On the recordSeptember 14, 2017
the most important words in our Constitution are the first three words: ``We the People.'' That is the mission statement for the United States of America. It is written in big, bold, beautiful letters so that even from across the room, if you can't read the details, you know what our Nation is all about. As President Lincoln summarized, a Nation ``of the people, by the people, for the people.'' What we have seen this year is quite an assault on this vision of government of, by, and for the people. It came in the form of President Trump's plan to rip healthcare from millions of Americans in order to deliver billions of dollars to the very richest among us--plan after plan, version after version, wiping out healthcare for 24 million, wiping out healthcare for 23 million, wiping out healthcare for 32 million, and so on and so forth, always over 20 million, and always delivering this enormous gift of hundreds of billions of dollars to the richest Americans. You look at this from a little bit of distance, and it is just incredible to imagine that this could have occurred--that any member, a single member of our Nation would possibly have supported such an outrageous, diabolical, dangerous, damaging plan to the quality of life for so many people across our Nation. It wasn't just that it ripped healthcare from more than 20 million people. It wasn't just that it delivered billions of dollars to the wealthiest among us.…





