Barrasso Slams Schumer Plan to Prop Up Obamacare

"The American people deserve a full debate about the unaffordability of Obamacare. Senator Schumer's offer does nothing to address the cost of healthcare, does nothing to lower premiums, does nothing to reassure the American people. All it does is make insurance companies richer and taxpayers poorer. And that is why it's dead on arrival."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Senate Majority Whip, today slammed the dead-on-arrival offer from Senate Democrats to end the Schumer Shutdown. Senator Barrasso criticized Democrats for holding government funding hostage in exchange for a $30 billion payment to insurance companies that would keep the Biden COVID Bonuses flowing.

Click HERE to watch Senator Barrasso's remarks.

Sen. Barrasso's remarks as delivered:

"Yesterday, Chuck Schumer, the Minority Leader of the United States Senate, came to the Floor with his most recent ransom note. Of course, it wasn't serious. It was dead on arrival. Senator Schumer is demanding that the U.S. government send a check directly to the insurance companies of America to the tune of tens and tens and tens of billions of dollars. Right from the government, main lined into the bank accounts of the insurance companies of America.

"Chuck Schumer actually cuts the American people, the taxpayers, out of the process. The people who are waiting for food, the people who are waiting for paychecks, the people who are protecting us - he cuts them out completely. Nope, direct money, Chuck Schumer, from the U.S. government, into the bank accounts of the insurance companies of America. Think about it. Direct payment from the U.S. government to insurance companies, and the American people having absolutely nothing to say about how that money is spent. That's what Chuck Schumer wants. No accountability.

"What he said is if Republicans will not send that $30 billion to insurance companies - and it may be more than that if you do all the calculations - the Democrats are ready to keep the government closed. No paychecks. No food stamps. No military getting paid. Nothing. This is a true reflection of the failure of Obamacare.

"Since Obamacare was passed by Democrats - and not a single Republican voted for it in the House or the Senate, Democrats alone - the costs of healthcare in this country has skyrocketed. So have the stock prices of the insurance companies.

"The average Obamacare premium has gone up by 221 percent since Obamacare passed. Remember when President Obama said Obamacare would actually bring down prices? He said premiums would decrease by $2,500 a piece. That was direct lie to the American people, and I believe Barack Obama knew it. He didn't seem to care. He was going to do anything he can to get a bill passed that was named after him.

"At the same time, since Obamacare became law, the stock prices of U.S. insurance companies have gone way up. Some by 500 percent. Some by 1,000 percent. Because the money goes directly from the federal government into the insurance company's pockets. And what did Senate Democrats and Chuck Schumer who have held this country hostage for well over a month, well over five weeks - what does he want to do? He wants to just send them more money for one more year. Let's just send them all the checks again for one more year.

"Republicans believe that the taxpayer dollars should go directly to people who are making their own decisions about healthcare for their families, not the insurance companies. Let the American people decide what works for them and their families.

"Remember, it was the Democrats who broke healthcare in this country. They broke it the very day that they passed Obamacare. And you know, recently, the liberal New York Times stated the obvious. This is the headline Sunday a week and a half ago: 'Obamacare is pricey.' Right there. Headline. Top of the page. 'Obamacare is pricey.' I'm a doctor. I practiced medicine for 24 years in my home state of Wyoming, chief of staff of the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper, president of the state medical society. I will tell you exactly what Obamacare is. It's a failure. It's broken. It's unaffordable. The American people know that. Now, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats want to send another thirty or more billions of dollars to the insurance companies for the whole next year. This is a disgrace. It's not just a mistake. It's a disgrace.

"You know, there are Democrats that realize that Obamacare is a failure - failed to lower the cost of care. Because just this week, on this very Floor, Senator Peter Welch of Vermont admitted, the Democrats 'did fail to bring down the cost of healthcare.' You better believe they failed. We've been saying that for years. It's good to be here on the Floor of the Senate with another physician who knows all of the same things I know he's going to speak about this as well. Because my question is, why are Senator Welch's colleagues holding the entire country hostage to double down on a program they know is continuing to fail? It has failed, it continues to fail, and they want to send more money. Why are Senator Welch's Democrat colleagues holding the entire country hostage to double down on a law that has failed the nation with regard to our healthcare?

