Thom Tillis Shreds Big Beautiful Bill In First Senate Floor Speech Since Announcing Retirement

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On the Senate floor, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) explained why he is still opposed to the Big Beautiful Bill.

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, I come today to explain my vote yesterday for voting against the motion to

00:20proceed on this bill. Mr. President, I spent most of my career in management consulting,

00:27managing large complex enterprise projects, multi-year, thousands of hours, a lot of

00:35complexity that take people, process, and technology to make it work. I learned a lot in that career

00:42and I was able to go to the legislature and take that mindset as a member of the minority for two

00:49terms and then we got a majority in 2010 and I found myself being the Speaker of the House.

00:57Mr. President, we were in the middle of the financial crisis. When I got sworn in in January

01:03of 2011, North Carolina had a $2 billion shortfall on a $20 billion general revenue fund. And

01:12I had six months to balance that budget. Well, Mr. President, we did something that had not

01:18been done in North Carolina. We took the time to understand every aspect and every dollar

01:24that was being spent in government. We determined how to cut government in a way that was sustainable.

01:29We cut 12% from the university system budget. Not the rate of growth, but the actual spending.

01:40And I had some people say that it was going to be disruptive and the University of North Carolina

01:45would never be the same again. But Mr. President, we did it in a way that was instructed by the

01:51operations of the university system. And we did it in a way in concert with the chancellors.

01:57And you know what happened, Mr. President? We actually balanced the budget. We did do those cuts.

02:03And the last time I checked, the North Carolina university system is still considered one of the

02:08greatest systems in the United States of America. Why do I use that example? Because the Medicaid proposal

02:16in this bill bears no resemblance to that kind of discipline and due diligence. It has no insights

02:23into how these provider tax cuts are going to be absorbed without harming people on Medicare. And even worse,

02:31most of my colleagues do not even understand on either side of the aisle, the interplay of state-directed

02:38payments and the devastating consequences of the funding flows that are going to be before us.

02:42Mr. President, here's how I figured out the impact in North Carolina. I used to be Speaker of the House

02:50and I like the Speaker and have good relationship with the Speaker and the President Pro Tem.

02:54So I called them up and I had my staff ask them if they would do an economic impact assessment on what

03:01this proposed bill would do to the Medicaid program in North Carolina. But I didn't want just the view of the

03:07Republican partisan staff that reports to the Speaker and the President Pro Tem on how they're going to

03:12absorb this bill. I decided to go to Josh Stein, the governor, and I went to his Democrat staff for Medicaid.

03:21I asked them to prepare an estimate, independent of the estimate that I had done with fiscal

03:26research. But I took a step further, Mr. President. I went to the hospital association. I asked three

03:31different independent groups, a partisan Democrat group, a partisan Republican group of experts,

03:38and a nonpartisan group of the hospital association to develop an intact assessment, independent,

03:45not talking, not sharing, reporting to me. And what I found is the best case scenario is about a 26 billion

03:54dollar cut. Now we've got a delay, so it may be two years, it may be one year. All it does is make that 26

04:00billion dollars happen in year one or year 12. But the impact is the same, Mr. President,

04:06and it's indisputable. Now, when I actually presented this report that you can find on my website,

04:13I had people in the administration say, you're all wet, you don't know what you're doing.

04:17I said, well, why don't we assemble a series of meetings? We're going to provide you our analytics.

04:24You go through it, tear it apart. And I told about Mehmet Oz, who I consider to be one of the most

04:29capable people in the Trump administration. He's a brilliant man. And I encouraged my Democrat

04:34colleagues to talk to him. He knows his stuff. And he's very focused on getting efficiencies out of

04:39CMS. So we had three different conference calls with CMS with Oz on the phone and with on the video

04:47and me on the video. And I said this, guys, I would love nothing more than you to prove me wrong.

04:52I would love nothing more for you to tell me it's not 26 billion or 30 billion, that it's 2.6 billion

05:00or 2 billion or 200 million. But after three different attempts for them to discredit our

05:08estimates, the day before yesterday, they admitted that we were right. That between the state-directed

05:17payments and the cuts scheduled in this bill, there's a reduction of state-directed payments.

05:22And then there's the reduction of the provider tax. They can't find a hole in my estimate.

