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'If Republicans Have Their Way...': Dick Durbin Rips 'Unimaginable And Cruel' Reconciliation Package
Forbes Breaking News
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2 days ago
During debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke in opposition to Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
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00:00
Mr. President, we're here today debating a clumsily assembled package, still a work in
00:08
progress, that would rip away health care from 16 million American families to give
00:15
tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires, and our largest corporations.
00:21
Think about that for a moment.
00:23
The Republicans have decided that the best avenue to generate revenue that they can then
00:30
give in tax breaks to wealthy people is to eliminate health insurance coverage for 16
00:37
million Americans.
00:40
That's going to have a dramatic impact on their lives.
00:44
If you have ever been a young father with a baby with a serious medical problem and you
00:51
had no health insurance, you'll never forget it as long as you live.
00:56
I know I've been there.
00:58
The notion of losing your health insurance leaves you as vulnerable as possible in some of the
01:05
most important moments of your life.
01:07
And that they would consider this provision to eliminate health insurance coverage for
01:13
16 million families is unimaginable and cruel.
01:22
Let's not act like there is a unified Republican front on this issue.
01:26
Even some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't want to be here at this moment,
01:32
jamming this unpopular bill through this chamber under arbitrary deadlines.
01:36
One of my colleagues took a look at tax breaks and you're going to hear them say over and
01:42
over again, well, the average family, if we don't act, the average family is going to
01:46
have to pay more in taxes.
01:47
There's a way around that.
01:50
If we limit any tax breaks in this bill, in this effort, to people making $400,000 a year
01:58
or less, $400,000 a year or less, it virtually eliminates two-thirds of the cost of this undertaking.
02:07
And it means you don't have to take away the health insurance of 16 million families.
02:12
So there are ways to do tax breaks which make sense.
02:16
Count this Democrat in with the Republicans for helping working families who are struggling
02:22
to get by, and a lot of them are.
02:25
Going paycheck to paycheck, and the notion that we would say to them, we're going to
02:30
take away your health insurance, we're going to raise the cost of health insurance for you,
02:36
is no answer to their problems.
02:38
Behind closed doors, my Republican colleagues continue to be consumed with infighting, bickering
02:44
over the bill's substance, and for good reason.
02:47
We have a process here which is almost impossible to explain to an ordinary person of how we reach
02:54
reconciliation.
02:56
The parliamentarian's office, and she's sitting here, God bless you for what you've been through
03:00
for the last several months and all your staff, have to make decisions on a daily basis over
03:06
and over again as to whether or not provisions of this bill are eligible under the law that
03:11
governs the United States Senate.
03:14
We're in the process of debating this on the Senate floor.
03:17
I see our ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, the senator from Oregon.
03:23
We're in the process of still appealing to the parliamentarian's office on provisions in
03:30
the bill.
03:30
This is truly a work in progress.
03:33
I think what they do know is troubling, and it should be.
03:38
This bill would be a disaster for hospitals.
03:43
The Senate Republican bill, unfortunately, is going to endanger hospitals all over the
03:48
United States, but if you happen to live in a small town, rural area, and I represent
03:55
a lot of them in the state of Illinois, you're the most vulnerable.
03:59
You are the target.
04:00
When they cut back on Medicaid programs, these are the hospitals that will close their doors.
04:06
What's the impact of a hospital closing its door in a downstate community in Illinois?
04:10
Devastating.
04:12
Hospitals are not only the center for emergency medical care, good doctors, nurses, and such.
04:20
They are also a major economic force in small town America.
04:25
Take away a hospital and then try to attract a new business to your community.
04:29
Good luck.
04:30
This Senate bill cripples one of the main ways that states fund their Medicaid programs and
04:35
keep hospitals afloat, especially rural and low-income areas.
04:39
It's called the provider tax.
04:42
Earlier this week, a Republican senator circulated a flyer to his fellow caucus members, so they're
04:50
all on notice, detailing just how much each state will lose in Medicaid provider tax funding
04:57
under their proposal.
05:00
Let's take a look at my neck of the woods, the Midwest.
05:03
Iowa would lose $4.1 billion.
05:08
Missouri, $6.1 billion.
05:11
Kentucky, $12 billion.
05:14
Louisiana would lose $20 billion.
05:18
North Carolina, $38.9 billion.
05:23
Senator Tillis and I were in conversation yesterday, and he used that very same figure.
05:29
His analysis says that to go forward with this bill, cuts Medicaid reimbursement in his
05:35
home state of North Carolina by a whopping $38.9 billion.
05:42
This list of states and what they will lose was passed around by a Republican senator to
05:49
his own caucus.
05:50
They know what they're up against here.
05:53
If Republicans have their way and pass this bill, hospitals will be forced to shrink or
05:57
eliminate services.
05:59
In Decatur, Illinois, one of the major hospitals facing the crunch time had to make a decision
06:05
whether they keep their doors open.
06:07
They did, but they eliminated OB-GYN, delivering babies, and they eliminated all mental health and
06:14
addiction counseling, two critical areas for the hospitals.
