Schumer Floor Remarks on Republican Healthcare Legislation, President Trump’s Lack of Leadership, and the Nomination of John K. Bush
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered remarks on the Senate floor regarding the Senate GOP’s failed attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act as well as his opposition to the nomination of John K. Bush to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit. Below are his remarks:
Mr. President, according to the Majority Leader, there won’t be a vote on the Motion to Proceed to the healthcare bill until next week.
In the time between now and then, my Republican friends have a choice to make about how they want to move forward on what looks like will be a failed vote.
Do they want to take the path of President Trump, who yesterday said he wanted our healthcare system to fail, or do they want to work with Democrats on legislation to improve the law?
It’s that simple.
We Democrats know that the Affordable Care Act isn’t perfect, and we’ve proposed specific legislation that could pass right now to stabilize marketplaces and lower premiums for Americans across the country.
These proposals are specific, non-ideological, and could pass quickly and make life better for millions of Americans. A decent number of Republican Governors and even Senators have said that these are the kinds of proposals we need. Here they are.
First, we’ve proposed a bill by Senator Shaheen that would guarantee the premium-reduction payments that insurers say is the number one thing we could do right now to stabilize the individual marketplace.
Second, we’ve proposed a bill by Senators Carper and Kaine that would create a reinsurance program for the individual health insurance market – again aimed at stabilizing the marketplaces.
And third, we’ve proposed a bill by Senator McCaskill that would enable any American living in a bare county – a county that lacks health insurers – to purchase the same insurance we get here in Congress.
All three of these would stabilize the markets and help to prevent premiums from going up further and coverage from decreasing. They address the actual issues in our healthcare system.
And so I’ve mentioned, they’re non-ideological and exactly the kind of legislation we could work on together. If our intent is to make things better, this is something we could come together on, all three of these proposals. They address the actual issues that we have and should be an immediate thing that we can do together.
The Republican approach – decimating Medicaid to give a tax break to the wealthy – doesn’t solve any of the problems Republicans claim to be so worried about: high premiums, high deductibles, bare counties. In fact, by most objective reports, it makes them worse. The CBO said that under each version of the Republican plan, premiums would go up on many Americans, deductibles and copays would go up, and there would be even more bare counties than today, and tens of millions would lose insurance.
Repealing the healthcare law without any replacement is even worse. It would cause our healthcare system to implode, creating chaos. Millions more would lose insurance and for millions more than that, coverage would be diminished – all of that even worse than under the Republican bill.
So, I hope that my Republican colleagues will join with us in working on these three, non-ideological, practical, problem solvers, that will reduce premiums and make healthcare better for many, many Americans. Many Republicans, again, have spoken favorably of these ideas, and I hope that we will go forward.
The worry I have Mr. President is that our Republican colleagues follow the policy of President Trump. President Trump’s promise to let our healthcare system collapse is just mindboggling it’s hard to believe he could say something like that.
President Trump’s promise to let our healthcare system collapse is so, so wrong on three counts: it’s a failure morally, it’s a failure politically, and it’s a remarkable failure of presidential leadership.
First, the President’s position is a moral failure. It’s morally wrong to intentionally undermine the healthcare system in this country, using Americans as political pawns in a cynical game. It’s morally wrong to play a political game with the healthcare of this country.
There is no religious teaching or moral precept that could advocate such a cynical ploy.
The President didn’t say he wanted the system to change in a way to make it better. He said ‘I’ve lost, and I’m gonna make things worse for everybody to show you that I should have won.’ As I said, that is a moral failure that none of our religious leaders, of any of the great religions, would ever ever accept, nor will the American people.
Second, saying “I’m not going to own it” won’t work politically. The President is the President. He’s in charge. The American people look to him for leadership, and they know that Republicans control both branches of Congress and the White House. They know they’re in charge. Earlier this year, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that two-thirds of Americans would blame President Trump and Congressional Republicans for the future problems in our healthcare system. Just as they blamed President Obama when he was in charge, they’re gonna blame President Trump when he was in charge. He’s tweeting away that someone else is to blame when he’s in charge will not work politically. Particularly when it comes to something as near and dear to Americans as healthcare – God’s great gift to us, life itself.
So it just won’t work, saying that Democrats are to blame. And believe me we’re not going to stand idly by and shrug our shoulders when American people are suffering because the President is sabotaging our healthcare system for political purposes. We’re going to point it out and the spotlight will be on those who the American people in November put in charge. Elections do have consequences, and one of the consequences Mr. President – one of the consequences Mr. Trump – is that you’re in charge and you’ve got to make things better. Not simply point fingers and tweet.
Finally, the President’s position is an astonishing failure of presidential leadership.
His own party has failed to pass a bill…his own party which controls both houses of Congress…his own party which used special rules designed to exclude Democrats from the beginning…and President Trump blames Democrats and threatens to hold our nation’s healthcare system hostage out of pique – out of pique!
The President was being petty. The President was being small. The President was not Presidential at all. The President would rather throw up his hands than roll up his sleeves and get to work. He would rather cast blame and point fingers than even try to work with Democrats to make the healthcare system better.
That’s not what president’s do. It shows a tremendous lack of leadership. The American people want their President to lead. The American people, when there’s a problem, they want the President to fix it. The American people know that when you face a defeat as President, you don’t just sit in the corner and pout and get angry, you go on from there and try to make things better, as I hope my colleagues on this side of the aisle will do – some of them have indicated they will.
Let’s recall another President, President Truman. President Truman famously said “the buck stops here” – he was admired for it. This President’s words – shirking responsibility, casting blame – were exactly the opposite of President Truman’s. “The buck stopped here” made President Truman look tall. President Trump’s blame game makes him look small and diminished, and people will begin to realize his lack of leadership, and the respect for him and his office will diminish.
The President should rise to the incredible responsibility of the office -- not quit and take the ball home every time the game isn’t going the way he likes.
The President of the United States, for better or for worse, is responsible for the healthcare of the country -- for the healthcare of Americans who voted for him and for Americans who voted against him. He took an oath to faithfully execute the laws of this country, not just the one’s he likes. There is no ducking responsibility as President.
The buck stops with you, President Trump.
So, if the procedural vote fails next week, I sincerely hope that my Republican friends here in Congress reject the premise of the President to let our healthcare system collapse and hurt millions.
Instead, I hope they work with us, in the areas I mentioned and many others, to do what’s right for the American people.
Now, Mr. President, a brief word on the circuit court nominee we’ll be voting for cloture on soon. The nominee, Judge Bush, in my view, is not fit for the austere office of a circuit court judge.
He’s made some extremely troubling comments about the rights of women and the rights of the LGBTQ community. He’s employed anti-gay slurs in his speech and his writings. He has disparaged a woman’s right to choose, drawing an offensive and false moral equivalency between choice and slavery.
How can my Republican friends vote to elevate to the 6th Circuit a man who has said things like this?
He clearly lacks the temperament required of a Circuit Judge, and I urge all of my colleagues to vote no on cloture and no on the nomination.
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