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Floor Speech
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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I stand here today on behalf of the people of Massachusetts to say that we are angry.
We are angry that Trump and MAGA Republicans are doubling the costs for millions of Americans and that their healthcare bills are going to skyrocket when they promised lower prices.
We are angry that Trump and MAGA Republicans are stripping Medicaid from the most vulnerable people in our communities.
We are angry that Trump and the MAGA Republicans are making families with hungry children go to food pantries for their next meals and forcing families to choose between groceries and rent.
We are angry that Trump and MAGA Republicans are using public servants as pawns in their hateful, political games.
And we are angry that, during all of this, the Republicans have refused to come to the negotiating table.
The House of Representatives has been out for 6 weeks. They are in a political witness protection program across our Nation--refusing to come to Washington to sit down to negotiate on these issues.
Americans are counting the hours that are left to solve this healthcare crisis for them and their families. They are looking around for help, and they are looking around for hope, but they are all looking, instead, at cruelty, pain, fear. That is the agenda of Trump's MAGA Republican Party.
Last weekend, I met with Jeff from Natick, who is fighting stage IV lung cancer. He pays $35,000 a year for an affordable care healthcare plan--$35,000 a year. If he can't keep that insurance plan on December 31, he will have to pay $300,000 a year. Jeff does not have $300,000. That is about to hit him in about 7 weeks.
Barbara retired early to take care of her spouse with dementia. Her bill is going from $7,500 a year to $18,000 a year. She cannot afford that. There are 22 million stories like Jeff's, like Barbara's. There are 22 million of them who will be facing Thanksgiving and Christmas over the next 7 weeks, and there are no answers for them--22 million people. That is outrageous. These people are afraid, and they are angry.
By the way, we saw a lot of that anger come out on Tuesday night. They came out angry. They came out, out of fear, to vote. That is what happened. It is only going to build and build and build as each day goes by, and we cannot get an answer from the Republicans on how we are going to handle those people. How are we going to give them what they need for those families?
It is very difficult to fathom the abject cruelty of this President, who is happy to force Grandma to choose between paying for her prescription and paying for her heating bill, to force a caretaker to choose between being there for their parent with Alzheimer's or picking up an extra shift, to force a single mom to choose between paying for a checkup or paying for extra school snacks.
Since they took over in January, the Republicans promised that they were going to solve the healthcare crisis in our country, and all it has done is grow and grow and grow. Then they pass a bill to take away all of the healthcare coverage for all of these 22 million people and then transfer the money to billionaires in tax breaks. They swiped the healthcare of 22 million vulnerable people for billionaires.
Ralph Waldo Emerson--the great Massachusetts poet--said that ``health is the first wealth.'' MAGA Republicans and Trump have looted that wealth--that health--for those people. These people are angry, and they are afraid. They are afraid. They don't have the backup funding that millionaires and billionaires have.
Now, my father drove a truck for the Hood Milk Company. He drove a truck for the Hood Milk Company. I am his son. I believe that God created a world where every single person is able to receive the healthcare they are entitled to, to three meals a day, to put children through school, to keep them safe from illness, to give Americans dignity in tough times. Those are the families we are talking to right now. It is the milkmen. It is the workers in nursing homes. It is the children across our country who are going to see loved ones lose their healthcare in 7 weeks, and the Republicans refuse to come to the table.
Every American has a right to live in dignity in tough times. That is where we are right now. They are facing increases in electricity costs, in healthcare costs, in food costs, in clothing costs--in everything. We can solve at least the healthcare part of this issue right here. The richest Nation in the world can ensure peace and health and opportunity for every man and woman and child in our country.
We are the wealthiest Nation in the history of the world, and the Republicans are about to let 22 million of them lose their health insurance or see it increase by double or triple or, in the case of Jeff from Natick, 10 times--from $30,000 a year to $300,000 a year--and he is in stage IV lung cancer. And we are not even discussing this?
The House of Representatives is on a vacation for 6 weeks. Well, those 6 weeks--if you project them forward from now, we are talking about Christmas. That is what we are talking about.
What in the world is in the mind of Donald Trump that he would allow these families for the next 6 weeks to worry about where the coverage for their families is going to come from?
The very least we can do is extend the Affordable Care tax credits for one more year and provide some desperately needed relief for those who are struggling to get by, who need our help right now, who need the peace of mind right now.
Of those 220 Republicans in their political witness protection program across the country, they are going to have health insurance for their families. They don't have to worry this Thanksgiving or Christmas about the conversation that is going to take place.
All we are asking for is a vote to provide that healthcare for the next year for those families and reopen the government so the Federal workers can get paid and go back on the job. It is pretty simple. We are looking for any Republican anywhere to come and discuss it with us, negotiate it with us, and they just keep saying: No.
So this anger--this anger that people are feeling--these people are pissed off at the Federal Government. They are pissed off that they are losing coverage for their family members, and they want the Republicans to come to the table and solve this problem. What we saw on Tuesday night was the beginning of this anger being translated into action.
They asked an ancient Greek philosopher once: When will we know true justice?
And he answered: We will know true justice when those who have not been harmed are as angry as those who have been harmed.
Across our country right now, those who have not been harmed are angry on behalf of those who are about to be harmed--22 million people losing their health insurance, seeing skyrocketing health insurance premiums. These are families--42 million of them--without food stamps, without a SNAP program for nutrition for their families. People are angry, and they deserve an answer.
All we are asking for is 1 year so that we can negotiate this issue-- 1 year so we can give peace of mind to 22 million families so that they will know they will have health insurance after this Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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