[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 23 (Thursday, February 9, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S980-S981]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Steven Mnuchin

  Mr. President, I listened to Senator Hatch for many moments not so 
many moments ago, and I was pretty struck by his analysis of these two 
nominees who are about to come forward, Mr. Mnuchin and Congressman 
Price. I was struck by Senator Hatch's suggestions of their high ethics 
and honesty and ability to serve in these two exalted--he is right 
about that part--exalted Cabinet posts, the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services, Congressman Price, and the Secretary of Treasury, Mr. 
Mnuchin.
  What struck me is that I was sitting in the same committee room as 
our respected chairman, Senator Hatch, and I heard these two nominees 
lie to the committee--lie to the committee; not sort of a Trumpian lie, 
not kind of at the edges, misspeaking or confusing things, but outright 
lied.
  Mr. Mnuchin forgot that he had a $100 million investment, I believe 
somewhere in the Caribbean. I don't know if too many staff here or even 
too many of my fellow Members who are better off than most of the 
country financially--I don't know too many people who would forget they 
had a $100 million investment somewhere. He forgot to tell the 
committee that. That was pretty bad, but then he told the committee, in 
an answer to a question from me, that his bank, OneWest, where he was 
the CEO for a period of years, that they didn't do any robo-signings. 
Robo-signings are a way that his bank staff signed document after 
document after document, very quickly, without looking at those 
documents, and then ended up causing foreclosures in my State. Hundreds 
of people in my State lost their homes because of OneWest robo-
signings, and he told the committee that he didn't do robo-signings 
until later.
  The Columbus Dispatch, the most conservative newspaper in my State--a 
newspaper that almost never endorses a Democrat and a newspaper that 
has generally supported President Trump on most issues; sort of like 
when one bird flies off a telephone wire, they all do--and they talked 
about how Mr. Mnuchin lied to the Finance Committee.
  So Senator Hatch talks about their integrity and what great public 
servants they are, except they lied to his committee.
  My wife and I live in ZIP Code 44105, Cleveland, OH. That doesn't 
mean much to people listening, but my ZIP Code 10 years ago--my ZIP 
Code, in the first half of 2007, had more foreclosures than any ZIP 
Code in the United States of America. So I take that personally when 
somebody comes in front of me and in front of a U.S. Senate committee 
and in front of the American people and lies about something he did 
that turned hundreds, if not thousands, in Ohio--we still don't have 
enough information about it--turned their lives upside down.
  Imagine when you are foreclosed on--you probably can't if it hasn't 
happened to you. It hasn't happened to me, but I have heard people tell 
their stories. You go to your children and you say: We are going to 
have to move, honey. You are going to have to move school districts. I 
don't know where we are going to live. I don't know where your friends 
are going to be; you are going to be far from your friends. We have to 
move because our house has been foreclosed on. I was paying the 
mortgage, but this bank called OneWest did this to us.
  So that is No. 1.
  Then Congressman Price kind of didn't tell the committee the truth, 
either. You could say ``lie'' or you could use whatever term you want 
to use.
  ``Rep. Tom Price got a privileged offer to buy a biomedical stock at 
a discount, the company's official said, contrary to his congressional 
testimony.''
  This is sort of Wall Street Journal language for ``lie'' because he 
said this, and it said contrary to his testimony. In Cleveland, OH, or 
in Garfield Heights or in Cincinnati, we would say lie. They want to 
dress it up because they wouldn't want one of their people to be 
accused of something.
  Congressman Price--I am pretty amazed. I know President Trump, 
Candidate Trump talked about draining the swamp. Draining the swamp--he 
says that, but it really does look like the White House is an executive 
retreat for Goldman Sachs, a retreat for Goldman Sachs executives and 
the people he has hired in the White House.
  To hire two people who have these kinds of ethics--Congressman Price 
as a Member of Congress, a prominent Member of Congress in the House, 
as a Congressman working on health care issues, he bought and sold 
health care stocks profiting from it. In one case he got this special 
privileged offer that most people didn't get, and then he lied to the 
committee about it. That is bad enough, but look what he wants to be 
the Secretary of. He wants to be the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services. Why does that matter? Here is why it matters.
  He has these views on Medicare that are so out of step with the 
country. For instance, he said in July 30, 2009, ``Nothing has had a 
greater negative effect on the delivery of health care than the federal 
government's intrusion into medicine through Medicare.'' That sounds 
like the John Birch Society, 1965, when Medicare passed, overwhelmingly 
in the end because everybody saw how good it was, but they opposed it 
because it was socialism or some such term they used to describe 
Medicare.

