{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2025-06-28-pt1-PgS3663-3", "2025-06-28", 119, 1, null, null, "H.R. 1", "SENATE", "SENATE", "ALLOTHER", "S3663", "S3675", "[{\"name\": \"Mark Kelly\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Tammy Baldwin\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Mazie K. Hirono\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Raphael G. Warnock\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Margaret Wood Hassan\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Michael F. Bennet\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Adam B. Schiff\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Ben Ray Lujan\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Andy Kim\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}, {\"name\": \"Alex Padilla\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", "[{\"congress\": \"119\", \"type\": \"HR\", \"number\": \"1\"}]", "171 Cong. Rec. S3663", "Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 112 (Saturday, June 28, 2025)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 112 (Saturday, June 28, 2025)]\n[Senate]\n[Pages S3663-S3675]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                                 H.R. 1\n\n  Mr. KELLY. Mr. President, what are we doing here? Seriously. I am\nstill waiting for somebody to tell me how this makes sense. We are\ndebating a budget that gives another round of tax cuts to billionaires\nand giant corporations on the backs of everyday Americans. And it also\nadds trillions of dollars to our national debt.\n  That doesn't make any sense to me. And it doesn't make sense to the\nArizonans that I have been hearing from in every corner of our State.\nIf you grew up in a household like mine where money was tight, you\nwould know that budgets are about priorities.\n  I can still picture my mom sitting at the kitchen table trying to\nfigure out which bills to pay. You take the money you have, and you put\nit where it is needed. This budget clearly tells the American people\nwho President Trump and Republicans in Washington think need help.\n  If you are a billionaire, it says: We have got your back.\n  But if you are a parent trying to provide for your family, a senior\nin a nursing home, or a child who counts on school for your only hot\nmeal, you are on your own.\n  This isn't about balancing the books. It is about picking winners and\nletting everyone else fall behind. And who loses? It is the Americans\nworking two jobs, raising kids, caring for elderly parents, and just\ntrying to stay afloat, because if you grew up in a family like mine,\nyou also know how hard people work to reach their American dream--the\npromise that if you work hard, your kids will get a good public\neducation, you will be able to put food on the table, you will be able\nto go to the doctor and stay healthy, and your kids will be able to\ngrow up and achieve their own American dream.\n  This promise is already getting harder, and it is getting more\nexpensive. We need to be working together across the aisle to ensure\nthat everyone who works hard can have a brighter future. But that is\nnot what my Republican colleagues are doing with this bill.\n  The plan that they are jamming through right now will put the\nAmerican dream out of reach for more families. And for what? To hand\nout more tax breaks to people with more wealth than they could spend in\n10 lifetimes.\n  Now, I have spent the last several months traveling across Arizona. I\nhave been to our big cities Phoenix and Tucson. I have been to small\ntowns like Clarkdale and Sierra Vista--talking to Arizonans face-to-\nface, listening to their stories, hearing what it would mean to them if\nMedicaid, food assistance, and other essential services got cut for\nthem and their families.\n  What I have heard is clear: This budget is going to make it harder\nfor them to stay afloat, let alone get ahead.\n  In Clarkdale, I met a guy named Christian. He is a rural hospital\nnephrologist. That is a kidney doctor. And he told me that his\npatients--many of whom rely on Medicaid for dialysis--are now\nconsidering stopping treatment altogether because they might not be\nable to afford it. He said:\n\n       Financially, none of the patients I serve can pay out of\n     pocket. It's a choice of either massive debt or death.\n\n  That is the reality to many rural communities.\n  Another woman told me about her friend, a survivor of two car\naccidents and a spinal injury. Her friend relies on Medicaid to help\nher deal with her chronic pain. Without it--meaning Medicaid--she said\nthat her friend might end her life because the pain is unbearable.\n  She asked me to deliver this message to my colleagues. She said:\n\n       This is not a country that can't afford to care for people\n     like her. We can afford to care for everyone--if we change\n     our priorities from giving tax cuts to billionaires to taking\n     care of Americans who are in pain every day.\n\n  People across Arizona are pleading with us to get our priorities\nright.\n  In Sierra Vista, I hosted a Medicaid townhall, and that is where I\nmet this woman named Tara. She told us how she was once a single mother\nand how programs like Medicaid and SNAP helped her raise her kid and\nbuild a stable life. Today, she works a good job. She doesn't rely on\nthese programs anymore, but here is what she said:\n\n       I'm deeply concerned about the proposed cuts to Medicaid,\n     SNAP, and related programs. I know firsthand that they don't\n     just help families--they're often the only path to stability.\n\n  Just last week, I was in Tucson where I live--where Gabby and I\nlive--helping distribute school lunches at a local high school. It is\nactually the high school that my wife went to. And I wanted to see\nfirsthand what these summer meal programs mean for Arizona families.\n  These programs are funded through the United States Department of\nAgriculture, and they rely on data from SNAP and Medicaid to identify\nthe children who need them the most. If this bill passes, a bunch of\nthese kids that I served--I think it was last weekend--they won't be\neligible for these programs anymore. It will be harder for them to\naccess school meals which, I think we all know, compromises their\nacademic performance.\n  That is the real cost of this legislation. It is not numbers on a\nspreadsheet. It is hunger. It is illness. It is fear. It is a bunch of\nfolks who work really hard doing everything right, and they are still\ngoing to get punched in the gut.\n  And it is not just what I hear in person. My office gets hundreds of\nletters and phone calls every week from Arizonans. People are scared,\nand they want us to listen.\n  I want to share some of their voices.\n  Frank is a veteran on dialysis. He called this week, and he said:\n\n       The food bank and my SNAP benefits are the only way I eat\n     right now. I can't work. I'm not old enough to retire, and\n     I'm dipping into my retirement early just to keep up with my\n     mortgage. Without this help, I don't know what I will do.\n\n  Veterans should never have to say those words in this country. One of\nthe most sacred promises we make to the men and women who serve is that\nwe will take care of them when they return home. That promise doesn't\nend when they hang up the uniform.\n\n  It includes making sure that they can afford food, access healthcare,\nand live with some dignity. And yet here is Frank--sick, struggling,\nand wondering how he will survive because the programs he relies on are\nunder threat.\n  Cheryl from Tucson, who is a 59-year-old widow, said:\n\n[[Page S3664]]\n\n       I receive Disabled Widow's Benefits, Medicaid, Medicare,\n     and SNAP.\n\n  Get this. She said:\n\n       My rent and utilities eat all but about $300 of my monthly\n     income. SNAP and my healthcare card used to cover most of my\n     food costs. I used to have about $40 left over to buy some\n     extra groceries for the unsheltered in my area.\n\n  So here is a woman with $40 extra, and she is helping other people.\n  She also says:\n\n       Now, buying food for my household takes all of it. I'm\n     scared. If I lose even one of these benefits, I'll lose the\n     grip that keeps the roof over my head.\n\n  Karen from Scottsdale has worked for over 25 years helping veterans\nand people with disabilities. She wrote:\n\n       Many of the people I work with rely on Medicaid because\n     they can only work part-time or because their employers don't\n     offer benefits.\n       Cutting them off will just make healthcare more expensive\n     for everyone. The rich do not need an extension on tax cuts\n     at the expense of low-income and middle-class families.\n\n  These are my constituents. These are folks who, unprompted, took time\nto write or call their Senator. And every single one of them is saying\nthe same thing: We are barely holding on, and we are scared this is\ngoing to put us over the edge.\n  Now, I wish I could say that these stories were met with compassion\nby everybody here. But, instead, one of my Republican colleagues\napparently said:\n\n       They'll get over it.\n\n  And another, when asked whether cutting Medicaid would cost lives,\nsaid:\n\n       Well, we are all going to die anyway.\n\n  Now, I didn't come here to throw jabs. I am repeating those words\nbecause they reveal how this budget was written without any connection\nto the real-world consequences. This isn't about politics. It is about\npeople.\n  So I ask again: What are we doing here? Who do we serve? Is it people\nlike Tara and Cheryl and Crystal and Frank who are working hard and\ndoing everything right to just try to get by? Or is it a bunch of\nbillionaires who have already made it and who don't need another\nhandout?\n  If my colleagues don't believe me, I urge them to go read some of the\nemails and listen to some of the phone calls that they are getting.\nMaybe hold a townhall, listen to those folks, really listen to what\nthey are saying. Don't crush their American dream. Don't rig the system\neven more against them. Don't take a vote just because it is easy.\n  We can do better for the people we serve. Mr. President, they deserve\nthat from us.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.\n  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I rise today in disbelief. That may sound\na little cheesy, but at the end of the day, I fundamentally believe in\npublic service. I believe it can be a force for good, a force that\ngives people opportunity, a force that is people-powered, that can lift\nour neighbors up and instill hope, a force that meets the toughest\nchallenges of our constituents. And that is why I am struck with\ndisbelief.\n  Disbelief because if you believe these things like I do--which I\nwould argue most of my colleagues here do--why would you be jamming\nthis bill through?\n  At a time when Wisconsin families are asking us to take on the high\ncost of living and let them have a fair shot at success, Republicans\nare raising costs and making an already unfair tax system even worse.\n  My Republican colleagues are not using their time and energy to go\nafter greedy corporations, not to lower the cost of housing, and not to\nexpand access to affordable healthcare. But, rather, they are, instead,\nforging ahead with a bill that will kick millions of Americans off\ntheir health insurance, jack up prices for care for millions more, and\nliterally take food off the tables of hungry families.\n  Look, I was on the same ballot as Donald Trump last year. I heard the\nsame concerns from my constituents that he did. Families needed some\nbreathing room.\n  My Republican colleagues often say that this President's victory gave\nhim a ``mandate.'' Well, then, the President and I got the same\nmandate: to lower costs and give people the opportunity to live a\nsteady and comfortable life. But in response, the difference could not\nbe more stark. I am actually working to do something about it, and this\nbill--the landmark bill from this President and the Republican Party--\ndoes just the opposite and will raise costs for families.\n  One of the biggest cost drivers I hear about is healthcare. Instead\nof standing up to big drug companies to lower prescription drug costs\nand instead of building on the Affordable Care Act to expand access to\nhealthcare coverage, this bill actually terminates coverage for\nAmericans. In fact, 17 million Americans will be kicked off either\nMedicaid or the Affordable Care Act because of this bill. That is like\nstripping healthcare coverage from the entire populations of Wisconsin,\nMinnesota, and Iowa combined.\n  These aren't just numbers; these are people. They are people who have\nstories, and they matter. I should know. After battling a childhood\nillness, I became one of those Americans labeled as having a\npreexisting health condition, and insurance companies were legally able\nto deny me coverage. But because of the Affordable Care Act, we changed\nthat. We gave families like mine hope--hope that they can get\nhealthcare at a price they can afford and sleep well at night knowing\nthey have coverage.