[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 13, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H1951-H1952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BUDGET RECONCILIATION BILL

  (Mr. Courtney of Connecticut was recognized to address the House for 
5 minutes.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, for the last 5 months, across the 
country, people have been waiting with bated breath to see what this 
big, beautiful bill is that the Republicans have been working on behind 
closed doors, much of it down in Florida putting it together, 
particularly America's healthcare sector. It has been clear from the 
outset that the Medicaid program, the program which provides more 
coverage for more Americans than any other program, 72 million 
Americans, was a target in this budget reconciliation bill.
  Over the weekend, the measure had been released and we finally get to 
see what, in fact, it looks like. The chairman of the Energy and 
Commerce Committee, who is a good friend and a good guy, came right out 
and said that Democrats are going to use this as an opportunity to 
engage in fear-mongering and misrepresent our bill as an attack on 
Medicaid.
  Madam Speaker, it is not just Democrats and Republicans that have an 
opinion about what is happening here, it is about the people that the 
Medicaid cuts are going to impact, particularly our healthcare sector, 
particularly the hospital sector.
  This morning, Politico's headline shows what their reaction has been 
over the last 48 hours, which is ``Hospital groups slam cuts to 
Medicaid in megabill.''
  This is a sector that has many trade associations, the biggest one, 
the American Hospital Association, came right out and said that it will 
lead to millions of Americans losing access to healthcare and leaving 
many of our hospitals struggling to maintain services and stay open for 
their communities.
  The Catholic Health Association said, Congress has a moral obligation 
to consider the harm that this would have for America's most vulnerable 
communities, cascading effects of lost coverage and cost-shifting will 
impact nearly every American.
  Children's hospitals, who depend on Medicaid, can't cost-shift to 
older patients on Medicare. They have been blasting this proposal from 
day one and they have continued it.
  Essential hospitals, which are the safety net hospitals for this 
country, have also said that it is going to lead to closures of 
hospitals as well as the private-sector hospitals.
  The Federation of American Hospitals, Director Chip Kahn, came right 
out and said that it is imperative that congressional Republicans go 
back to the drawing board. Too many lives depend on it.
  The American Cancer Society, not a Democrat organization, said the 
results of these Medicaid cuts will be devastating. Lives will be lost 
and State economies will suffer.
  It is not too late for this Congress to finally engage in a 
bipartisan negotiation about ways that we can address the budget 
deficit and protect the most vulnerable people in our country, but 
unfortunately, part of this plan, this, megabill, is a tax cut, and 
this chart shows who benefits.
  This bar here, that is the rich folks in this country, the top 20 
percent; everybody else gets peanuts. That is what this cut is aimed at 
trying to offset, the impact, the fiscal impact, on the deficit that 
these tax cuts will produce over the next 10 years.
  The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget issued their report 
last night and they conclude that this plan is going to add $4 trillion 
to the national debt. That is even with the cuts that were part of the 
Medicaid plan, which I talked about a little bit more. We have a bill, 
which is going to cut services, basically put one of our most 
vulnerable sectors in our economy which we all rely on, our hospitals, 
at greater financial risk all for the benefit of the small slice of 
America's population and it is going to add to our national debt, which 
according to what the committee said is now $36.2 trillion.
  Last month, we paid $89 billion in interest on that national debt. 
That is the second biggest expenditure for the Federal Government. It 
is bigger than the Department of Defense last month in terms of what 
was paid, and that is what we are faced with.

[[Page H1952]]

  This is a gut check moment for this country in terms of where are 
your values? Where are your priorities? Are you going to listen to the 
caring professionals, the people who are the nurses and the people that 
take care of us in times of healthcare crisis? Are we going to listen 
to that top 1 percent who are clamoring to make sure that their tax 
cuts--the Bezoses, the Musks, the Gateses--they don't really need the 
help. The people who are working their butts off every day in hospital 
wards making sure that we are all healthy and safe and cared for, they 
are the ones that need the help.
  We need to reject these Medicaid cuts and reject this plan. Let's go 
back to the drawing board, as Mr. Kahn said from the Federation of 
American Hospitals, and do it the right way. Let's protect our values 
and protect our priorities, which all Americans depend on.

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