[[Page S981]]

  I don't know too many people who actually receive Medicare--unless 
they are Members of Congress who really think that Medicare is 
socialism. Medicare has worked for--back in 1965--Senator Durbin 
doesn't remember this as a Member of the Senate, but he remembers this 
figure I am going to give. In 1965, when LBJ signed Medicare, 50 
percent of Americans 65 and older had no health insurance. Today that 
50 percent has shrunk to less than 1 percent of Americans that age 
don't have health insurance. Think about that progress and what this 
means.
  Congressman Price wants to be the head of Medicare. He wants to be 
the head of Medicaid. He wants to be the head of the agency that is 
going implement the Affordable Care Act if he can't repeal it. Think 
about this. He wants to privatize Medicare. He wants to voucherize it. 
He has voted consistently for Republican budgets in the House to do 
that.
  Do you know what else he wants to do that is particularly offensive 
to me? It is offensive because we sit here and we dress well and we 
have good titles and we get paid well and we have insurance funded by 
taxpayers. He wants to raise the eligibility age for Medicare.
  Look around my State. The Presiding Officer grew up not far from 
where I live in Cleveland, OH. He knows his adopted State way better, 
but he knows my State still, and he knows what this means. If you are a 
barber in Garfield Heights, you have to wait until 67, or even 70, 
according to Congressman Price, before you are eligible to draw 
Medicare. If you are a carpenter in Westlake, OH, you have to wait 
until you are 67 or 70 to draw Medicare. If you are working 
construction in Lima, OH, or if you are working a manufacturing plant 
in Mansfield, OH, if you are working retail in Cincinnati, OH, if you 
live in Zanesville and you wait tables in a diner, you are going to 
wait until you are 67 or 70 until you can draw Medicare.
  That is what Congressman Price wants to do. Not only are his ethics 
challenged--that should be reason enough he should step aside. Buying 
and selling stocks, health care stocks as a Member of Congress while 
you are voting and helping those companies, that is bad enough, but 
what he wants to do to maybe the greatest program in American history, 
Medicare, is much, much worse because that affects people in those 
towns I mentioned--in Garfield Heights, Westlake, Zanesville, 
Cincinnati, and Mansfield, all over.
  I hope I am healthy enough to continue working and continue serving 
in the Senate. The voters, obviously, would have to say that between 
now and then. I hope I can work until I am 67 or 70 in this job. I know 
a lot of people who work outside who are on their feet all day, who 
work with their arms and shoulders. They can't work until they are 67 
or 70. It is immoral for Members of this body to support a candidate, 
to support somebody or to vote for something like this that will raise 
the Medicare eligibility age.
  I will close with this. I was in Youngstown one day at a townhall. A 
woman stood up. She was clearly in her early sixties. It turns out I 
could calculate her age from what she said. She put her hand up, she 
stood up, and I called on her. There were about 200 people there. She 
said: I work two jobs. I don't make a lot of money. I am getting by 
with two jobs. Neither of my jobs has health insurance. She said: I am 
63. My goal in life--think about this. The pages, they are not thinking 
a lot about Medicare, but my colleagues think about this. She said: I 
am 63. My goal in life is to live 18 months more so I can get Medicare.
  Think about that. Her life is such that her goal in life isn't to get 
to know her grandchildren better or help her kids out or maybe take a 
trip to New York City or even Cleveland, her goal in life is to live 
long enough to have Medicare.
  I would like Congressman Price to meet her and Congressman Price to 
say: Well, lady, you know, your goal in life needs to be you can live 
3\1/2\ more years so you can be 67 or 70 to get this. Think about the 
morality of this.
  Congressman Price, I know him. I don't know him well. He is a nice 
enough guy. Voting for somebody who wants to raise the Medicare 
eligibility age, that to me is immoral. It shows how out of touch--I am 
guessing that most of my colleagues who will vote for Congressman Price 
have never sat down with somebody who would think it is a really bad 
idea, not to mention immoral, to raise the Medicare eligibility age.
  I plan to join a lot of my colleagues in voting no on Congressman 
Price. I think it is the wrong move for our country. I think it is the 
wrong move for particularly seniors in this country who depend on 
Medicare and on Medicaid, people of all ages. It is clearly the wrong 
move for our country.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.