[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4150-4151]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               TRUMPCARE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as the House continues to rush through 
its plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, I just want to 
point out once again how different this bill is from what the President 
has promised. For a while now, I have spoken about how the President 
talks like a populist and promises one thing but governs from the hard 
right, delivering something entirely different.
  President Trump talked tough on Wall Street but appointed Wall Street 
insiders to his administration and started to try to roll back Wall 
Street reform. He said he would stick up for working people, but just 
about an hour after his inaugural address where he said that, one of 
his first actions as President made it harder for average families to 
afford a mortgage.
  The President plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, 
and that is the most recent and most glaring example of this trend 
where the President speaks one way and does another. There is a 
stunning gap between how the President talks about healthcare and what 
his bill TrumpCare would do. The bold promises of better care for 
everyone at lower costs come from an alternative reality to his 
legislation, which studies show will cover fewer people at higher 
costs--higher costs, less care.
  Like much of his administration thus far, TrumpCare is another game 
of say one thing, do another: Say you will protect the working people 
of America and then go forward in ways that hurt them and hurt them 
severely.
  Let me offer a few examples about TrumpCare and how the words the 
President has stated are so different from the reality. During the 
campaign, the President said he was not going to cut Medicaid ``like 
every other Republican.'' He tweeted that he was ``the first and only 
potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social 
Security, Medicare and Medicaid.'' These are President Trump's own 
tweets.
  He said on his tweet that he will be the first and only potential GOP 
candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, 
and Medicaid; however, directly contrary to the President's promise 
during the campaign, TrumpCare takes an ax to Medicaid, which covers 68 
million Americans. Instead of having the Federal Government match a 
percentage of each State's Medicaid costs, which can rise and fall 
according to how much the State actually needs, TrumpCare would give 
States only a fixed amount of money per enrollee each year. If costs 
are higher than expected, TrumpCare wouldn't cover the gap. According 
to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this change would amount 
to a $370 billion cut to Medicaid over 10 years. The President said he 
was the first and only GOP candidate to promise not to cut Medicaid. 
His bill cuts it by nearly $400 billion.
  Nearly two-thirds of Americans in nursing homes rely on Medicaid. 
This cut goes right after seniors and could make it more difficult if 
you are a 45- or 50-year-old with a parent in a nursing home. You would 
be faced with a horrible choice: Take your parent out of the home and 
not give them the care they need or shell out huge amounts--thousands 
and thousands of dollars out of your own pocket, which you may not 
have. So much for the President not cutting Medicaid; it is a broken 
promise to so many poor people, elderly people in nursing homes, and 
their children.
  The President also said we are going to have a much better healthcare 
plan for much less money, but studies have shown that if you are in the 
middle class, TrumpCare will cost you about $1,500 more a year. If you 
are an older American between 55 and 64, your costs would increase by 
over $5,000 a year. The 55- to 64-year-olds may be the most vulnerable. 
Their healthcare costs tend to be higher than others, and their costs 
would go up by $5,000 a year. That is another promise by President 
Trump broken when it comes to TrumpCare.
  The President also said: ``We are going to have insurance for 
everybody.'' Those are his words, not mine. ``We are going to have 
insurance for everybody.'' Some estimates of TrumpCare suggest that it 
will kick roughly 15 million Americans off the insurance rolls. The CBO 
will likely have a more definitive estimate this evening, putting an 
exclamation point on what we already know: TrumpCare will cost millions 
of Americans their health insurance--another promise by Donald Trump 
broken.
  The President spoke repeatedly on the campaign trail about expanding 
treatment for Americans suffering from opioid addiction, but TrumpCare 
would end the Affordable Care Act's requirement that addictive services 
and mental health treatment be covered under Medicaid in the 31 States 
that chose to expand Medicaid. The President promised more help for 
those suffering from opioid addiction. The President's action in 
TrumpCare cuts it.
  Even on drug prices, the President says one thing and does another. 
Just a few weeks ago, he stood in the well of the House of 
Representatives and said: ``We should work to bring down the artificial 
high price of drugs and bring them down immediately.'' So you would 
think TrumpCare would have something that does that. Unfortunately, it 
does not. TrumpCare does absolutely nothing to address the high cost of 
drugs. In fact, drug prices might start going up faster.
  TrumpCare eliminates a current requirement that insurers actually 
give patients the value of the health insurance they are paying for. 
This is a blank check to insurers to cover less and charge more out-of-
pocket for a whole host of services. Most experts agree that insurers 
could charge much more for prescription drugs or even ration care. So 
that is another Trump promise broken. He was going to work on getting 
costs lowered immediately, but not in his bill he introduced a few 
weeks later. It might, indeed, raise prices for the cost of drugs for 
average Americans.
  In a broader sense, TrumpCare violates what this President promised 
to working Americans. He promised to be a champion for working 
Americans. He promised to be their voice. That is how he presented 
himself in his inaugural address. But TrumpCare would hurt working 
Americans the most, making them pay more for less care.
  It seems the only people who really benefit, the only group who 
benefits financially--if you are in the top 0.1 percent of earners, 
TrumpCare gives you a nearly $200,000 tax break, on average. This is 
the group who benefits. They may not be the only group, but they are 
the group who benefits the most, far and away. If you are in the middle 
class, if you are struggling to make it into the working class, if you 
are older or from a rural area, your costs are going to go up by 
thousands of dollars a year. So many of these people voted for Trump 
for President, but the only people who get that huge tax break of an 
average of $200,000 a year are the top 0.1 percent. In a very real 
sense, Donald Trump is giving a huge tax break to the wealthy and then 
making working Americans, average Americans, pay for it. To some, it 
might seem that the whole purpose of TrumpCare is to give that huge tax 
break to the wealthy.
  In his inaugural address, President Trump spoke of an America where 
for far too long a small group has reaped the rewards of government, 
while the people have borne the cost. TrumpCare seems designed to 
fulfill that vision, not alter it. It makes it even easier on that 
small group, shifting even more costs onto the people.

[[Page 4151]]

  So the first few months of the Trump administration have been broken 
promise after broken promise to working families. Trump's words: We are 
going to help working America, middle-class America. Trump's action: 
Take the burden off the shoulders of the top 1 percent and put them on 
the shoulders of all other Americans.
  TrumpCare might constitute the greatest broken promise of them all. 
That is why I expect our Republican leadership in the House is rushing 
this bill through the Chamber. They don't want the American people to 
see it and learn what is in it. I don't think they want their own 
Members to have much time to consider it. That is why it was released 
on a Monday and a vote in committee was scheduled just a few days 
later. Already the bill has gone through one committee markup in the 
House without a score from CBO.
  After years of criticizing Democrats for rushing through healthcare, 
after chanting ``read the bill'' over and over again, Republicans are 
trying to pass their healthcare plan in 2 months, when Democrats took 
almost a full year to debate and pass the Affordable Care Act.
  Even Republican Senators like my friend from Arkansas, Mr. Cotton, 
are telling their colleagues in the House to pause and start over. The 
Republicans in the House ought to listen because this mess of a bill 
will badly hurt millions of Americans. Even though we disagree on the 
substance, I would echo my friend from Arkansas, Senator Cotton, in 
saying to House Republicans: Stop and think about this. You can drop 
``repeal'' and come talk to us Democrats about reasonable fixes to the 
Affordable Care Act instead of blindly moving forward with this sham of 
a bill. That would be a much better way for your party and for our 
country.

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