Establishing the Congressional Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2025 and Setting Forth the Appropriate Budgetary Levels for Fiscal Years 2026 Through 2034

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Ms. BALDWIN. Madam President, I rise today on behalf of the 1.2 million Wisconsinites who rely on Medicaid--or as we call it in Wisconsin, BadgerCare--for their health insurance. And I rise today in their defense because their healthcare is under attack.

I really want to focus right now kind of taking off where Senator Durbin left off talking about our children, our babies. One in three children in Wisconsin rely on Medicare for their life insurance. That is one in three children in Wisconsin's urban, suburban, and rural counties who need Medicaid just to see a doctor to get regular checkups or to get vaccines and to stay healthy.

I have traveled across Wisconsin, meeting with constituents who are terrified about what these cuts will mean for their families, their finances, and their health. I would like to share a few of those stories with you this evening.

I think about people like Megan from Wisconsin, a single mother of two young children who relies on Medicaid so that her kids can get regular check-ups to see the dentist. She reached out to me to share that without Medicaid, her entire paycheck would go to just keeping her children healthy--with nothing left over to pay for rent or keep food on the table.

I heard from Shelley in Lake Holcombe, WI, who reached out to me about her 17-year-old daughter Chloe. Chloe was diagnosed with leukemia last October. Chloe receives chemotherapy 5 days a week, and her parents drive her almost an hour each way to Eau Claire, WI, so that she can get the treatments that she needs. Without Medicaid, the cost of Chloe's treatment would force Shelley and parents like her to make an impossible choice between financial ruin or not getting the care that they need for their children.

I have also heard from dozens of Wisconsin families whose children live with disabilities. They are terrified of what financial cuts will mean for their kids' future and their family's finances.

Jennifer in Wauwatosa wrote to my office about her son Will. Will is a 15-year-old sophomore at Wauwatosa West whom she described as vibrant and loving. Will also has Down syndrome which, among other medical care, has meant that he has needed a total of 11 ear tube surgeries just so that he can hear. Jennifer wrote me that the math on those costs to their family is pretty simple. Eleven surgeries which cost $10,000 each, without insurance, would cost her family $110,000. She said without Medicaid, she and her husband would struggle to give their children the lives they deserve, including paying for their other son's college tuition.

She wrote:

If Medicaid is cut, we will struggle financially. We will not be able to get Will the support he needs to be independent, get a job, and go to college. It could even mean one of us having to leave our full-time employment which could hurt even more. Please don't cut Medicaid.

I also heard from Brooke in Thorp, WI. She shared that because of Medicaid and the speech therapy for her 4-year-old son that he receives, she has, for the first time this year, heard his voice utter more than one syllable.

Imagine that.

She wrote:

It marks the first time I have been called Mom by him, and I have heard ``I love you'' come from him three times--all occurring in the last 12 months. He receives speech therapy five days a week to learn how to express himself, [to] process emotions, and [to] regulate. This has changed his life. And these therapies are paid for by Medicaid. Don't allow people like me to only hear ``love you'' a handful of times simply because of a budget cut.

We can talk about the number of children who will be impacted by cuts to Medicaid, a total of over 30 million nationwide. While that number is staggering, it is important to remember that every single child who relies on Medicaid has a story like Chloe's or Will's. And they have parents like Megan and Brooke who just want what is best for their children and are terrified about their future if Medicaid is taken away.

If my colleagues on the Republican side want to go through with cuts--the ones laid out in the House's budget plan--it is these families Republicans must answer to.

Donald Trump and congressional Republicans can explain why they are planning to rip away healthcare for children so that the top 1 percent can get richer.

I, for one, would like them to answer for the chaos, for the fear, for the heartache that they are causing families in my State.

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