Neal Opening Statement at Health Markup
(As prepared for delivery)
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It seems to be Groundhog Day again in the House. As the American people continue to pay the price for failed Republican policies—losing their health care, paying more at the grocery store and the gas pump, and struggling to make ends meet—Republicans are once again trying to distract from their record, instead of doing the work to make life more affordable.
Republicans found more than $38 billion to fund Trump's out-of-control ICE in their last budget bill, while doing nothing for the working families who are struggling. At a moment when the nation has been shaken by two more ICE-related killings in the span of a week, the idea that this Congress can pour more money into Trump’s extreme immigration agenda is unconscionable.
A year ago, House Republicans and President Trump twisted arms and rammed through their marquee legislation, much of it under the cover of darkness, siding on the record with the wealthiest few over workers and families. We called it a betrayal then, and we know it’s a failure now.
Since then, more than 8 million Americans have lost their health insurance, with millions on the brink, watching their costs rise and coverage put further out of reach. Inflation has reached its highest level in years. Jobs are evaporating and families are draining their savings just to stay afloat. Instead of helping those families get ahead, Republicans chose to sacrifice their wallets and health care to give the wealthiest among us more handouts they weren’t asking for and didn’t need.
The Republican health care crisis is only getting worse. As the full ramifications of their $1 trillion in cuts to the system begin to take hold, hundreds of hospitals around the country are wondering if they’ll be able to keep the lights on, and the patients in need of care are wondering if they’ll still be able to access the doctors and medicines they rely on.
There remains nothing on the Republican agenda to fix any of it. They’d rather spend the rest of this Congress struggling to advance anything on the Floor as they flood the Committee with busy work that won’t put care back in reach for a working mom, won’t lower the cost of a prescription, and won’t keep a rural hospital from shuttering its doors. They have no answers to the crisis they’ve created.
The legislation we are considering today will not undo the harm Republicans have done. Their cuts have caused the greatest loss of health care in history and continue to threaten the progress Democrats made to get more Americans covered than ever before and deliver historic savings on out-of-pocket costs and prescription drugs.
Every promise Republicans made to lower costs, every sham website, and backroom deal by the President has fallen apart. The only thing Republicans have to show the people is a poorer, sicker America. Families deserve better than the raw deal they’ve been handed by the Trump agenda. Democrats will keep fighting for a better course, to deliver the results they are demanding.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
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