[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 116 (Tuesday, July 11, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3895-S3896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Healthcare Legislation

  Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, the majority leader 
said today that we are going to stay in an extra 2 weeks during the 
August break. We Democrats are willing to stay 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 
years to get a good healthcare bill, but in all due respect to my good 
friend, the majority leader from Kentucky, it is not time that is the 
problem here. Our Republican colleagues for 7 years said: Repeal 
ObamaCare. But they had nothing to put in its place. Then President 
Trump was elected with a Republican majority in the House and the 
Senate. Since January 4, when they deliberately excluded us from all 
discussions by enacting a reconciliation bill, they have been trying to 
put together a healthcare bill. They cannot. It is not because of a 
lack of time. Two weeks is not going to help. The problem is the 
substance of the bill.
  The bill provides massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and, just as bad, 
if not worse, it puts a dagger in the heart of the Medicaid Program, 
which has become a program that affects so many Americans. With kids--
poor kids--is where it started, but now it affects people who have Mom 
and Dad in a nursing home and who might face thousands of dollars of 
expenses, those on opioid treatment, those who have kids with 
disabilities, and many, many, many with preexisting conditions. Those 
are all helped by Medicaid, and our Republican colleagues here want to 
slash it.
  Just like my colleague from Florida, I was in some very conservative 
parts in New York State, places that voted for Trump by over 60 
percent. The revulsion--``revulsion'' is the word--and the fear that 
this healthcare bill has put in the hearts of those folks in Republican 
areas are dramatic.
  So I would say to my good friend the leader that we are willing to 
stay as

[[Page S3896]]

long as he wants, but he is not going to solve his problem until he 
abandons tax cuts on the rich, abandons the decimation of Medicaid, and 
works with us to improve the existing law. His problem and our 
Republican colleagues' problem is not time. It is the substance of the 
bill.
  I will say one more thing. If I were a Republican, I would not want 
to go home either. Every time they go home, they are lambasted because 
the American people have such a negative feeling about the bill. So, of 
course, they would want to stay here, but that is not the answer. The 
answer is to change the bill. Work with us. We have been begging, 
pleading, asking, cajoling for a month or two, when it was clear their 
bill was going to fail. I would say that is very important.
  Mr. President, I heard the majority leader complain about the slow 
pace of nominations.
  Our Republican friends, when they are worried about the slow pace of 
nominations, ought to look in the mirror. This President has nominated 
fewer nominees than has anyone else, and seven of the major nominees 
had to withdraw their nominations. Many of them were brought here to 
the Senate without the necessary documentation--the paperwork, the 
ethics reports, the FBI reports. The chaos in the White House is now 
spreading to the Republican Senate. Our President seems to blame 
somebody else when his administration makes a mess. Let's not do that 
here.
  Again, the number of nominees that this President has submitted is 
lower than that of any President's in recent memory. My colleague 
complained about this nominee from Idaho. He was outraged that he had 
to file cloture. I would remind the majority leader that this district 
judge was nominated by President Obama in the last Congress and that he 
was the majority leader in the last Congress, which was responsible for 
putting nominees on the Senate calendar. The district court judge is 
only one of many nominees who the Republicans failed to move in the 
last Congress--a Congress which confirmed the fewest number of judges 
of any Congress since the Eisenhower administration. That goes to show 
how desperate our Republican leadership is to shift blame and attention 
away from its healthcare bill to hypocritical and preposterous 
complaints on nominations. It is in order to distract from the 
healthcare bill. They can try other tactics.
  On one more point, I would remind my colleagues that it is the 
majority leader who has the power to put nominees on the floor. In the 
Department of Defense, we have been asked about three nominees. Leader 
McConnell has the power to put them on the floor--instead of this judge 
from Idaho, instead of the nominee for OMB, and instead of the 
Ambassador to Japan--tomorrow, if he chose. It is his choice. If he 
puts them on the floor--these Defense nominees--in regular order next 
week, they will be approved.
  So, again, to deflect from healthcare and the mess our poor 
Republican colleagues are in, to point falsely at the nomination 
process, which has been slow-walked by President Trump and many of the 
committees, is not going to succeed.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.