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Floor Speech
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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I thank Senator Schumer for his historic leadership on this issue. He has framed it perfectly for this Chamber and for the American people to understand what is at stake in our country in the year 2025.
A little more than 100 years ago, life expectancy in the United States of America was 48 years of age--48. We had gone from the Garden of Eden to a little more than 100 years ago, and life expectancy was still 48 years of age.
Then what happened? Well, then, because of the progressive movement, programs started to be put on the books--vaccines, public health interventions, NIH research on diseases, but big programs got put on the books as well.
In 1935, Social Security passed. It is an income supplement for old people in our country. When it passed, life expectancy was 61 years of age in the United States--1935. Who voted no? Republicans, in 1935. Why did they vote no? For billionaires and millionaires of that era that didn't want to help with the healthcare for everyone in our country.
In 1965, we voted in the Senate for passage of Medicare and Medicaid. What was the life expectancy then? Seventy years of age. Who were the ``no'' votes? Republicans here, voting against Medicare and Medicaid.
Today, life expectancy is 78 years of age; 30 years of bonus life for the average American in a little over 100 years because of all of these programs.
Now, what have the Republicans done? The Republicans have decided-- because of their ancient animosity toward Medicare and Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and NIH funding for research for cancer and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's--to slash all of those programs. They finally have a chance, with Donald Trump, to listen to the billionaires of the thirties and the sixties and fulfill their dream where we cut the programs for ordinary families in our country. And they just did it a month ago.
Those cuts go right to the heart of what it is that makes the Democratic Party fundamentally different from the Republican Party, and that is our interest in and our passion for the healthcare of every American. The Republicans have opposed these programs throughout their entire history.
Donald Trump is right at the front of the line, always questioning whether or not we should be supporting Medicare, Medicaid; whether or not we should be supporting the community health centers, supporting rural hospitals. Donald Trump has always been at the front of the line saying: Absolutely not. And the Republicans are following him all the way.
And even when some Republicans say that they have some questions about it, like in ``The Godfather,'' part 1, they got an offer they couldn't refuse; and the ones that refused it, they can't even run for office next year because Trump has already taken them out. And what was it over? Medicaid. It was over Medicare. It was over the Affordable Care Act and making sure all of those healthcare programs are there for everyone in our society.
So, today, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the passage of Medicare and Medicaid that Lyndon Johnson brought to the American people.
I will give you a few numbers. Right now in our country, 72 million Americans benefit from Medicaid--72 million. Eighteen million people with disabilities in our country are on Medicaid. They need the program. They have disabilities. And 37 million children in the United States are on Medicaid. That is 50 percent of the kids in the United States. Fourteen million kids with special needs are on Medicaid in our country, right now.
And the Republicans, on the floor of the Senate, slashed all those programs. Kids with special needs, adults with disabilities, 37 million kids--they just slashed it. And by the way, it is just a promise to billionaires and millionaires who want their money back.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said that health is the first wealth. So that is what Medicare and Medicaid, what Social Security, what the Affordable Care Act, what NIH funding for research for cancer and diabetes and Alzheimer's--that is what it is. It is providing the first wealth-- health--to everyone.
What the Republicans are doing--they have already done it--is they are looting the money for all those programs--all of them--to give it over to the billionaires, and it will lead to a complete and total devastation of the healthcare system in our country that we have built over the last two generations.
Millions of people have relied on Medicare and Medicaid to access the healthcare that they need. Yet, sadly, my Republican colleagues and Donald Trump have marked this milestone of the 60th anniversary by signing into law unprecedented cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.
By the way, I didn't get to know any of my grandparents. It was a foreign concept to my brothers and I. These programs hadn't kicked in yet to extend their life expectancy. The whole concept of a grandparent is completely alien to me. Not today, thank goodness, for young people in our country, but not after the Republicans have just passed the laws that are going to gut the programs that have allowed Grandma or Grandpa to live longer--much longer. They are gutting those programs. They don't really care about Grandma and Grandpa. They don't care if they are kicked out of nursing homes, even if they have Alzheimer's. They don't care. If you kick them in the heart, you are going to break your toe.
And that is who the Republicans have been all the way back to Social Security, since 1935. That is who they are as a party. They don't care. And life expectancy is going to start to go down and down and down and down in our Nation, which is their plan. They never liked the whole idea of funding these programs in the first place.
