[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11492-11493]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          CONCERNS OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, this is a somber day today, and it is a 
very important day in the history of the United States of America.
  I have joined with Senator Franken, who indicated that, today, 
Senators of the United States Senate will make one of the most 
significant votes, if not the most significant vote of their career, 
and it will be a vote that they will long remember because, rather than 
the serious and difficult decisions of war and peace that, over the 
historical times of this body, many Members have had to make that 
decision and be in the midst of the throngs of patriotism, the vote 
that will be taken today will be a vote that those Senators will have 
brought on themselves; and it is a vote that does not have to be taken, 
nor a movement that has to be moved; and that is, to cause the American 
people to face a crumbling healthcare system, to dismantle and diminish 
the rights and obligations and opportunities for Americans, some 32 
million, to have health insurance.

[[Page 11493]]

  For me, it is both baffling and tragic that Senators would make this 
a campaign competition game, and that it only represents a notch in 
their belt.
  This does not have anything to do with providing healthcare for 
Americans. It doesn't have anything to do with what doctors say, what 
hospitals say, what rural hospitals need, what individuals with chronic 
illnesses need, or those who have been diagnosed with devastating 
cancer. It has nothing to do with children who are in desperate need of 
healthcare.
  It has nothing to do with two young people who I met; one who was 
experiencing autism, who sought to live independently and could not do 
so without Medicaid, or one who had a chronic illness of which, between 
2015 and 2016, he spent or had to spend $700,000 to live, and, in the 
last 6 months, he had to spend $73,000, none of which would have been 
possible without the Affordable Care Act.
  So what is happening in the Senate this afternoon? What vote of 
courage is being taken? What vote of improving the lives of Americans 
when the Senate bill, TrumpCare, will cause 49 million people to not 
have their insurance by 2026?
  It will cause rural hospitals to simply crumble. I am from Texas. We 
have a huge system of rural hospitals helping my constituents, and 
those hospitals will face disaster. Or the Texas Medical Center, like 
major hospital configurations across the Nation, where major research 
is being done, undermined by the vote that will be taken.
  It saddens me because I think the American people believe that we 
come to this place, we take this oath of office, to do what is right 
for America.
  This is not political chips. This is not dominos. This is not a game.
  And to the Commander in Chief, for you to be in front of the Boy 
Scouts--my husband and my son were Boy Scouts, and I sit on the Boy 
Scout board. I am offended by your words. I am offended because I know 
how hard my son worked. I know how my husband cherishes his status as 
an Eagle Scout, and I know what the jamboree means because my child 
went to it, and I know how excited those young patriots are.
  Yet the Commander in Chief would come and speak about former 
President Obama in a dastardly way, talk about crowd sizes, and then 
have the nerve to talk about the healthcare bill, not as a moment of 
conscience, not as a serious issue that would, in fact, make higher 
costs.
  Under the Senate bill, people will be paying more than they have 
earned for health insurance--well-documented. Of course, this is 22 
million in the earlier period of the House bill. We now know it may be 
32 million, and, as I have said, 49 million by 2026.
  And then, of course, it cuts the protections for preexisting 
conditions. Of course, it has a crushing age tax. If you are older, 55, 
you pay more. And then, of course, it undermines Medicare. It 
interferes with the Medicare trust bill.
  Yet the Commander in Chief is speaking before 45,000 or more young 
men, patriots, Boy Scouts, and talking about the healthcare bill and 
calling out Senator Capito from West Virginia: You better make her vote 
for it. What kind of leadership and heart is that? What are we dealing 
with here in this Nation?
  I don't have to say anything, Mr. Speaker, about this individual. As 
I close, let me simply say that I am introducing a resolution to stop 
any President from firing the special counsel, and any President from 
abusing the pardon by pardoning anybody who is under investigation for 
the Russian involvement in our elections. We have to do this, sadly, 
because we are not focused on governing; we are focusing on insulting.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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