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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, a lot of people are asking the question: What exactly were people voting for in the last Presidential election?

Well, many things. We have many citizens who are voters in this country, but the recurring theme seems to be the cost of living for the average family, the ability of mothers and fathers to make ends meet and to see a realization of their dreams and aspirations. We were told, over and over again, that families across this country were being overwhelmed by the cost of living--gas, groceries, housing. So they gave a majority of the votes to President Trump, who promised he would make America great again.

Since taking office, I don't believe that the President has come near to keeping his promise. Instead, he has hired many of his billionaire buddies and cut deals with the ultrawealthy that will harm the same Americans who voted for him.

I am not going to get into his cryptocurrency scheme and how it has enriched him and his family. Let's set that aside for a minute and talk about issues that apply to every person.

Hidden in more than 1,000 pages in the bill that passed the House of Representatives is a plan--a laundry list of things--that I don't believe Americans even considered voting for in the last November election. They are going to have a devastating impact on families and States, red and blue alike.

The main takeaway from this ``One Big Ugly Bill'': Billionaires are going to win, and American families are going to lose.

Do you think the voters in last November's election for President of the United States would actually vote to close down their local hospital? That is what is looming.

You say: Oh, you Democrats and your scare tactics--that can't possibly be true.

Well, let me tell you what happened.

Three weeks ago, 20 hospital administrators from across the State of Illinois--from Chicago down to the southernmost part of our State--all took a special trip to Washington to warn me that the bill that was pending before the House of Representatives threatened the survival of hospitals across our State. These are hospitals which are not only critical for providing professional medical care, delivering babies, and saving people's lives who are in automobile accidents but also major parts of the local economy.

You come to rural, smalltown Midwest America and ask about the impact to the local hospital, and they will tell you: We don't know that we can keep a business or attract a business if we didn't have it. We count on it every day to be there when we need it. And, secondly, it is a major employer--in fact, in most towns, the biggest employer in Downstate.

Then they warned me: Many of these hospitals are hanging on by a thread. The money that they receive from government insurance programs like Medicaid keeps the doors open and the lights on and the doctors in town.

And now we have a proposal from the Republicans to cut that Medicaid benefit for 16 million Americans. This would be the largest cutback in health insurance protection in the history of the United States. That is what has been sent over by the House of Representatives and is presently under consideration by the Republican leadership here in the Senate.

Nationwide, half of all rural hospitals already operate in the red, and more than 300 rural hospitals are at immediate risk of closure--26 in Kansas, 22 in Alabama, and 9 in Missouri.

How many closed hospitals will the Republicans accept as part of their plan?

Let me tell you, I am from downstate Illinois--proud to represent the city of Chicago all these years but prouder still of being from downstate and trying to keep track of all the needs they have for this economy to prosper. I know rural hospitals are the backbone of many communities in downstate Illinois. Critical emergency medical care anchors the local economy.

Now you dig deeply into this Republican budget bill that has come over from the House of Representatives, and it turns out they are not just eliminating health insurance coverage for 16 million Americans, they are also cutting Medicare.

Medicare is a program primarily for elderly people in this country. It has been a miracle worker. Medicare was created in the 1960s, and it is no coincidence or surprise that the life expectancy of Americans went up as Medicare took root and became part of healthcare in America.

Despite promising to leave Medicare alone, which everyone said, from Donald Trump on down, Republicans couldn't help themselves. They slashed Medicare benefits and reduced access to hospitals, nursing homes, and medications for seniors in all 50 States--Medicaid and Medicare.

So why would Republicans in Congress take a wrecking ball to these two major parts of our healthcare system? To provide money from tax breaks to the wealthiest people in America.

I will bet you that he is making it up. I will bet you it is another one of those political schemes of his.

It is not being made up. It is true. They want to generate enough money to give tax breaks to wealthy people.

Based on a new update from the Congressional Budget Office today, up to 16 million Americans are now estimated to lose their health insurance coverage under this Republican plan that passed the House and is now being considered by the Senate Republicans.

I can just tell you this from a personal basis: There is no more helpless feeling in the world than to be a father with no health insurance and being told that your beautiful baby has a serious medical complication. I know. I have been there.

