The American people want this. In red states, in blue states, in purple states, North, East, South, West, it's universal. Look at the election results. Look at the election results from one end of the country to the other. The Republicans try to call it political because they don't have an answer. They're busy fighting with each other. They got 15 different plans, none of which can get close to a majority of support in their caucus. Yes.

Reporter: Republicans have cited the fraud, and they point to this Government Accountability Office report that came out recently, in which they have submitted a bunch of the applications for the ACA subsidies, and 90% of those were approved. Why do you guys not want to address the fraud as part of a compromise that is a potential path to doing it?

Schumer: They have not. There is no compromise when both Leader Thune and Leader Johnson say they're totally against extending the ACA credits, which is going to come crashing down on people in 20 days, and they say they are not for it at all. Okay? That's the bottom line here. Yes.

Reporter: Leader Schumer, a number of Senate Democrats have said today that it’s hard right now given the noise around the issue but that they are hopeful in the new year that there’s an opportunity to come together and have a bipartisan conversation on health care. What opportunities -

Schumer: Well, look, first of all, you know, the toothpaste is out of the tube. Once January 1st comes and everyone is locked into their insurance proposals, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. They want to talk about health care in general and how to improve it. We're always open to that. But we do not want what they want, favoring the insurance companies, favoring the drug companies, favoring the special interests, and turning their back on the American people. Okay? We'll take the last one.

Reporter: In the House, there is an effort for a discharge petition, and that is getting Republican interest on the House side for a one-year extension. There's a couple different options. The timing on that is a little tricky, but in theory, if the House manages to bring up a one-year extension, would you want the Senate to come back?

Schumer: Let's see what the—I'm not going to prejudge what the House does. Let's see if they can pass anything. Right now, Johnson has said he's against any extension of ACA for three years, two years, one year, 12 months, 10 months, eight months, one week, one day. He's not for any of it.

Senator Klobuchar: Senator Schumer's office has been open. I know I walk in there. The door is open for them all this year. Over and over. We proposed a one-year plan and they turned it down, we had them vote on it. So, this idea that they suddenly in the last minute – more power to them. But if they're going to come forward, then they need to get unified come forward. This is not that.

Senator Warnock: The discharge petition and the fact that we got a bipartisan vote here today shows you that they're on the wrong side of the issue. That the American people, their own constituents, are with us. And we're not asking them to stand with us. We're asking Republicans to stand up for their own constituent’s.

Schumer: This is such a crisis, and they're busy playing games. And you can see where the votes are in the country and even here in the Senate. We're getting some bipartisan support for our proposal. But the leadership of the Republican Party and Donald Trump are against any extension of ACA credits. And after January 1st, as I said, the toothpaste is out of the tube.

Klobuchar: They care more about pissing off Donald Trump than they do their own constituents.

Reporter: Have you guys talked to the President? Have you called Donald Trump?

Klobuchar: He has called Donald Trump in the past.

Schumer: Yes, I have. And when we talked to him, he said, I need a whole new ACA.

Reporter: When was that?

Schumer: At our meeting. At our meeting.

Reporter: Being clear, this wasn't a separate phone call, Leader Schumer?

Schumer: I am talking about when Hakeem and I met with him.

Reporter: In September?

Schumer: Yes. And since then, all his public statements have said he is not for extending the ACA credits. Once he began to say it, and then he retracted the next day.

Klobuchar: And instead of spending this week working on this or last week, he's going off saying that affordability is a hoax. This is not a president that's coming to try to find any kind of a compromise or work with us on this. And the American people see right through it.

Reporter: So, do they have to wait a year until something happens?

Klobuchar: Ask the Republicans. Ask the Republicans.

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