[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 205 (Monday, December 8, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8522-S8527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2026--Motion to Proceed
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader is recognized.
Farmers
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today, Donald Trump is announcing a $12
billion bailout for farmers who have been punished by his trade war and
his tariffs.
Let's be very clear. The reason farmers need relief at all is largely
because Donald Trump betrayed them and decimated their businesses with
his disastrous tariffs.
[[Page S8523]]
Now, Donald Trump is patting himself on the back, acting like a hero
to farmers, while using taxpayer dollars to clean up the mess he
created. It is textbook Donald Trump incompetence.
I want to make three very important points about this announcement.
First, as is so often the case with Donald Trump, we have no idea
whether the farmers who actually need help will ever see this $12
billion. He always makes promises that don't deliver. He regularly
announces that relief is coming with all due haste, and, somehow, time
and time again, the money never reaches the people who need it most.
So if I were a farmer, I wouldn't count on this money. It is probably
more of Donald Trump's big talk without really delivering. That is what
has happened over and over again.
Second, a one-time payment for farmers is cold comfort for all the
headache and anxiety and losses they have endured because of Donald
Trump's trade war.
Farmers do not want a handout. Ask them. They want markets. But
Donald Trump's policies have killed the markets our farmers rely on to
make a living.
This is especially true for soybean farmers. China went from buying
more than $12 billion in American soybeans last year to virtually
nothing by the middle of this year. That Chinese need for soybeans
didn't disappear. Contracts went to other countries, like Argentina,
which Trump then bailed out at U.S. farmers' expense. And producers in
those countries--Argentina, Brazil--have now locked in new long-term
deals that will shut American farmers out for years and which a one-
time check can't alleviate. A one-time check isn't a solution; it is a
bandaid over gunshot wounds.
Again, ask our farmers. They want long-term contracts. Unfortunately,
they are not going to get them because, when we cut off China, China
went to Brazil and Argentina, and those soybean growers said: Yes, we
will give you soybeans, but not for a year--3 years, 4 years, 5 years.
Finally, the American people are being punished twice for Donald
Trump's costly tariffs. Families have seen the cost of beef, produce,
and other groceries skyrocket over this year because of the tariffs.
And now they are told their taxpayer dollars must be used to clean up
the mess that Donald Trump and his tariffs created.
So, on the first, he tells consumers: You have to pay more for the
tariffs.
Then the taxpayers have to pay more because the farmers are in such
trouble because of what Donald Trump did.
Donald Trump's announcement today is hardly a triumph. It is an
admission of failure--failure to help farmers, failure to rein in
China, and failure to lower costs.
(The remarks of Mr. Schumer pertaining to the introduction of S. Res.
533 are printed in today's Record under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
The Economy
Mr. President, on Donald Trump and the costs that Americans pay for
his policies, tomorrow, Donald Trump will travel to Pennsylvania to
give a speech on what he calls his economic accomplishments.
We all know how this is going to turn out. Donald Trump will spend
the first few minutes of his speech trying to stick to his talking
points. Then he will spend the next 2 hours rambling about how
affordability is a Democratic scam, a fake narrative. He will blame Joe
Biden for his own failures while offering zero solutions to bring down
costs.
Americans who are paying more for daily essentials want to see the
President act, not ramble from a podium. Affordability isn't some kind
of messaging issue, and it is certainly not a scam, as Donald Trump
claims from inside his little bubble. He doesn't even realize what
Americans are going through as they worry and struggle to pay the bills
that come in each week and each month. It is a crisis Donald Trump
himself exacerbated with his own policies.
There aren't enough speeches in the world to reverse the damage
Donald Trump has done to rising costs. After all, those tariffs have
raised prices across the board on groceries, on clothing, on energy.
Whose tariffs are they? Donald Trump's.
Who promised to bring costs down on day one and then turned around
and cut healthcare, cut SNAP benefits, closed rural hospitals, and axed
good-paying energy jobs in red and blue States alike? Donald Trump.
Who has been completely silent and invisible as Americans speed
toward a healthcare cliff unlike any we have seen in a long time, and
who has done nothing as families are on the brink of paying thousands
of dollars more on healthcare premiums? Donald Trump.
So, look, the matter here is simple: Donald Trump can blame the
previous administration all he wants for his own failures. He can keep
calling affordability a con job or a fake narrative or a Democratic
scam. He can keep pretending everything is going great.
But, Trump, it can't change the reality that you have created. People
are hurting, and people need help paying for the things they need every
day.