\n  Medicaid has given that same hope for generations to some of our most\nvulnerable neighbors. But with this bill, my Republican colleagues are\ninstilling fear. When we talk about Medicaid, we are talking about the\nelderly, people with disabilities, and children. We are talking about a\nsingle mother of three who is struggling to make ends meet and so many\nmore.\n  I have traveled the State of Wisconsin from Superior to Racine, La\nCrosse to Green Bay and everywhere in between, to hear from people who\nwill be harmed by this bill. I have come to this very floor to share\ntheir stories, to try to help my Republican colleagues understand what\nthis bill will mean. But it is not just the folks who need Medicaid to\nsurvive who are sounding the alarm. Take it from Dr. Abbigayle\nWillgruber, a family medical resident in rural Wisconsin. She said that\nthis bill ``will deprive millions of Americans, particularly children,\nseniors, and individuals with disabilities, of the care they need to\nsurvive.''\n  She, continued saying:\n\n       These provisions will limit my ability to complete my job\n     to the fullest, will lead to worse outcomes for patients.\n\n  Or take it from Rosangela Berbert, the executive director of an\noutpatient counseling center in the Fox Valley in Wisconsin, who said:\n\n       Without Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements or with\n     reduced rates, our nonprofit will struggle to survive.\n\n  She continued:\n\n       I would hate to consider cutting staff or programs, but\n     that could become our only option. We would lose the ability\n     to serve hundreds of clients--not because the need has\n     diminished, but because we could no longer afford to provide\n     care without reimbursement.\n\n  I have more and more of these stories from doctors, nurses, and\nadministrators on the ground who are spelling out the absolutely dire\nconsequences of this bill.\n  In Wisconsin, we are already in a crisis when it comes to getting\ngood healthcare in our rural communities. The system is broken, and\nthis bill is destined to make it even worse.\n  While healthcare is near and dear to my heart, there is more bad news\nin this bill. Republicans' big betrayal will also take food\nassistance--the literal means by which some people are able to put\nnutritious food on the table--away from them. This bill will take SNAP\nassistance--our Nation's best way to make sure that no one goes\nhungry--away for more than 3 million Americans.\n  That leads us to the why. Republicans are making all of these cuts so\nthat they can rig our Tax Code, which I must say already is deeply\nunfair to working families. They would further tilt it in favor of the\nbiggest corporations and the richest in our country.\n  The Republican bill gives people at the top one-tenth of 1 percent,\nthe richest of the rich, a tax cut of more than $250,000 every year--\nyes, a quarter of a million dollars a year.\n  All the while, this bill hits working families the hardest. When\ntaking into account the disastrous Medicaid and\n\n[[Page S3665]]\n\nSNAP cuts, many working families would see their annual incomes fall by\nover $1,500.\n  It doesn't have to be this way. Yes, our system for taxes and\nhealthcare is broken, but this bill is not the solution. This bill\nwould make it harder for working families to have the opportunity to\nget ahead, harder for parents to get their kids healthcare, and harder\nfor families to put food on the table.\n  We, Democrats and Republicans, should be working together to give\nsome relief to workers, but instead Republicans will choose to go it\nalone and vote to give the biggest corporations and the wealthy another\nunfair leg up.\n  I will end with this: While I remain in disbelief and, frankly,\ndisgust, I will always have hope. I have hope because it is not the\npeople in this Chamber with the power; it is the people. It is the\npeople who will sadly feel the repercussions of this bill. It is the\npeople who are rising up and will hold anyone who passes this\ndisastrous bill accountable. That is where the true power is.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Britt). The Senator from Hawaii.\n  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, Democratic Senators have been on the\nfloor for hours today pointing out what is in this thousand-page bill\nthat took over 16 hours to read. I call it the thousand pages of pain\nand the billionaires' gain.\n  It is bad enough that my colleagues have been on the floor talking\nabout how this bill is going to hurt people on Medicaid, taking food\naway from our children and families through major cuts to the SNAP\nprogram--healthcare, food, housing, energy support, you name it, the\npain is in this bill--but one of the areas that people don't know about\nis that this bill actually has provisions that would take away support\nfor our public schools. Let that sink in. It is not enough that this\nbill has a thousand pages of pain in just about every aspect of our\nlives that you can think of, but now they are coming after support for\nour public schools.\n  So today, I am rising as an advocate for the 49 million children who\nare enrolled in public schools across our country. Nearly 90 percent of\nK through 12 students go to public schools, including 95 percent of\nchildren with disabilities. Yet we have a regime that is actively\nworking to end Federal support for public schools. We have a President\nwho tried to totally eliminate the Department of Education, and, sadly\nfor him, he can't do it through Executive order because only Congress\ncan do that. But they are doing a lot of other things that withhold\nsupport for public schools.\n  So, as you know, Republicans in Congress are trying to undermine\nsupport for public schools through the first-ever national private\nschool voucher program. Let that sink in--the first-ever national\nprivate school voucher program. That is taking money away from public\nschools and basically turning it over to private schools through a\nvoucher program.\n  So let's be clear. The school voucher program provision isn't about\nmoney for schools; it is about even more money for billionaires because\nthey are the folks who are going to get the most out of this voucher\nfor private schools program.\n  Under this program, wealthy donors would receive large handouts for\nsupporting school vouchers. This is a Washington Post headline:\n\n       GOP voucher plan would divert billions--\n\n  Four billion a year--\n\n     in taxes in perpetuity to private schools.\n\n  So, specifically, the plan would provide a dollar-for-dollar tax\ncredit. We are not talking about tax deductions; we are talking about a\ntax credit. This is money that comes right off your taxable amount. So\nwhat this bill would do is provide a tax credit of $5,000 or 10 percent\nof a taxpayer's adjusted gross income, whichever is greater. So a\ntaxpayer making $10 million--we do have people who make $10 million a\nyear--could contribute $1 million and receive a credit for that full\namount. How do you like that? You can get a million dollars off your\ntax bill by contributing to this private school voucher program.\n  So rather than calling this plan what it is--and I tell you, the word\n``scam'' comes to my mind; it is like scamming the public schools--\nRepublicans are deceitfully trying to sell this plan as an expansion of\nschool choice for families. Oh, isn't this voucher program great? More\nfamilies can send their kids to private school.\n  Here is the reality: Based on what we know about school voucher\nprograms, they do not promote school choice. Let me give you two\nexamples of why this argument does not hold water. For one thing,\nschool vouchers do not cover the full cost of private school tuition.\nWhen was the last time anybody thought about how much private schools\ncost? You know, schools in Hawaii--private schools can cost something\non the order of $15 to $20,000 a year, starting from kindergarten. A\nvoucher program will not support that full amount. That means that\nfamilies who want to send their kids to these private schools will have\nto make up the cost difference. Well, how many middle-income, low-\nincome families will be able to exercise that choice to send their\nchild to a private school that costs that much?\n  Not only that, as we have seen in States that have passed voucher\nprograms, private schools often raise their tuition when they become\neligible for vouchers. Iowa is an example. After they approved vouchers\nin 2022, private schools there increased their prices by over 20\npercent for kindergarten and by over 10 percent for other grade levels.\n  Here is another example on this argument that this program promotes\nchoice. There are fewer private schools in rural communities. So many\nfamilies do not have access to private schools if they live in rural\ncommunities. How does this expand choice for these families?\n\n  The reality is the majority of vouchers have gone to wealthy families\nand to subsidizing school tuition for students who already attend\nprivate schools. Under this bill, Republicans will make that even worse\nby prioritizing scholarships for these students.\n  I am going to repeat that because not only is it bad enough that we\nare going to divert all of this money, basically, to private schools,\nbut this bill actually has a provision that says people who will get\nthese scholarships are students who already go to private schools.\n  In Louisiana, for example, the 99 percent of voucher tax credits\nthere went to families with annual incomes above 200,000. In Virginia,\nthe number was 87 percent of vouchers in that State going to wealthy\nfamilies. In Arizona, it was 60 percent.\n  Americans have consistently rejected school voucher programs and\ninitiatives. Nebraska, Kentucky, and Colorado have all voted against\nvoucher programs within the last year.\n  In Nebraska, school vouchers were put on the ballot last November,\nand they were soundly defeated for the fourth time. This is not a\nDemocratic or Republican issue. Nebraska is a red State. They voted for\na Republican President by a 20-point margin, and yet they rejected\nschool vouchers with 57 percent of the vote.\n  The bottom line is this: Vouchers take money away from public\nschools, and Americans of all political stripes understand that.\n  According to All4Ed, over two-thirds of voters would rather increase\nfunding for public schools than increase funding for voucher programs.\n  That is not a new sentiment. In all 17 State referendums on school\nvouchers since 1967, voters have rejected these programs.\n  While the Republicans in this Chamber may not give a rip about public\nschools, the vast majority of Americans get it. Democrats, Republicans,\nIndependents alike support strengthening our public schools, not taking\nmoney away from our public schools, because they know that strong\npublic education is fundamental to a strong country.\n  Well, undeterred by public sentiment, Republicans are trying to\ncreate, as I mentioned, a nationwide school voucher program. It is not\nenough that some States have voucher programs, but now the Republicans,\nthrough this misguided, almost-thousand-pages-of-pain bill, want to\nprovide $4 billion per year for a private school voucher program, with\nno accountability.\n  Remember, early on, I said that a huge percentage of children with\ndisabilities go to public schools. Well, private schools do not have\nany responsibility to make sure that they are providing education for\nchildren with disabilities. So there is no accountability.\n\n[[Page S3666]]\n\nLet's just provide $4 billion per year, in perpetuity, in tax credits\nfor private school programs that have no accountability along these\nlines.\n  We all know that this kind of funding could be used for rural and\nlow-income schools, for students with disabilities, for other programs\nthat actually support and strengthen public schools.\n  Instead, under the Republicans' plan, that funding would go to\nwealthy donors who will receive large handouts, up to $4 billion a year\nfor supporting school vouchers.\n  Again, this plan will enable a taxpayer making $10 million a year to\ncontribute 1 million and receive a dollar-for-dollar credit for that\nfull amount. And even worse, the taxpayer could contribute appreciated\nstock and avoid capital gains on their appreciation.\n  And there is all kinds of data on who owns stocks in this country,\nand generally it is the people with a lot of wealth.\n  So this bill had a provision that enabled people to donate\nappreciated stock so that they could escape capital gains taxes on that\nstock contribution totally.\n  So this Republican voucher proposal, outlandish as it is, was briefly\ndelayed after it was deemed noncompliant with budget rules earlier this\nweek. Republicans remain undeterred. They have decided to plow forward\nwith a nearly identical plan.\n  When it comes down to it, this plan does not help students. It does\nnot promote choice. It does not support public schools, where the\nmajority of our kids go. We should be supporting our public schools,\nnot taking resources away from them.\n  So my Democratic colleagues and I will continue to fight to fund\nquality public schools, to improve public education in this country--\nfoundational.\n  This voucher plan is yet another wrong-headed proposal that should be\ncalled out for what it is: a handout for the wealthy at the expense of\nhard-working American families.\n  I urge my colleagues to reject this idea.