[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 165 (Tuesday, October 7, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6990-S6992]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GOVERNMENT FUNDING
Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, we are now approaching day seven of the
government shutdown. The Republicans control the House. They control
the Senate. They control the White House. They run the government, and
they have the responsibility to keep the government open.
And in that light, it might be a good idea and a radical idea, but in
the midst of the crises that we are facing, it really might be nice for
Speaker Johnson to actually bring House Members back to Washington
after their 18-day vacation.
The American people are nervous about this shutdown. Federal
employees are deeply disturbed. People are frightened. Republicans in
the House should return to work.
As we all know, Senate rules require a 60-vote majority in order to
pass a budget--60 votes. And that means that passing a budget requires
bipartisan support. That is why, decades ago, the rules were
established. It is very rare that one party has more than 60 votes.
So if you need 60 votes, it means that you have to compromise; you
have to negotiate.
When Democrats were in power, they had to work with Republicans to
get the 60 votes. When Republicans, in the past, were in power, they
had to work with Democrats to get the 60 votes. That is the way it
worked.
But not now. This time around, the Republicans have refused to
negotiate. Basically, what they are saying is it is their way or the
highway, take it or leave it. So within that context of Republicans
refusing to negotiate, what is the shutdown about? What are the major
issues that separate the parties?
Well, it is not complicated. As everybody in America knows, our
healthcare system today is broken; it is dysfunctional; it is cruel. We
are the wealthiest country in the history of the world, but we are the
only major country not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a human
right.
And, in fact, our healthcare outcomes are worse, in most cases, than
other major countries. It is a broken system.
Today, in the richest country on Earth, 85 million Americans are
uninsured or underinsured, and that results in some 60,000 Americans
dying every single year, unnecessarily, because they can't afford to go
to a doctor.
We pay the highest prices in the world for healthcare. It is
unbelievable and unsustainable. We are now spending over $14,000 for
every man, woman, and child. When you throw in Medicare, Medicaid,
employer-covered healthcare, individual costs--over $14,000. That is
insane, almost twice as much as other countries around the world.
We pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription
drugs. One out of four Americans can't afford to go and fill the
prescription their doctors write. In America today, in our great
country, we don't have enough doctors. People all over America--Vermont
and all over America--have to wait months to get in to see a
specialist. We don't have enough nurses--massive nursing shortage. We
don't have enough dentists. We don't have enough mental health
counselors. And our life expectancy--how long we live--is substantially
lower than other major countries, despite the fact that we spend so
much more.
Now, given that reality, given that our healthcare system is broken,
one might think that the issue we are debating today is, How do we
improve it? How do we make sure that in America we appreciate
healthcare as a human right? Which it is. How do we guarantee
healthcare to every man, woman, and child in a cost-effective way?
In my view, that is moving toward a Medicare for All, single-payer
system. If other people got ideas, bring them forward. Healthcare is a
human right.
But that is not the debate we are having now. The debate we are
having now is not how we improve a broken healthcare system but how we
prevent a broken healthcare system from becoming even worse. And I will
tell you, as the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions Committee, somebody who has studied this issue for a while, I
feel very much that if we do not stop Trump's attack on the American
healthcare system, the entire system could collapse.
We are on the verge of that right now. People can't afford
healthcare. People can't find doctors. People can't find mental health
counselors. People can't afford prescription drugs. We have a drug
epidemic. We are on the verge of collapse.
What this debate is about in Florida, in Vermont, and all over this
country is, if the Republicans get their way and if Democrats cave in,
health insurance premiums will double for over 20 million people on the
Affordable Care Act. Yes, you heard right--20 million people will see a
doubling of their healthcare premiums. You can't afford healthcare now?
Of course, you can't. It is outrageously high.
That is not Bernie Sanders talking. That is the Kaiser Family
Foundation study. That is one of the most conservative Members,
Republican Members, of the House, Marjorie Taylor Greene, making that
point. A doubling of health insurance premiums.
Does any Member of the U.S. Senate want to go home to their district
and explain why you are going to double premiums?