Donald Trump has failed to deliver on the No. 1 thing the American
people care about: costs--how much it costs them to buy the things they
need. And it is going to come back to haunt Republicans very, very
soon.
Healthcare
Mr. President, on healthcare, well, we are at the start of an
extremely important week for Donald Trump and for Republicans when it
comes to our Nation's healthcare crisis. On Thursday, the Senate will
vote on the Democrats' bill for a clean, 3-year extension of the ACA
premium tax credits.
The question Republicans face this week is very simple: Will they
support our bill and lower people's premiums or will they block our
bill and send premiums through the roof? That is what is at stake on
the vote this Thursday.
Leader Thune just gave a speech blasting the ACA.
But, Leader Thune, you blast the ACA; well, where is the Republican
plan?
The Republicans have no plan. They are so divided between themselves
that they can't even put a plan together.
We Democrats do have a plan, and it is this bill for a clean, 3-year
extension. This is the only way to solve this problem now before
premiums go way up and, in January, people are faced with such high
bills. Our bill prevents costs from going up right now.
Here is the reality: Most Americans want to see these credits
extended.
Leader Thune blasts the ACA, but he has no plan. Amazingly, he has no
plan when 55 percent of Trump voters--of MAGA voters--want to see the
credits extended.
So I urge my Republican colleagues not to follow Leader Thune.
You have one chance, Republican colleagues, to get this right.
Left to their own devices, Republicans don't have a snowball's chance
in hell of fixing the healthcare crisis--not a snowball's chance in
hell of fixing this crisis--because they are so divided. Even the plans
they claim are reasonable can't move forward because one-half of the
Republicans want one thing, a third of the Republicans want another
thing, a sixth of the Republicans want a third thing, and they can't
agree.
The contrast is stark: Republicans are divided, and Democrats are
united. We want to extend these credits. It is the right thing to do
for the American people as they stand on the edge of the cliff.
Meanwhile, one of the biggest failures in leadership on healthcare
has been Donald Trump. As our country faces a crisis that will touch
the lives of millions of people, he is sitting on the sidelines. For
months, we have urged him to meet with us, to talk with us, and to come
to an agreement on fixing ACA premiums. Instead, he has isolated
himself in the White House and blasted the ACA on Truth Social while
doing nothing--nothing--to prevent this from happening, while doing
nothing to present a real plan.
Republicans are nowhere on healthcare, and the clock is ticking.
Americans' livelihoods are at stake. Our healthcare system is at stake.
The future of our hospitals, many of which will be overrun when people
lose insurance, is also at stake.
Republicans who claim to worry about healthcare costs have one last
chance to act, and that is to join Democrats in supporting our bill for
a clean, 3-year extension.
Executive Nominations
Finally, Mr. President, on these noms packages that are coming
forward, today, Senate Republicans are
[[Page S8524]]
moving forward on a new nominee package that is chock-full of horribly
unqualified and shockingly radical nominees.
All year long, Republicans have bent the knee to Donald Trump--bent
the knee to Trump--and turned the Senate's duty of advice and consent
into obey and confirm, and this package of nominees is no different.
By moving these nominees in one package, Republicans in the Senate
are trying to hide how bad these nominees are from the American people.
They would be embarrassed to have a debate even of 2 hours. They would
be embarrassed to have a vote because these nominees are so bad.
We all know that Donald Trump and the way he nominates people often
are perverse. If someone has broken the law or if someone has done a
bad thing, he almost wants to nominate them, and the folks around here
are going along.
Let me give you a few quick examples. Thomas Bell to be inspector
general of HHS. He is supposed to be looking at fraud, waste, and
abuse. This guy is supposed to be inspector general of HHS. Well, Bell
is a well-documented Trump loyalist and anti-abortion extremist who has
a history of committing repeated fraud, manufacturing fake documents,
and misusing unauthorized funds. This is who the Republicans want to
confirm as an HHS watchdog? Give us a break. Give America a break.
By the way, these nominees are going to come back and embarrass
Trump, just as we warned about Hegseth. If you pick a FOX News
commentator to run the most complicated life-and-death Department in
our country, he will embarrass you, we said, or worse, and that is just
what is happening. It is worse.
What about James Percival to be general counsel at DHS? He is another
Trump loyalist who has been a key figure in pushing the administration
to defy court orders in regard to deportation actions.
Then there is Jeffrey Hall to be Assistant Administrator at the EPA.
How much experience does Mr. Hall have for this position? Zero. And in
his time acting in the role, the EPA dismissed a complaint, against a
Trump donor group, that alleged that pesticides were sprayed by guards
on detainees at an ICE facility.
