Obamacare

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on another matter, my friend the Democratic leader has a favorite saying. He often says that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I am not sure his fellow Democrats got the memo.

At a time when ObamaCare is raising health costs dramatically and chasing competition out of the health industry and collapsing on itself, Democrats just rolled out a brandnew health care idea to fix the problem that even they grudgingly admit is plaguing families. And what is their answer? More ObamaCare. No, this is not a joke. Democrats actually introduced legislation last week calling for ObamaCare 2.0, a new government-run health plan. It is not as if this is even a new idea. It is just a stale leftover from the health care debate back in 2009, an idea many Democrats once deemed so bad that it was cut from the final ObamaCare bill, but now it is their Hail Mary.

It is beyond tone deaf, and there are good reasons that so many in their own caucus will not support it. It is insulting to millions of Americans who continue to watch their premiums spike after Democrats said they would be lower. It is insulting to the millions of Americans who continue to watch their out-of-pocket costs shoot ever higher after Democrats said it would be affordable. I am sure Democrats will make plenty more promises to sell their latest bad idea; I am just not sure the American people are in a mood to listen anymore.

Health care costs just rose last month by the largest amount in over three decades. Deductibles are outpacing wages, premiums are spiking by double digits just about everywhere and could even increase as much as 60 percent in some places. This is ObamaCare's legacy. It is a direct attack on the middle class. It is ruining lives and making life even harder for those who struggle already.

I have a message for our friends across the aisle: Remember what your leader likes to say about doing the same thing over and over. Stop denying reality, stop pretending this is somebody else's fault, own up to what you have done to the middle class, and then work with us to build a bridge away from it. ObamaCare is scary enough for America's middle class. The last thing Americans need now is some government-run sequel.

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