Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Georgia for the recognition. Colleagues, the new CBO score is out on, I guess, version 4.5 or 5.5--it is hard to keep track of the bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act--and nothing has changed. This proposal, which is a moral and intellectual dumpster fire, is still a disaster. Here is what the CBO says about the bill that is currently being reworked behind closed doors by my Republican colleagues. The CBO says that, immediately, 15 million people would lose coverage by next year. That is a humanitarian catastrophe. It is something this country has never witnessed before--that number of people losing coverage in that short a period of time. Our emergency rooms would be overwhelmed as they would be unable to deal with the scope of that kind of humanitarian need. Ultimately, the number would rise to 22 million at the end of the 10-year window. We know it will be far bigger than that in the second 10 years because that is when the worst of the Medicaid cuts will happen, but 22 million is a lot of folks. It is no different than in the previous version, which was 23 million, or in the House's bill, which somehow got a majority vote in that place despite 24 million people losing health insurance, according to the CBO. Today, 90 percent of Americans are covered by health insurance. The CBO says that number will go all the way down to 82 percent.…”