For Friday’s Democratic Weekly Address, Senate Democrats released a montage of members criticizing the Senate GOP healthcare bill, during which Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) said as Republicans try to get more votes, “we’ve got to try to garner more public outrage.”
Transcript as Follows:
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI): “We know that the Senate Majority is still focused on passing a bill that will raise costs for all Americans, that will lower the health care coverage and medical care for many, many, many tens of millions of people, and the great insult of this whole debate is that the savings being used will be giving a tax cut for wealthiest few Americans, which does not represent real American values, certainly in my judgment.”
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO): “The idea that we’re on the one hand cutting taxes massively for the richest people in America and paying for it by slashing Medicaid, health care for poor people, makes absolutely no sense to me or anybody that comes to my town halls.”
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM): “The massive Medicaid cuts and the waivers for essential benefits in the Republican bill would reverse many of the gains that we have made in states over the last few years, and it’s important to say that grant dollars will not fix the devastating blow that defunding Medicaid would have on our treatment options. You wouldn’t treat cancer with a grant, and we shouldn’t be reliant on grants to treat the epidemic of opioid abuse in our country.”
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH): “The various versions we’ve seen of Trumpcare would make things worse for most Americans whether you currently get your insurance through your employer whether you buy it individually or whether you have Medicaid – if you buy your own insurance you could have to pay more for your coverage, Trumpcare establishes an age tax which would be especially harmful if you are between the ages of 50 and 64.”
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT): “Look it’s been said before the ACA is not perfect, and it can it could use some, it could use some amendment, but to replace it with this bill is about the most irresponsible thing I’ve ever seen since and then 10 years I’ve been in the United States Senate. To have a bill that was done in a back room with a limited number of people to give input with probably a lot of cigars and steak and whiskey involved is a bunch of garbage.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI): “There’s a word in Hawaii that we apply to this kind of flim flammery: it’s called ‘shibai,’ meaning that you put something out and you call it something when it’s really the opposite. This is not a health care bill that’s going to help the people in our country. And let’s not forget that there’s a huge tax cut for the richest people in our country with both the House and the Senate version of these bills. This tax cut is on the backs of the poorest, sickest, oldest people in our country. It is unconscionable.”
Booker: “As they try to whip votes, we’ve got to rally people. As they try to garner more votes, we’ve got to try to garner more public outrage. As they try to line up more Republican Senators, we’ve got to wake up some more American people!”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): “At the end of the day, the people who are going to be able to stop Republicans from doing this are going to be the constituents. We just want to make sure that Senate Republicans are actually listening, and so we want to make sure that these voices are elevated as much as possible so that they can break through because we had them put together the bill in hiding, many of those Republicans are in hiding now. They don’t want to answer questions. They need to hear from their constituents, and that’s part of what this is all about.”
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI): “And I won’t stop fighting to protect the health care that people have today. Together, we must stand up for Zoe, fight for her family, and fight for every American who lays awake wondering if the health care they have today will be there tomorrow. Fight on.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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