06:19
So these doctors, pardon me, this bill will force hospitals to shrink or eliminate services.
06:26
Doctors and nurses will leave, and in some cases, the hospital will close.
06:31
Imagine that in a rural area, a remote area, an extra 45 minutes, an extra hour in the car
06:38
with somebody in the front seat you love very much who's in a desperate situation.
06:44
As it stands today, half of the rural hospitals around the country already operate in a danger
06:50
zone.
06:51
And it's the same thing for children's hospitals.
06:53
Do you have one in your community that you've used?
06:56
I do.
06:58
These children's hospitals have warned us they can't keep their doors open if Medicaid
07:01
is cut as dramatically as the Republicans want to cut it.
07:05
If Republicans have their way, we're going to see massive layoffs.
07:10
Fewer nurses, technicians, and doctors, along with decreasing quality of care.
07:15
The American Hospital Association has estimated how these cuts to Medicaid could impact not
07:20
just jobs at red state hospitals, but across the entire economy.
07:26
Here's what they found.
07:28
If the Republican provision goes through that cuts Medicaid reimbursement in order to provide
07:33
tax breaks for wealthy people, Maine, as an example, one state, would lose 5,000 jobs.
07:40
Kansas, 6,200 jobs.
07:44
Iowa, 11,000 jobs.
07:46
Missouri, 26,600 jobs.
07:50
I've talked to the administrator of BJC in St. Louis, Missouri.
07:55
The reason is it's not just a Missouri hospital.
07:58
They have their facilities on the Illinois side of the river.
08:01
In fact, one-third of their patients are from Illinois, and one-third of their patients
08:06
overall use Medicaid to go to their hospital.
08:10
So he's told me what's going to happen if the Republican measure goes through and the
08:14
cutbacks to these hospitals.
08:17
They came up with, incidentally, the Rescue Fund to solve the political problem.
08:23
I want to check and make sure Senator Murray can back me up on this.
08:26
Our overall cut in Medicaid now is about a trillion dollars.
08:32
One trillion dollars, imagine, this is Washington, we talk in those terms.
08:37
Cutting Medicaid nationwide a trillion dollars.
08:40
And the rescue plan for the small hospitals that are in danger, the ones that I've talked
08:44
about, a trillion dollars cut, how big is the rescue plan?
08:48
Twenty-five billion dollars.
08:51
Do the math.
08:52
It's a joke.
08:53
It is a joke.
08:56
If Republican leaders think this is an adequate amount to alleviate pain, all of our nation's
09:01
hospitals are going to feel, then that's like trying to put on a forest fire with a garden
09:06
hose.
09:07
This simply won't work.
09:08
I want to conclude by saying this.
09:11
We passed the Affordable Care Act 15 years ago.
09:13
Of all the things that I've worked on in Congress, I think it had more positive impact to help
09:19
the families across America than anything.
09:22
We found a way to make health insurance more affordable for families 15 years ago.
09:27
And to do it, we held hearings, 100 hearings on the Affordable Care Act.
09:32
Obamacare is what they called it, roundtables, walkthroughs.
09:36
Two committees spent a combined 21 days holding markups so that everyone could offer an amendment.
09:42
Do you know how many amendments were made to the Obamacare program?
09:48
400.
09:49
400 votes in committee and on the floor on amendments.
09:53
147 Republican amendments were included, though not a single Republican senator ended up supporting
10:00
Obamacare when it was all over.
10:02
What do we have here with this measure?
10:04
At the end of the day, that legislation, Obamacare, allowed more than 40 million Americans to gain
10:11
health insurance.
10:12
Today, how many hearings have we had on the bill that's before us, this dramatic multi-trillion
10:17
dollar bill?
10:19
None.
10:20
Zero.
10:21
Not a single one.
10:23
Zero markups for senators to offer amendments.
10:27
400 amendments on Obamacare.
10:30
None on this one until it comes to the floor today.
10:34
Zero bipartisan input.
10:37
Our friends on the Republican side have said, basically, it's a big deal.
10:40
Take it or leave it.
10:43
Should this bill become a law, do you know what we'll have done?
10:45
Thrown 16 million Americans off health insurance and closed many vulnerable small hospitals.
10:52
All to pay for tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.
10:56
Maybe some of my Republicans are okay with that.
10:58
I don't think the American people are.
11:00
I'm hoping that sanity and common sense prevail.
11:02
We need four.
11:04
We need four senators to step up and say, stop this train.
11:08
We've got to sit down and do our homework.
11:11
We cannot expose the American families and the American economy to do this in the name
11:16
of preserving tax breaks for the wealthiest people.
11:20
Elon Musk seems to be doing okay in life, right?
11:23
The wealthiest man in the world.
11:25
Do you know what the tax break is for Elon Musk on the bill that's before us on the floor?
11:30
$346,000.
11:32
A lot of money.
11:33
To him, he won't even notice it.
11:35
Giving him a tax break, he won't notice and taking away health insurance from families
11:40
who will be devastated, 16 million around the country.
11:43
It's an important choice and it's one we should make the right one.
11:46
I yield the floor.
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