Maggie Hassan: “I want to thank my colleague from Wisconsin, Senator Baldwin, for such excellent, poignant, moving descriptions of the…”

“I want to thank my colleague from Wisconsin, Senator Baldwin, for such excellent, poignant, moving descriptions of the real cost of this budget plan that we are on the floor to consider tonight. I rise today to join my colleagues and the people of New Hampshire in standing up against the attempt by the Trump administration and some of my Republican colleagues to effectively end Medicaid as we know it and add $37 trillion over the next 30 years to our national debt, all in order to pay for more tax giveaways for corporate special interests and billionaires. Americans of every political stripe are alarmed because this bid to end Medicaid as we know it will lead to more families, more children becoming sick and unable to get care, and because ending Medicaid as we know it will devastate our economy, weaken our workforce, and, most of all, make our people less free. Medicaid is a pillar of America's healthcare system. Tens of millions of Americans, including working Americans, pregnant women, and millions of children depend on Medicaid every day for routine care, for treatment for chronic illnesses, for lifesaving care from serious illnesses, for treatment for addiction, and for much more. No legislation has done more to allow more Americans to live longer and healthier lives than the bills that established Medicaid and Medicare and the efforts that followed to strengthen both of these landmark laws.…”