[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 17 (Wednesday, January 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S482-S485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Republican Tax Bill
Mr. President, finally, a word on the Republican tax bill.
Republicans promised that the massive corporate tax cut they passed
would unleash unprecedented economic growth, raise wages, and boost
jobs. We already have evidence that big corporations are not turning
their new tax cut into jobs for the middle class.
There was a lot of hoopla when AT&T said they would give bonuses. Do
you know what they did at the same time? They announced plans to fire
more than 1,000 workers, starting early this year, despite the tax cut.
Macy's announced that it would be cutting 5,000 jobs, despite the tax
bill. Kimberly-Clark plans to cut up to 5,500 jobs and close or sell
about 10 plants, saying the savings from the tax bill gave them
flexibility to make these reductions. Is President Trump going to claim
credit for that one? Carrier--a company the President promised to
save--continues to bleed jobs. They are a metaphor. A lot of nice
announcements, a lot of blitz and glitz, but actually the condition of
the American worker is getting no better and many times, worse.
Meanwhile, what are most companies doing--so many of them--with these
big tax breaks, these massive tax breaks they got? They are announcing
stock buybacks. That benefits the CEO. It raises their stock and
doesn't help anybody else. Mastercard, $4 billion; Bank of America, $5
billion; Pfizer, $10 billion; Wells Fargo, $22 billion; and many, many
more. One hundred billion dollars has been announced in stock buybacks
since the Senate passed its tax bill.
When the American people learn that some of them are not getting
anything, that some of them are getting raises and the rest are getting
crumbs and big corporations and wealthy individuals are getting nice,
fat pieces of pie, they are going to be outraged. They are already.
My friend the majority leader will not come to the floor and brag
about the stock buybacks. He will, however, announce when a company
gives a bonus to its workers. Let's hear both sides and let the
American people judge. The bonuses are a good thing, but the truth is,
these one-time bonuses are a drop in the bucket compared to what
corporations could be doing for their workers.
By the way, let me announce a few other things these corporations did
after they got the tax breaks. When Bank of America announced $5
billion in stock buybacks, it also announced that it started charging
low-income customers for free checking. When Pfizer announced its $10
billion buyback, it said it would no longer research for Alzheimer's or
Parkinson's, laying off 300 people. Wells Fargo announced $22 billion
in stock buybacks, helping its wealthy shareholders at the same time it
is closing 800 branches.
Here is a paragraph from yesterday's New York Times.
Bank of America's bonuses will cost the bank $145 million
in 2018, or about 5 percent of the nearly $2.7 billion in
savings it is expected to reap in 2018 from a lower, 21
percent corporate tax rate. Apple's bonuses will cost $300
million, a fraction of the $40 billion, at least, that the
tech giant is saving from a single provision in the law,
which allows it to return earnings held overseas at less than
half the rate it would have paid under the old system. And
two days before Walmart snagged glowing headlines for handing
out $400 million in bonuses and lifting its minimum wage at a
cost of $300 million, the nation's largest retailer by sales
unveiled a plan to buy back company-issued debt. . . . $4
billion.
Minimum wage, they pay out $300 million; stock buyback, $4 billion.
I am glad these workers are getting bonuses. They deserve them. But
it seems that recently, these bonuses are token efforts to give
corporate executives something to point to while they reap huge
benefits for themselves and their shareholders.
A CNBC survey found that ``cuts in corporate taxes haven't yet had a
meaningful impact on American companies' plans to boost investment or
raise workers' pay.'' That is CNBC.
