00:00And again, together we are standing here, sitting actually, putting forth a united front on behalf of our neighbors and fellow residents who rely so heavily on Medicaid and other federal health care programs.
00:19You know probably some of the buzzwords that are going around right now.
00:25One phrase is that the bill that was passed will impose significant work requirements, work requirements.
00:33I want you to keep those words, work requirements, in the back of your minds as you hear these stories and ask yourself, does that have any relevance whatsoever to the stories that you'll hear?
00:47It's, again, incredibly abstract.
00:49You'll also hear words, fraud, waste, and abuse.
00:56Fraud, waste, and abuse.
00:58I want you to ask the same question of yourselves.
01:01When you hear these stories, do you see a lot of evidence of fraud, waste, and abuse?
01:05You can imagine what the answer to that question is.
01:08And this is a harsh, harsh phrase, but I'm going to use this phrase because it's sadly accurate.
01:17Those are dog whistle words.
01:20Those are trying to divert our attention away from the painful reality of what this bill will do to human beings who live in our state.
01:29Again, I don't use that phrase lightly, dog whistle words, fraud, waste, and abuse, and work requirements.
01:39By the way, I haven't met one person who has anything to do with any federal health care or other program where if they could work that they don't want to work.
01:49There's a willingness to work.
01:50Nobody said, I'm not going to work, and I demand.
01:53The question is, can they work?
01:56What's the reality of the situation?
01:58And by the way, if there's fraud, waste, and abuse, sign me up.
02:01I want to get rid of that.
02:03But again, I challenge you all to hear, listen carefully here and ask yourself, did you hear anything about fraud, waste, and abuse?
02:11Did you hear a story from anybody here where they could be working and they're not?
02:15Or they could be working more than they're working and they're not?
02:19But this bill is not actually about any of that.
02:22It's about gutting federal programs in order to pay for tax cuts.
02:29That's what this is.
02:30So let's just call it – I'd have a lot more respect for these folks who voted for it if they were honest about why they voted for it, because that's what this is.
02:39We think, again, $3.5 billion of eliminated Medicaid funding.
02:44That's nearly a quarter of about $14 billion that we get as a state.
02:50And that will, first and foremost, take it out on our vulnerable neighbors, but it's broader than that.
02:56It will be hospitals, other health care providers.
02:59It's not just Medicaid.
03:02It's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP, or otherwise known when I was growing up as food stamps.
03:10It is the slashing the subsidies that have allowed folks to apply for, engage, and become part of the Affordable Care Act.
03:20We're not really talking about it today.
03:22It's a big whack to Planned Parenthood.
03:24So it's an across-the-board betrayal of the people of New Jersey.
03:32I mentioned it passed by one vote, 215 to 214.
