[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4291]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             SPEAKING AGAINST THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, in the aftermath of the November 
election, it has been exciting to watch the unprecedented outpouring of 
citizen concern, activism, and, in some cases, outrage. America is 
finding its voice so Congress can find its spine.
  Most recently, the people are demanding Congress be held accountable 
for the outrageous efforts on behalf of Republicans to dismantle the 
Affordable Care Act, forcing more expensive coverage for insurance 
plans that will not be as good and breaking the Trump promise of 
better, more affordable health care.
  It has become clear that the Republican plan would force older 
Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 to pay 60 percent more for 
their health insurance coverage.
  The Republican plan also seeks to unwind the life-changing expansion 
under Medicaid that has provided care for the poor, disabled, and lower 
income and helps people with mental illness and opioid addiction.
  Wildly increasing the ranks of the uninsured and lowering the quality 
of care and affordability is so unacceptable to the American public 
that it is exposing deep divisions within the Republican ranks.
  The wrecking crew is being slowed as public awareness and citizen 
action spread across the country. This morning, the American public has 
drawn a new assignment: to resist the Trump budget. It is shocking in 
its reckless cuts to programs that Americans hold dear.

                              {time}  1015

  What does it say that the cuts proposed to the Environmental 
Protection Agency are so extreme that even the EPA Administrator, Scott 
Pruitt, who has made a career out of attacking the EPA, found it too 
brutal even for him?
  The unnecessary expansion of some defense spending, especially the 
trillion-dollar spending spree that we are embarking on for new nuclear 
weapons, is completely out of sync with our real defense needs and 
slashing vital State Department programs that enhance our security.
  Trump would not just impose shocking reductions on peacekeeping and 
humanitarian action, but he would deny the State Department the ability 
to exercise soft power. This compromises our national security 
interests and leaves us less safe.
  Critical and widely supported lifesaving medical research efforts 
will be slashed, reversing years of bipartisan effort to enhance 
medical research to fight disease, illness, and disability.
  At a time of housing crisis across the country, some of the few 
Federal tools to increase affordability and combat homelessness are 
being cut away.
  This budget disaster would even zero out Federal support for public 
broadcasting, even though it represents just a tiny sliver of Federal 
budget and supports a vital public service. Public broadcasting is 
supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans, even those who 
voted for Donald Trump. Appallingly, those cuts would punish rural and 
small town America that are more dependent than anybody else on public 
broadcasting support to be able to maintain that service.
  The people who are resisting this reckless administration have this 
new assignment: resist the budget; make clear to their representatives 
that it should be dead on arrival; that decades of bipartisan support 
for vital programs to protect the environment, human services, 
international humanitarian interest, medical research, even public 
broadcasting will not be tolerated.
  People are making a difference, but America needs all of us to find 
our voice so that Congress does its job.

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