"From the start, Democrats started to realize it because they needed to paper over the terrible cost overruns they saw with Obamacare, and they did it with juicy, permanent subsidies. When Joe Biden became president, Democrats said, 'Oh, it's getting worse! We better put additional subsidies on top of the already juicy subsidies that were there, just to try to prop it up.' They did it to further hide the failures of Obamacare.

"Well, the end of the Biden COVID Bonus payments - as I like to refer to these new juicy subsidies, the add-on subsidies - only about 4 percent of next year's projected 20 percent premium spike comes from that. And what do we see? We see these new subsidies - they didn't lower premiums. They continued to try to hide the real cost of the premiums. They shift the cost. And who did they shift it to? They dump it on the taxpayers. That's what Chuck Schumer is trying to do today - to dump it onto the taxpayers, send more money directly to the insurance companies, and keep the American people out of the equation completely.

"Today, taxpayers are paying 93 percent of the cost of Obamacare premiums. This is a dramatic escalation from years before.

"And what did all of this extra spending by the Democrats buy? When there's that much money floating around, the American people are left behind - don't have a right to look right where it's happening. It brought waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption. Oh, yeah, there's been corruption.

"Last year, the American people filed over 200,000 complaints with the federal government because they were unknowingly signed up or switched into Obamacare plans. How did that happen? 200,000 people either didn't know it or were switched. How did that happen? Because it happened without their consent. You have to look into those situations. Those people had to find out about it and had to explain to the government. There are actually people that got switched and still haven't found out about it.

"Insurance agents and brokers get paid every time they enroll someone in Obamacare. They do. They get something for that. So, we know that some are actually criminally manipulating the system. And that's where we believe those 200,000 complaints have come from - people who have been maneuvered and manipulated without their knowledge. But Senator Schumer continues to promote keeping the government closed until his buddies from the big insurance companies, whose stocks have soared now under Obamacare, get another $30 billion or more injected right into their bank accounts. That's what Chuck Schumer came to the Floor yesterday and demanded - government staying closed until you guys all send $30 billion directly to the insurance companies.

"We know what people across the country believe about insurance companies. Would the American people trust themselves to make these decisions or trust the insurance companies to protect them? That's what Chuck Schumer wants to do. He wants to keep the American people out of it. Meanwhile, federal workers have missed paychecks for more than a month. Military families are worried about rent. Air traffic controllers are overworked. They're exhausted. Plans are canceled. Flights are canceled. People are concerned about Thanksgiving. Enough is enough.

"Let's be clear with what Republicans are offering. We're ready to reopen the government today, to make sure everybody gets paid who's been working without pay for the last five or six weeks by passing a clean, continuing bipartisan resolution. That means funding the government at current levels, so we pay our military families, we pay federal workers, we fund food assistance to 42 million Americans. Think about this. That's 42 million Americans. That's more than twice as many people in this country that are on Obamacare. Yet Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are willing to deny food to hungry children who outnumber the people on Obamacare right now by two to one. That's what we're dealing with here. And not just once they've denied it. 14 times the Democrats have voted to not pay the working people and continue to vote to keep the government closed.

"I know Republicans welcome a real debate about the many failures of Obamacare. We believe Americans deserve quality, affordable healthcare. And they haven't gotten that with Obamacare. Reforms are needed that actually lower costs, that protect the taxpayers. The American people deserve a full debate about the unaffordability of Obamacare. Senator Schumer's offer does nothing to address the cost of healthcare, does nothing to lower premiums, does nothing to reassure the American people. All it does is make insurance companies richer and taxpayers poorer. And that is why it's dead on arrival.

"Republicans welcome the debate about having taxpayer money going directly to the American people versus this cozy relationship that Chuck Schumer wants to have with the insurance companies, moving money directly to them. It is time to reopen the government."

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