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.\n  Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, I rise tonight in our moral moment in\nour Nation. As we debate this bill, so much is on the line. The\nhealthcare of over 16 million Americans--750,000 of them Georgians--is\non the line. Food for hungry children in a wealthy nation, where one in\nfive children are already food insecure. They don't know where their\nnext meal is coming from. Their livelihood, their welfare is on the\nline. The well-being of seniors in nursing homes and the disabled who\nrely on Medicaid and those who care for them is on the line. The fate\nof rural hospitals in Georgia, in Alaska, in Louisiana, in little towns\nall over this Nation that are right now barely hanging on is on the\nline.\n  And the scraps that they are throwing them, while cutting them, will\nnot save them. And my friends on the other side of the aisle know it.\nThey know that these scraps that they are throwing at rural hospitals\nwill not save them.\n  And so in a very real sense, lives are on the line. We are in a moral\nmoment because something else is on the line. I submit that the\ncharacter of the country is on the line.\n  In a real sense, the question tonight is, Who are we? Not who we tell\nourselves we are, but who are we really? What and who do we care about?\nWhat kind of nation are we? And what kind of people do we want to be?\nWho matters, and who doesn't? Who do we think is dispensable?\n  And no place is the answer to that question clearer than in a\nnation's budget. I submit that a budget is not just a fiscal document;\na budget is a moral document. Show me your budget, and I will show you\nwho you think matters and who doesn't.\n  And if this awful budget were an EKG, it would suggest that our\nNation has a heart problem and is in need of moral surgery.\n  And so I am clear tonight. I understand the nature of what we are\nengaged in. This is a political process; it is. But it is also a moral\nexercise, not only for the Nation but for each of us individually, and\nespecially for the mere 100 of us out of a nation of 300 million who\nget to vote, perhaps in a matter of hours.\n  We have the rare privilege of standing up for people who have\nentrusted with us the covenant of centering their families. It is a\nreal privilege for the people of your State to say that since we can't\nall go to Washington, we are going to trust you in rooms of power to be\nthinking about our children, to be thinking about our parents as they\ndeal with the blessings and the burdens of growing old.\n  And so the question for me tonight is, How will we will show up in\nthis moment? And that is why yesterday I gathered in the Russell\nrotunda with a multifaith coalition of clergy to pray that lawmakers\nmight have the courage to stand up to their party, to stand up to the\nspecial interests, and protect seniors in nursing homes and pregnant\nmothers on Medicaid and children who risk going to school hungry every\nsingle day in this country. One in five children in the wealthiest\nNation on the planet are already food insecure. And with these SNAP\ncuts, this body is about to make it worse.\n  And so surrounded by clergy of many faith traditions, yesterday, I\nprayed that we would have the courage and I prayed that we would have\nthe grace to stand as voices for the voiceless. And as I stood there, I\ncould not help but feel a sense of deja vu.\n  This is not the first time I have been in our Nation's Capital\nspeaking out against these policies that betray hard-working families.\nIt was 8 years ago almost to the day in 2017 when Washington\nRepublicans were trying to pass a tax bill that favored wealthy\nAmericans over working families that I came to this building, not as a\nSenator but as a pastor. I had no idea that 8 years later I would be\nserving in this body. I had no notion that I would even run for the\nSenate. I came as a citizen.\n  And standing with a multifaith coalition, we were praying for our\nNation's leaders, and we were gathered in the rotunda of the Russell\nBuilding. And, as we were singing and praying, the Capitol Police said:\nI am sorry, pastors. You can't sing and pray in the rotunda. If you do\nnot disperse, we will have to arrest you.\n  And let me say that the Capitol Police did not mishandle us that day.\nThey were first-rate professionals. But they said that if you don't\ndisperse, we will have to arrest you. What they didn't understand is\nthat I had already been arrested. My conscience had been arrested. My\nheart and my imagination--my moral imagination--had been arrested by\nthis idea that we, as a country, are better than this.\n  I come from a tradition where you don't just pray with your lips; you\npray with your legs. You put your body in the struggle for other\nstruggling bodies.\n  And so here I am tonight, 8 years later, having transformed my\nagitation into legislation. I was arrested that day, but I have\ntransformed my protest into public policy. Eight years ago, I was on\nthe outside. Tonight, I am on the inside, but it is the same fight.\n\n  Some of us fight on the inside; some of us fight on the outside. Some\nof us get to serve in the Senate or in the House; others are just\nwatching at home tonight. But be really clear that we are in the same\nfight, whether we are on the streets or in the suites--same fight.\n  In some ways, this is the same bill 8 years later, just worse. Like\nmost horror movies, the sequel tends to be worse. When we were here 8\nyears ago, Washington politicians were trying their best to gut the\nAffordable Care Act. Remember that? When we were here, they were trying\nto gut ObamaCare out of political motives.\n  Millions of Americans were spared, but tonight is the sequel to that\nhorror movie. They are back to their old political tricks, trying to\ndismantle the ACA again with this legislation. It is the same fight,\njust worse this time.\n  Instead of extending tax credits that would lower health insurance\ncosts for the middle class, my friends on the other side are giving\nbillionaires and the richest of the rich a tax cut. They are working\nreal hard tonight to help billionaires because, God knows, they are\nhaving a hard time, apparently.\n  What that means is that 1.2 million Georgians and nearly 20 million\nAmericans are going to see their healthcare premiums rise. That is what\nis at stake tonight. If they enact these deep cuts to Medicaid, as they\nare positioned not to extend these premiums, these tax credits, they\nare raising the cost of\n\n[[Page S3667]]\n\nhealthcare for all of us. Even if you are on private insurance, you are\nnot safe. Your healthcare is about to go up. Your hospital might close.\nAnd because they are cutting these clean energy tax cuts, your utility\nbills are about to go up.\n  So I have a question tonight. Who voted for that? Some of us are\nDemocrats. Some of us are Republicans. Some of us are Independents.\nSome voted for one party; some voted for the other party. I get it. But\nwho voted for that? Who voted for everybody's healthcare premiums to go\nup and their hospitals to close?\n  Here is what I know. The folks back in Georgia didn't vote for that.\nThey voted for me, and they voted for Donald Trump, but they didn't\nvote for that.\n  Ordinary folks don't want this. Just ordinary, everyday people who\nbarely pay attention to politics, they don't want this. Even a FOX News\npoll--and you won't often hear me say that--but even a FOX News poll\nfrom this month found that Americans don't support this ``Big Ugly\nBill.'' This is systemic in the ways in which the people's voices have\nbeen squeezed out of their democracy. This is not just a healthcare\nfight, it is that. It is not just a fight for food security for SNAP,\nit is that.\n  But in the real sense, it is a fight for our democracy. Whose voice\ngets to be heard in this Chamber? That is what this is about, the\ncharacter of the country.\n  Ordinary Americans don't want to do this to our children. That is why\nthey need to know that 71 percent of all Medicaid enrollees in Georgia\nare children--71 percent. They are taking away healthcare from kids to\npay for tax cuts for billionaires.\n  Let me be clear. I am all for tax cuts. I believe working families\ndeserve a tax cut, and I certainly don't want to see them face a tax\nhike this year. That is why I want to nearly double the child tax\ncredit. I believe in tax cuts for hard-working families, for middle-\nclass people, for working-class families.\n  Instead of doing that, instead of helping working-class families who\nare struggling now against a 10-percent tax on everything and rising\ncosts, we are now burdening our children by adding $3 trillion to the\ndebt. We are taking away healthcare from kids and then burdening them\nwith the debt. We are engaged in Robin Hood in reverse, this body, of\nstealing from the poor in order to give to the rich; this massive\ntransfer of wealth from the bottom to the top.\n  This is socialism for the rich.\n  And when the people hear about it, guess what. They don't like it--\nDemocrats and Republicans and Independents. When the people hear about\nwhat is in this ``Big Ugly Bill,'' they don't like it.\n  And that is why the folks on the other side are trying their best to\nfast-track it. That is why they are trying to pass it, and they haven't\neven finished writing it. They are twisting themselves in knots, making\ntheir Members walk the plank under the threat of a primary to pass this\n``Big Ugly Bill.''\n  The American people do not want to rob our children of food and\nhealthcare and then burden them with trillions in debt to give\nbillionaires and wealthy corporations another tax cut. The people do\nnot want this bill.\n  So if the people do not want this bill, but they are trying to pass\nit, here is the question that you have to ask yourselves at home. You\nhave to ask yourselves: Well, whom are they working for? Whom are they\nfighting for? Who do they think matters? Do you think they are working\nfor you?\n  This is a moral moment and a budget is a moral document. We have been\nsummoned to this moment, people of faith and people of moral courage\nwho claim no particular faith at all. Maybe because I was here\nyesterday and 8 years ago for a similar fight with faith leaders; maybe\nbecause I am a preacher and it is Sunday and I have been here instead\nof church, I have especially been thinking about those of us who are\npeople of faith, people whose lives are informed by Scripture, people\nof the Book.\n  And maybe those of us who have different politics but read from the\nsame Book ought to spend some time together reading the Book because I\ndo sometimes wonder--and I say this with all humility. None of us owns\nthe truth. But if I am honest, there are days when I have to ask people\nof my faith tradition as a Christian, are we reading the same Book? The\nBook I know says: I was hungry and you fed me. I was sick, I was in\nprison, and you visited me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. In as\nmuch as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto\nme.\n  The Book that I love says: Learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the\noppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Speak out for those\nwho cannot speak, for the rights of the destitute. Speak out, judge\nrighteously, defend the rights of the poor and the needy.\n  My Book says: Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and will\nbe repaid in full.\n  The prophet Amos condemns those who ``buy the poor for silver and the\nneedy for a pair of sandals.''\n  They sell the poor out and working-class people for cheap. And for\nthose of us who have a vote in this moment, for my colleagues who are\nswinging on a moral dilemma, I hear the prophet Micah say: He has\nalready told you what is good. What does the Lord require of you but\nthat you do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.\n  May God be with our Nation and grant us grace, wisdom, and courage\nfor this moment.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.\n  Ms. HASSAN. Madam President, first, I want to thank my colleagues\nand, especially just now, my colleague from Georgia, for their work\ntonight, for their expression of what is at stake in this moment. And\nto Senator Warnock, I say thank you and amen.\n  I am here today because I am joining the majority of Americans who\nare deeply alarmed by this plan from the President and his\ncongressional allies, a plan that will make life less affordable for\nmore Americans.\n  When we return home for this Fourth of July, it would be nice to be\nable to tell our constituents that we came together and passed\nbipartisan legislation to help bring down costs for families. Instead,\nmy colleagues who vote for this legislation will have to explain why,\nat a time when families' pocketbooks are strained, they chose to\nsupport a partisan bill to make American life even less affordable.\n  What will America look like once this bill takes effect? Millions of\npeople will have lost their health coverage thanks to the largest cut\nto Medicaid in American history. More people won't be able to afford\npreventive care and cancer screenings, and more people will get sick.\nHealthcare premiums will surge for everyone because fewer people will\nhave care, and the number of uninsured Americans will increase.