Tammy Baldwin

Yes, well, I just actually came from voting for the seventh time to reopen the government and bring down costs for healthcare for millions upon millions of Americans who stand to lose access

to affordable health care.

And it is so frustrating.

You're talking about the conversations that are going on across the party aisle.

When you have Marjorie Taylor Greene saying that we must fix this because she sees her kids, their health premiums for next year.

And I have many Republican colleagues saying

who want to address the healthcare costs.

But the leaders and President Trump are saying, no, my way or the highway.

And frankly, speaking of the highway, the House has not been in session now for two plus weeks.

They're on vacation while we are trying to reopen the government to bring down healthcare costs.

This is clearly Trump's shutdown.

You know, this is something that, as we know, he just refuses to negotiate.

And you can't pass things in the Senate without bipartisan support.

So it's you know, he owns this.

You know, I think that he has yet to really talk to real Americans who are getting their notices about what their health care is going to cost next year.

And some of my Republican colleagues are hearing from their constituents who are impacted, and that's what's creating a sense of urgency among some of them.

But as we see more and more notices go out across the country, it's going to be a deafening roar.

And I certainly hope, you know, it's so clear to me.

I listen to my constituents all the time.

I have heard, and I can give you examples.

There's Gigi from Stoughton, Wisconsin, who just realized her dream of starting a small business.

She's an artist.

And she has a little place on the main street there.

But she's just barely getting by.

She's on the Affordable Care Act.

And

She's also a cancer survivor.

And so it's really important for her to have access to her oncologist.

And there's certain things she takes because of the treatment she had many years ago.

She is terrified that she will have to close her small business, go work for some big corporation that provides health care because she will not be able to afford her treatment.

her insurance.

And I mean, I have so many examples like that.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 2 Well, it's certainly part of the reason why the House is on vacation.

Speaker Johnson knows full well that there is a new member who has been duly elected in Arizona.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Future Congress or Congresswoman elect Grijalva.

And as soon as she is sworn in, she will be the 218th signature on something called a discharge petition that will demand the release of the Epstein files.

Yes.

And so he is choosing not to convene.

And we are in a shutdown.

He...

could very well bring the House back in session.

We can pass our resolution to reopen government and bring down health care costs.

But he refuses to do so.

And I think that the release of the Epstein files probably weighs heavily in that decision, that calculation on his part.

So through the passage last summer of the big ugly bill, there is now an impending health care crisis.

They cut nearly a trillion dollars out of Medicaid.

eligible people will lose coverage because of that.

But much more immediately, this big ugly bill was predominantly a tax bill.

Yes.

And while they passed big tax breaks for big profitable corporations and billionaires, they didn't see fit

to include a tax break for hardworking American families to afford their healthcare.

And that is an imminent crisis.

As we have been having this debate, people have been getting their notices and it is just skyrocketing.

And we need to act urgently.

Open enrollment for shopping for your health care plan starts November 1st.

We have to act with urgency.

And a wink and a nod from Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson is not going to be sufficient.

So we need to reopen the government and have an ironclad commitment to deal with this crisis.

Look, the health care crisis is top of mind.

Think about our last election, if you want to do a political analysis of it.

President Trump diagnosed the problem correctly during that campaign.

Costs are too high.

People can't afford their rent.

They can't afford housing.

They can't afford child care.

They can't afford groceries.

And they can't afford health care and prescription drugs.

The problem is when he took over the presidency, his policies have done just the reverse.

They haven't brought down costs on day one, as he said they would.

Costs have gone up.

The tariffs, the big, ugly bill.

It is a crisis for so many American families.

And so this is something we must do with urgency.

The estimate is that 15 million people will lose their health insurance because of the big ugly bill.

and the failure to extend the Affordable Care Act tax breaks for affordability of people's premiums.

And that is, in my mind, of paramount urgency.

Thank you so much for having me.

No, it's sad.

It's sad.

You could sign on to this.

The only embarrassment here is you.

You're an embarrassment.

Let me ask you a question.

I work for the people of New York.