I could go on and on and on as so many of these nominees are awful--
this is chock-full of unqualified, horrible nominees--but the bottom
line is this: Democrats want individual votes on these nominees. We
want time to debate them on the floor, and we want the American people
to see for themselves who Donald Trump and the Republicans are trying
to appoint to serious positions of power.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Nomination of Arjun Mody
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor just having listened
to the minority leader talk about our nominees for various positions in
the Trump administration, and I am happy to report that this month,
December of 2025, we will confirm nearly 100 more of President Trump's
qualified nominees. This is going to bring the total number of nominees
confirmed this year to nearly 420--we will surpass 400--and this far
surpasses the number that Joe Biden confirmed in his first year in
office.
One of these highly qualified nominees is Arjun Mody, whom I would
like to talk about now.
Arjun is an extraordinary leader and a trusted friend. Arjun has been
nominated to serve as Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security
Administration. Now, in choosing Arjun, President Trump has chosen the
very best. I have known him for 15 years, and he has helped shape my
work in the Senate. He ran three of my Senate leadership offices, and
in each one, he transformed how we served the Members of this body.
Prior to that, Arjun worked for Senator Elizabeth Dole of the
Presiding Officer's home State of North Carolina and for Senator Kay
Bailey Hutchison of Texas.
When you hire staff, you need people you can trust completely. I saw
Arjun earn that trust in moments both big and small.
Here is the truth about Arjun: If something needs to get done, he is
going to get it done with excellence. He doesn't just know policy and
process; he knows and understands people. He doesn't just build high-
impact teams; he builds loyalty among the teams. He doesn't just work
hard; he works well with everyone.
When the stakes are the highest, he always delivers results. I have
watched Arjun take on the toughest challenges and find solutions that
other people have missed. That is exactly what Social Security needs
right now in our Nation because for 90 years, Americans have relied on
Social Security--not just for income but for the independence these
people have earned. They count on it to keep a roof over their heads
and to put food on the table. That promise matters, and it needs
leaders who understand both its importance and its challenges.
Arjun is going to modernize the Social Security Administration, he is
going to help strengthen its core mission, and he is going to ensure
that payments are timely, accurate, and secure. At the same time, he is
going to work with this committee, with the Senate, and all across the
government. Most importantly, he will never forget that behind every
case number is a person and that every beneficiary matters, whether
they are a senior, whether they are a survivor, or whether they are
someone with a disability. Social Security works because Americans can
trust it month after month, year after year. With Arjun, that trust is
in capable hands.
I have trusted Arjun to lead my staff, and the President has trusted
him to strengthen Social Security. Now I urge my colleagues on both
sides of the aisle to trust him with their vote.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Britt). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Healthcare
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, the issue of quality, affordable health
insurance is personal to me. I know what it feels like to be a new dad
with a beautiful little baby girl with a serious medical condition. It
happened in my life when I was a student in law school at Georgetown
here in Washington, DC.
God gave us this beautiful little girl, but I didn't have health
insurance as a law student. We ended up in the charity ward of
Children's National Hospital waiting for our name to be called to be
introduced to the doctor--the new doctor--at the hospital who would do
his best to help my daughter.
I thought about it as I sat in this ward with other people who could
not afford to pay their medical bills and thought to myself, I failed
as a father and husband. I didn't do the basics. I didn't have health
insurance when my baby came along.
Well, there were some wonderful people who did some wonderful things
for our daughter, and I will never forget it. But I also never will
forget sitting in that chair wondering who would come through that door
and be my daughter's doctor. I would be meeting him for the first time.
I never felt so helpless as I did at that moment.
As lawmakers, I believe our job is to help make life a little bit
better for the people we represent. This week, it means tackling the
quality, affordable health insurance issue. It is no secret what
happened in this Chamber over the last several weeks and months. We had
the longest government shutdown in history--42, 43 days, depending on
how you calculate it, but it was a record.
The issue was whether or not we would do something to provide health
insurance to some 20 million Americans who stand to lose it because the
premiums are too expensive.
We went back and forth, and every day I came to this floor and stated
our
[[Page S8525]]
position on the case. Senator Thune, Senator Barrasso stated their
position. Senator Schumer, of course, was part of this dialogue that
went on week after week.
The decision was finally made by a number of us to end the government
shutdown by voting to open the government. There was an understanding
that certain things would happen: Appropriations bills would pass as
part of the continuing resolution, and many Agencies of government,
which were in a questionable position, would be funded.