\n  Rural hospitals will close their doors because they lost Medicaid\nreimbursements that help keep them afloat. More people, especially in\nStates like mine, will have to make long car rides just to get to a\nhospital 50 miles away in those desperate moments when minutes feel\nlike hours and hours like eternities.\n  Seniors will be thrown into grave peril because this bill threatens\nhundreds of billions in Medicare cuts.\n  And once this plan eviscerates food assistance programs, it will be\nmuch harder for families to afford to put food on the table at a time\nwhen groceries are already far too expensive.\n  Let there be no mistake, more families and children who today are\nbeing fed will go hungry, and all the while our children will be\nburdened with trillions more in debt.\n  In the name of what cause is all this done? Well, it is all to pay\nfor tax breaks for billionaires. This bill will also make us an America\nwhere our people are less free.\n  In New Hampshire, during my time as Governor, we adopted Medicaid\nexpansion with support from both political parties, and we balanced the\nbudget at the same time. We understood that, with health, comes\nfreedom: the freedom to work and provide for one's family; the freedom\nfrom disease and despair; the freedom that comes from--why do I even\nhave to say this?--being alive. Granite Staters also understood that a\ngreat country like ours treats its people with great dignity. In\nAmerica, we don't sacrifice the health of our\n\n[[Page S3668]]\n\nneighbors, and we don't let families fall sick. We do not imperil our\neconomy, our debt, and our workforce just to pay for a tax giveaway for\na billionaire.\n\n  So what kind of country will we be with this bill? We will not only\nbe less healthy, but we will be less prosperous and less free. In\nshort, this bill is at odds with what we aspire to be as Americans.\n  It is also worth noting how remarkably out of step this bill is with\nthe American people's plea to bring down costs. In a democracy like\nours, theoretically, the people's representatives pass legislation that\nreflects the aspirations of the majority. I say ``theoretically''\nbecause, clearly, that is not what is happening today. Indeed,\naccording to the data from the Joint Economic Committee minority, if\none combines this bill with the President's tariffs, then firefighters,\ntruckdrivers, and teachers, for instance, will lose $470 or more next\nyear while the top 0.1 percent--who are the people who earn about $4\nmillion or more--will be $348,000 richer.\n  This bill would take away healthcare from tens of thousands of\nGranite Staters and would take a similar toll across the country.\nIndeed, in both Florida and Texas, the number of people who will lose\ntheir health insurance is greater than the entire population of New\nHampshire--millions of people losing care with a stroke of a pen.\n  What have these people done to deserve that? All the American people\nare asking for is for us to help bring down costs. So the President and\nthe Republicans in Congress take away their healthcare?\n  Sometimes in Washington, we are faced with bills that fail to fully\nmeet the moment, to be sure, but it is rare to find legislation like\nthis: a bill that makes life less affordable during a time when\nAmericans of every political stripe are crying out for lower costs; a\nbill that seems as if it was drafted just to make a mockery of the\nwills and wishes of the majority of the people in this country.\n  Lately, many of my colleagues and some political pundits have been\ntalking about this bill as if it were inevitable--a runaway freight\ntrain so vast that it cannot be stopped. In light of this\ninevitability, they suggest that some of the bill's deficiencies can\njust be overlooked. But, of course, this bill was not inevitable, nor\nis it now.\n  So let's be clear: Each and every Senator in this body has free\nwill--God-given free will--which means that the measures in this\nlegislation that gut Medicaid weren't written by mistake or by chance.\nWe didn't arrive at this day with a vote on this terrible budget bill\nby accident. Let's not delude ourselves. We are only here because a\nmajority in this body decided to ignore the majority of the country and\nmake a series of decisions. The Republican majority decided to gut\nMedicaid. They decided to take away healthcare from millions. They\ndecided to raise insurance premiums for the rest of us. They decided\nthat closed hospitals were a risk worth taking. They decided that\ntaking food away from hungry kids was acceptable. They decided that\ntrillions more in debt was not a problem. The Republican majority\ndecided that depriving the American people of all of these things and\nraising their costs were worth it just as long as they paid for another\ntax break for billionaires.\n  That is the bargain that this administration, along with my\nRepublican colleagues, is forcing the American people to accept. Our\npeople will be less healthy, and our kids will have more debt, but the\nPresident and billionaires like him will get a tax break.\n  Of course, part of what makes this bill so frustrating is it includes\nsome individual provisions that I have spent years trying to pass into\nlaw. This bill includes provisions I support, some even that I\nauthored, like strengthening the R&D tax deduction to support our\nentrepreneurs and a tax cut for families to make childcare more\naffordable. I also support this bill's provisions which would tackle\nour housing crisis by expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit,\nwhich would bring down the cost of housing, as well as a provision\nmaking mortgage insurance tax deductible so that it is easier to buy a\nhome. I support a bill with real tax cuts for the middle class and\nsmall businesses, unlike the token measures included in this bill.\n  If my Republican colleagues worked across the aisle to draft a bill\nthat brought this bipartisan approach to other critical areas like\nhealthcare and food assistance, I would vote for it. Instead, my\ncolleagues chose to take these commonsense solutions hostage by linking\nevery good idea to three bad ones, turning this into a purely partisan\nendeavor. So, yes, I am glad that some of these bipartisan provisions\nwill be signed into law, but I regret that they aren't a part of a\ntruly bipartisan effort because of the politics of division and\ndestruction that President Trump brings to Washington.\n  I know that there are many areas of common ground with my Republican\ncolleagues in this body, but it has become far too difficult to move\nforward on finding solutions when, at every turn, the President seems\nfar more interested in demonizing and dividing rather than in bringing\npeople together; in turning areas of agreement into weapons to force\ndisagreement. Now, that is exactly the kind of cynical politics of\ndivision that does lasting damage to our families, to our economy, and\nto our democracy.\n  President Trump, likely, will get this bill passed. He may get enough\nof the Republican caucus to stand in line once again to pass it, even\nthough my Republican colleagues know that budget analysts have added up\nthe financial cost of this bill and have told them that it adds\ntrillions upon trillions to our national debt, burdening our children's\nfutures.\n  But, you know, as important as the debt is, it is not the only cost\nof passing this awful bill. There is another kind of cost, a cost not\nsimply of dollars and cents. I shouldn't have to remind this\nadministration and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle about\nthe nature of this cost. They know it. Just to be clear, this tax break\nfor corporate special interests and billionaires has a price--a price\nthat can't be summed up in a budget line or written off during tax\nseason--because when we debate healthcare in America, some dress up\nthese discussions with words like ``reconciliation'' and ``program''\nand ``discretionary spending,'' but what they are talking about is\nbeing sick and being healthy. What they are talking about, whether they\nwant to admit it or not, is living and dying.\n  So how much does this bill cost?\n  The cost is that of millions of Americans losing their healthcare.\nThe cost is of countless numbers of families feeling the pain of higher\ninsurance premiums. The cost is a mother being forced to choose between\npaying out of pocket for her own care or paying for groceries for her\nkids. It is a price that is exacted in cancers that go undetected. It\nis exacted in chronic illnesses that go untreated. It is exacted in the\nhealthcare challenges in our country that continue to go unaddressed\nbecause we spend all our energies simply trying to keep our heads above\nwater in the floods of the President's own making.\n\n  The pricetag is more than dollars and cents. It includes the cost of\nlosing more people from our workforce because they are too ill to work.\nIt includes the gnawing pains of hunger and the slow toll of\nmalnutrition that will come as food assistance programs are robbed. It\nincludes the anguish of young parents who no longer know how they will\nmake ends meet. It includes the lost hopes and deferred dreams of\npeople held back by illness. It includes the cost of having to say more\nearly good-byes.\n  What is the pricetag of this bill?\n  The price, in the end, is the health and freedom of millions of\nAmericans. It is a price that will be paid because somewhere on the\nroad that brought us here, here in President Trump's Washington, some\npeople decided that the health of some child or her mother may be dear\nbut that it doesn't carry the same weight that a bigger tax return for\na billionaire does.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.\n  Mr. BENNET. Madam President, the hour is late. I want to thank the\nPresiding Officer for being here.\n  I am glad to be here with my colleague from New Hampshire and my\nneighbor from New Mexico.\n  I want to thank the floor staff that is here tonight. And I would\nlike to suggest--but it is not the purpose of my speech--that the next\ntime Senators\n\n[[Page S3669]]\n\nmake the suggestion that the floor staff should spend the entire night\nreading a bill here, that the Senators actually read that bill instead\nof imposing that on the staff that is here. I think that would be a\njust thing for us to do and the appropriate and proper thing for us to\ndo.\n  Madam President, the last time that we were headed down this road,\nwhich was when Republicans were passing President Trump's 2017 deficit-\nexploding tax cut, it didn't take a mathematical genius to figure out\nwhat was about to happen. I told the Senate at that time that, as our\ndebt grows, we will spend billions more not on schools, roads, and\ninnovation but on interest costs. Worse, we were about to blow another\nhole in the debt without really helping the middle class, and 8 years\nago, I said: On top of that, we know that, when deficits swell, as they\nsurely will, cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will be sure to follow,\nfurther burdening working families struggling to make ends meet.\n  Well, here we are. That is exactly the story of this bill. Utterly\npredictable is this bill which massively increases our deficit when our\nchildren can least afford it. The Republican Senators who will be\npassing this bill tonight or tomorrow morning, if they do, know they\nare doing it when we have already hit a new milestone for the first\ntime in American history.\n  Our interest payments exceed the amount that we spend on our national\ndefense. For the first time, the American people, because of the\nirresponsibility of those in this Chamber, are going to pay $1 trillion\nin interest. That is a massive number. That is essentially the same as\nwhat we spend on Medicare; as what we spend on children and higher\neducation together; as what we spend on housing, bridges, broadband,\nports, and highways combined.\n  I want to be very clear tonight that over the years, Democrats and\nRepublicans have pursued policies that have led to that $1 trillion in\ninterest payments--there is no doubt about it--and it is worth thinking\nabout what we could do if we hadn't made such fiscally irresponsible\nchoices: expand the child tax credit, as my colleague from Georgia\nsaid; cut childhood poverty in half and hunger by a quarter; build a\nmodern energy group to meet our expanding energy demands so Americans\nin cities and rural communities can enjoy affordable, reliable energy\nat home; establish a healthcare system that the American people\ndeserve--a modern system that people in other rich, industrialized\ncountries take for granted, a system that does not cost twice as much\nwith worse outcomes like in the United States of America, the richest\ncountry in the world, that forces parents to choose between their\nchildren's prescriptions and school supplies and that exhausts the\nAmerican people who, day after day after day, have to fight endless\nnegotiations with their insurance companies just to keep their children\ncovered; that constantly threatens rural hospitals and clinics with\nclosures in this country. No other rich country in the world puts up\nwith that craziness. And we are spending twice as much as any other\ncountry in the world to get worse healthcare, worse outcomes, and more\nscarcity.