[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12086-12087]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALTHCARE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, this is clearly a disappointing moment. 
From skyrocketing costs to plummeting choices and collapsing markets, 
our constituents have suffered through an awful lot under ObamaCare. We 
thought they deserved better. That is why I and many of my colleagues 
did as we promised and voted to repeal this failed law. We told our 
constituents we would vote that way, and when the moment came, most of 
us did. We kept our commitments. We worked hard, and everybody on this 
side can certainly attest to the fact that we worked really hard and 
tried to develop a consensus for a better way forward.
  I want to thank everybody in this conference for the endless amount 
of time they spent trying to achieve a consensus to go forward. I also 
want to thank the President and the Vice President, who couldn't have 
been more involved and more helpful.
  So, yes, this is a disappointment indeed. To our friends over in the 
House, we thank them, as well. I regret that our efforts were simply 
not enough this time.
  I imagine many of our colleagues on the other side are celebrating. 
They are pretty happy about all of this, but the American people are 
hurting, and they need relief. Our friends on the other side decided 
early on they didn't want to engage with us in a serious way to help 
those suffering under ObamaCare.

[[Page 12087]]

They did everything they could to prevent the Senate from providing a 
better way forward, including such things as reading amendments for 
endless amounts of time, such things as holding up nominations for key 
positions in the administration because they were unhappy that we were 
trying to find a way to something better than ObamaCare. So I expect 
that they are pretty satisfied tonight. I regret to say that they 
succeeded in that effort.
  Now I think it is appropriate to ask, what are their ideas? It will 
be interesting to see what they suggest as the way forward. For myself, 
I can say--and I bet I am safe on saying this for most of the people on 
this side of the aisle--that bailing out insurance companies with no 
thought of any kind of reform is not something I want to be part of. 
And I suspect that not many folks over here are interested in that. It 
will be interesting to see what they have in mind, like quadrupling 
down on the failures of ObamaCare with a single-payer system. We had 
that vote a little earlier, thanks to the Senator from Montana. Almost 
everybody voted ``present.'' Apparently, they didn't want to make a 
decision about whether they were for or against socialized medicine--a 
government takeover of everything; European healthcare. Only four of 
them weren't afraid to say they didn't think that was a good idea. So 
maybe that is what they want to offer. We will be happy to have that 
debate with the American people.
  It is time for our friends on the other side to tell us what they 
have in mind. We will see how the American people feel about their 
ideas. So, I regret that we are here, but I want to say, again, I am 
proud of the vote I cast tonight. It is consistent with what we told 
the American people we would try to accomplish in four straight 
elections if they gave us a chance. I thank all of my colleagues on 
this side of the aisle for everything they did to try to keep that 
commitment.
  What we tried to accomplish for the American people was the right 
thing for the country, and our only regret tonight--our only regret is 
that we didn't achieve what we had hoped to accomplish. I think the 
American people are going to regret that we couldn't find a better way 
forward, and, as I said, we look forward to our colleagues on the other 
side suggesting what they have in mind.
  Now, Mr. President, it is time to move on.

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