'If Republicans Have Their Way...': Dick Durbin Rips 'Unimaginable And Cruel' Reconciliation Package

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During debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke in opposition to Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, we're here today debating a clumsily assembled package, still a work in

00:08progress, that would rip away health care from 16 million American families to give

00:15tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires, and our largest corporations.

00:21Think about that for a moment.

00:23The Republicans have decided that the best avenue to generate revenue that they can then

00:30give in tax breaks to wealthy people is to eliminate health insurance coverage for 16

00:37million Americans.

00:40That's going to have a dramatic impact on their lives.

00:44If you have ever been a young father with a baby with a serious medical problem and you

00:51had no health insurance, you'll never forget it as long as you live.

00:56I know I've been there.

00:58The notion of losing your health insurance leaves you as vulnerable as possible in some of the

01:05most important moments of your life.

01:07And that they would consider this provision to eliminate health insurance coverage for

01:1316 million families is unimaginable and cruel.

01:22Let's not act like there is a unified Republican front on this issue.

01:26Even some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't want to be here at this moment,

01:32jamming this unpopular bill through this chamber under arbitrary deadlines.

01:36One of my colleagues took a look at tax breaks and you're going to hear them say over and

01:42over again, well, the average family, if we don't act, the average family is going to

01:46have to pay more in taxes.

01:47There's a way around that.

01:50If we limit any tax breaks in this bill, in this effort, to people making $400,000 a year

01:58or less, $400,000 a year or less, it virtually eliminates two-thirds of the cost of this undertaking.

02:07And it means you don't have to take away the health insurance of 16 million families.

02:12So there are ways to do tax breaks which make sense.

02:16Count this Democrat in with the Republicans for helping working families who are struggling

02:22to get by, and a lot of them are.

02:25Going paycheck to paycheck, and the notion that we would say to them, we're going to

02:30take away your health insurance, we're going to raise the cost of health insurance for you,

02:36is no answer to their problems.

02:38Behind closed doors, my Republican colleagues continue to be consumed with infighting, bickering

02:44over the bill's substance, and for good reason.

02:47We have a process here which is almost impossible to explain to an ordinary person of how we reach

02:54reconciliation.

02:56The parliamentarian's office, and she's sitting here, God bless you for what you've been through

03:00for the last several months and all your staff, have to make decisions on a daily basis over

03:06and over again as to whether or not provisions of this bill are eligible under the law that

03:11governs the United States Senate.

03:14We're in the process of debating this on the Senate floor.

03:17I see our ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, the senator from Oregon.

03:23We're in the process of still appealing to the parliamentarian's office on provisions in

03:30the bill.

03:30This is truly a work in progress.

03:33I think what they do know is troubling, and it should be.

03:38This bill would be a disaster for hospitals.

03:43The Senate Republican bill, unfortunately, is going to endanger hospitals all over the

03:48United States, but if you happen to live in a small town, rural area, and I represent

03:55a lot of them in the state of Illinois, you're the most vulnerable.

03:59You are the target.

04:00When they cut back on Medicaid programs, these are the hospitals that will close their doors.

04:06What's the impact of a hospital closing its door in a downstate community in Illinois?

04:10Devastating.

04:12Hospitals are not only the center for emergency medical care, good doctors, nurses, and such.

04:20They are also a major economic force in small town America.

04:25Take away a hospital and then try to attract a new business to your community.

04:29Good luck.

04:30This Senate bill cripples one of the main ways that states fund their Medicaid programs and

04:35keep hospitals afloat, especially rural and low-income areas.

04:39It's called the provider tax.

04:42Earlier this week, a Republican senator circulated a flyer to his fellow caucus members, so they're

04:50all on notice, detailing just how much each state will lose in Medicaid provider tax funding

04:57under their proposal.

05:00Let's take a look at my neck of the woods, the Midwest.

05:03Iowa would lose $4.1 billion.

05:08Missouri, $6.1 billion.

05:11Kentucky, $12 billion.

05:14Louisiana would lose $20 billion.

05:18North Carolina, $38.9 billion.

05:23Senator Tillis and I were in conversation yesterday, and he used that very same figure.

05:29His analysis says that to go forward with this bill, cuts Medicaid reimbursement in his

05:35home state of North Carolina by a whopping $38.9 billion.

05:42This list of states and what they will lose was passed around by a Republican senator to

05:49his own caucus.

05:50They know what they're up against here.

05:53If Republicans have their way and pass this bill, hospitals will be forced to shrink or

05:57eliminate services.

05:59In Decatur, Illinois, one of the major hospitals facing the crunch time had to make a decision

06:05whether they keep their doors open.

06:07They did, but they eliminated OB-GYN, delivering babies, and they eliminated all mental health and

06:14addiction counseling, two critical areas for the hospitals.

