On the recordMarch 21, 2017
There is kind of a rather ridiculous healthcare bill that this body may or may not be considering soon. First of all, it creates an entirely new entitlement program at the State level rather than the Federal level. Second of all, in an unrelated matter, it provides huge tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires--mostly in New York and California--which has nothing to do with making health care affordable. I mean, it is fine. Republicans want to do that. We get that. They always want to cut taxes for millionaires, but don't put it in the same bill as we are here trying to provide health care for people and bring down our insurance rates. Third of all, this bill that is supposed to somehow help is going to increase insurance costs to American families by 15 to 20 percent. Most families can't afford that, and 24 million people will lose their insurance. So there is just no way, shape, or form that this bill makes any sense. There are a lot of positive improvements and suggestions that we can make to the Affordable Care Act. There are a lot of great ideas with us providing a public option, more pricing transparency, a lot of great ideas that probably Democrats and Republicans support; but, frankly, they missed the mark on this bill. These aren't ideas that Democrats or Republicans support, because they are bad ideas that cost families money. ____________________
