[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 21, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S3677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Healthcare Legislation

  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, President Trump said last week that the 
healthcare bill passed by the House was ``mean,'' and then he said the 
Senate should make the bill more ``generous, kind [and] with heart.'' 
It sounds like the President is having second thoughts about this 
Republican bill.
  So now, Mr. President, you are waking up and noticing just how 
heartless this bill is; you know, the bill your Republican buddies in 
Congress slapped together in a back room; you know, the one you 
celebrated with a big press conference in the Rose Garden a few weeks 
ago; you know, the bill that you and House Republicans gave each other 
high fives over for taking away healthcare from millions of people, and 
now it sounds like you want a do-over.
  Too bad no one explained to the President that mean is just part of 
the deal the Republicans have struck. Mean is baked into every sentence 
of this bill. When you set out to trade health insurance of millions of 
American families for massive tax cuts for the wealthy, things get real 
mean fast.
  This mean bill does a lot of things, but some of the meanest things 
about it are how hard it will hit American women. To pay for the 
hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for this bill, Republicans 
chose to make one of their classic moves--a sort of old reliable for 
Republican men: attack women's healthcare.
  Let's run through just a few examples. Today, most people helped by 
Medicaid are women. The Republican bill cuts Medicaid by $834 billion. 
Republicans say millions of women who lose healthcare will do just 
fine.
  Today, plans on the individual market have to cover maternity care 
and treatment for postpartum depression. The Republican bill says: 
Forget it. Let the States drop those benefits. Women are the only ones 
using them anyway.
  Today, the law says you can't charge women more by labeling things 
like pregnancy as preexisting conditions. The Republican bill says: Who 
cares? Go for it.
  Today, women can choose healthcare providers they trust the most, but 
the Republicans want to eliminate that choice by cutting funding for 
Planned Parenthood. Republicans say women can do just fine without the 
care they need.
  Frankly, I am sick of many coming down to the Senate floor to explain 
to Republicans what Planned Parenthood does. I am sick of explaining 
that it provides millions of women with birth control, cancer 
screenings, and STI tests every year. I am sick of pointing out, again 
and again, that Federal dollars do not fund abortion services at 
Planned Parenthood or anywhere else. Women come to the floor, we 
explain, we cite facts, but Republicans would rather base healthcare 
policy on politics than on facts.
  Speaker Ryan called this mean bill pro-life, but this is just the 
biggest political play of all. Calling something pro-life will not keep 
women from dying in back-alley abortions. It will not help women pay 
for the cancer screenings that could save their lives. It will not help 
them take care of their families, have safe sex, or afford their 
medical bills. The pro-life label is the Republicans playing politics 
with women's lives.
  Let's be blunt. The Republican bill will make it more likely--not 
less likely--that women and their children will die. Women aren't 
fools. We can feel the difference. We can tell the difference between 
reality and lies, and that is why we are here today. That is why we are 
fighting back on the Senate floor today.
  Right now, 13 Senators--all men--are sitting in a room writing 
revisions to the secret Republican bill. These 13 men will not show us 
the bill and will not hold hearings on its contents. Just in case 
anyone missed the point, please note that all 13 of these men have 
already voted during their time in the Senate to reduce women's access 
to contraception and abortion. Republicans have told the press that 
Americans shouldn't worry about the fact that women are shut out 
because ``reduc[ing]'' the 13 men to their gender is a ``game . . . of 
identity politics.''
  This is not identity politics, and it is certainly not a game. This 
bill will affect every woman in this country, and we know what is going 
on behind closed doors: 13 men are trading away women's healthcare for 
tax cuts for the rich.
  American women deserve better than this mean Republican bill, and 
American women are here to fight back.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak 5 minutes 
before the vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.