It is not just raising the outrageous cost of healthcare in America
even higher, as a result of Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, 15 million
Americans are going to be thrown off of the healthcare they have
because Trump and the Republicans made the largest cuts to Medicaid and
the Affordable Care Act in American history.
Let us be very clear. These cuts not only impact 15 million
Americans--that would be a tragedy unto itself--they will devastate
nursing homes.
Right now, the situation on nursing homes in Vermont and I expect
many other States in this country is a disaster. They are understaffed.
Nursing homes, in an aging society, are shutting down. Where will
people who are old and can't take care of themselves, who are
disabled--what happens to them if the nursing home industry collapses
in America?
Community health centers are something that I have worked on for many
years to increase funding. Over 32 million people access community
health centers. They provide primary health care, dental care, mental
health counseling, lower cost prescription drugs. They will suffer
enormously, cut back on services, and perhaps shut down because of that
legislation if we do not deal with that.
Rural hospitals. Republicans say: Oh, we put $50 billion into rural
hospitals.
Yes, but you cut $150 billion. All over this country, rural hospitals
are teetering on the edge. Many of them have already closed down over
the years. So if you live in rural America--the State of Vermont--and
you want a hospital nearby? Well, that hospital may not be there.
Now, why did Trump and the Republicans make these massive cuts to
Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act? The answer is not complicated. It
was important for them to provide $1 trillion to the top 1 percent--$1
trillion. Massive cuts to healthcare; $1 trillion in tax breaks to the
1 percent.
[[Page S6991]]
Let me make the very radical suggestion that Elon Musk, who is now
worth some $500 billion, does not need another tax break. Today, we
have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the
history of America. Musk himself owns more wealth than the bottom 52
percent of American households. The top 1 percent owns more wealth than
the bottom 93 percent. Never before have we seen such income and wealth
disparity.
Republicans said ``We are going to massively cut Medicaid, ACA'' in
order to give tax breaks to the richest people in America.
But the issue that we are debating is not just healthcare, as
enormously important as that is; what we are talking about is whether
we are going to allow our country to move toward an authoritarian
society run by a President who is a megalomaniac, who wants more and
more power in his own hands, who does not respect the rule of law or
the Constitution of the United States of America.
It is not acceptable to me that our President is putting Federal
troops on city streets throughout America without a request from a
Governor or a mayor, trying to create provocations, trying to create
disturbances so he can use military force against the American people.
We cannot allow masked ICE agents to snatch people off of our streets
without due process.
We cannot continue to allow President Trump to undermine the
Constitution and the rule of law by refusing to spend money
appropriated by Congress. Unbelievable.
The President says: Well, money was appropriated to States that
committed a terrible crime.
Do you know what their crime was? They voted against Donald Trump.
And in this world right now, I guess if a State votes against Trump,
maybe they are not going to get the Federal money that was
appropriated, whether it is Vermont, New York, New Jersey, or other
States.
Is that really what the United States of America is about? A
President says: You voted against me. You are not going to get your tax
dollars back in Federal investments.
According to every poll that I have seen, the American people by huge
numbers do not want to see a doubling of their healthcare premiums.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 78 percent of Americans,
including 59 percent of Republicans, want to extend the Affordable Care
Act tax credits, and the polling numbers are equally high or almost as
high on making sure that people are not thrown off of Medicaid.
Tony Fabrizio, who is President Trump's own pollster--not just a
general pollster; he is the pollster for the President. This is what he
said:
By broad bipartisan margins, voters want to see the [ACA]
tax credits extended rather than expire at the end of the
year, whether in the context of premiums doubling or 5
million families losing their health insurance. This includes
solid majorities of Trump voters and swing voters.
That is the Republican pollster.
Right now in the House, to the best of my knowledge, there are at
least 14 Republicans in a very tightly controlled caucus who want to
see the ACA tax credits extended. Here in the Senate, there is at least
one Republican Senator who understands that in his State, his people
cannot afford a doubling of premiums. My strong feeling is that there
are many, many other Republicans who are not excited about going home
and explaining to their constituents why their premiums are doubling.
