Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026
Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from Wisconsin for offering this important and very simple and straightforward amendment. Nothing can be simpler.
Are you prepared, I say to my Republican friends, to sit back and allow over 20 million Americans to see a doubling of their healthcare premiums?
In my State of Vermont, people who are 65, 63 years of age will, in some cases, see a tripling or quadrupling. And that is the case in your States as well.
All that Senator Baldwin is saying is: Let us take a deep breath. Let us make sure that people do not see an outrageous increase in their premiums. Let us not pave the way for 15 million Americans to lose their healthcare entirely because of savage cuts to Medicaid. That is all she is asking.
Now, I notice that recently, some of my Republican colleagues are beginning to talk about the healthcare crisis. Well, during Trump's first 4 years, he had virtually nothing to say about the crisis, and nothing to say about it in the next 4 years. But I am glad that there is some discussion.
The truth of the matter is, in my view, that the current healthcare system is broken, it is dysfunctional, and it is cruel.
But I want to ask my Republican friends a simple question: Are you happy with the fact that here in the United States, we are the only major country not to guarantee healthcare to every man, woman, and child?
We are unique. That is not the kind of exceptionalism we should be proud of.
Are you happy that we are paying twice as much per capita for healthcare, over $14,000 per person, more than any other major country, and yet we have 85 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured?
Are you content with the fact that the insurance companies and the drug companies are making huge profits, paying their CEOs exorbitant salaries? Are you happy with that?
Are you happy that patients in America have to get on the phone and fight like crazy and deal with all kinds of bureaucrats in order to get the healthcare that they paid for in an incredibly complicated, broken system?
So if you want to have a debate about healthcare, let's have that debate. I happen to believe that we should join the rest of the industrialized world, guarantee healthcare to all people through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system.
You got a better idea? Bring it forward. But what we should agree upon is that you don't raise premiums by 100 percent or, in some cases, triple or quadruple.
Let's take a deep breath. Let's extend these ACA subsidies for another year. Let's have that debate on healthcare. That is what the American people want.
Mr. President, I yield to the Senator from Michigan.
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