Pelosi Transcript of Press Availability on CBO Report on Republicans’ ‘Pay More for Less’ Repeal Bill
Leader Pelosi's Opening Remarks:
"Good afternoon everyone. Well the accounting is in. The CBO has reported that the Republican bill pushes 24 million people out of health care – off of health coverage. This is a remarkable figure. It speaks so eloquently to the cruelty of the bill that the Speaker calls ‘an act of mercy.' I don't know if he thinks it's ‘an act of mercy' to all the people who will lose coverage, to all the people who will lose jobs or to the hospitals they will have to close down, especially in rural areas. I do not know if he thinks this is ‘an act of mercy' for people on opioids who look to Medicaid as an answer, like many Republican Governors do.
"This is – to take 20 million off of their coverage, and as they do so, they are implementing the biggest transfer of wealth in our history – $600 billion dollars going from working families to the richest corporations in our country. In terms of insurance coverage, it's immoral. In terms of giving money to the rich at the expense of working families, it is indecent and it is wrong.
"The Republicans are confused right now. Some of them say they are discrediting the CBO and others are glorifying pushing off 24 million people from coverage. So I would hope that they pull the bill, it's really the only decent thing to do.
"Numbers are important. They see the numbers. They should know how that transfers into the lives of people. They are finding that out from their constituents. How can they look their constituents in the eyes, when they say to them, ‘24 million of you will no longer have health insurance, and those of you that do have it will have less in terms of coverage at more cost to you?'
"With that, I'm pleased to yield to the distinguished Democratic Leader in the Senate, welcome back to the House side, Chuck Schumer."
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Q: What would you say to Republicans who might try to discredit the legislative scoring?
Leader Pelosi. As the distinguished Leader has said, this is the CBO director that was appointed by the Republicans. The CBO report was one that the Republicans demanded of us, when we had the majority and would pass a law, [and they said] that we must have a CBO report. And so as I say, they're torn. Some are trying to pin a rose on this report and make it sound like it's a good thing and the others are trying to discredit the CBO. But it's completely wrong.
Leader Schumer. It's a pattern that is disturbing, and even alarming in this administration. When they hear something they do not like and they label it a lie – CBO is virtually unassailable. Everyone, Democrats and Republicans, whether it's George Bush, Barack Obama, or anyone else, they have gone along with CBO, they appointed this person. He was supposed to be a conservative person. Unfortunately for the Republicans, he is an honest person and they will not be able to discredit this report. This report is going to resound from one end of America to the other.
Q: The Health and Human Services Secretary [Tom Price] said today he vehemently disagreed with the CBO score...
Leader Pelosi. And of course he had no facts to back it up! Numbers are quite eloquent things and they speak very clearly. And we all respect and have acknowledged that we need to know the numbers – the number of people affected, the amount of money that it will cost, who wins and who loses in this equation. As I said, in Congress they still haven't come to terms with criticizing the CBO because 24 million people losing the health care is not a problem for them – it is an act of mercy.
Leader Schumer. I am sure the Republicans are upset they cannot fire the CBO director as easily as they fired the 46 U.S. attorneys.
Q: I want to direct this to you, because you said this was a knock out rule
Leader Schumer. It should be.
Q: It seems as though they're not making ground on getting their members to support this, it seems like this might have been a knockout bill before the CBO.
Leader Schumer. Well, look, we should know the truth. Before we enact major legislation, we should know the truth. The CBO speaks the truth, they've been speaking the truth for decades and to attack CBO is to attack the messenger. Let them address the real issues that the CBO reveals and the reason they don't want to do it is because the report is devastating.
Leader Pelosi. And when the American people see the – I always tell the story about a little boy in school, and he's in first grade or kindergarten. And the teacher says, "What is one and one?" and he says, ‘two.' ‘Two and two?' ‘Four.' She said, ‘good.' He says, ‘Not good. Perfect.'
Numbers are very eloquent. And what you can only do is project here because we are talking about the future. But, as we all know, you really cannot go forward to write legislation unless you have the numbers and you know what you're talking about.
And as I said to you the other day, the Speaker was the one who signed the letter, insisting that we have a CBO report before we proceeded with the Affordable Care Act, which we did, and we had already written for it. But, when it was important then, now the Republicans are saying, ‘Oh, it's not so important now. And who is that anyway? Who is this Congressional Budget Office anyway?' It's somebody appointed by the Republicans to do the numbers and to come as close as possible to what the impact will be on the American people, on their health and on our budget.
