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Floor Speech
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Mr. KELLY. Madam President, for more than a month, I have been here in DC fighting to keep healthcare costs from spiking for my constituents, and for more than a month, I have been hearing from people I represent about what their healthcare costs now and what it will cost if these tax credits are allowed to expire--people like Leslie from Buckeye, who is a diabetic and whose premium is about to go from $600 a month to $1,000 per month; and people like Jessica from Yuma. She and her husband currently pay $560 per month for them and their three kids. That is going to go to $3,100 per month if these tax credits are not extended.
And for more than a month, I have been waiting for the President or Republican leadership in the Senate to sit down with us and try to figure this out, or even show that they care about the millions of Americans in our States who are in the same boat, people like Leslie and Jessica.
Now, that hasn't happened. The President, as far as I can tell, has spent about 1 hour in the Oval Office with congressional leadership on this issue--1 hour in 37 days. He has spent more time talking about his ballroom and on two overseas trips and at a costume party at Mar-a- Lago, and of course, on the golf course.
The House of Representatives has been on a 7-week paid vacation. They are not even pretending to care about these rising healthcare costs; and the Senate, not much better. Week after week, the leadership of the Senate breaks for a long weekend, all while Americans are suffering. And they are suffering even more because Donald Trump is using them as pawns in this fight.
He is still trying to illegally withhold SNAP benefits from hungry Americans, including children, to use as leverage. Donald Trump's official position on the government shutdown is that he will let hard- working Americans go hungry until we give in to his demands to let healthcare premiums go up dramatically for millions of Americans.
Now, is that the position of my Republican colleagues? I keep hearing from many of you that you want to do something about this, but you say you can't negotiate, not now.
So let's just lay it out here. We need to extend government funding to reopen the government, but we also need to extend these tax credits so millions of Americans can actually afford their healthcare.
So let's do both--no gimmicks, no changes. Let's reopen the government, but we can do that knowing that Jessica and Leslie and a whole bunch of other people that we represent can take their kid to a doctor and fill their prescriptions for another year.
There is no reason why we can't agree on this. If you want to reopen the government and you want to help keep health insurance premiums from spiking, then let's do it. But if you say no, if you say you can't vote for something like this, well, let's just be honest about it. Tell the Jessicas and Leslies in your State that they are not going to be able to afford their healthcare anymore. Tell them that Donald Trump thinks that they should go to a food bank for groceries so they can have something to eat.
Now, I also think we need to be perfectly clear about why we are here and how we got here. All of this--all of this--we have discussed over the last month is because Donald Trump and Republicans in the House and Senate wanted to give a big, giant tax cut to the wealthiest Americans--a $4 trillion giveaway.
And, again, we want a deal. We can choose to fix this so Jessica and Leslie and millions of others can afford to have basic healthcare.
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