That was important.
But when it came to health insurance, we reached an agreement that
this week, before the Christmas recess, we would have a debate and a
vote on extending health insurance.
Why are we doing this? Because the Affordable Care Act passed under
President Obama provides tax credits, help in premium payments, for
millions of Americans who could otherwise not afford to have it. And
the decision in the Big Beautiful Bill--the budget bill of President
Trump--to end those tax credits meant that millions of Americans stood
to lose the health insurance that they had before starting January 1
with new and higher premiums.
Senator Thune promised a vote, and I believed--he told me
personally--he would keep his word, and I believe he will. I think we
will have a vote this week, but a vote is not enough if we can't come
to an agreement.
We need 13 Republicans to join us in a bipartisan effort to extend
this tax credit so that millions of Americans don't lose their health
insurance--13 of them. They need to step forward and, frankly, join us
in a bipartisan effort. There is a lot more to be done. This is not all
that we will do, but extending this health insurance premium assistance
to these families can make a real difference.
Let me tell you a story. If you are looking for breakfast in downtown
Chicago on a Sunday morning, let me recommend a restaurant. The name of
the restaurant is Lou Mitchell's. Lou Mitchell's restaurant is in the
shadow of Union Station, the Amtrak station downtown Chicago. It is two
or three blocks from our Catholic parish, and we are there regularly on
Sunday mornings, 8 o'clock. We have got two stools by the counter that
my wife and I sit at and eat breakfast. We have come to know just about
all of the waitresses and helpers in this restaurant.
It is legendary, by Chicago standards. They claim to be the starting
point for the creation of U.S. Route 66. There are people, literally,
coming from all over the world to make that journey down Route 66 and
start with breakfast at Lou Mitchell's.
Donna Fenton is my personal friend, my wife's as well, and she is the
maitre d' at the breakfast restaurant. She is 94 years old. She never
misses a day of work. She is a wonderful person, a diehard Cubs fan who
wears earrings with the Cubs logo on them. I have taken her to games
over at Wrigley Field, and she, even at her age, is just as lively and
involved as any person in the whole audience.
Yesterday, when my wife and I went to Lou Mitchell's for breakfast
before church, I had conversation with another person who is on their
staff, a waitress. She is a manager as well, and she has been working
at this job for years. She is 63 years old.
Her husband just qualified for Medicare, and she felt relieved that
that worry about his health insurance would be take care of. She then
found out that the Medicare Advantage Program that she would be having
him sign up for runs $200 a month. Her original premium that she is
paying for health insurance for him and for her is $279 a month.
So right off the bat, she faced an increase over her base premium
that she has been paying for some time, but she had the good fortune,
at least now--up to now--to have a tax credit to help pay for those
premiums. Then she got the notice from her insurance company that the
cost of her insurance, even with her husband not covered by the same
policy, is going to virtually double.
I can tell you, this is a hard-working lady. I have come to know what
it means to be in your sixties and still working as a busy waitress in
a busy restaurant. It isn't easy, physically demanding. She has had
orthopedic surgeries and other problems occasioned by the fact that it
is just an act of life. At a time when most of us would like to think
we are going to close that chapter and take it easy, she is not able
to.
She said to me: What is going to happen to me when I can't afford
health insurance?
And I thought back to my own experience here in Washington.
I said: Well, I hope you don't get sick. It is the best I can say for
you.
She said: Who wants to raise my premiums more than double? Who is
behind all this?
I said: Unfortunately, there is a political difference here. I won't
go into details. It will sound too partisan. But there are some Members
of the Senate, who, frankly, know you are going to have to pay twice as
much and really don't want to see changes made--let it go forward.
I think that is unfair to her. I could give you her name, but I am
not going to because I didn't ask her permission, but I believe every
word she told me.
Hard-working woman, 63 years old, whose health insurance is going to
more than double each month. She doesn't make a fortune as a waitress.
She makes a basic wage in tips. And now she is asking me as her U.S.
Senator: Why did you do this to me?
Well, my answer is: We have a chance this week to change it.
And that is what I told her.
If we can get a bipartisan group to agree to just extend these
credits, we are going to be able to bring your premiums down to be more
affordable. It won't be the same. It will still be high. But it won't
double or triple, which is likely to happen otherwise.
I think about her as I stand on the floor of the Senate and think of
the tears in her eyes as she talked to me about what her life is going
to be like if we fail. We can't fail. We have an obligation to her as
Democrats and Republicans.