05:30So what they told me is that, yeah, it's rough, but North Carolina's used the system,

05:38they're going to have to make it work. All right. So what do I tell 663,000 people

05:44in two years or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid

05:51because the funding's not there anymore, guys? When the White House, which is advising the president,

06:00are not telling him that the effect of this bill is to break a promise. And you know,

06:06the last time I saw a promise broken around healthcare, with respect to my friends on the other

06:12side of the aisle, is when somebody said, if you like your healthcare, you can keep it. If you like

06:18your doctor, you can keep it. We found out that wasn't true. That made me the second Republican

06:27Speaker of the House since the Civil War, ladies and gentlemen, because we betrayed the promise to

06:33the American people. Two years later, three years later, it actually made me a U.S. Senator,

06:40two years later. Because in 2010, it had just been proposed. And just anticipation of what was

06:48going to happen was enough to have a sea change election that swept Republicans into the majority

06:54for the second time in 100 years. Now, Republicans are about to make a mistake on healthcare and betraying

07:05a promise. It is inescapable that this bill in its current form will betray the very promise that

07:14Donald J. Trump made in the Oval Office or in the Cabinet Room when I was there with finance where he

07:20said, we can go after waste, fraud, and abuse on any programs. Now, those amateurs that are advising him,

07:30not Dr. Oz, I'm talking about White House healthcare experts, refused to tell him that those instructions

07:39that were to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, all of a sudden eliminates a government program

07:46that's called the Provider Tax. We have morphed a legal construct that admittedly has been abused

07:53and should be eliminated and to waste, fraud, and abuse. Money laundering. Read the code. Look

08:00at how long it's been there. I was Speaker of the House. I refused to do it. When I left

08:05North Carolina, I said, we're not going to use a Provider Tax. I left it at two and a half percent.

08:10Now it's six. Mistake on the part of the leadership. And frankly, I know my friends are probably going to

08:16think I'm a little bit crazy here, but I actually passed a law that made it illegal to expand Medicaid.

08:21Why did I do that? Because I was convinced someday we would be here. And I would have rather found a

08:31way to get more people on Medicaid at the standard FMAP than having this 90-10 match and watching it

08:37disappear and taking away desperately needed health care. So, Mr. President, over the course of the

08:46evening, I may look for an opportunity to speak again. But I'm telling the President that you have

08:54been misinformed. You supporting the Senate mark will hurt people who are eligible and qualified for

09:04Medicaid. I love the work requirement. I love the other reforms in this bill. They are necessary, and I

09:11appreciate the leadership of the House for putting it in there. In fact, I like the work of the House so

09:19much that I wouldn't be having to do this speech if we simply started with the House mark. I've talked

09:26with my colleagues in North Carolina. I know that we can do that, and I believe that we can make sure

09:33that we do not break the promise of Donald J. Trump that he's made to the people who are on Medicaid today,

09:38Mr. President. But what we're doing, because we've got a view on an artificial deadline on July 4th

09:47that means nothing but another date and time, we could take the time to get this right if we lay

09:53down the House mark of the Medicaid bill and fix it. And I know that my friend and colleague from New

10:00Hampshire, I jumped in front of her, so I'm only going to take another minute or two.

10:04But Mr. President, we owe it to the states to do the work to understand how these proposals affect them.

10:16How hard is that? I did it. How hard is it? How hard is it to sit down and ask the Medicaid office,

10:24ask the legislative staff, ask the Independent Hospital Association what the impact is?

10:29If there's no negative impact, what's wrong with daylight? What's wrong with actually understanding

10:36what this bill does? Mr. President, I know what it does because I spent a career implementing complex

10:43systems and then I had the privilege of being Speaker of the House and I implemented them in a

10:47government setting. And since I've been here, I've focused on bills and what's their implementation

10:52from the cradle until they're fully implemented. Mr. President, we owe it to the American people and

10:59I owe it to the people of North Carolina to withhold my affirmative vote until it's demonstrated to me

11:06that we've done our homework, we're going to make sure that we fulfill the promise, and then I can feel

11:13good about a bill that I'm willing to vote for. But until that time, I will be withholding my vote.

11:19Thank you, Mr. President.

11:35Senator from North Carolina. I ask unanimous consent that the following appear separately in the record.

11:41Without objection. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the

11:46the following nominations in block calendar 198 through 249 with the exception of calendar 241

11:52and all nominations on the secretary's desk with the exception of PM 89. That the nominations be

11:58confirmed on block. The motions to reconsider be considered, made and laid upon the table with no

12:05intervening action or debate. That no further motions be in order to any of the nominations. That the

12:10president be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resumed legislative

12:16session. Without objection. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I also ask just for indulgence for one

12:22more minute. I ask, I ask unanimous consent that this also be the following appear separately in the record.

12:30Without objection. This is really easy, Mr. President. Yesterday was my 38th wedding anniversary. I've

12:36convinced Susan Tillis to stay married to me for 38 years. I wish I was going to be with her and a

12:41couple of dozen family members down at the beach, but I'm doing my work here and I'm going to stay

12:45until it's done. I also want to wish my grandson that they're celebrating his second birthday today

12:50down there at that same beach house. God bless my family. I love you.

12:54Thank you, Mr. President.

12:56Thank you, Mr. President.

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