\n\n  Every Senator on this floor might make a different choice about the\npolicies that they would enact, their preferred policies, but I doubt\nthat there is anybody here who is willing to go home and defend the\nvirtues of wasting $1 trillion of the American people's money on\ninterest payments.\n  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and outside groups like\nthe Penn Wharton Budget Lab tell us that by the end of the next 10\nyears, we will have the highest debt ratio ever, eclipsing the debt our\nNation had in the 1940s.\n  What was happening in the 1940s? That is when the ``greatest\ngeneration'' had borrowed money to defeat economic misery at home\nthrough the New Deal and European fascism by becoming the arsenal of\ndemocracy. Those were their receipts. Those were the receipts of a\ngeneration that understood its commitment to the next generation--to\nus.\n  When we contemplate from this broken Senate the patriotic\naccomplishments of the ``greatest generation,'' what has always seemed\nparticularly egregious to me has been the tax policy Republicans have\npassed four times since Ronald Reagan passed it in 1981. Every single\ntime, they made the same promises--every time. Look it up. They made\nthe same promises that their trickle-down tax policy would drive\neconomic growth, cut our deficit, pay for itself. Every time, including\nthe recent Trump tax cut in 2017, these promises have been false. They\nhave been false. That was 8 years ago. That wasn't a century ago. We\nknow what the math is. Everybody in this room knows the deficit is far\nworse today than it was when Donald Trump passed those tax cuts.\n  President Trump has had a very rare thing happen, which is he got to\ntake 4 years off and come back and be President. The effect of the tax\ncuts he passed the last time that he said were going to pay for\nthemselves clearly have not. There is nobody in this Chamber who can\ndeny that.\n  I always find it amazing, when I hear these promises, why people make\nthem if they know they are so false--over and over and over again. I\nthink the reason is that it is a way that politicians in Washington can\navoid the objections that you could never get away with at home.\n  Imagine for a minute if there were a mayor in America, any mayor in\nany town--in Santa Fe, NM; or in Limon, CO; or in Los Angeles, CA--it\ndoesn't matter--a Republican town or a Democratic town. Imagine if a\nmayor came to join you and said: This town is going to borrow more\nmoney than we have ever borrowed before.\n  That would worry you. That would worry me. I think our first question\nto that mayor would be: OK. That worries me. What are you going to\nspend the money on that you are going to borrow? Are you going to spend\nit on schools?\n  No.\n  Are you going to spend it on parks?\n  No.\n  Are you going to spend it on the water infrastructure that so many\ncommunities in New Mexico require? Are you going to spend it on the\nmental health crisis that our teenagers are facing because of our\nfailure to address it? Are you going to spend it on infrastructure?\n  The answer to all those questions would be no.\n  What are you going to spend the money on, Mr. Mayor?\n  Well, the answer is, I am going to give tax cuts to the two richest\nneighborhoods in town and hope that those trickle down to everybody\nelse.\n  That is the Republican tax policy.\n  There is a reason why no mayor in America has ever done that. There\nis no mayor in America who has ever pursued trickle-down economics\nbecause you would get run out on a rail. You would get run out on a\nrail if you went and said: We are going to borrow the most money that\nhas ever been borrowed from our children to finance tax cuts for the\nrichest neighborhoods in town.\n  It makes no sense. It is preposterous. Yet that has been the argument\nsince Ronald Reagan first said that these tax cuts will be paid for,\nthat the economy will grow, that there won't be a deficit.\n  There is a reason we are paying more than $1 trillion in interest\ntoday, and that is because our deficits are enormous.\n  Fortunately--and this is really important for the American people to\nunderstand--we still live in the strongest country in the world. We are\nin the world's richest economy. We have the most lethal military. Apart\nfrom our President, we have a national commitment to an independent\njudiciary, the rule of law, and low levels of corruption in our economy\nand in our society. We have unparalleled capital markets, cutting-edge\ninnovation, and world-leading universities. We have all those things\ngoing for us partly because the folks who came before us invested in\nthose things and built those things and tended those things.\n  But what we struggle with in our time is a sense amongst most\nAmericans that they can't get ahead, that the American dream is further\nand further out of reach for themselves and for their families. In my\nview, that is the biggest challenge our country faces and in the face\nof this bill's ill-considered tax cuts and cuts to our healthcare\nsystem, which is going to throw millions of people off of their\nhealthcare and make healthcare more expensive for everybody else.\n\n[[Page S3670]]\n\n  By the way, what is the logic of that? The logic of that is that when\nyou throw people off their healthcare, they end up going to the\nemergency room to take care of themselves and take care of their\nfamilies, just as anybody would. That is the most expensive care that\nanybody could have. That expense is then put in our insurance policies,\nand all of us are going to pay more. You can't wish away people just\nbecause you throw them off health insurance.\n  When other countries in the world--other wealthy, rich countries in\nthe world--have a system of insurance that basically guarantees\nhealthcare and mental health care to their citizens, it is worth asking\nwhy we would throw our people off the not-so-great health insurance\nthat they have. That is a good question. But it is particularly crazy\nwhen it just drives up the cost for everybody else.\n\n  We need to deeply think about the challenges that our country is\nfacing today. It is more unequal. The top 1 percent own 30 percent of\nour Nation's wealth, and the bottom 50 percent own 2\\1/2\\ percent. The\ntop 1 percent of Americans own 50 percent of the value of the stock\nmarket. The top 1 percent of Americans own 50 percent of the value of\nthe stock market while the bottom 50 percent own just 1 percent of its\nvalue.\n  Something that is really affecting my State is that the Nation's\nmedian home price is now five times higher than the median family\nincome. As a result, the average first-time home buyer is now 38 years\nold--38 years old--versus 29 just a generation ago. Reading scores in\nour Nation have hit a 20-year low. And perhaps most damning and perhaps\nmost upsetting is that our lifespan has declined since the 1980s. We\nare now, on average, likely to die 6 years sooner than other people who\nlive in wealthy countries around the world. If you are African\nAmerican, your chance of dying is, on average, 12 years--12 years--\nsooner than people living in the industrialized world.\n  If we don't shift course soon, we will be the first generation of\nAmericans whose kids and grandkids will be worse off than we are. That\nhas never happened before. We are on track for that to happen to our\nchildren.\n  Many young people today can't afford to live on their own, and they\nmay never be able to afford a house. They can't afford healthcare or\nchildcare. They can't count on a quality education for their children\nin too many parts of America. Some are really worried about whether\nthey are going to be able to afford a child at all. If you haven't\nheard a family say that to you in your townhalls or in your meetings,\nyou haven't been paying attention.\n  But instead of addressing any of these challenges, we are debating a\nbill tonight that will make the wealthiest Americans even wealthier and\nthe poorest Americans even poorer--half a million of whom live in\nColorado--while adding millions more to the debt, which working\nAmericans are going to have to pay back. That is what this Republican\ntrickle-down economics comes down to. No matter how you dress it up,\nthat is what it comes down to.\n  Our generation has made some very bad choices when it comes to our\nchildren's future. This bill only makes matters worse for them. And all\nthis debt will constrain the choices they are going to be able to make\nfor themselves. That is a shame because, unlike us, perhaps they will\naspire to follow in the footsteps of the ``greatest generation'' and\nbuild a country where lifespans are growing, not falling; where\neconomic mobility is rising; where poverty and economic anxiety are\nfalling; where energy exports are increasing and emissions are\ndecreasing; where quality healthcare and childcare and education and\naffordable housing are abundant, not scarce.\n  It seems obvious to me that our child's ambitions should be ours as\nwell. Unfortunately, tomorrow, the Republican majority may pass a bill\nthat takes us further in the wrong direction. In its wake and in its\nwreckage, Americans who do feel an obligation to the next generation\nare going to have to fight even harder to fulfill our duty.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.\n  Mr. SCHIFF. Madam President, today, we meet at the center of a great\ndebate, at a crossroads that will determine the direction of the\ncountry for another generation. And this debate, this choice, goes to\nthe heart of a central question that has been plaguing families in\nAmerica over the last three decades but that is now just coming to the\nforefront.\n  And that question is this: If you are working hard in America, can\nyou still earn a good living for yourself and your family? If you are\nworking hard in America, can you still buy a home or pay your rent, buy\nyour food and medicine, get the healthcare you need, afford fuel for\nyour car, get a decent education, or go on a family vacation? And if\nthe answer is no--and for all too many millions of people, the answer\nis no--what do we do about it?\n  When I was a kid, my father was in the clothing business. He was a\ntraveling salesman, and he made $18,000 a year. On the strength of that\nsingle income, my parents bought our first home for $18,000. He made\n$18,000 a year, and my parents bought a home for $18,000. It was the\nAmerican dream, and it came true for our family.\n  Today, I am a U.S. Senator. That, too, is part of the American dream\nthat anything is possible in this country. But could anyone buy a home\nfor the cost of the annual income even of a U.S. Senator? Not a chance\nin the world. An average home in California costs three or four times\nthat much.\n  My kids are paying thousands and thousands of dollars a month in\nrent. Could they find a home for the cost of their annual income? There\nis even less of a chance of that.\n  And what about your grandkids? At the rate we are going, at the rate\nhousing prices are rising, what chance will they have to afford a home\nat any income?\n  And, of course, it is not just a home. Healthcare costs are rising\neven faster. Millions of families are only one healthcare crisis away\nfrom failing, and it is not their fault. It is not their fault. They\nare working hard--harder than ever--and they can't keep pace with\nrising premiums, out-of-pocket costs, hospital stays, drug costs, and\ncharges at the emergency room.\n  Energy prices are going up. It costs more to heat your home in the\nwinter and a lot more to cool your home in the summer. Utility bills\nhave been rising by double digits while incomes have remained\ncomparatively flat. It is too much. It is too much.\n  Now, why is this coming to a head now? Why, when we are not in a\ngreat depression, not even a great recession--although, with Trump's\ndestructive tariff wars, we may get there soon enough--why now? Why now\nis this coming to a head?\n  The answer is that people feel more squeezed than ever, more pressure\nthan ever, more like a failure than ever because they are doing their\nbest, working their hardest, and they are still hanging by a thread.\nAnd do you know something? It is not their fault. It is not their\nfault. They are doing everything they can to provide for their\nfamilies, and it is just not enough.\n  It is not their fault, but it is someone's fault. It is someone's\nresponsibility. There is someone who should be held accountable for the\nfact that this generation is the first to renege on a compact between\ngenerations that we would leave the country better off to the next\ngeneration than the one that came before.\n  And do you know who that someone is? It is us. It is us.\n  The world has changed, the nature of work has changed, and we have\nnot changed with it. We have not kept pace. And in too many ways,\nthrough our policy failures, we have moved the country in the wrong\ndirection.\n  And the question before us today is whether we continue to barrel\ndown that track toward higher home prices, bigger healthcare costs,\nmore hunger, and greater hardship, or whether we change direction--much\ntoo late, yes; requiring an even more profound course correction,\ncertainly; but finally steer this country to a better quality of life\nfor all of our citizens.