Cory Booker: “``Chuck'' is OK. We came together, and we said: This is a time for Medicaid expansion. It was to say to a woman: You…”

“``Chuck'' is OK. We came together, and we said: This is a time for Medicaid expansion. It was to say to a woman: You don't just get 60 days postpartum; we are going to expand that beyond 60 days. State after State--red and blue States--said: You are right. This is a crisis. That which should be the happiest period of a woman's life is the most devastating with women hemorrhaging and dying. We began to treat that. Now what is the threat? The threat is that they are going to cut these things that we did to help more people, to stop more folks from dying. And here is the trick: You know this battle well. I wasn't here, Chuck. You were here, and I know my chief of staff was on your staff, writing this in. This is why you all said: We are going to try to incentivize States to expand Medicare. We are going to cover 90 percent of the costs. I still don't understand why some States--talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face--said no. In my State, the Republican Governor said: Heck, yes. Sign New Jersey up. But many of those States have this automatic trigger that if the funding is cut--even if they say we are not going to cut $880 billion, just $250 billion--well, that is going to trigger many States to give up that Medicare expansion and go back to the days where millions upon millions of Americans don't have coverage at all.…”