Some Republicans are downplaying these catastrophic health cuts. On the Senate floor earlier today, a Republican Senator said people on Medicaid are lazy and play video games all day. At a recent townhall meeting, when a concerned constituent raised the Republicans' proposed Medicaid cuts and said that people would die, it became a controversy in response to the Senator's comment.

It sounds like Republicans in Congress want to be the ones to decide who is worthy of healthcare in America. But Americans who depend on Medicaid are not strangers. They are your neighbors. They are people at your church, your school, and at your work. It probably is your family too.

If you or a loved one gets sick, will congressional Republicans deem you deserving of seeing a doctor? Is that what this was all about? Is that what this election was all about? Did the American people vote for tax cuts for billionaires? I don't think so.

A party like the Republicans, who claim they are the party of the working class--working-class billionaires--they refuse to put their money where their mouth is. Republicans in Congress may say they are just trying to lower your taxes, but most of the benefit is going to wealthy people who won't even notice it. Maybe their bookkeepers and accountants will be able to give them the good news that they just saved another $200- or $300,000 in taxes.

Under the Republican plan, taxpayers in the wealthiest 0.1 percent would get a $300,000 tax cut every year--$300,000 for the richest of the richest in America. Why? At the expense of healthcare for 16 million Americans? It makes no sense.

The average full-time worker making minimum wage on average would receive a tax break as well. I have to be honest about it. It is $20 a month. So $300,000 for the richest of the rich and 20 bucks a month for the working stiff. How can that possibly be fair?

Did the American people vote to slash jobs across the economy in the last November election? I don't think so. Since we passed the Inflation Reduction Act, 85 percent of investment in clean energy technology has landed in Republican districts.

Now, I know the President of the United States calls global warming and environmental issues a hoax. He has been hanging with that story for a long time even though we know something is happening. Notice the extreme weather events across the United States and around the world? They are getting more frequent and more costly. Is it a coincidence or is something going on? I happen to believe something is going on.

In just 2 years since passing the Inflation Reduction Act, businesses have announced 340 new clean technology projects. One estimate says that these projects will create 150,000 permanent jobs. I have seen it in my State. That includes more than 9,000 jobs in Texas, 4,800 in Ohio, 4,500 in Indiana, and 2,700 in my home State of Illinois. The Republicans' ``Big Ugly Bill'' puts these jobs at risk, taking a hatchet to tax policy that makes these projects possible.

The promise of a Republican repeal has already scared the private sector into withdrawing $14 billion in investment and canceling 10,000 clean energy manufacturing jobs. Why would the so-called party of the working class want to give their own constituents a pink slip? I don't get it.

Now, some of my Republican colleagues have been brave enough to raise alarms about the Medicaid cuts, the rollback of clean energy credits, and the cost of the bill, but do you know what the cost of this bill is to give tax breaks to the wealthiest people? It is $3.8 trillion more on the deficit over the next decade.

We already know the scammer in chief will try to bully Republicans into choosing billionaires over working families, using anything he can to persuade them or threaten them. My Republican colleagues must know that this plan does not make America great again; it makes our debt the greatest in the history of our Nation. Instead, it harms families in red and blue States looking for a fair shot.

Their lip service to these terrible cuts is not enough. I urge a handful of my Republican colleagues--and that is all it takes--to show some courage, show some common sense, tell the folks in the House and tell the White House as well that this approach is not going to work.

Taking health insurance away from 16 million Americans--more than has ever happened in the history of this country--is unfair, fundamentally unfair, and we all know it. We know intuitively that is just not fair. Taking Medicaid away from reimbursing hospitals and doctors of critical care in small towns and rural areas is a mistake we will pay for for generations to come.

I urge Republicans to listen to their constituents because I know that Americans who voted for Trump in November did not vote for what I have just described today on the floor of the Senate.

We need four Republicans--four--to stand up and say: This doesn't make sense--too much debt, too much pain for families, and too much of a gamble for rural areas in smalltown America.

We have to stand up and make a much better effort, and we should do it on a bipartisan basis as quickly as possible.

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