\n  Is this bill that change in direction? Does it lead our country on a\nnew path toward affordability and prosperity? The answer--the simple,\nterrible but clear-as-day answer--is no, it most emphatically does not.\nNo, it does nothing to bring down costs. No, it does nothing to make it\neasier for your kids or mine to buy a house, pay their rent,\n\n[[Page S3671]]\n\nbuy groceries, afford their medicine, or fill up the car for a family\nvacation. Instead, it throws more coal in the engine barreling down a\ntrack to nowhere.\n  Donald Trump promised he wouldn't cut Medicaid, but this bill cuts\nhundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid. It is shredding the\nPresident's commitment made again and again. In January, the President\nsaid Republicans will ``love and cherish'' Medicaid. In February, he\nsaid, ``We are not going to touch it.'' Even a few weeks ago, the\nPresident said, ``We are not changing Medicaid. We are leaving it.''\n  But we see in the black and white in this text they released in the\ndark of night that that simply isn't true. This bill will result in\nmillions losing their healthcare from cuts to Medicaid. We know that.\nThe Republicans know that. Thom Tillis has made this point over and\nover again tonight, as have other Republicans in this body.\n  This bill will close down hospitals in the poorest counties and\nStates. It will raise healthcare costs for families everywhere--and by\nthe thousands of dollars. It takes food away from the hungry. It kills\nclean energy so that we have to rely on oil and gas for everything,\nenriching that industry and impoverishing the rest of us with higher\nprices at the pump.\n  It raises taxes on working families and the middle class, while\nlowering taxes on the very wealthy and corporations.\n  If you are in the top 0.1 percent of income earners, making more than\n$5 million a year, you will get a $346,000 tax cut. How is that fair?\nHow is that right? And it borrows the money from our kids to pay for\nthat $346,000 tax cut, to pay for the habits of really rich people.\n  Where is the fairness, the morality in that? When is enough enough?\n  My father was part of the ``greatest generation.'' We, it would\nappear, are part of the most selfish, and I am fed up with it. I am fed\nup with it.\n  What happened to any sense of responsibility in this generation? What\nhappened to love of country?\n  Can we love our country and impoverish it? Can we love our children\nand grandchildren if we take from them only to give to ourselves?\n  In this bill, we borrow trillions from our kids, and for what? So the\nrich can have a bigger boat? So corporate CEOs can have more money? So\na company can buy back more of its stock? So we can be richer than our\nneighbor while his neighbor has no home at all?\n  ``The test of our progress,'' Franklin Roosevelt said in 1937, ``is\nnot whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is\nwhether we provide enough for those who have too little.''\n  Last week, a landscaper in Los Angeles was tackled to the ground\nbecause he was undocumented. He is the father of three marines--three\nmarines. When one of those marines was finally able to speak to his\nfather after his detention, he had one ask of his son: Please go back\nto the worksite and finish the job.\n  That was his ask. That is the work ethic that has made this country\ngreat, not the ethic that brought him to the ground. Raising three\nmarines, that is the patriotism that has made this country great, not\nthe rancor that beat him while he lay there.\n  But if this bill is not the answer--and it most certainly is not--if\nthis bill only makes matters worse, far worse, then what is the answer?\nWhat direction shall we go? How can we begin to make the country work\nfor people once again?\n  Well, we can give instead of take. We can build instead of tear down.\nWe can recapture once again the sense of possibility in this country.\nIf Eisenhower was part of the generation that won the war and built the\nroads and highways, let us be the generation that wins the peace by\ncreating the next giant boom in housing in America, making the\ninvestment necessary, tapping into the great potential of the\ngovernment and industry working together, breaking down each obstacle\nin the way--millions and millions of new homes that my children can\nafford and your children.\n  Let us build new hospitals instead of closing them down and, in so\ndoing, bring the cost of healthcare down with them. Let us train new\ndoctors and nurses so it is not so expensive to visit them and new home\nhealthcare workers to take care of us even as we take care of them.\n  Let us grow more food and feed more people at home and abroad and\nbring down the costs of our groceries. Let us thank our farmworkers,\ninstead of chasing them through the fields to separate them from those\nthey love.\n  None of this--none of this--is beyond our capacity. It may mean that\nwe can't afford yet another tax break for the wealthy or a giveaway to\nthe oil industry or a giveaway to any other industry and its corporate\ntitans.\n  It may call for some sacrifice on our part, but a fraction of what\nour parents and grandparents gave to this country. It means that we pay\nmore attention to our kids and their needs and less our own; that we\nonce again show concern and compassion for our neighbor and remember\nthat we were once strangers in a strange land; that we show humility\nabout our own achievements and recognize that none of us got here on\nour own; that all of us can prosper without someone else being made to\nsuffer--you know, the way it used to be; the way it could be once\nagain.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.\n  Mr. LUJAN. Madam President, I heard several of my colleagues speak\ntonight about what this bill means for Americans all across America.\nNow, each of us has a responsibility to ask whether this bill meets the\nneeds of the people that we are honored to serve.\n  Now, I grew up on a small farm, as many of you know, working the\nland, caring for animals, sometimes even cleaning barns. And I can tell\nyou, this bill does not pass the smell test.\n  For New Mexicans, hard-working people, this bill does not help our\nfamilies get ahead. New Mexicans work hard. Folks are not looking for a\nhandout. New Mexicans are the type of people who would give you the\nshirt off their back if you needed it. It is just who we are, and I am\nproud of it.\n  But sometimes people fall on hard times. And I will remind you all\nthat this could happen to any of us. You might need medical care. You\nmight need help putting food on the table, maybe support to care for a\nloved one, or just want enough security to know that a job will be\nthere for us.\n  Some claim that this bill will help Americans, which we know is not\nthe truth because, from where I stand, there is very little in this\nlegislation that helps hard-working New Mexicans.\n  Now, it is important that this debate is happening because now New\nMexicans and people all across America can clearly see what is in this\nbill and what is not. As has been said time and time again this\nevening, the vast majority of this legislation benefits the\nultrawealthy. The wealthiest 0.1 percent are getting over 250 grand\nback in their pocket. Can you believe this?\n  How many people might not make that in a lifetime? An extra $250,000\nin their pockets, that is what this bill is about. Now, meanwhile, it\ndoes not help farmers; it does not support teachers or children.\n  Nothing for New Mexico seniors who rely on Medicaid SNAP, and nothing\nfor New Mexicans who served our country and deserve our care in return.\n  New Mexicans are hard-working people who believe in the values of\nloving your neighbor, following what the Bible teaches us: Do unto\nothers as you have them do unto you.\n  This bill goes against everything New Mexicans stand for. It is not\nhonest; it is not caring; and it is not fair.\n  Now, I have heard my colleagues try to claim that this bill does not\ncut assistance. That is a lie. It is not true. This bill cuts more than\na trillion dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program\nand Medicaid, for crying out loud. Senate Republicans are gutting the\nAffordable Care Act and ripping healthcare away from 17 million\nAmericans.\n  Now a few of my colleagues across the aisle have spoken with some\nclarity, saying out loud what we all know to be true.\n  One Republican Senator warned about SNAP, about these cuts, saying:\n\n       If we don't watch out, people are going to get hurt.\n\n  Another Republican colleague said on Medicaid:\n\n       We can't be cutting healthcare for working people and for\n     poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment\n     to corporations.\n\n[[Page S3672]]\n\n  Now that same Senator went on to say that:\n\n       Slashing health insurance for the working poor is morally\n     wrong.\n\n  That is right. I wish more of them spoke with that clarity. At least\na few of them are saying out loud what the rest of America is thinking.\n  Now is the time for more courage, though, the courage to put people\nfirst. My colleagues all have a chance to vote against this\nlegislation. They all have a chance to vote for amendments that will\nsay: Hands off Medicaid. Don't cut those nutrition programs that one\nSenator said are going to hurt people if we don't watch out.\n  This bill takes food from the mouths of New Mexican children and\ntakes care away from New Mexicans who are sick. It is not just New\nMexico. These cuts will hurt people in every State.\n  My Republican colleagues, to lock up one more vote, offered something\ncalled the Polar Payoff--a carve-out for one State. Now, look, these\ncarve-outs are an admission that this bill will leave people hungry and\nwithout care--plain and simple. Otherwise, why would they want a carve-\nout for their State? Why was this carve-out added?\n  Because this scam of a bill cuts funding for rural hospitals and the\nprograms that feed children and families in need. For our rural\ncommunities out there, for the farmers and ranchers who grow our food,\nthis bill will hurt your bottom line while closing rural hospitals,\nclosing rural grocery stores.\n  For families who rely on SNAP, this bill means less food on the table\nand more children going to bed hungry, all while making healthcare,\nespecially emergency care, harder to access. That is what this bill\ndoes to hard-working Americans. And I am not even mentioning the\nAmericans who currently have healthcare but will no longer be able to\nafford it because of this bill.\n  Those of you watching at home tonight who do not think this impacts\nyou, it just might. Earlier this week, I had the honor of speaking with\na healthcare worker from Las Cruces, Julee. Julee traveled all the way\nfrom New Mexico to Washington, DC, to tell Congress not to mess with\nher families' Medicaid.\n  Like many of her colleagues, she had a story to share. Now, Julee's\nson received mental health care through Medicaid. When that coverage\nwas cut, Julee lost her son. Soon after, her daughter was diagnosed\nwith a serious condition that required immediate care. Now, without\nMedicaid, her daughter may not have survived either. Just think about\nthat. Let it sink in.\n  New Mexicans understand the responsibility of looking after family.\nLike so many families in New Mexico and across the country, I grew up\nhelping to take care of my grandparents. Grandma Nestora and Grandpa\nCeledon, my dad's parents.\n  Now, when my other grandparents Grandpa Luis and Grandma Cleotilde\nwere victims of a terrible car accident, I watched my mom, my uncles,\nmy aunts, and my cousins show what grace looks like, what love feels\nlike, what compassion really means.\n  Now this bill is a direct attack on those values, values of helping\none another and shared sacrifice. There is no shared sacrifice in this\nbill, only more handouts for the wealthy.\n  There is nothing in this bill that shows that we are all looking out\nfor our neighbors across America. And like so many Americans, I am so\ndeeply concerned about the pricetag. This bill would add more than $3\ntrillion to the national debt.\n  To people watching, this is not just a number. It affects your\neveryday life--higher interest rates. Think about your credit cards,\nyour car loans, your mortgages if you are fortunate to have one. This\nbill is going to make your life more expensive. It is a total betrayal\nof our constituents.\n  So to the American people: Hear me when I say, keep speaking. You\nhave done it before. The American people--all of you that spoke up--you\nhelped stop the sale of our public lands. You made your voices\nimpossible to ignore.\n  Now, this bill is not the law of the land yet. But if we stay silent,\nit will be. So keep organizing, keep calling, and keep showing up\nbecause part of our responsibility as American citizens is to protect\none another, to stand by one another, to treat others the way that we\nwant to be treated, the Golden Rule. It is not hard.\n  We all have a responsibility to stand up when something this\ndangerous threatens our neighbors, our values, and our future.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Moreno). The Senator from New Jersey.