[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 122 (Wednesday, July 19, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4063-S4064]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, according to the majority leader, there 
will not be a vote on the motion to proceed to the healthcare bill 
until next week. In the time between now and then, my Republican 
friends have a choice to make about how they want to move forward on 
what looks like will be a failed vote.
  Do they want to take the path of President Trump, who yesterday said 
that he wanted our healthcare system to fail, or do they want to work 
with Democrats on legislation to improve the law? It is that simple.
  We Democrats know the Affordable Care Act isn't perfect, and we 
propose specific legislation that could pass right now to stabilize 
marketplaces and lower premiums for Americans across the country. These 
proposals are specific, nonideological, and could pass quickly and make 
life better for millions of Americans. A decent number of Republican 
Governors and even Senators have said that these are the kinds of 
proposals we need.
  Here they are:
  First, we have proposed a bill by Senator Shaheen that would 
guarantee the premium reduction payments that insurers say is the No. 1 
thing we could do right now to stabilize the individual marketplace.
  Second, we have proposed a bill by Senators Carper and Kaine that 
would create a reinsurance program for the individual health insurance 
market, again, aimed at stabilizing the marketplaces.
  Third, we have proposed a bill by Senator McCaskill that would enable 
any American living in a bare county--that is, a bare county that lacks 
health insurers--to purchase the same insurance we get here in 
Congress.
  All three of these would stabilize the markets and help to prevent 
premiums from going up further and coverage from decreasing. They 
address the actual issues in our healthcare system. I have mentioned 
they are not ideological and exactly the kind of legislation we could 
work on together. If our intent is to make things better, this is 
something we can come together on--all three of these proposals. They 
address the actual issues that we have and should be something we can 
do together immediately.
  The Republican approach--decimating Medicaid to give a tax break to 
the wealthy--doesn't solve any of the problems Republicans claim to be 
so worried about: high premiums, high deductibles, bare counties. In 
fact, by most objective reports, it makes them worse. The CBO said that 
under each version of the Republican plan, premiums would go up on many 
Americans, deductibles and copays would go up, there would be even more 
bare counties than there are today, and tens of millions would lose 
insurance.
  Repealing the healthcare law without any replacement is even worse. 
It would cause our healthcare system to implode, creating chaos. 
Millions more would lose insurance, and for millions more than that 
coverage would be diminished, all of which is even worse than under the 
Republican bill.
  I hope my colleagues will join with us in working on these three 
nonideological, practical problem solvers that will reduce premiums and 
make healthcare better for many, many Americans. Again, many 
Republicans have spoken favorably of these ideas, and I hope we will go 
forward.
  The worry I have is that our Republican colleagues follow the 
policies of President Trump. President Trump's promise to let our 
healthcare system collapse is just mind-boggling. It is hard to believe 
he could say something like that.
  President Trump's promise to let our healthcare system collapse is 
so, so wrong on three counts: It is a failure morally, it is a failure 
politically, and it is a remarkable failure of Presidential leadership.
  First, the President's position is a moral failure. It is morally 
wrong to intentionally undermine the healthcare system in this country, 
using Americans as political pawns in a cynical game. It is morally 
wrong to play a political game with healthcare in this country. There 
is no religious teaching or moral precept that could advocate such a 
cynical ploy.
  The President didn't say that he wanted the system to change in a way 
to make it better. He said: I have lost, and I am going to make things 
worse for everyone to show you that I should have won. As I said, that 
is a moral failure that none of our religious leaders of any of the 
great religions would ever, ever accept, nor will the American people.
  Second, saying ``I am not going to own it'' will not work 
politically. The President is the President. He is in charge. Americans 
look to him for leadership. They know that Republicans control both 
branches of Congress and the White House. They know they are in charge.
  Earlier this year, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that two-thirds 
of Americans would blame President Trump and congressional Republicans 
for the future problems in our

[[Page S4064]]

healthcare system. Just as they blamed President Obama when he was in 
charge, they are going to blame President Trump while he is in charge. 
He is tweeting away that someone else is to blame when he is in charge, 
which will not work politically, particularly when it comes to 
something as near and dear to Americans as healthcare--God's great gift 
to us, life itself.
  It just will not work to say that Democrats are to blame. Believe me, 
we are not going to stand idly by and shrug our shoulders when American 
people are suffering because the President is sabotaging our healthcare 
system for political purposes. We are going to point it out, and the 
spotlight will be on those whom the American people in November put in 
charge.
  Elections do have consequences, and one of the consequences, Mr. 
President, one of the consequences, Mr. Trump, is that you are in 
charge. You have to make things better, not simply point fingers and 
tweet.
  Finally, the President's position is an astonishing failure of 
Presidential leadership. His own party has failed to pass a bill--his 
own party, which controls both Houses of Congress, his own party, which 
has used special rules designed to exclude Democrats from the 
beginning. President Trump blames Democrats and threatens to hold our 
Nation's healthcare system hostage out of pique--out of pique.
  The President was being petty; the President was being small; the 
President was not Presidential at all. The President would rather throw 
up his hands than roll up his sleeves and get to work. He would rather 
cast blame and point fingers than even try to work with Democrats to 
make the healthcare system better. That is not what Presidents do. It 
shows a tremendous lack of leadership. The American people want their 
President to lead. The American people, when there is a problem, want 
the President to fix it. The American people know that, when facing a 
defeatist President, you don't just sit in the corner and pout and get 
angry. You go on from there and try to make things better, as I hope my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle will do. Some of them have 
indicated they will.

  Let's recall another President--President Truman. President Truman 
famously said: ``The buck stops here.'' He was admired for it. This 
President's words, shirking responsibility and casting blame, were 
exactly the opposite of President Truman's. ``The buck stops here'' 
made President Truman look tall. President Trump's blame game makes him 
look small and diminished, and people will begin to totally realize his 
lack of leadership, and respect for him and the office will diminish.
  The President should rise to the incredible responsibility of the 
office, not quit and take the ball home every time the game isn't going 
the way he likes. The President of the United States, for better or for 
worse, is responsible for the healthcare of the country, for the 
healthcare of Americans who voted for him and for Americans who voted 
against him. He took an oath to faithfully execute the laws of this 
country, not just the ones he likes.
  There is no ducking responsibility as President. The buck stops with 
you, President Trump.
  So if the procedural votes fail next week, I sincerely hope that my 
Republican friends here in Congress reject the premise of the President 
to let our healthcare system collapse and hurt millions. Instead, I 
hope they work with us in the areas I mentioned and many others to do 
what is right for the American people.
  Mr. President, a brief word on the circuit court nominee on whom we 
will be voting for cloture soon. The nominee, Judge Bush, in my view, 
is not fit for the austere office of circuit court judge. He has made 
some extremely troubling comments about the rights of women and the 
rights of the LGBTQ community. He has employed anti-gay slurs in his 
speeches and writings. He has disparaged a woman's right to choose, 
drawing an offensive and false moral equivalency between choice and 
slavery. How can my Republican friends vote to elevate to the Sixth 
Circuit a man who has said things like this?
  He clearly lacks the temperament required of a circuit court judge, 
and I urge all of my colleagues to vote no on cloture and no on the 
nomination.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.