Are there things we can do to deal with the Affordable Care Act? Yes.
I still think it is fundamentally sound, but there are elements in it
that need to be changed.
We look forward to not only extending these tax credits but also a
meaningful, bipartisan gathering in the appropriate committees to talk
about changes in the Affordable Care Act.
Now, there are some people who want to see changes that are
politically volatile. To go into the issue of abortion now instead of
just expending these premium benefits--I know because I have lived
through the Affordable Care Act--it is a nonstarter. It is a poison
pill. It is the end of the conversation. We are too divided on the
issue.
Prior to the ACA, we must remember that insurance companies could
deny coverage to patients with a preexisting condition. This waitress I
am talking about has a long list of preexisting conditions now. I won't
go through them here, but under the old school, before the Affordable
Care Act, she would have had exclusions in all of her health insurance
policies for all of these medical conditions.
Under the Affordable Care Act, she must be offered health insurance,
regardless of preexisting conditions.
If someone had, for example, a history of diabetes, heart disease, or
even a past pregnancy, insurance companies used to be able to exclude
those services from your plan or charge you an amount that you couldn't
afford.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies are no longer
allowed to discriminate against patients with preexisting conditions.
We required in that law that health insurance plans cover comprehensive
benefits, hospitalizations, prescription drugs, and even mental health
and addiction treatment, and we allowed children to stay on their
parents' health insurance until the kids reached--no longer kids, young
men and women reached the age of 26.
What was the result? It worked. For 15 years, it worked.
We achieved the lowest number of uninsured Americans in our country's
history. Millions more Americans suddenly had the peace of mind of
having quality healthcare.
But faced with high costs, from expensive medications to specialty
treatment, too many hard-working families
[[Page S8526]]
are struggling to keep up with the high price of healthcare.
I have heard my colleagues on the Republican side, who didn't support
the bill when it was created, come in and say: But healthcare is still
too expensive.
That is a fact. But imagine, if there were no help in paying the
premiums, what families would be doing with these increased costs.
Do you want to know one of reasons that the health insurance is so
expensive? I have asked Blue Cross Blue Shield in Chicago, and they
tell me it is pretty simple.
Did you ever see an ad for a pharmaceutical product on television? I
will bet you did, and I bet you saw more than one. They play it all the
time. There are only two countries in the whole world that run these
ads for drugs: the United States of America and New Zealand. In every
other country, it is prohibited.
What difference does it make? People get into their minds that these
drugs just might be the cure for my problem, and they go to the
doctor's office, and they sit down for the 10 or 15 minutes they have
with that doctor and say: I have been hearing all these ads about
Xarelto.
The doctor says: Xarelto? I am surprised you can pronounce it.
The person says: I can spell it. I have seen so many ads. I think I
need it, Doctor.
And in too many cases, the doctor, rather than get into a debate or
say there is a cheaper generic for this drug or the other, ends up
writing a prescription for an expensive drug. It is one of the major
reasons that health insurance premiums have gone up so high in the
United States of America.
Now, I have a bill that eliminates directed consumer advertising, as
approved and requested by the American Medical Association. I won't be
able to add it to this bill--I want to--but I am prepared to join in
the debate about making the system better and more affordable that will
follow after this vote.
So what I am saying is this: The Affordable Care Act is so important.
It is one of the most important votes I have ever cast. I still stand
by it, but it needs to be improved, and we need to do that. We won't do
it this week, but, this week, let's give peace of mind to my friend who
is a waitress at Lou Mitchell's, and others that have written to me
from all over the State of Illinois, that they can afford health
insurance, that their premiums will get a helping hand.
It takes 13 Republicans to join the Democrats for that to happen. It
has to be bipartisan.
As a result of the enhanced premium tax credits, the number of
Americans covered in the ACA marketplace plans has increased from 11
million in the year 2020 to 24 million this year, including my waitress
friend at Lou Mitchell's.
In Florida, the number of residents with healthcare coverage has
doubled since passage of the Affordable Care Act. In Alabama, tens of
thousands of children and older Americans have obtained health
insurance for the very first time because of the Affordable Care Act.
Why do we want to reverse this? Why do we want to put the waitress
that I mentioned to you in a situation where she can't afford her
premiums anymore? That is going to happen in just a few days if we
don't act in a responsible, bipartisan way.
This summer, Congressional Republicans eliminated $1 trillion in
spending for Medicaid. It is a different but related issue. This will
take healthcare away from 11 million Americans and threaten rural and
intercity hospitals. But in also refusing to extend premium tax
credits, 22 million Americans may see their health premiums double, on
average--double what the health insurance payments were just today and
a few weeks ago. These could get raised by more than $3,000 next year.