\n  Mr. KIM. Mr. President, I rise today to lift up the fact that this\nreconciliation bill will do real harm to countless American families.\nIt is not theoretical or hypothetical. Families are hurting right now:\nthe opioid crisis that has ravaged large parts of my State, the mental\nhealth crisis that people across this country are so concerned about\nand are begging for help about, and so many other challenges that every\nsingle family knows the fear of a health crisis.\n  Like Susan, a mother I met at a townhall down in Egg Harbor--a\ntownhall that was part of a series of townhalls that I did trying to\nhighlight the challenges that so many families are facing--and in this\ncrowded room full of hundreds of people, a woman named Susan shared her\nstory, a mom of a 24-year-old son with Down syndrome.\n  They use Medicaid to be able to cover his care. She broke down at the\nweight of her fear and worry for her child, something a lot of us can\nrelate to.\n  She said to me that this is the face of Medicaid. As I went over to\ngive her a hug, I remember she said: ``It's real.''\n  And it is real, and I know everyone in here knows that. I know\nbecause offices on both sides of the aisle are getting the same calls.\nOur phone systems broke down because of the overwhelming volume of\npeople calling and literally begging--begging--us not to do this,\nbegging us to protect Medicaid so their kids can see the doctors,\nbegging us not to cut SNAP benefits so their students could have access\nto healthy food.\n  It is a humbling experience seeing a parent begging for the resources\nto take care of their sick child. Yet, as I look around, I see far too\nmany people rushing through this process to get it done with little\ncare about the resulting impact it will have, generational damage that\nwill be done.\n  While we are rushing through, barreling through without the ability\nto properly debate this, I want you to know the people of New Jersey,\nthe people of this country, this budget represents an abandonment by\ntheir government, and this will hurt everyone we are supposed to be\nhelping.\n  Some of the people that could be impacted the most are people within\nthe disability community, hundreds of thousands of people in New Jersey\nwith disabilities that rely on Medicaid for coverage, over 15 million\nacross our country, including a man named Tom Spadaro, a disability\nadvocate in Ocean County, NJ, who joined me for a townhall.\n  After a gun accident when he was 11, Tom is a total quadriplegic,\ndependent on a ventilator and others. Medicaid helped him go to school,\nthen college, and in his own words has given him dignity.\n  When talking about this bill that we are debating here today he said:\n\n       If I lose Medicaid, I feel like I'm getting shot in the\n     head again. This time, it's not a bullet. It's legislation.\n\n  I want his words to echo through this Chamber today for everyone to\nhear. If this budget passes, families in every single State across this\ncountry will feel these cuts long after the media and the Trump\nadministration have decided it is time to move on and ``get over it.''\n  A cancer patient doesn't just ``move on'' when they have to delay\ntreatment because they have lost insurance coverage, when a family has\nto upend their lives to become caregivers to their parents because they\ncan't afford elder care, when a hospital closes and the new closest\nemergency room is hours away after the child is in an accident and\nneeds help now, not in 5 hours, they won't ``get over it.''\n  America will feel this long after Donald Trump is no longer in the\nWhite House, and they will remember what has happened to their lives\nbecause of it.\n  Now there are some people listening who might not think that this is\ngoing to affect them, but these cuts to healthcare in this bill are so\ndramatic, it is going to have an impact that reverberates all\nthroughout our communities.\n\n[[Page S3673]]\n\n  I talked to a hospital leader in New Jersey who said that these cuts\ncould be so devastating for their revenue because of how much they get\nthrough Medicaid reimbursements, that they are not sure that they are\ngoing to be able keep their doors open, a hospital not certain if they\ncan keep their doors open.\n  This is not the only story like this across my State, across the\ncountry, whether it is rural hospitals or it is suburban or urban. We\nare going to have a lot of challenges that are going to reverberate\nbeyond just those on Medicaid. It is going to affect every single one\nof us and raise prices at the same time.\n  Losing that critical care in communities not only abandons people in\ntheir time of most need, but it leaves a tragic ripple effect on others\nand other hospitals.\n  So today I am putting forward an amendment to this bill that would\nstop this from happening and directly take out the parts of this bill\nthat would force hospital closures and reduce access to affordable\nhealthcare for so many across this country.\n  In no reality should we be helping billionaires send their rockets to\nouter space while turning people away at hospitals. And yet, this is\nthe reality we find ourselves in, deciding how much care is acceptable\nto take away from families across New Jersey to fit a budget cut or how\nmany patients can be turned away from lifesaving medication just so the\nwealthy can have a nice tax break.\n  A doctor from Frenchtown shared some profound words with my office.\n  She said:\n\n       Medicaid is a reflection of our values. It is how we show\n     up for each other when life gets hard.\n\n  Well what does it say about our Nation as we are having this debate\nthat could very well take a trillion dollars out of Medicaid; about\nthose who need the care the most as if they are just expendable, as if\nthey are just some remainder on the equation of capitalism that is just\npushed to the wayside?\n  As just an inevitability, as a shrug of the shoulder of our society\nto say: I am sorry what happened to you, without a care and an extended\narm and a hand to reach out and pull them up.\n  Let's be very clear. This bill will cause prices to drive up. In New\nJersey alone, over 454,000 families will see higher costs in premiums,\naccording to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, which\nis why I am introducing an amendment to make sure this bill wouldn't\nraise these costs by striking provisions that would increase premiums\nor out-of-pocket costs under Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance\nProgram, and some private insurance marketplaces too.\n  We cannot allow billionaires to get richer while working families are\nseeing drastic increases to their premiums or out-of-pocket costs,\ncosts to keep their children healthy as we deal with the worst measles\nepidemic in decades, costs to afford their kids medicine while we see\nour government attacking science and fact, making parents have to work\nthat much harder to keep their children safe.\n  With all the challenges we are dealing with right now, it is painful\nto think through what will happen if this bill goes into effect and the\nfact that these healthcare cuts will increase our gaps and worsen\nconditions for our vulnerable communities, including children. If we\ncan't stand up for them, for our children, who are we willing to stand\nup for?\n  And as I said at the beginning, every family has a healthcare story.\nEveryone has felt overwhelmed in the face of sickness and injury. Just\na year ago, my father took a fall. I got the call while I was on the\ncampaign trail. I rushed down to the hospital. But even after the\nsurgery, what we learned is there was an even more debilitating\nchallenge that we faced, a cognitive decline as my father is descending\ninto dementia.\n  I just spent Father's Day weekend with my father, the entire weekend,\nbut it was in the emergency room as he had twice fallen in 2 days--two\nseparate trips to the emergency room.\n  My family is overwhelmed right now. We struggle to think through his\nneeds that go far beyond what we can be able to provide, goes far\nbeyond what Medicare can provide.\n  And it is not just my father and my family. We have failed seniors.\nWe have failed as we have failed to plan and create a place for elder\ncare in this country that preserves a foundation of dignity and decency\nfor everybody.\n  And when you are in the trenches fighting for your own life or\ngripping the hand of a loved one struggling, the last thing you want to\nthink about is worrying if you are eligible for this treatment or that.\n  You want to be able to provide what it takes for your loved one to\nsurvive, to go a little further, spend a little more time on this\nplanet with us, and to grow our love deeper.\n  When we think about that and then we ask ourselves, well, why is this\nbill happening, why are these cuts happening, it is not to bring down\nthe deficit. Instead, it is going to balloon the deficit by trillions\nof dollars. Who among us in this country think that the problems that\nwe face as a Nation is because the wealthiest among us don't have\nenough?\n  The distrust in government right now, it is not because politics\nisn't doing enough to help the most well-off in our country, the\nbillionaires and the millionaires.\n  I ask my colleagues to find the courage to do the right thing. I want\nto bring us back to 2017 in this very Chamber as Senators gathered to\ndecide the fate of the Affordable Care Act, which was, at the time,\nhanging by a thread.\n  Many of my colleagues here in this Chamber were also on the floor at\nthat time. I was not. I was a regular citizen, angry at what I was\nseeing unfolding, watching it on my phone.\n  A citizen that felt so detached from what was happening in this\nChamber, I remember thinking to myself, How could the Senate be\nseriously considering doing such harm to this country, to so many\nAmericans by trying to gut preexisting condition protections, the\nAffordable Care Act, so much others? I asked myself: Am I missing\nsomething? Am I missing information to understand why it is that this\nis even happening?\n  And we saw rushed conversations, and we saw people running back and\nforth. And we also saw Senator John McCain step up and signal with his\narm that he did not stand for this. Senator McCain's vote was a rare\nmoment of doing what you know is right even when you are surrounded by\nnoise telling you it is wrong.\n  It is surreal now finding myself on the floor of the Senate in a\nsimilar moment in our own Nation's history with so much on the line\nwith this vote, and I look around this Chamber and yet again think the\nexact same questions from 8 years ago, How can the Senate seriously be\nconsidering gutting care for so many?\n  And now with the benefit of being here, the conversations and the\ninformation, I am still left with this question of, Am I missing\nsomething?\n  How is it that such an esteemed body that is meant to protect the\nAmerican people, in this Chamber where so many decisions have been made\nto protect the American people, that we are on the cusp of doing\nsomething that will do generational damage to so many American\nfamilies?\n  This vote before us seems as surreal and reckless from within this\nChamber as it does from outside. But while the problem is the same, so\nis the solution. It is about courage--the courage John McCain had; the\ncourage that so many of my constituents have.\n  So many people have called and shared their personal stories--stories\nabout their families' health they probably had never told anybody, but\nthey feel so desperate right now to do something that they are willing\nto open themselves up, be able to pull back the curtain of the dangers\nand the pain that they have endured, to be able to try to do anything\nto stop this bill from hurting Americans. That is courage.\n  And it is courage about standing up against the big money and the\nspecial interest, and sometimes it feels insurmountable.\n  And I say to my colleagues here today that you won't be remembered by\nwhether or not you passed this bill on President Trump's timeline or if\nyou feigned concern about constituents just to be able to stab them in\nthe back later. You will be remembered by your courage to stand up and\nsay no. You will be remembered by your courage to speak out for the\npeople--not just a few who have paid, but for all of us.\n\n[[Page S3674]]\n\n  You will be remembered in the same way as our former colleague was\nremembered by what he did 8 years ago. I urge you to remember that this\njob is bigger than all of us--bigger than any one man, any one party.\nIt is about using our vote and our courage to make lives better for\nthose that we represent.\n  History and the American people are watching. You still have time. We\nstill have power. I still believe in this Chamber and believe it can be\na force for good. Let us use it for the children, for the disabled, for\nthose not in this room.\n  I yield the floor.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.\n  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I too rise in opposition to the\nreconciliation bill before us, but before I get to my objections over\nthe substance of this historic attack on working and middle-class\nfamilies, I want to speak for a minute as the ranking member of the\nRules Committee, and I need to address how Republicans are abusing the\nprocess to get here.