[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 14721]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALTHCARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, by now, we all know the pain ObamaCare 
continues to inflict on our families, our communities, and our country. 
Skyrocketing prices, disappearing choices, failing markets--that is the 
legacy of ObamaCare. It has hurt so many already. Without reforms, it 
will hurt even more Americans as it continues a year-long march toward 
total collapse.
  Across the aisle, there are two basic schools of thought on what to 
do about this. One is essentially nothing. Two is to quadruple down on 
ObamaCare with a massive expansion of a failed idea--a fully 
government-run system that would strip even more Americans of their 
healthcare plans and take away even more of their health decisions.
  Neither of these options is acceptable.
  If ObamaCare's failure has shown us anything, it is that we need new 
ideas and a better approach. That is what the Senate pursued this 
summer. That is what Senators Graham and Cassidy are pursuing now. I 
would like to thank them for all of their dedicated work.
  I would also like to thank the committees that worked so hard on this 
legislation as well, including the Budget Committee under Chairman 
Enzi, the HELP Committee under Chairman Alexander, and the Finance 
Committee under Chairman Hatch, which just held a hearing on the bill 
this afternoon.
  I would like to thank each of these committees, their chairs, their 
members, and their staffs for their hard work to provide the American 
people with a better way than ObamaCare and its years of failure.

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