Yes, we could have imagined tax reform that was deficit neutral, that
closed loopholes while lowering rates, that lowered corporate taxes but
actually stipulated that the money be put into wage increases and new
jobs instead of what many companies are doing now--one-time bonuses and
massive stock repurchasing programs. Many middle-class families have
waited so long for better wages and more jobs. A tax bill properly
constructed could have helped deliver that to them. Instead,
Republicans squandered their once-in-a-generation opportunity on an
extraordinary tax break for big corporations and the already wealthy,
and we are already seeing the consequences.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, almost a year ago, as Republicans were
jamming through the confirmation of Tom Price as Secretary of Health
and Human Services, I rose to object to his nomination. I voiced my
very deep concerns about whether Secretary Price would be committed to
protecting healthcare for our families, committed to putting evidence
and sound policy over partisanship and ideology, and whether he would
be committed to addressing the many ethical questions about his
investments Republicans allowed to go unanswered. Well, he was not.
Today, Secretary Price is infamous for two signature accomplishments:
first of all, undermining healthcare access for millions of people;
and, second, resigning in scandal and disgrace.
In the wake of Secretary Price's resignation, President Trump had
another opportunity to get this right. I believe families in Washington
State deserve a Health and Human Services Secretary who will finally
put patients ahead of politics.
Unfortunately, after meeting with Alex Azar, hearing his testimony,
and carefully reviewing his record and his qualifications, I do not
believe Mr. Azar is an acceptable choice to lead the Department, and I
will be voting against his confirmation.
[[Page S483]]
From President Trump's first day in office, he has been focused on
undermining healthcare coverage by putting up barriers to obtaining
care, shortening our enrollment period, expanding loopholes for
corporations, and making every effort to throw the entire system into
chaos. After a year of President Trump's healthcare sabotage, there
were over 3 million more people uninsured in our country. We need a
voice to stand up and defend the healthcare our families rely on.
I am alarmed by Mr. Azar's statements, including cheerleading
healthcare repeal efforts, predicting that the Affordable Care Act was
``circling the drain,'' even though enrollment stayed strong across the
country this year, and detailing specific steps to, as he said, hasten
the demise of patients' and families' healthcare.
While President Trump continues to call the opioid crisis a public
health emergency, he has yet to treat it like one. So far, his
administration has proposed cutting the budget for the Office of
National Drug Control Policy by 95 percent. It is focused on gutting
Medicaid, which provides critically needed substance use disorder
treatment, and they have failed to provide any new funding or resources
to support the communities that are fighting this crisis.
Local leaders in my home State of Washington and across the country
need a voice at the Department of Health and Human Services committed
to bringing more resources, not fewer, to address the opioid epidemic.
I am alarmed by Mr. Azar's refusal to support more funding for
communities that are hard hit by the opioid epidemic.
President Trump's Department has also shown a concerning pattern of
undermining evidence-based policies in favor of ideology. When it comes
to undermining evidence, political appointees at Health and Human
Services have asked their career staff not to use the terms ``evidence-
based'' and ``science-based'' because they view them as ``essentially
meaningless.''
When it comes to favoring ideology, not only has the Department taken
steps to restrict access to care for women and transgender patients,
leaders have also sought to effectively ban words like ``transgender''
and ``diversity'' and ``vulnerable'' among their Department employees--
ban the words, and they have not just cut important words, they have
gutted valuable, evidence-based programs like the Teen Pregnancy
Prevention Program.
This program has provided useful insight on what works to address
high teen pregnancy rates. It has been recognized by the bipartisan
Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking for its rigorous approach to
evaluation. Yet President Trump's administration chose to unilaterally
shorten that program's grants.
We need a voice there who will reject such damaging ideology
decisions and to champion evidence and science and sound policymaking.
I do not believe Mr. Azar is that champion--quite the opposite, in
fact.
I am alarmed Mr. Azar believes a woman's employer should be able to
decide, based on ideology, whether or not her birth control should be
covered. I am alarmed by his extreme and out-of-touch views on Roe v.
Wade, as shown by his support for legislation and political candidates
who would undermine the constitutional rights enshrined in this
important decision, and his use of ideological rhetoric in discussing
the rights guaranteed to women by that landmark case.
