On the recordApril 2, 2019
I thank Mr. Garamendi for once again setting aside time to talk about the issues that affect the lives of people across this country. I want to start by saying that the contrast between Republicans and Democrats on this issue of healthcare could not be any clearer. As the gentleman has described in his discussion of the ongoing legal case down south, Republicans and the Trump administration want to make Americans sick again. They want to eliminate protections for people with preexisting conditions. Let me just stop there. This Nation was built on a morality that we held very deeply in this country. But, to me, it feels like it has been torn apart, is falling apart, that we do not care about people who find themselves in circumstances that they did not create on their own, that they should alone be left, because of a preexisting condition, not to be afforded healthcare. That is unconscionable. That is profiteering at its worst. It deeply upsets me that we find ourselves turning our backs on our brothers and our sisters, our mothers and our fathers, and our aunts and our uncles in this country to say, no, because you have an illness, we cannot protect you and give you insurance. It is unconscionable. They want to take the United States backward, and they are weaponizing the courts to do what they failed to do in Congress: repeal the Affordable Care Act. I arrived here in 2012, and the Affordable Care Act was already the law of the land.…
