On the recordNovember 30, 2017
Mr. President, another troubling aspect of this bill is the inclusion of a provision to repeal a key part of the Affordable Care Act that would kick 13 million--13 million--people off of their insurance by 2027 and increase the individual market premiums by 10 percent. We should be helping with the premiums, not increasing the premiums. This means less money in the pockets of American middle-class families--less money to save for retirement, less money for college. That is what we are talking about here. The American people, in fact, want us to work together to make fixes to the Affordable Care Act. That is what we did just about a month and a half ago. The Alexander-Murray bill--12 Republicans, 12 Democratic cosponsors, and I am one of them--that bill is sitting out there. Yet, without even considering that, what does this bill do? It gets rid of the individual mandate. Senators Alexander and Murray held a series of hearings and discussions on commonsense solutions. They actually had a hearing on their committee. They had Governors come in, Democrats and Republicans together, and that is how they put that product together. It is a model for how we can put a bill together. Instead of that kind of bipartisan approach, this tax bill not only repeals an important part of the Affordable Care Act, but it would lead to hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, hurting our seniors.…