Unfortunately, Mr. Azar is the latest in a string of ideologically
driven healthcare appointees from President Trump. We cannot tolerate
one more nominee overseeing a woman's healthcare programs who is more
focused on undermining them than on advancing them.
Finally, I am alarmed by his track record at the pharmaceutical
company Eli Lilly. As a nominee, Mr. Azar has said we need to fight to
lower drug prices, but during his time as president of Lilly, that
company tripled the price of insulin, and Mr. Azar personally approved
significant price increases for dozens of the company's drugs.
As a nominee, Mr. Azar may try to assure us that he will fight for
patients and protect the health of our communities, but after looking
at his record, after reading his past statements, and after discussing
these issues with him, I am alarmed he might not stand up for women and
families, I am alarmed he might not stand up to the pharmaceutical
industry, and I am alarmed he might not stand up to President Trump's
agenda, driven by sabotage and ideology.
After months of Republicans putting politics ahead of funding
healthcare for children, and as Republicans continue to put politics
ahead of funding for community health centers like those in rural
Washington State and those across the country that help to serve
underserved communities, and as they continue to ignore other primary
care programs that bring medical professionals to populations in need
like teaching health centers in Spokane, we have to have strong
leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services that will
demand that we put public health first, not partisanship.
I urge my colleagues today to vote against this nomination.
I thank the Chair.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I come to the floor to voice my concerns
about the nomination of Alex Azar to lead the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services.
The American people deserve a Secretary of Health and Human Services
who actually believes in the agency's work and mission, which is to
help America's families, children, and seniors lead healthier and more
productive lives.
Nothing in Mr. Azar's record gives me any reason to believe he will
do anything other than advance the Trump administration's mission to
take healthcare coverage away from millions of Americans and leave
everyone else with higher costs.
Instead of working to help more families get the care they need, I
fear he will devote most of his time to imposing a harmful, rightwing
ideology on patients, on women, and on families.
Mr. Azar will continue the Trump administration's reckless assault on
the reproductive rights of women; he will support the far right's
relentless war on science- and evidence-based health policy; and he
will put the needs of powerful special interests ahead of patients and
families.
It is hard to believe the Trump administration has only been in
office a year because already it has broken so many of the promises the
American people were fed on the campaign trail. During his campaign,
President Trump promised he would replace the Affordable Care Act with
something truly great, something way better, but under President
Trump's watch, things have only gotten worse. Premiums are up,
deductibles are up, and for the first time since 2012, the number of
Americans with healthcare coverage has gone down.
Now, this is no accident. It is the result of the Trump
administration's relentless assault on the Affordable Care Act. That is
right. Thanks to this administration's deliberate efforts to sow chaos
in our health insurance markets, and subsidies that reduce sky-high
deductibles, and give consumers less time to shop for insurance, 3.5
million fewer Americans have coverage compared to 1 year ago. In my
State, the number of New Jerseyans enrolled in the marketplace dropped
by 5 percent.
Mr. Azar says the Affordable Care Act is ``circling [down] the
drain,'' when the reality is, Republicans have done their best to drown
it. The Trump administration has no plan to help the growing number of
Americans without coverage, and Mr. Azar has offered no solutions to
protect their health and financial security. In fact, he believes the
paltry tax credits Republicans propose in their Affordable Care Act
alternative to buy insurance are too generous--too generous. If I said
that to any one of my constituents, they would laugh in my face.
Nothing in Mr. Azar's record gives me any confidence that he will
change course. That is because, like former Secretary Tom Price, Mr.
Azar lives in an alternative universe, where health insurers will
suddenly put the well-being of patients ahead of their stock prices;
that if we just scrap the Affordable Care Act, the free market will
magically begin covering the sick, caring for families, and protecting
our seniors.
[[Page S484]]
Well, we know that is patently false. We already tried letting health
insurance companies run the show, and it didn't work because, in
America, healthcare doesn't ever go on sale. If it did, people would be
banging down doors like Best Buy on black Friday to schedule their
heart surgeries and cancer treatments.
