[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 124 (Monday, July 24, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4124-S4125]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, as soon as tomorrow, we could be voting 
on a motion to proceed to the Republican healthcare plan. What that 
plan is, I am not sure anybody really knows. My friend the majority 
whip, when reporters asked him if his own Members would know what they 
would be voting on, said: ``That's a luxury we don't have.''
  We have been on the topic of healthcare for 7 months. Republicans 
have been talking about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act 
for over 7 years. Yet here we are, 1 or 2 days from a vote on the 
motion to proceed, and we don't even know what the Republicans plan is 
to vote on. We are potentially 1 or 2 days away from a vote on a bill 
that would reorganize one-sixth of the American economy and impacts 
tens of millions of American lives, and no one knows what it is. It is 
sort of like ``Alice in Wonderland'' around here. It comes down to this 
bizarre game where the Republican leader has basically said: Let's spin 
a wheel and see what we are going to vote on. This is no way to treat a 
matter as serious as healthcare--so near and dear to the lives of so 
many Americans.
  I don't know how a single one of my Republican friends can in good 
conscience vote to proceed to a truncated debate on something as 
important as healthcare without knowing what bill they will ultimately 
be voting on. Isn't this the same party that shouted ``Read the bill, 
read the bill'' from the rafters when the Affordable Care Act was 
debated? It is completely bewildering.
  Maybe we will be voting on the Republican repeal-and-replace bill, 
which will cause costs to go up and care to go down, which will cause 
22 million Americans to lose their insurance, and which will so cruelly 
exchange healthcare for millions of working Americans for another tax 
break for the wealthy and the special interests. Maybe we will be 
voting on repeal without replace, which is even worse, which will cause 
our healthcare system to implode, creating chaos for 32 million 
Americans who would lose their insurance and chaos for millions more 
who would see their coverage diminish or their premiums rise. No one 
knows what we will be voting on. We know one thing: All the options are 
bad.
  There is no good way out of this. The truth is, the Republicans are 
completely stuck when it comes to healthcare. Every single version of 
their repeal-and-replace bill is rotten at the core. Repeal without 
replace is even worse. The American people don't want tax breaks for 
the wealthy or the slashing of Medicaid. They don't want to repeal all 
the progress we made in healthcare without any plan to put in its 
place.
  It is time to start over. It is time to go back to the drawing 
board--abandon tax cuts for the wealthy, abandon cuts to Medicaid, 
abandon repeal and run--and come together, both parties, around a set 
of nonideological proposals to improve our healthcare system. That is 
what we Democrats want to do.

[[Page S4125]]

  I have called several Republicans. Some in their leadership are 
saying: Leader Schumer doesn't want people to talk to each other and 
won't let that happen if the bill fails. Well, first, I couldn't 
prevent it if I wanted to, and second, I don't want to. I want us to 
sit down and come up with ways to improve ACA. No one said it is 
perfect.
  So if the bill fails tomorrow, we will start right away trying to 
work with our Republican colleagues to stabilize the marketplace and 
improve the cost and quality of healthcare. Whether they join us in 
that effort is entirely up to them.