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Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, let me bring up what I heard the minority leader say yesterday. Yesterday, he came to this floor, and when he left the floor, he went out to hold a press conference. At that point, the minority leader bragged--bragged--that the Democrats were introducing a bill to repeal the entire healthcare section of the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Here is what the minority leader won't tell you: The Democrats' plan would eliminate--completely eliminate--the $50 billion designated for rural hospitals all across our country. The minority leader will not tell you that or anything about it because he prefers to focus on fear rather than the facts.

Republicans created this rural hospital fund because rural hospitals are in trouble.

In the last decade since ObamaCare became law, over 100 rural hospitals across the country have closed. Only 10 new ones have opened. Hundreds more are now at risk of closing due to the financial strain. The $50 billion rural hospital fund was created to address just this crisis. Every single Democrat voted against helping rural hospitals. Now they want to eliminate the fund designed to help our rural hospitals regardless of the damage that it will do to healthcare all across America. With their actions yesterday here in the U.S. Senate, Democrats would make our healthcare system weaker--weaker--for those who need it the most.

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