Schumer Floor Remarks on TrumpCare and the CBO Report

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered remarks on the Senate floor on the recklessness of TrumpCare and the CBO report. Below are his remarks:

I want to first thank my colleague from Michigan for her outstanding presentation. It was succinct. It was to the point. It showed all the problems with TrumpCare, and I hope we'll see a lot more not only of her speaking about it – I know we will -- but of those great charts that she put together.

Mr. President, I rise again this afternoon on the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

There’s been some confusion about what to call it. Speaker Ryan, one of the principle authors of the bill, doesn’t want it called Ryan Care, President Trump doesn’t want it called TrumpCare.

Now, President Trump slapped his name on buildings, ties, steaks, hotels and golf clubs, but not on this bill.

If it’s so good, why doesn’t any Republican want to put their name on it?

The reason, I think, is because every single day, as we learn more and more about this bill, more and more Americans turn against it

Doctors don’t like it. Patients don’t like it. Hospitals don’t like it.

Women don’t like it. Millennials don’t like it. Seniors don’t like it.

More and more Republicans don’t like it, and Democrats are totally united against it.

So I want to ask just one question. TrumpCare has been public for one week now – is there any group left in the country who actually likes it?

I’m not sure there is. So Republicans have resorted to their usual talking points.

They like to talk about “access” to health care. That’s what Mr. Price said over and over again. Didn’t talk about people getting healthcare, just having access to healthcare. They say they want universal “access” to health care.

Every single American has “access” to a Lamborghini. You can walk into the Lamborghini show room and say I’d like to purchase one, and the proprietor says, that’ll be a couple hundred thousand dollars and you can’t buy it. Access is not enough. Every single American would like a huge mansion  worth $10 million, You have access. You can go to a real-estate agent and say, show the list of $10 million mansions in my community. That’s access, can’t afford it.

So we know when Dr. Price and others talk about access, they're trying to actually verbally trick the American people, because people can't afford health care. they won't have the health care, but they can inquire about it. that's all access is.

Americans are smarter than that. They know that having good health insurance is what leads to affordable health care. “Access” to care won’t save your life if you can’t afford it.

So what’s the real effect of this TrumpCare bill? Last night the Congressional Budget Office report made clear that 24 million fewer Americans will have health insurance if TrumpCare becomes the law of the land.

It’s one of the biggest broken promises that this president has made. And he’s broken a lot of them.  In an interview with the Washington Post, here's what the president said, quote, “We're going to have insurance for everybody.” Here it is. that's his quote. President Trump, “We're going to have insurance for everybody. much less expensive and better, he said, “We're going to have insurance for everybody.” well, the C.B.O. report confirms that TrumpCare does not even remotely come close to that pledge. the president was off by only 24 million Americans. That's more than the population of my entire state.

Well, the CBO report confirms that TrumpCare does not even remotely come close to that pledge. The president was off by only 24 million Americans, more than the population of my entire state.

Seniors will get crushed with higher premiums, and Americans of all ages will have to pay more out of pocket costs with deductibles and copays. Let me give you one example from the CBO report: a 64-year old American – not yet eligible for Medicare – who makes around $26,500 a year That person, that man or woman would have to pay a premium of $14,600. That is more than half of that senior’s entire income! How will that even be possible? If there was ever a war on seniors, this bill, TrumpCare, is it.

And Mr. President, the CBO report also shows that TrumpCare spends more on tax breaks for the wealthy and insurance companies than it does on tax credits to help middle-class Americans afford health insurance. In the final tally, TrumpCare would erase more than one trillion dollars from programs that help poor and middle-class families in order to fund an almost $900 billion tax break aimed largely at the wealthy and corporations. That would constitute one of the greatest transfers of wealth upwards -- from the middle class and the poor, to the very rich -- in the last few decades.

As my friend Leader Pelosi said this morning: its reverse-Robin Hood: taking from the poor and middle class and giving to the rich. I’d say this bill is reverse-Robin Hood on steroids.

Now, Mr. President, rather than going back to the drawing board to solve those problems, what are our Republican friends doing? Attacking the CBO.

There’s just one problem – the director is the person that Secretary Price hand-picked him, now the head of HHS, Dr. Hall worked at the Mercatus Institute, which we all know  was funded impart by the Koch brothers. Here is a man chosen by one of the most conservative Republicans in the house who is now H.H.S. secretary teaching at an institute, funded by the Koch Brothers, the leading funders of the hard right, and they're attacking him because they don't like his honest answers.

Republicans are attacking the referee because they’re losing the game, plain and simple. Everyone from the second grade on knows taught by their parents you don't attack the referee. It's unsportsmanlike. In this case it's a lot worse. It has life and death consequences unlike a softball game for a second grader.

Mr. President, when you look at the CBO score, it’s hard to even call this a health care bill.

A health care bill actually attempts to provide health insurance to more Americans. This bill would result in 24 million fewer Americans with health insurance.

A health care bill would help people afford health insurance. This bill would likely increase costs on middle-class and working families while making it much cheaper for the top 1% and 0.1%, people who make over $500,000 a year. They get the biggest benefit because they get a huge tax break.

A health care bill would seek to protect older and sicker Americans, who need health insurance the most. This bill jacks up the price on older Americans the most.

A health care bill would make it easier for Americans to shop for health insurance. But the CBO says under this bill “plans would be harder to compare, making shopping for a plan on the basis of price more difficult.”  That’s their quote.

By no measure can we call TrumpCare an actual health care bill. The only thing this bill makes healthier is the bank accounts of the wealthiest Americans. That's what this bill is all about. Our republican friends have been dying to cut taxes on the rich. That's what their tax reform bill will be about. That's what this is about. At a time when Donald Trump was campaigning to help the middle class, the working people, he gets into office and boom. First big, big, big proposal? Reduce taxes on the wealthiest people. It's not going to play. In Peoria, Brooklyn or Charlotte. And we Democrats are going to stand strong, stay united, and fight tooth and nail against TrumpCare until our Republican friends drop their repeal effort for good.