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Floor Speech
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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, late into the night, Senators spoke on the Senate floor about why Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is the least qualified nominee to ever be tapped as America's chief health officer.
On issue after issue, Mr. Kennedy has demonstrated a profound lack of knowledge, at best, and deeply dangerous views, at worst.
Mr. Kennedy has refused to tell Americans how we would manage healthcare issues that they are deeply worried about: vaccine safety, women's reproductive health, drug pricing, and affordable healthcare, to name a few. This leaves millions of Americans alarmed about the future of health and science in America.
Last week, two Oregon medical students approached me to talk about Mr. Kennedy's nomination. These medical students told me they were less concerned about the damage Mr. Kennedy would do as HHS Secretary in the weeks and months to come. These medical students are not only worried about the prospect of losing cures, treatments, and medical breakthroughs if Mr. Kennedy is confirmed. These medical students from Oregon told me that his unwillingness to take science and medical data seriously is going to harm science for decades to come.
So I ask my colleagues to think about those medical students' words. Is that a legacy you want to leave behind as a result of supporting Mr. Kennedy?
Senate Democrats have been making this exact case. In his hearing before the Finance Committee, I asked Mr. Kennedy to square his anti- vaccine views with more recent statements designed to appease a number of our Senators who are quite nervous about his nomination.
In his testimony, he used the fact that his own children were vaccinated to prove he was not anti-vaccine. But the record shows that just a few years ago, he said he would ``do anything'' and ``pay anything'' to go back in time in order to prevent them from getting those vaccines.
Elsewhere in his testimony, Mr. Kennedy stated he was not anti- vaccine but, rather, ``pro-safety.'' But about 18 months ago, he said on a podcast:
No vaccine is safe and effective.
In other words, in the Senate Finance Committee, we brought the evidence; we brought the receipts, and Mr. Kennedy said nothing to actually disavow his prior statements. He stuck by the timeworn tactics of a conspiracy theorist: Always ask for more evidence, and never accept the evidence that is placed in front of you.
Even some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are now deeply disturbed by Mr. Kennedy's refusal to entertain evidence that would require him to change his mind on vaccine safety. Nevertheless, it sure looks like my Republican colleagues have bowed to pressure from Donald Trump and are poised to hand Mr. Kennedy the platform he has been seeking for two decades to push fringe views.
Before the Senate votes, I would like to take a moment to talk a little bit about the fights ahead on healthcare.
Republicans in the House are already pressing ahead this morning with their plan to kick millions of Americans off of their health insurance in order to fund more tax cuts for those who are very wealthy. And as HHS Secretary, Mr. Kennedy is going to be a key player in this effort.
While Senators were on the floor speaking yesterday, the Senate Budget Committee debated a budget resolution that unlocks the legislative tools Republicans need to make good on their go-it-alone plan. At the same time, the House Budget Committee released its own budget resolution that will be debated today.
What is clear in both of these blueprints, in their game plan, is that Medicaid cuts are at the top of the list.
Eighty-one million Americans rely on healthcare coverage under Medicaid and the CHIP program for kids. Those people are folks with disabilities, low-income families, seniors, and, of course, children.
The damage and destruction to American families if Republicans go through with their plans to gut Medicaid cannot be overstated.
Take nursing homes, for example. Two out of three nursing home residents are currently being covered for their healthcare by Medicaid.
Imagine you visit your mom in her nursing home in the months after the Republican bill makes steep cuts to Medicaid. Your mom complains there are fewer and fewer staff. She had to wait more than an hour after calling for help to use the bathroom on several occasions.
The next time you visit, she tells you some of the new staff don't have time for her. You learn that the facility no longer has the resources to conduct background checks and that they are desperate for workers.
A few weeks later, the facility manager pulls you aside to deliver some bad news. Her nursing home can no longer accept patients with Medicaid after steep Federal cuts to the program. Unless you can find another facility that accepts Medicaid, you have got to pay the high monthly costs out of your own pocket.
Suddenly, and with no warning, you have got impossible options. Either you scramble to find the money to cover a new facility that costs thousands of dollars a month, or you bring your mom home with you.
So between holding down a full-time job and raising young kids, suddenly, you have to deal with making sure your mom gets full-time care, and that requires nursing assistance around the clock.
Unfortunately, this case I described is something you see in every nook and cranny of America. I know that from my days as codirector of the Gray Panthers. And I know that many of your friends and neighbors with aging parents and grandparents in nursing homes are facing the catastrophe that I have just described.
Now, Republicans are going to do somersaults to disguise their cuts to Medicaid, and they are going to describe it in healthcare lingo that they think plays well with people.
For Republicans, every single child, senior, or family struggling to pay the bills that gets denied coverage is a win. That brings us to Mr. Kennedy.
During his confirmation hearing on everything from abortion to vaccines to Medicare and Medicaid, Mr. Kennedy was given ample opportunity to go on the record about how he would improve these programs, bring down costs, save taxpayers money, and improve care. Instead, he showed a complete lack of understanding of the basics of Medicaid and how it functions.
I personally believe it shouldn't be too much to ask for the future CEO of Medicaid to understand how important it is to provide affordable coverage for millions of families.
Republicans, with Donald Trump at the helm, are steering our country toward a healthcare cliff. Their ultimate objective is to take away Medicaid from as many people as they can.
Colleagues, so much for making America healthy again.
What the American people need is a leader who will be the voice of reason in the room as Trump and his assistants in Congress start slicing and cutting.
Our country needs a leader at Health and Human Services who is actually going to work to improve care and lower costs, defend the reproductive freedom of families, and listen, in particular, to facts and science.
The American people have no reason to believe, based on the record, the evidence that the Senate Finance Committee has accumulated--to believe that Mr. Kennedy will be that leader.
There is no question the healthcare system in America needs reforms. It has fallen short, and Democrats want to work in a bipartisan way on those issues.
We are disillusioned by a system that puts profits over patients in too many circumstances. Nobody on this side of the aisle is arguing for the status quo.
But the solution, colleagues--and I am closing with this--does not lie in Donald Trump's ``concept of a plan'' to make our country less healthy, less safe, and less successful.
When kids are kicked off their Medicaid coverage and forced to go without basic medical care and grow up with chronic illnesses that leave them in a lifetime of pain and suffering, Republicans are going to regret any vote they give to Robert Kennedy.
When seniors are told they have to vacate their nursing homes because it no longer accepts Medicaid, Republicans again will regret a vote for Robert Kennedy.
When families are struggling to pay the bills and they are landed with a mountain of medical debt because their kid got sick and they were kicked off their insurance, finally, Republicans will regret any vote they give to Robert Kennedy.
Mr. Kennedy will, no doubt, be right alongside Republicans, a willing participant in this future for healthcare that I have described today that is really stepping back from progress that has been made.
I urge a ``no'' vote.
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