Mr. Azar seems to forget that we need commonsense protections to
ensure Americans with preexisting conditions have access to coverage;
that before the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies
routinely denied coverage for cancer survivors and people with chronic
challenges like MS; that children with preexisting conditions like
asthma or heart murmurs were blacklisted by insurers for life; that
thousands of people were bankrupted by medical bills each and every
year, and women were charged higher premiums for the same exact
insurance policies as men.
Mr. Azar seems to forget that before programs like Medicare and
Medicaid, seniors who worked hard their entire lives languished without
care and lived in abject poverty. Do we really want to see seniors
backsliding into poverty in 2018?
Now, I know Mr. Azar is a very wealthy man--it almost seems to be a
prerequisite in order to serve in the Trump Cabinet--but I encourage
him to try to imagine what it is like to work a low-wage job that
doesn't provide healthcare benefits and what it is like for parents in
New Jersey to go to work every day knowing they are one illness or
injury away from ruining their family's financial future.
These men and women are among the 11 million Americans who depend on
the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, including well over half
a million in New Jersey alone. Yet Mr. Azar believes he has a mandate
to turn programs like Medicare into vouchers that shortchange seniors.
He supports turning Medicaid into a block program, which is a way of
ultimately dramatically cutting the program and a fancy way of saying
States should be allowed to block millions of people from getting the
care they need--no matter how much money they make, what ZIP Code they
come from, or what healthcare challenges they face.
The American people deserve a Secretary of Health and Human Services
who is prepared not only to defend these stalwart programs but is
committed to building on their success. After a year of higher costs,
less coverage, and empty promises by the Trump administration, the
American people want Congress to turn the page. We have the chance to
do that by rejecting Mr. Azar's nomination.
It is time we demanded the administration nominate a leader who is
truly devoted to helping all Americans get the care they need no matter
how much money they make, what Zip Codes they come from, or what
healthcare challenges they face.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I join my colleagues on the floor to
speak in opposition to the nomination of Alex Azar to head the
Department of Health and Human Services.
I believe Mr. Azar is, first and foremost, a product of the
pharmaceutical industry, with a long, consistent track record of
sharply increasing drug prices during his tenure at Lilly USA.
Furthermore, his nomination makes clear that President Trump did not
mean it when he said repeatedly during the campaign that pharmaceutical
companies are ``getting away with murder'' and that he as President
would dramatically reduce drug prices for seniors and all Americans.
Mr. Azar's nomination is yet one more example of the Trump
administration putting special interests above the public interest and
public safety.
Mr. Azar has long opposed any Federal intervention in prescription
drug pricing, things like allowing Medicare to negotiate for drug
prices. Of course, his former company has profited handsomely from the
government's hands-off approach. When Mr. Azar became the president of
Lilly USA, he also became the chair of its pricing committee and had a
major say in price increases for all domestically sold Lilly drugs from
2012 to 2014. During that time, the list and net prices of Lilly's
drugs that were sold in the United States increased by double-digit
percentages each year.
As cochair of the Senate's Diabetes Caucus, I am especially troubled
that during Mr. Azar's time with the company, Lilly more than tripled
the price of insulin--jacking up the price from $74 to $269. Much of
that increase occurred during Mr. Azar's years as chair of the pricing
committee. These price increases are not only exorbitant but have
caused real hardship to many of the nearly 30 million Americans who
live with diabetes. As Candidate Trump would have put it, Lilly, under
Mr. Azar's leadership, was ``getting away with murder.''
I am also concerned that Mr. Azar will continue and even ramp up the
Trump administration's across-the-board campaign to sabotage our
healthcare system. We are now 1 year into this administration's efforts
to undermine the Affordable Care Act. Regrettably, it is working. The
uninsured rate rose in 2017 by 1.3 percentage points. That was nearly
3.2 million more people who were without health insurance.
