[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 9, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4708-S4709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Madam President, on healthcare, today oral arguments begin in Texas 
v. United States, and the fate of our entire healthcare system hangs in 
the balance due to this nasty, cruel lawsuit led by President Trump's 
Department of Justice. If the courts ultimately strike down the law, 
the healthcare of tens of millions of Americans would be gone--gone. 
Prescription drug costs, high enough as they are, would go up even 
further. Protections for preexisting conditions that affect more than 
100 million Americans would be eliminated. A mother or father whose 
child had cancer would have to watch them suffer because the insurance 
company could cut them off and say: We are not paying for this anymore.
  We cannot tolerate that. Yet President Trump and his administration 
and 19 Republican attorneys general filed a suit that would do just 
that.
  The case reveals the depth of the hypocrisy and cruelty of the 
Republican position on healthcare. Senate Republicans, come campaign 
season, express unequivocal support for protections for preexisting 
conditions, but they have repeatedly blocked our attempts to have the 
Senate intervene in this lawsuit and fight back against the Trump 
administration's position, which threatens to eliminate these very same 
protections.
  I say to my Republican friends: You can't have it both ways. You 
can't say ``Oh, I want to protect people with preexisting conditions,'' 
and then prevent

[[Page S4709]]

us from doing something to actually protect them. Instead, they are 
going along, knees shaking, with President Trump's cruel lawsuit, and 
that is what every Republican in this Chamber--just about every 
Republican--has done.
  President Trump has himself issued--also totally hypocritical--a 
laundry list of quotes in support of protections for preexisting 
conditions. He talks all the time about bringing down prescription drug 
costs while his administration actively pursues this lawsuit, which 
would raise the cost of drugs and eliminate protections for preexisting 
conditions.
  How much hypocrisy can America tolerate? It is mind-bending. The 
hypocrisy is patently obvious. I don't care if you love President 
Trump. You should be calling him out for this hypocrisy, which will 
affect the vitality--God's most precious gift to us--the ability to 
live long and healthy and well. President Trump is trying to take it 
away, despite what he says to you, Trump supporters.
  Senate Democrats will head to the steps of the Capitol to highlight 
what this lawsuit could mean to average Americans. My Republican 
friends should take note. The American people are keenly aware of which 
party is trying to take away their healthcare. Even if it happens 
through the courts in this Trump-supported lawsuit, they will know that 
congressional Republicans, by their silence--their meek, supine 
acquiescence--are complicit in the unraveling of our healthcare system. 
I believe the American people will hold them accountable at the ballot 
box if they don't change.