06:19So these doctors, pardon me, this bill will force hospitals to shrink or eliminate services.

06:26Doctors and nurses will leave, and in some cases, the hospital will close.

06:31Imagine that in a rural area, a remote area, an extra 45 minutes, an extra hour in the car

06:38with somebody in the front seat you love very much who's in a desperate situation.

06:44As it stands today, half of the rural hospitals around the country already operate in a danger

06:50zone.

06:51And it's the same thing for children's hospitals.

06:53Do you have one in your community that you've used?

06:56I do.

06:58These children's hospitals have warned us they can't keep their doors open if Medicaid

07:01is cut as dramatically as the Republicans want to cut it.

07:05If Republicans have their way, we're going to see massive layoffs.

07:10Fewer nurses, technicians, and doctors, along with decreasing quality of care.

07:15The American Hospital Association has estimated how these cuts to Medicaid could impact not

07:20just jobs at red state hospitals, but across the entire economy.

07:26Here's what they found.

07:28If the Republican provision goes through that cuts Medicaid reimbursement in order to provide

07:33tax breaks for wealthy people, Maine, as an example, one state, would lose 5,000 jobs.

07:40Kansas, 6,200 jobs.

07:44Iowa, 11,000 jobs.

07:46Missouri, 26,600 jobs.

07:50I've talked to the administrator of BJC in St. Louis, Missouri.

07:55The reason is it's not just a Missouri hospital.

07:58They have their facilities on the Illinois side of the river.

08:01In fact, one-third of their patients are from Illinois, and one-third of their patients

08:06overall use Medicaid to go to their hospital.

08:10So he's told me what's going to happen if the Republican measure goes through and the

08:14cutbacks to these hospitals.

08:17They came up with, incidentally, the Rescue Fund to solve the political problem.

08:23I want to check and make sure Senator Murray can back me up on this.

08:26Our overall cut in Medicaid now is about a trillion dollars.

08:32One trillion dollars, imagine, this is Washington, we talk in those terms.

08:37Cutting Medicaid nationwide a trillion dollars.

08:40And the rescue plan for the small hospitals that are in danger, the ones that I've talked

08:44about, a trillion dollars cut, how big is the rescue plan?

08:48Twenty-five billion dollars.

08:51Do the math.

08:52It's a joke.

08:53It is a joke.

08:56If Republican leaders think this is an adequate amount to alleviate pain, all of our nation's

09:01hospitals are going to feel, then that's like trying to put on a forest fire with a garden

09:06hose.

09:07This simply won't work.

09:08I want to conclude by saying this.

09:11We passed the Affordable Care Act 15 years ago.

09:13Of all the things that I've worked on in Congress, I think it had more positive impact to help

09:19the families across America than anything.

09:22We found a way to make health insurance more affordable for families 15 years ago.

09:27And to do it, we held hearings, 100 hearings on the Affordable Care Act.

09:32Obamacare is what they called it, roundtables, walkthroughs.

09:36Two committees spent a combined 21 days holding markups so that everyone could offer an amendment.

09:42Do you know how many amendments were made to the Obamacare program?

09:48400.

09:49400 votes in committee and on the floor on amendments.

09:53147 Republican amendments were included, though not a single Republican senator ended up supporting

10:00Obamacare when it was all over.

10:02What do we have here with this measure?

10:04At the end of the day, that legislation, Obamacare, allowed more than 40 million Americans to gain

10:11health insurance.

10:12Today, how many hearings have we had on the bill that's before us, this dramatic multi-trillion

10:17dollar bill?

10:19None.

10:20Zero.

10:21Not a single one.

10:23Zero markups for senators to offer amendments.

10:27400 amendments on Obamacare.

10:30None on this one until it comes to the floor today.

10:34Zero bipartisan input.

10:37Our friends on the Republican side have said, basically, it's a big deal.

10:40Take it or leave it.

10:43Should this bill become a law, do you know what we'll have done?

10:45Thrown 16 million Americans off health insurance and closed many vulnerable small hospitals.

10:52All to pay for tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.

10:56Maybe some of my Republicans are okay with that.

10:58I don't think the American people are.

11:00I'm hoping that sanity and common sense prevail.

11:02We need four.

11:04We need four senators to step up and say, stop this train.

11:08We've got to sit down and do our homework.

11:11We cannot expose the American families and the American economy to do this in the name

11:16of preserving tax breaks for the wealthiest people.

11:20Elon Musk seems to be doing okay in life, right?

11:23The wealthiest man in the world.

11:25Do you know what the tax break is for Elon Musk on the bill that's before us on the floor?

11:30$346,000.

11:32A lot of money.

11:33To him, he won't even notice it.

11:35Giving him a tax break, he won't notice and taking away health insurance from families

11:40who will be devastated, 16 million around the country.

11:43It's an important choice and it's one we should make the right one.

11:46I yield the floor.

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