\n  They are breaking the Senate rules to hide the true cost of the bill.\nFor the second time in just 6 weeks, the Republican majority is going\nnuclear on the Senate rules. And they are doing it with the same\npurpose: to avoid the 60-vote threshold of the filibuster in order to\npass a very unpopular agenda.\n  Now, I know oftentimes, we are advised against getting into\n``process'' because most people may not care about process or\nunderstand process. But in this particular case, it serves to\nunderscore the significance of the damage that this bill represents,\nthe procedural lengths to which the Republican majority is going to try\nto get this done.\n  And I do have to say it is a little surprising, because it was just\nin May that Leader Thune said--Leader Thune unequivocally said:\n\n       While Republicans are in charge, the legislative filibuster\n     will remain in place.\n\n  If you go back to January, he was asked about this because folks kind\nof had a sense that this might be coming. He said then about overruling\nthe Senate Parliamentarian:\n\n       That is totally akin to killing the filibuster. We can't go\n     there. People need to understand that.\n\n  But now Republicans are trying to do exactly that, to hide behind the\ntechnical language of Senate procedure to harm working families.\n  And like I said, it is not the first time. Just last month,\nRepublicans voted to override the very plain language of the\nCongressional Review Act, and they voted to overrule the\nParliamentarian to repeal California's Clean Air Act standards with a\nsimple majority vote.\n  Fast forward to today, they are running the same play, this time with\ntrillion-dollar consequences, not just air quality and public health\nconsequences.\n  See, colleagues and folks watching at home, budget reconciliation is\nthe most powerful, expedited procedure statute on the books. You can do\na lot with a simple majority and avoid the filibuster, but you have to\ndo it by the rules of reconciliation.\n  But today, the Republican majority wants to extend trillions of\ndollars of tax cuts for President Trump's billionaire friends and\nextend those tax cuts permanently. That is not just terrible, terrible\npolicy, it is against the Senate rules. The Congressional Budget Act\nsays clearly that reconciliation bills cannot increase the debt beyond\n10 years.\n  Now, it doesn't take a Nobel Prize-winning economist to know that a\npermanent trillion-dollar tax cut would do exactly that. And so once\nagain, following the same playbook they did last month, the majority is\ngoing to twist the rules to try to find a way.\n  They are, again, ignoring the guidance from the Parliamentarian's\noffice that doesn't fit their agenda. And they are setting yet another\nnew precedent for this body not only to continue to overrule the\nParliamentarian, but to ignore adding trillions of dollars of costs\nunder the ``current policy baseline.''\n  As we did during the Clean Air Act debate last month, I and my\nDemocratic colleagues will once again remind our Republican colleagues\nthat sooner or later, Democrats will be back in the majority. By then,\nthe American people will have felt the pain of this bill, but we will\nmake sure that they understand just how hard you tried to work to hide\nit from them.\n  Democrats will not let the American people forget what Senate\nRepublicans do this week.\n  Now, on to the substance of budget reconciliation. How many times\nhave we heard the Trump administration these past few months say they\nare focused on fraud? Waste? Abuse?\n  Now, these are the buzz words that they turn to when trying to bat\naway questions or when Americans are trying to get clarity on whether\nthe lifesaving services that they depend on are about to get cut.\n  But in reality, what we are seeing happen this week is one of the\nbiggest acts of fraud in American history playing out right before our\nvery eyes with the bill under debate today. And it is past midnight, so\nwe are in Monday, so I can still say today. Donald Trump and his\nbillionaire allies are literally stealing--stealing--from working\nfamilies in order to reduce the amount of taxes they would have to pay,\nliterally robbing from the poor to give to the rich.\n  For anyone really wondering whether they would actually do that, we\nknow they will because they have done it before. In 2017, during the\nfirst Trump Presidency, Republicans seemed fine saying they could\nafford hundreds of billions of dollars in permanent tax cuts for large\ncorporations. I remember the arguments back then. ``This is going to\ngrow the economy,'' they said. ``In time, it will reduce the debt,''\nthey said. That didn't happen.\n  So today, now, they are arguing that we can't afford programs that\nkeep kids from going hungry? We can't afford the programs that keep\nlights on in emergency rooms? It is outrageous.\n  In 2025, so many working families are struggling--struggling to keep\nup with the rising costs from Trump's chaotic tariff wars, with prices\ngoing up for groceries and other everyday goods. Many are working long\nhours and still struggling to make ends meet or to afford care for\ntheir loved ones.\n  I get it. I have been there. Colleagues, as I have shared with you\nbefore, I am the proud son of working-class parents who came to the\nUnited States from Mexico in the 1960s. I will remind you that for 40\nyears, my father worked as a short-order cook and my mom cleaned\nhouses. On those modest salaries, they raised my sister, my brother,\nand I in the proud working-class community of Pacoima, CA. And I\nremember what it was like to live paycheck to paycheck. I know how\nunnerving it can be, for example, when the car broke down, and you\nlistened and witnessed your parents' debate because, on the one hand,\nmaybe they couldn't afford the cost of repairing the car right away,\nbut they also realized that they couldn't afford to not fix the car\nbecause they had to get to work.\n  I know that there are so many Americans in communities like the one I\ngrew up in that aren't looking for handouts. That is not what we are\narguing or debating in this bill. Americans just want a fair chance to\nwork hard and provide for their families. There is pride and dignity in\nworking hard and providing for families. That is part of the American\ndream. People just want a fair playing field. In a country with as much\npromise and profit as the United States of America, that shouldn't be\ntoo much to ask for.\n  But not only would the Republican budget reconciliation bill be one\nbig handout for the wealthiest Americans, it would actually make life\nharder for working families in order to pay for it. That is wrong, and\nit is cruel.\n  At its very core, just like Trump did in 2017 with the help of\nRepublicans in Congress, this bill is fundamentally about one thing and\none thing only: cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans and big\ncorporations. How else do you explain the fact that the top 0.1 percent\nwill see a tax cut of more than $250,000 a year, while millions of\nAmerican households will actually see a reduction in their annual\nincome or take-home pay? That is because to pay for the massive\nhandouts to the wealthy, Republicans are gutting healthcare and cutting\nservices that so many working families depend on, and they are twisting\nthemselves into knots in order to cut around $1 trillion in\nhealthcare--cuts that would leave 16 million Americans without health\ninsurance. We are talking about seniors.\n\n[[Page S3675]]\n\nWe are talking about children, Americans with disabilities, hard-\nworking families who don't deserve to be kicked off their health\ninsurance just so billionaires can pay less in taxes.\n  These devastating cuts, by the way, will also close rural hospitals\naround the country, including in California, where so many are already\nstruggling just to keep the doors open.\n  And for folks listening to the debate thinking that ``well, if I am\nnot on Medicaid, then this may not apply to me; this isn't going to\nhurt me,'' let me remind you that if your local hospital that relies on\nMedicaid dollars is forced to cut services or cut staff or even close\nits doors as a result, then, yes, you, too, will be hurt.\n  But the bill doesn't stop there. In this bill, Republicans cut SNAP,\nnutrition assistance, that critical lifeline that so many count on to\nliterally feed their families. How much more cruel can you get?\n  But wait, there is more. Republicans are also rolling back the\nhistoric progress we have made investing in our transition to a clean\nenergy economy, targeting the millions of clean energy jobs that are\nfueling innovation and helping us stay ahead of China. The cuts to\nclean energy that Republicans are making in this bill will lead to\nhigher energy costs, higher electricity bills for so many families.\n  I am reminded that this last November, so many voters went to the\npolls and voted, hoping for lower prices. They were desperate and\nlooking for relief, and that is what motivated their votes. But this\nbill does the opposite.\n  So I have to wonder, for my Republican colleagues who are supporting\nthis measure, who was it that you are fighting for? Did any of you\nreally come to Congress to take food away from the hungry? to take care\naway from sick children? What are you proposing be done here?\n  Now, I have seen Republicans go back and forth on this bill for\nmonths now, I am sure trying to decide just how much they can try to\nget away with, and I have heard some of the arguments that they plan to\nmake to justify voting for this bill. Some of them will argue that we\nneed this bill because we need to reduce the deficit. Talk about\nmisleading. This bill adds trillions--yes, trillions--of dollars to our\nNation's debt. So even when they try to twist the numbers and come up\nwith the funny math, it doesn't even result in deficit reduction. And\ndo you know how you can tell? Because the Republicans included a $5\ntrillion increase to the debt limit in this bill. If the bill and the\ncuts included in the bill indeed reduced the deficit, as they claim it\ndoes, they wouldn't have needed to raise the debt limit in the process.\n\n  So let's be clear. Republicans who are voting for this bill know full\nwell it will hurt so many of their constituents. That is why behind\nclosed doors you have Republicans handing out flyers that show just how\ndevastating Medicaid cuts will be in States represented by Republicans.\nOr we hear them discussing the burden SNAP cuts will have on State and\nlocal governments. But because the leader of their party wants to sign\nthis bill to celebrate the Fourth of July this year, many of them will\nvote yes.\n  But I will ask again: Who is this bill in service of? Who are you\nstanding up for? Who are you fighting for?\n  I will tell you who I am fighting for. I am fighting for people like\nJesus Acosta from San Diego, a home care provider who in 2016 became\nhis mother's full-time care provider when she was tragically hit by a\ncar and became disabled. Jesus can't hold a full-time job and carry all\nthe responsibilities of looking after his mother, so for both Jesus and\nhis mother, Medicaid has been a lifeline. I am fighting for him.\n  I am fighting for people like Tina Ewing-Wilson in the Inland Empire,\nwho remembers what it was like the last time her Medicaid benefits were\ncut. Tina struggles with seizures and developmental disabilities and\nrequires care 24/7. But when the great recession hit and Medicaid cuts\nfollowed, Tina knew she could only afford her care by offering free\nroom and board to caregivers--caregivers who went out to abuse drugs\nand alcohol and took advantage of her financially. Tina is terrified of\nthat possibly happening again if these Republican cuts to Medicaid\nimpact her. I am fighting for her.\n  I am fighting for the families I met at Rady Children's Hospital,\nwhere over half of all patients are covered by Medicaid.\n  I am fighting for the nurses and the caregivers who fear for their\npatients. They care for their patients, but they are fearing for their\npatients because of these proposals.\n  I am fighting for every parent across the country who is working\ntheir tail off to put food on the table for their children but every\nnow and then may need a helping hand.\n  If you see these Americans, if you have constituents with similar\nexperiences in Your States and still think they should have less of our\nhelp, not more, then I guess we came to Congress for different reasons.\n  If you have seen so many corporations' profits soaring and the wealth\ninequality in our country growing and think that billionaires need more\ntax relief, then I guess we came to Congress for different reasons.\n  If, this week, you will vote to rip these critical lifelines away\nfrom millions of Americans because you somehow think it is the right\npolitical calculation, then surely we came to Congress for different\nreasons.\n  Colleagues, it is crystal clear. I urge you to vote no on this bill\nand stand with me, stand with us, stand up for working families. That\nis what I plan to do.\n  I yield the floor.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2025-06-28-pt1-PgS3663-3"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 24.32047505863011, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}