[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14965]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          EVERY PERSON COUNTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, in this country, we do not retreat. We may 
stumble and we may struggle, but we press on. Time and again, our 
greatest challenges have delivered our crowning achievements: the New 
Deal, the 19th Amendment, the GI Bill, the Civil Rights Act, and 
marriage equality.
  The tougher the moment, the more we demand of ourselves; the bigger 
and bolder we demand to dream for a fairer, more just nation, for an 
America where every person counts, where every voice matters, where we 
are all treated with a decency and a dignity that we deserve, where 
every American family has access to quality, affordable, accessible 
healthcare.
  Right now, this week, we must fight harder than before to say: Not 
this bill, not this time. Not this cop-out, not this retreat, not this 
white flag.
  The latest version of TrumpCare is an admission that the wealthiest 
Nation on Earth will not, by choice, care for all its citizens; that a 
child in Texas or Massachusetts with pediatric cancer deserves 
treatment, but not both; that a grandmother in Maine or Oklahoma 
deserves long-term care, but not both; that a young man in Georgia or 
West Virginia suffering from substance use disorder can be treated, but 
not both.
  This version of TrumpCare, worse than those before it, pits State 
against State, American against American.
  It is up to every single one of us here today to say: Not this--not 
in my country, not on our watch. In our Nation, every person counts.

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