Already, the administration has eliminated those payments that allow
insurance companies to keep down premiums and reduce copays and
deductibles, and that has created further hardship on people who
desperately need health insurance. Without reason or justification, the
administration cut the open enrollment period by half. It slashed the
budget for open enrollment ads on TV, radio, and the internet by 90
percent, which shut down most efforts to inform consumers about their
enrollment options.
Despite these efforts, they were not successful in dramatically
reducing the number of people who tried to enroll in the Affordable
Care Act because enrollment for 2018 was 8.8 million people compared to
9.2 million the year before. It shows how desperately people want to
have health insurance. Of course, we know that since that enrollment
period, the Republican leaders in Congress have used the tax bill to
repeal the individual mandate. Meanwhile, in an interview, Mr. Azar
spoke of his desire to ``hasten [the Affordable Care Act's] demise.''
Apparently, he doesn't appreciate that the Affordable Care Act and
Medicaid expansion, in particular, have been absolutely critical tools
in the fight against the opioid epidemic.
I urge Mr. Azar and President Trump to read the front page story in
Sunday's New York Times. The story is about the devastating
consequences of the opioid epidemic in my State of New Hampshire. The
article is titled ``How a `Perfect Storm' in New Hampshire Has Fueled
an Opioid Crisis.'' It was accompanied by an even more compelling
article, titled ``1 Son, 4 Overdoses, 6 Hours,'' which profiles the
life of Patrick Griffin of Pembroke, NH. In shocking detail, the
article documents how Mr. Griffin, who has struggled for years with a
substance misuse disorder, overdosed four times within a 6-hour period.
Twice within those 6 hours, emergency medical responders came to his
house and revived him with Narcan, the antidote that reverses opioid
overdoses.
In reading that article, some people will ask: Why can't he just
control his substance use disorder? They don't understand this is a
disease, that it changes people's brain makeups--the chemistry of an
individual's brain. Just like heart disease or diabetes or any other
chronic illness, there is a physiology that is involved with that that
affects a person's ability to get better.
One of the things that saves people like Patrick when one is
overdosing is the drug Narcan, or naloxone, which is the official name.
It has been used so much in New Hampshire that most people refer to it
as Narcan. We have seen that the pharmaceutical industry has
dramatically increased the price of Narcan as this epidemic has spread.
The price of the drug that is needed by so many to save their lives
has increased dramatically. A two-dose package of Narcan, manufactured
by Evzio, cost $690 in 2014. It is $4,500 today. Generic doses of
Narcan have increased between 95 and 129 percent since 2012. Bear in
mind, it often takes multiple doses to revive people who have
overdosed, so this has an impact on our healthcare system. In New
Hampshire, it has had an impact on families, on municipalities, on
first responders--all of those people who are trying to save people who
have overdosed.
[[Page S485]]
As we all know, the opioid epidemic is a nationwide crisis, with some
63,000 Americans having been killed by drug overdoses in 2016. New
Hampshire has been especially hard hit. The demise of the Affordable
Care Act, which Mr. Azar says he wants, would mean that thousands of
Granite Staters would lose access to treatment, with there being
devastating consequences. That is true not just in New Hampshire but in
States across this country. I think it is unconscionable that a
Secretary of Health and Human Services would take away one of our most
valuable tools for combating substance use disorders and that he would
actively oppose access to healthcare for millions of Americans.
For me, between Mr. Azar's coziness with the pharmaceutical industry
and his disdain for the Affordable Care Act, which is the law of the
land and which Mr. Azar would be charged with administering as
Secretary, I think he is the wrong person to serve in the critically
important post of Secretary of Health and Human Services. I intend to
vote against his confirmation, and I hope my colleagues will do the
same.
I thank the Presiding Officer.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The President pro tempore.
(The remarks of Mr. Hatch and Mr. Alexander pertaining to the
introduction of S. 2334 are printed in today's Record under
``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')