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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, let me just start by giving our lawless President and OMB Director a little primer on the letter of the law because this morning, we learned they are plotting to try to rob furloughed Federal workers of backpay at the end of this shutdown.

This flies in the face of the plain text of the law, which could not be more clear. President Trump should actually know this. He has caused more shutdowns than any other President, after all, and he signed the law that guaranteed their pay. It is not new, it is not surprising, and, in fact, OPM guidance that the administration actually issued last month reaffirmed that furloughed employees will be paid.

Trump doesn't get to change the rules and rob workers just because he is worried his shutdown is backfiring. Scaring and intimidating workers will not work. He is not fooling anyone.

I know Republican leaders desperately want to ignore the looming healthcare crisis they caused. They have put their heads in the sand for months. They have spun wild lies to try to bury the truth, and they are hoping people stop talking about it. But every day, that gets just harder because every day, another warning light goes off showing just how devastating it will be if Republicans refuse to extend the ACA tax credits and let people's premiums skyrocket.

A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 7 out of 10 families would not be able to afford their coverage if premiums doubled, and 4 in 10 would likely just go uninsured. That means that people will skip their basic care, they will skimp on their prescriptions, and they will miss lifesaving treatments. The hard reality is that people will die-- people who otherwise would have sought the care they needed.

To every Republican who thinks they can keep sitting on their hands and waiting this out, you need to understand this is not some distant crisis you can ignore. Premiums are being locked in right now. Letters are going out to families announcing shocking price increases this month. In Idaho, open enrollment actually starts next week.

How is that not urgent to every Republican who keeps trying to say ``We can talk about this later''? ``Later'' is simply too late.

By the way, why wouldn't Republican leaders talk about this earlier? We have been asking to fix this for months and months and months.

For all the talk of ``Oh, we can't discuss healthcare while government is shut down,'' well, you didn't discuss it while government was open either. Where have you been? And where are you right now, for that matter?

House Republicans are not even here, and they have not been here for 3 weeks. I cannot help but note the stark contrast between how little House Republicans seem to care about opening up the government and preventing massive healthcare hikes and how much they cared about shoveling trillions in tax breaks at some of the richest people in the world earlier this year. Where is that urgency now?

I mean, when the tax breaks for billionaires were set to expire in December, that was the same time as these healthcare credits expire. Republicans made that priority No. 1. You can bet they fast-tracked relief for the bigwigs and fat cats because heaven forbid billionaires like Trump have to worry about filling up their private jets.

But families worried about healthcare? Republican leaders refuse to talk about it. They voted down efforts to save these tax credits three times before government funding was even in question, and they have spent the last few weeks saying that our insistence on preventing people's premiums from doubling is ``unreasonable.'' Unreasonable?

Even now, the best Republicans can offer is that later we can maybe, possibly, talk about potentially doing something someday. That is pretty cold comfort to families who are staring down thousands upon thousands in higher healthcare costs next year. Those premium hikes aren't maybe happening someday; they are for real, and they are getting finalized right now.

If the Republican leader would rather send us home for the weekend than have a serious conversation; if House Republicans want to keep hiding as far as they can from the negotiating table; if you are going to not talk with us, then I beg my colleagues to at least talk to your constituents and see what this healthcare crisis looks like for them, because here is the thing Republicans seem especially keen to ignore: This is a problem where inaction will overwhelmingly hurt their own constituents.

News flash for my colleagues: Over three-quarters of the families with healthcare coverage through the ACA marketplace are in red States.

Do you know which five States will see the highest healthcare rate hikes next year? West Virginia is looking at a 387-percent rate hike for families that rely on ACA tax credits; Wyoming, 382 percent; Alaska, a 346-percent rate hike; Tennessee, 320 percent; and Mississippi, 314 percent. Those are five red States where premiums are going to more than quadruple for families that rely on those tax credits.

But do you know what? Let's keep going. Let's do the next five. These are States where the average premium will more than triple for families relying on the tax credits: Texas, a 289-percent increase; South Carolina, 285 percent; Alabama, 284 percent; South Dakota, 235 percent; and North Dakota, 234 percent.

So there you have it, the 10 States facing the biggest healthcare increases if Republicans refuse to act, all red States.

And you know what--I can still go on--premiums are going to more than double for families relying on the tax credits for States like Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, nearly every other red State. So the bottom line is, a lot of people are going to be hurt if Republicans refuse to save healthcare, and they are represented by Republicans. At least, they would be represented by Republicans, but our House colleagues are nowhere to be found. They have been gone for 3 weeks.

So my message to Republican leaders: You need to get serious about opening up the government and addressing the healthcare crisis before those premiums double for families across the country. You need to get serious now before those higher costs are locked in and before families back home decide they can't afford to stay healthy.

And, you know, even if Republicans want to hide from the negotiating table, they are not going to be able to hide from this issue because if they stay home and refuse to come back to DC to hammer out a solution, the people they represent back home are going to make their voices heard about this. They are going to say: Hey, my monthly premium is going up by over a thousand bucks--monthly premium. What are you doing about that?

They are going to say: Hey, I am going to lose my healthcare. What am I supposed to do?

They are going to say: Hey, if you care so much about opening the government like you say, if you care so much about lowering costs, why don't you get back and go to work?

When that message breaks through to all the Republicans who are just trying to ignore it, as I think it is very clear it is beginning to, here is another message for them: Democrats are still here. We are still at the table. And we are still ready to work together on a bipartisan deal to reopen the government and address this healthcare crisis.

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