[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 15010]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALTHCARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last night on television, we saw a 
stark contrast between two different visions of healthcare in our 
country. One is an idea that is gaining increasing currency with our 
friends on the other side of the aisle. Some call it single payer. 
Others try to dress it up with poll-tested PR labels.
  No matter what you call it, at its core, here is what it is: a 
massive expansion of a failed idea, a quadrupling down on the failures 
of ObamaCare, a totally government-run system that would rip health 
insurance plans away from even more Americans and take away even more 
of their personal healthcare decisions. The costs of implementing it 
would be astronomical. The taxes required to pay for it would be sky 
high. Yet, after years of ObamaCare's failures--its higher costs, 
diminished choices, collapsing markets--it seems this is the best our 
Democratic friends can come up with--not a new idea but quadrupling 
down on an old one that has already failed. What a contrast with the 
general approach Senators Graham and Cassidy and many other Republicans 
have pursued.
  We think the American people deserve a better way forward--like 
returning more power from the Federal Government to the States where 
Americans actually live, allowing for reforms that can actually lower 
costs and improve care, and actually moving beyond the growing failures 
of a failed law called ObamaCare.
  As I said, what we saw last night reminds us of this stark contrast 
in vision. It is an important debate for our country. It is one that 
will certainly continue.

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