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Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I understand that, the way the process has been developed, it is impossible to delay the votes that are going to take place. If that were not the case, that is certainly what I would do because I think it is important that the American people fully understand what is being voted on today.
Everybody in America knows that our current healthcare system is broken. It is dysfunctional. It is cruel. It is by far the most expensive healthcare system in the world and the only healthcare system of any major country that does not guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right, covering every man, woman, and child. We are unique in that respect. Yet, tonight, what this Senate is about to do is make a horrific situation even worse.
So let's be clear what this vote is about. If this vote succeeds, over 20 million Americans are going to see at least a doubling of their premiums in the Affordable Care Act. In my State of Vermont and throughout this country, for certain groups of people, it will be a tripling and a quadrupling of their premiums. There are people who will now be paying 50 percent of their limited incomes for healthcare. Does anybody in the world think that makes sense?
If this resolution is passed tonight, we are on a pathway to throw 15 million Americans off of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act--15 million.
Our job is to create universal healthcare, guarantee healthcare to every man, woman, and child, not throw 15 million people off the healthcare they have--low-income and working-class people.
And, my friends, know what you are voting on. Studies are out there that when you throw 15 million people off of healthcare, some 50,000 of our fellow Americans will die unnecessarily every single year. Does anyone think that is funny, something to laugh at, something that you just go past? I don't. Fifty thousand Americans die unnecessarily.
Now, I know, as part of this resolution, that the majority leader is going to say: Well, Democrats can create--put together--their own bill, and it will come to the floor here in the Senate for a vote.
As everybody here knows, that is a totally meaningless gesture. You can get 100 votes here in the Senate. It won't mean anything because the House is not going to take it up, and the President of the United States certainly will not sign it.
So I hope that anybody here who is thinking of voting for this reconsiders, goes back home and talks to their constituents and asks them what it will mean if their healthcare premiums are doubled or tripled. Recognition of the Minority Leader
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