The whole purpose of all of this – the Affordable Care Act and the rest – was to improve coverage, lower costs and expand access. The Affordable Care Act did exactly that. This does the exact reverse. It narrows coverage, to the tune of 24 million people, decreases the quality of benefits, according to the actuarial report in the CBO report, as well as costing more for people.
So, it doesn't achieve anything it sets out to do. It's a clear message to their constituents as to how it's going to affect them. Let's see if they get the message or if once again they have a tenure that says: the only thing that really matters to us is for us to give tax cuts to the richest people in our country, and it doesn't matter to us who suffers.
Q: Senator Schumer, can Senator McConnell get this bill passed in the Senate?
Leader Schumer. Well, if you look at how many Republicans have spoken out against the bill – and you know, Senator Cotton is not someone I usually agree with. But, he said, ‘Don't do it so fast.' They're rushing this bill through. We know why they're rushing this bill through. The more exposure it gets, the less popular it becomes. And by the way – rings a little hollow.
Remember their criticisms of us? Read the bill? They had no time to read the bill. CBO issued its report three weeks before any committee voted on the Affordable Care Act. And so, I think Senator McConnell is going to have real difficulty. His mainstream Republicans don't like it because it cuts back on Medicaid – and remember, Medicaid is for poor people, but it is also – 60 percent goes to people in nursing homes and that affects not only them but their kids.
You're a kid, 45 or 50 – your mom and dad are in a nursing home, you could be kicked out after this bill passes. And what would you do? Maybe have to take them in at home, maybe mom or dad has to stop working to take care of them. Maybe they have to shell out thousands of dollars out of their pockets.
So, it is a loser. What about opioid coverage? So many of our Republican Senators have made a campaign, justifiably, of trying to get more opioid coverage. Since Medicaid covers opioids, this is trouble there. Then you have our conservative Republican Senators who think that this bill goes, you know too far.
So, Senator McConnell has got a very, very difficult job behind him – ahead of him and he only has the bill to blame, not anything we're doing. You know, Democrats are not voting for this bill in the Senate. He's got to get the votes on his own. They asked for that when they did Reconciliation. And the bill has made it extremely difficult for him to do it.
Leader Pelosi. I would just like to say – I think that the Leadership in the House, and the White House as well, have made fools of some of our colleagues in the Congress by demanding that they write this bill in committee, up all night – overnight and the rest of it without seeing the CBO – the Congressional Budget Office – report that was imminent and was a matter of days away.
Why couldn't they wait a few more days, so people knew what they were doing? Instead of going into the dark of night without any basis of knowledge of what it would cost, who would be pushed off of care and the rest. That really was a disservice, I think, to their own Members, and of course, to their own constituents, as well.
Leader Schumer. And one other point, you know, the CBO says the costs go up – you know, health care costs for those on ACA goes up about $1,000 in the first year or two, and then it starts going down. It does start going down, but it is almost certainly because the plans that will be offered are so skimpy that even after year one, the amount of money the average person has to pay out of his or her pocket for health care will go up because these plans that will come out later will have higher deductibles, higher co-pays, less coverage.
Q: Both of your campaign offices have been using this score as an issue for candidates in 2018. What do you think the political fallout will be on health care [inaudible] in the 2018 Midterms?
Leader Schumer. Well, let me just say this: it's an irony of irony that the place this probably most affects is the heart of red Trump vote areas, rural areas, poorer areas – and many of the red states are most affected. If you go to states where some of our Senators are running for re-election, but have been won by Donald Trump, ACA has all of a sudden become popular. And that's because people realize by losing it, they're going to be in real trouble.
Leader Pelosi. It is really a sad thing because in addition to what the Senator said about those who are in red states and rural America who have largely benefitted from the Affordable Care Act, and who are on it and will be pushed off, a lot of the benefit of the $600 billion will go to blue areas. And that's just not right. But, think of yourself as a Trump voter in West Virginia or some place or Kentucky, which has really done a good job with the Affordable Care Act too, and thinking, ‘I'm going to lose my coverage and they're going to give $7 million to each of the richest families in America every year, instead of giving me health care. Is that what I voted for? I don't think so.'
Q: Madam Leader, there are some who would argue that you lost the Speakership over health care. Is Speaker Ryan taking the same rims?
Leader Pelosi. Well, let me just say this: whatever the outcome of the election was, we expanded health care for many Americans. We view the Affordable Care Act as a pillar of economic and health security for all Americans. It stands right up there – tall – with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and affordable health care – health care as a right, not a privilege.
I think the election was about more things. I think it was about TARP and Wall Street and the rest of that. But the fact is: if in fact it were the case, it would be well worth it.
I don't think that anybody's political survival is more important than the good health of the American people. Thank you.