Government Funding

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, as my colleague from Delaware just noted, we are here today because Republicans have created a healthcare crisis for millions of Americans. And like the Senator from Delaware, I am someone that works across the aisle all of the time. I have one of the best records for bipartisan bills, and I think that is an important part of our governing, and that is to find common ground.

You don't always pick your neighbors, but you find a way to live next to your neighbors. You find a way to work with them. And what is so unfortunate about what is going on tonight is that it didn't happen here. There was no crossing over the fence with some coffee for the neighbors to try to have a meeting, to try to work this out.

In fact, it was Senator Schumer and Leader Jeffries who had to request time and time again--that got canceled on--a meeting with the President.

There is still time to continue to negotiate, but not if they are just going to say: Hey, this healthcare thing, it is not a problem. Maybe we can deal with it in December.

First off, who would believe that when Donald Trump just says one thing one day or posts something on Truth Social, and then everyone changes what they agreed to, which has happened time and time again. So that is one reason it is not reality unless he is at the table.

No. 2, it is not reality because this is not a December problem. This is not a January problem. This is a now problem. November 1, that is when people start reenrolling--a whole bunch of small businesses, 20 million people, more than a quarter of the farmers in this country, who are already facing, as one of my farmers said to me last week, ``a perfect storm of ugly.'' That is about the tariffs. That is about their input costs with fertilizer, and that is about their personal healthcare costs--``a perfect storm of ugly.''

When you are in a big storm in Minnesota, you don't just go outside, hold an umbrella, and think: Maybe it will go away. You do something about it then. You take cover then. You help people take cover then.

That is not what they are doing with this vote tonight.

We have a bill that would help millions of Americans sleep easier. We are still dealing with the tariffs. We are still going to push on that, which has led to all of these grocery cost increases. We see what is happening with the electricity cost increase.

Costs are up. Chaos is up. And corruption is up.

But there is one thing we can do, and that is one of the biggest cost drivers when we look at inflation, and that is healthcare.

So let's start with how we got here. We know that over 110 million Americans depend on Medicare and Medicaid--110 million. These programs cover everything from hospital visits to lifesaving prescriptions to the long-term care that allows seniors to remain in their homes.

And these programs, along with Social Security and SNAP, which is the nutrition program, have driven poverty among seniors, for years, to record lows. The best poverty-fighting program there is: Medicare, Medicaid.

But the budget that congressional Republicans passed earlier this summer, without our votes--again, they didn't listen to us--makes the biggest cut in history to Medicare and Medicaid. That is right--the biggest cut in history, while all of these other costs are going up. Their budget cut Medicaid by over a trillion dollars and will trigger more than $500 billion in Medicare cuts.

How does that happen? Well, the debt is so high from that bill because of the trillion dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and the trillion dollars in tax cuts and giveaways for corporations that it actually automatically triggered $500 billion in Medicare cuts on hospitals.

So when we go, as we did--our Members on the Democratic side--last week and met with people in hospitals and patients and doctors and nurses, we heard about that. We heard about the 15 million Americans who are going to get shoved off their healthcare.

But the one thing they could have done--and they voted against it once, but we know behind closed doors they are very interested in doing something about this--it is the tax credits to help people afford their health insurance. Without these tax credits, more than 20 million Americans will see their premiums skyrocket.

A Kaiser study, just today, came out: double the premiums--double the premiums.

That is why one of my hospitals told me: Look, of course Medicaid hits us hard. Of course, Medicare does. But so many of our patients and the people who visit our clinic are on MNsure--that is the Affordable Care Act plan in my State--that, if this happens, a whole bunch of them won't be able to afford it. Then they are going to show up in our emergency rooms. They are going to show up without insurance. They are not going to get the surgeries that they need, and they are not going to do their doctor's visits.

That is why you are seeing some Republicans--some overtly--saying: We have got to do something about this.

They shouldn't be talking about off-ramps. They should be talking about how to get their constituents off a cliff.

Earlier this year, we marked the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid. As we look back at this monumental achievement, we should be strengthening healthcare in the country, not undermining it.

We made progress, right? Capping out-of-pocket costs, passing my bill to allow Medicare to finally negotiate for better prices, making healthcare more affordable. But we should be building on that progress because the status quo is not OK for people right now. We should be building on that progress by making improvements to these programs, not making them harder.

So we are all calling on our Republican colleagues to pass our bill. And if they can bring themselves do that, or at least to sit in a room and negotiate and actually get this done--the President prides himself in the ``art of the deal.'' Well, show us the deal. Don't say you don't need our votes because you just found out tonight that you do.

They need our colleagues to stop taking cues from a guy who, after a meeting about one of the most important moments in his Presidency, puts out a deepfake video--offensive, making fun of the leaders. Who does that? What other President has done something like that when they are actually in a negotiation? This isn't political theater.

These are real people, like the woman at Senator Shaheen spotlight hearing today, who was from Maine, and she is going to talk to her doctor and literally met with her doctor to say: OK, I can't afford these increases. So how do I manage to ration my medication for MS?

And the doctor said: It doesn't work like that. The pressure will build in your brain.

Well, I hope the pressure from the public when they see what is going on is going to build. And we are starting to see it all over the country right now. This is not the time to just accept the status quo and say we can't do anything about it while our constituents are going off that premium cliff.

So maybe the President needs to get out and talk to that farmer whose soybean market has dried up and who now is not going to be able to afford his health insurance, and see that ``perfect storm of ugly.'' He is not going to meet those people on the golf course at Mar-a-Lago. I can tell you that. He needs to get out there.

And it is time to start taking cues and listen to real people and not memes and not deepfake videos. This is not a joke.

Our bill is a path forward, and we ask them to come to the table and negotiate with us.

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