On the recordMarch 24, 2017
We face a truly historic day today in the United States Congress. For the first time in our Nation's history, we have a Congress working with an administration offering the American people a healthcare reform bill that, instead of reducing the number of uninsured in this country, increases the uninsured by 24 million people, including 431,000 in my home State of Wisconsin. And we understand why. It is a simple explanation. This is a tax cut bill for the most wealthy in the guise of healthcare reform. That is unfortunate because it is a missed opportunity of fixing what isn't currently working in the healthcare system. If we wanted to be honest with the American people today, we would admit that there are important, good features of the Affordable Care Act that should remain and we should not end. But there are things that need to be fixed, and we have to stay focused on reducing healthcare costs for all Americans. Let's continue to work on delivery system reform and payment reform so we get better results at a better price. But a bill before us that increases the uninsured by 24 million, that delivers huge tax breaks to the most wealthy, that applies a new older American tax, especially in rural areas like mine in Wisconsin, and that robs money from the Medicare trust fund is not only a missed opportunity, it is bad legislation. I encourage my colleagues to vote ``no.'' We can do better. We must do better.