By the way, here are the numbers; it is unbelievable: $900 billion cut out of Medicaid. That is 10 million people who are going to be cut off the program. And they are going to gut the healthcare, ultimately, if you take all of the programs combined, of 72 million people. Two million of them are in Massachusetts, but it is huge. And they are known in different States in different ways. It is MassHealth. It is Healthy Louisiana. It is MaineCare, TennCare, KanCare. But one in five Americans rely upon Medicaid for the funding for their healthcare. And without Medicaid, it is just not there.
And Trump and Republicans are also stealing from a program that pays for half of all nursing care in our country. And by the way, 70 percent of the people in nursing homes, right: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. We call them Grandma and Grandpa. These guys just assaulted that program, the Medicaid Program. And it is just absolutely unconscionable what they are doing.
So this bill is also going to add $3.4 trillion to the Federal deficit because they gave more in the tax breaks to the billionaires than they actually cut in these programs. That is how greedy the billionaires in our country are right now who are the supporters of Donald Trump.
And I have just heard from so many of my constituents who are terrified at what the implications are for the healthcare of their family, of their loved ones, of their children. It is just absolutely unbelievable.
A constituent shared that her best friend with a permanent disability counts on Medicaid support to ensure that she has a wheelchair for mobility and can receive assistance to continue independent living. Republicans have cut that program. They have cut that Medicaid Program. They are going to take away oxygen tanks from nursing home residents, wheelchairs from kids across the country, just to give tax breaks to the megawealthy.
Again, the Republican Party harbors an ancient animosity toward all of these programs going back to 1935. This was their moment. The ``Billionaire Boys Club'' comes together: Give us back all our money that has been used to extend the life expectancy by 30 years for all those people who don't deserve it--meaning all of the regular families in our country. It is just a direct assault upon them.
And it is not just the people who are on Medicaid who will suffer from these cuts. Hospitals, healthcare centers, nursing homes, they are all going to be forced to close across our country. The funding that keeps them open is Medicaid; it is Medicare. That is what pays for the bills for each and every one of those institutions.
It is going to be harder for families to find a pediatrician, harder for people to get mental health care, harder for seniors to get care as they age. Providers will lose their jobs. Families will lose access to care. And as millions more Americans lose their health insurance, skip appointments, ration medications, the billionaires who can afford concierge medicine will get another handout from the Federal taxpayers. The rich will get richer, and the sick will get sicker in our country, and it is going to increase the Federal deficit by $3.4 trillion.
It is almost unbelievable how irresponsible Trump and his billionaire buddies are, and the Republicans all went all in--all went all in. But it makes sense because that is who their party is. Their party is the party of the rich, and they have never supported the programs that help regular people get access to healthcare. So it is their roots. It is the Republican Party.
And Medicare, by the way, is going to be cut by $500 billion over the next 10 years. That is Grandma and Grandpa. They are on Medicare. They cut it by $500 billion just a month ago. And again, it is going to add trillions to the deficit.
So let me just say it again. The ``Big Ugly Bill'' is going to trigger $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, the program that over 67 million Americans are dependent upon. And most of them are called Grandma and Grandpa. Their programs get slashed, the programs that have kept them alive for preceding generations. My grandparents didn't stay alive. That is what they are doing: They are lowering the life expectancy of Grandma and Grandpa in this country. And those cuts start right away with the $45 billion cut next year.
So it goes without saying that Medicare is popular, Medicare is successful, Medicare is absolutely necessary. So this is an incredible moment in our history. People deserve more than being afraid to take an ambulance because they are worried how much it will cost. They deserve more than rationing their medication because they just can't afford the next dose. Americans deserve more.
Healthcare should be affordable to all, and everyone should be able to get the healthcare that they need.
And here are the numbers. According to Yale University--Yale University--51,000 people a year are going to die because they won't have access to the preventive care that is in all of these programs. That is a half a million people every decade are going to die early because they don't get access to the healthcare they need.
That is all on the Republican Party, and, by the way, they never cared anyway. They never cared about those families. They never cared about those people. They never care about the impact on the rest of the family when people die a premature death. It is 500,000 people, according to Yale University, that will die because of these cuts.
So this is an incredible moment in time. Every American deserves the basic dignity of access to high-quality healthcare, and we are not going to allow this fundamental assault on Medicare and Medicaid to stand. We got knocked down a month ago, but we are not knocked out. We are going to get up, we are going to fight, and we are going to win in the same way the preceding generations got up and fought and won against the Republican assault on the healthcare of families in our country.
The fight is on, and it is for the well-being and health of every family in our country.
I thank you, Mr. President. Again, it is so great to be here with Senator Schumer and Senator Blumenthal and my great friend, the leader from the great State of Rhode Island, my friend Senator Whitehouse.
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