As the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Committee, I asked people across the country in the last few days what
these healthcare cuts that the Republicans are pushing would mean for
them. We just sent out emails, and we have gotten many, many, many
hundreds of responses.
We asked them: What would a doubling of healthcare premiums mean to
your life and your family? What would it mean if you were one of the 15
million Americans thrown off of healthcare through cuts in Medicaid?
What would it mean to you if the rural hospital near you shut down
because of these Medicaid cuts?
In less than a week, we received responses--many hundreds--from 42
States and the District of Columbia. Today, we are releasing a report
that describes the devastating human impact of the Republican budget
and its massive cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Here is
just some of what we found:
People are afraid that they could get sicker or even die.
Laura--won't give her last name--from Wisconsin said:
I live in fear of whether or not I will be able to afford
my life saving treatment. I have a rare kidney disease that
requires immunotherapy every 9 months. I'm terrified I'll
die.
We got a lot of those--people who are dealing with very serious
illnesses who, in fact, will die. They will die if they cannot afford
health insurance, and they will not be able to afford health insurance
if their premiums double or if they are thrown off of Medicaid.
But it is not just the fear that people will die or get sicker
because they lack healthcare; all over this country, working-class
Americans will not be able to afford the food they need, pay their rent
or their mortgage or their healthcare.
Brittanie from Utah writes:
I'm already living paycheck to paycheck. I have insurance
for myself and my two sons. Just bought a house that we can
barely afford.
So she is hanging on the edge. If she has to pay more for healthcare,
maybe she loses her house.
Sebastian from Colorado writes:
I don't make enough to afford rent and food and health
insurance. Only 2 of those things do I need to survive. These
cuts make it even more impossible to turn things around and
get a handle on health issues.
In other words, 60 percent of our people are living paycheck to
paycheck. Today, they can't afford housing. Today, they can't afford
childcare. Today, they can't afford good-quality food for their kids.
Today, they can't afford to send their kids to college. Double
healthcare premiums, and these families are going to be in disastrous
shape.
Cara from Vermont said that she ``was shocked by warning about the
loss of the advanced federal subsidy. Rather than a premium of $100 [a]
month, I could be paying more than $1,200 [a] month or 35 percent of my
income, and that's before deductibles and copays.''
By the way, when we talk about a doubling of health insurance
premiums, that is on average. Some people will pay less; some people
will pay a lot more.
Small business owners are concerned they will have to shut down.
Joe from Pennsylvania writes:
I am a small business owner and if my health care costs
continue to rise, I will be forced to close my business and
look for a job, if I can find one.
Patricia from rural California writes:
If our local clinics and hospitals close, as they are
likely to do with federal funding disappearing along with
health insurance becoming unaffordable, people will die.
She is right.
On average, healthcare premiums will double, but here is what happens
when it is not average. If you are living in Virginia, your premiums
could go up from less than $650 a month today to nearly $2,200 a month
next year--$650 to $2,200. That is not a doubling, it is almost a
quadrupling of what you are paying. If you live in Idaho, your premiums
could go up from $283 a month to $407 a month. If you live in the State
of Georgia, your family could see their premiums go up from $940 a
month today to over $4,000 a month.
At a time when people today cannot afford healthcare, the idea of
doubling, tripling healthcare premiums is insane. It is unacceptable.
No Member of the U.S. Senate should support that.
So, no, I am not going to go back to Vermont and tell the people
there that I have thrown 15 million Americans off the healthcare that
they have at a time when studies indicate that would mean that tens and
tens of thousands of people will die as a result. I am not going to do
that.
And I am not going to vote for a healthcare situation which doubles
premiums for 20 million Americans.
So we are where we are right now. And the time is now when the U.S.
Congress has got to look beyond their campaign contributors, has got to
look beyond the oligarchs that fund their campaigns, and has got to
begin standing up for ordinary Americans.
[[Page S6992]]
Our job is to improve a broken healthcare system and guarantee
healthcare to all. Our job is not to throw 15 million people off
healthcare and double premiums for more than 20 million, to shutter
nursing homes, community health centers, and rural hospitals. The
choice is clear. Let us stand with the American people.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
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