In Jackson County, in Southern Illinois, an area of small towns and
rural areas, residents there, on average, will see their monthly
premiums go from $122 a month to $458. That is a difference of $330 a
month, a 274-percent increase.
In Crawford County, in Downstate Illinois, monthly premiums could
rise from $170 a month to $517, a 204-percent increase. That is why our
vote this week is so important.
We can stop these premiums from increasing in my State, in Alabama,
in every State where people are affected by it. In Western Illinois,
residents, on average, will see a 120-percent increase if we don't do
something this week.
What is our excuse? We are too busy? Look around you. Does this place
look too busy? Not to me. We used to have legislation on the floor
regularly--and amendments and debate--and we would actually pass laws
that had to be considered by the House and Senate. And it would happen.
It doesn't happen anymore. We come to the floor and make a speech. We
may, once a month, have something to vote on the floor.
This Senate is described as one of the great legislative bodies--
deliberative legislative bodies--in the world. You couldn't prove it by
the history of our schedule over the last several months.
This week, the Senate Democrats are going to put forward a proposal
to extend health insurance premium tax credits for 3 years. I have
heard some people say: Well, that is too long.
Well, come back with an amendment for 2 years or 1 year or something.
Show there is a beating heart there that actually cares to solve a
problem--a problem that affects a waitress in a restaurant in downtown
Chicago.
We have tried many times to have this debate. It never gets off the
ground. But now we have come to a moment where, on January 1, the world
is going to change for millions of Americans if we do nothing.
I want to work with the Republicans on this bill. I want to make the
Affordable Care Act better. But we have got to take care of the
immediate crisis before January 1.
If Republicans, 13 Republicans--13 brave Republicans--will step up
and say, ``We want to extend the tax credits,'' there is going to be an
opportunity for us to sit down and say: All right, what do we need to
consider to do to make the Affordable Care Act better?
There is an editorial in the Wall Street Journal this morning. I
don't usually buy that newspaper, but I am glad I did. There is a long
list of things they raised questions on when it came to fraud in the
Affordable Care Act. It is legitimate to raise those questions. We
should ask that of every single program.
They suggested in their editorial that the tax credits are somehow an
inducement toward fraudulent enrollment. The Wall Street Journal came
out with an editorial, as I said, highlighting the findings from the
General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog.
My response: Sign me up to sit down, put that editorial on the table,
and, on a bipartisan basis, address the very things they have raised.
But let's not allow these findings about malfeasance by brokers of
insurance--and those are the ones they are blaming, not the patients--
to be the reason that 24 million Americans face unaffordable premiums,
and not the reason my friend the waitress at the restaurant is going to
face premiums she and her husband cannot afford.
To be sure, what the GAO found is unacceptable. But there are
proposals on the table that Democrats would support to crack down on
malicious brokers who fraudulently enroll customers. No excuse--that
has got to stop. I will be part of it, on a bipartisan basis, if we get
that opportunity, and I hope we do.
But to argue that tax credits to help my waitress friend pay her
premiums are the reason for fraud and, therefore, should be eliminated
is the wrong conclusion. It is an outsized, collective punishment to
her. And what did she do wrong?
We don't punish seniors when their identity is stolen. We punish the
grifters who did it, and the same things are true when it comes to
fraud. Let's hold those accountable for it--strictly accountable.
Raising premiums so that patients have skin in the game would still not
deter malicious brokers from their illegal behavior--we can address
this, and we should--and it would ignore the fact that the Medicare
Advantage plans also have zero premium policies. I don't hear any
bipartisan howling about that.
I am willing to work with Republicans to take on fraud, but let's be
honest about the scope of the problem and not use it as an excuse to
abandon the tax credits that more than 20 million Americans rely on.
[[Page S8527]]
I want to go back to that restaurant--maybe not next Sunday, maybe
after Christmas--and tell that friend of mine that we heard her and we
did something about it, and we are going to give her a helping hand, at
a time when she has nowhere else to turn. She is working hard every
single day and has done that all of her life. All she has asked us to
do is to give her a fighting chance to have health insurance for her
family. Isn't it really incumbent upon us to meet that responsibility?
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Waiving Quorum Call
Mr. McCORMICK. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the
mandatory quorum with respect to the Chamberlin nomination.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. McCORMICK. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
rollcall vote begin immediately.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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