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Floor Speech
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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, we are in the middle of a full-blown healthcare crisis. Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are ripping away healthcare from 15 million Americans. And now, thanks to Donald Trump, one in four nursing homes could close, community health clinics are on the brink of shutting their doors, hospitals, already filled to the brim with patients, are bracing for the biggest cuts in decades. Kids with cancer are watching as promising research, their only chance at treatment, is shut down and health insurance premiums are skyrocketing.
Talk to anyone in the country, and they will tell you that the cost of going to the doctor is already way too high because the reality is that healthcare in America was already failing families even before Trump and Republicans took a chain saw to it.
Massachusetts lost two hospitals last year in the biggest healthcare bankruptcy in decades. Our community health centers were already down to counting their nickels to keep the door open. And now, the Republicans have come in and said they want to take away money that helps cover mamas giving birth and neighbors who need wheelchairs and home health aides so that they can hand that money over to billionaire CEOs. Trump's one-two punch of chaotic tariffs and his Big Beautiful Bill is going to push middle-class families in America over a financial cliff.
Before working moms go broke from a cancer diagnosis, Congress must act. Before community hospitals are forced to shut down, Congress must act. Before your neighbor with the home health aide loses his care, Congress must act.
That is why Democrats are saying, if Republicans want our votes, they need to restore healthcare for Americans. We made it about as clear as we humanly can. The American people need affordable healthcare. No one should go bankrupt because they got sick and needed to see a doctor.
And if the Republicans want to shut down government so that they can keep increasing costs and cutting healthcare, then they need to explain that and not just to us; they need to explain it to the American people. Every Senator here is here to work for the American people, and part of that job is coming to the negotiating table and making a plan to fund government. But Donald Trump flat-out said he doesn't want to negotiate with Democrats. He said:
Don't even bother dealing with them.
OK, then, Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. You own the healthcare crisis. Democrats believe that not a single newborn baby in America should lose healthcare, not a single senior should be tossed out of their nursing home and onto the curb, and not a single person should have to drive hours and hours to get to the nearest hospital.
If we are going to pass a budget for the U.S. Government, then we need to save healthcare for millions of Americans, period.
And make no mistake, every penny of funding needs to be protected from a Trump power grab. Since the week he took office, Donald Trump has been trying to illegally rip away money from programs that Congress has already agreed to fund. His latest ploy: an attempt to zero out funding without even asking for Congress's approval. It is a dirty trick, and it is illegal. We can't have Democrats and Republicans in Congress agree to a budget that helps people get to the doctor and pay for lifesaving cancer research and then turn around and have Donald Trump just halt that money. We need proper safeguards.
So this is our moment. This is our chance to restore healthcare for millions of people in this country. Right now is our small window of opportunity. The Democrats are ready to go. We want to seize this opportunity. It is only the Republicans who stand in the way.
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