[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 49 (Tuesday, March 21, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1859-S1860]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               TRUMPCARE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the Republicans plan to repeal and 
replace the Affordable Care Act. Their bill is such a mess and is 
proving so deeply unpopular that Republicans are playing a game of hot 
potato with it. Speaker Ryan does not want to call it RyanCare. The 
administration does not want to call it TrumpCare. They are pointing at 
each other and hoping the other one takes responsibility and blame.
  President Trump, who has tried to put his name on nearly everything 
in his career--ties, steaks, water--does not want his name on this 
bill. Well, the President himself is here on the Hill today to sell the 
bill to House Republicans. Make no mistake, this is TrumpCare, the 
President's bill. Every American should know that if Republicans 
ultimately pass this bill, President Trump is behind it, and 
Republicans will have helped him every step of the way.
  So voters, particularly Trump supporters, who would be hurt most by 
this TrumpCare should remember that when your premiums start going up, 
President Trump did that. When your insurance does not cover all the 
things it used to, President Trump did that. If you are older and 
insurance companies are now charging you exorbitant premiums, several 
times what you used to pay, President Trump did that. When 24 million 
fewer Americans have health insurance while the wealthiest Americans 
get a huge tax break, you can be sure President Trump did that too.
  Even now, the changes House Republicans are making to buy off 
different factions of their caucus are making the bill more harsh. Some 
of these changes will further weaken Medicaid and result in even fewer 
Americans with healthcare coverage. Though Republicans claim they are 
fixing the bill's unfair tax on older Americans, they are not. The 
truth is, the Republican age tax is still in the bill. People in their 
fifties and sixties still stand to lose big time.
  The larger truth is, Republicans are not trying to make this bill 
better. They are just trying to make it pass with all their various 
factions pulling them in different directions. There is no better 
evidence of that than the new ``Senate slush fund,'' a $75 billion 
earmark the House is giving the Senate to buy off Republican Senators 
who don't want to vote for this bill.
  What happened to our fiscal conservative friends in the House--no 
unnecessary expenditures. A $75 billion slush fund. It doesn't even say 
what it does. Wow. Unbelievable. Many Republican Senators don't want to 
vote on the House bill because it is going to crush older Americans 
with a new age tax, but make no mistake about it, the Senate slush fund 
is not going to fix that problem at all.
  Here is the biggest problem. The consequences of TrumpCare are so bad 
for working Americans and older Americans that my friend the majority 
leader may rush it through the Chamber after we get it from the House. 
He has already said TrumpCare is going to bypass committees and go 
right to the floor. There is even talk that Republican Senators, under 
his leadership, are negotiating a substitute bill behind closed doors 
that would take its place and also go straight to the floor.
  That is not how we should do business here on something as important 
as healthcare. That is not just my view, that is the majority leader's 
view. Listen to what the distinguished majority leader--then-minority 
leader--said

[[Page S1860]]

about healthcare reform in 2009, when the Affordable Care Act was being 
debated. He said--these are Mitch McConnell's words:

       We shouldn't try to do it in the dark. And whatever final 
     bill is produced should be available to the American public 
     and to Members of the Senate for enough time to come to grips 
     with it. There should be and must be a CBO score.

  Let me repeat that. ``There should be and must be a CBO score.'' I 
would ask our leader, are we going to have one before he rushes this 
bill to the floor? I hope so. ``We are going to insist,'' he said, 
``that it be done in a transparent and fair and open way.''
  Well, the majority leader delights in pointing out instances when 
Democrats seemed to go back on something they said. So I certainly hope 
he follows his own advice from 2009 now that he is majority leader. We 
hope to see a published bill, with Senators given time to review, and a 
CBO score before anything moves forward--a fair, open, and transparent 
process, as he said.
  I know why he wants to move so quickly. The majority leader knows how 
bad the bill actually is. In fact, the consequences of TrumpCare are so 
bad that Republicans are talking about other phases of the plan, 
promising a second and third prong that will somehow make this bill 
better for American people down the road. They say to their colleagues: 
Well, this bill is bad, but we will change it in the second and third 
prongs.

  Well, that is a diversion. If Republicans can't live with this bill, 
they should shelve it because those other prongs are either not going 
to happen or will make it worse.
  I can speak with some authority on the third prong. It is going to 
require 60 votes. That is what will be needed for the Republican 
legislation to make more changes to our healthcare system--60 votes, 
which means at least 8 Democratic votes.
  I warn my Republican colleagues: Once you repeal ACA in this 
fashion--just ripping it out, having nothing good to put in its place--
our healthcare system is going to be too messed up to resuscitate it 
with piecemeal legislation down the road. Even my Republican friends, 
Senators on the other side of the aisle, said as much. My friend, the 
junior Senator from Texas, Senator Cruz, said: ``Anything placed in so-
called bucket three won't pass.'' You are right, Ted. If we want to 
pass real reforms, we have to do it now and on budget reconciliation. 
Senator Cruz is right again.
  My friend, the junior Senator from Arkansas, Senator Cotton, freely 
admits that ``there is no three-phase process. There is no three-phase 
plan. That is just political talk. It's just politicians engaging in 
spin.'' Senator Cotton, I couldn't have said it better myself.
  All Republicans in the House and Senate should hear this: Democrats 
will not help Republicans repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act--
in one phase, two phases, or three phases. This TrumpCare bill would 
cause such immense damage to our country, its citizens, average working 
families who are going to be paying more and getting less, we are not 
going to be complicit. But we will work with our Republican colleagues 
to improve the existing law.
  If the President and the majority leader say ``All right, we are not 
going to repeal; let's work on some changes,'' we will do it with them. 
Of course we will listen. But they have to drop repeal first.
  Again, I urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to drop their 
repeal efforts, drop TrumpCare--non-negotiated, not a drop of 
bipartisanship in it--and come negotiate with Democrats on improvements 
to the Affordable Care Act. Turn back before it is too late--too late 
for the American people who will be hurt and too late for all of you 
who will also be hurt as you try to defend TrumpCare in the next few 
years.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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