that from fox news. we are likely to hear more about this during today's white house briefing with spokesman sean spicer. as we go to a live picture here of the white house briefing room this afternoon. that briefing set to start any moment. we'll have a live for you when it gets underway. right now a briefing with house democratic leaders early this morning looking at the house agenda and the state of the republicans health care bill. >> good morning, folks we just came from a democratic caucus. i'm currently joe crawley, chair of the democratic caucus. when we have a very important discussion on the republicans trumpcare bill. this bill is bad policy. it was built on the bat process.

my colleagues on the other side is out should be ashamed and honestly i think some of them really are. clearly closed doors and smoke-filled back rooms were needed to hide the facts, the fact that 24 million people across our nation will lose their coverage under this bill. there is an age tax on seniors, and working americans are forced to subsidize tax cuts once again for the most wealthy in our nation. that's not just bad. this is terrible. even members of their own party rejected the bill. so the majority had to make that bill worse, and then make it worse again. now the bare minimum requirements for entrants like having hospitalization, prescription drugs and maternity care. it's health coverage that doesn't even cover your health. all of this terrible policy demonizing struggling families, jeopardizing the help of the

american people, all of this to defeat a law, the affordable care act, a law that is working, that is even saving lives. for what? to give a seven-year-old kid campaign promise quick so trump doesn't send and mean to tweet about you? sl leadership, mr. speaker. not leadership, president trump. that's politics. the american people deserve better. and with that i turn the microphone over to the leader of the democratic caucus, our leader nancy pelosi. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. tomorrow march 25 marks the 51st anniversary of when dr. martin luther king said come he said of all the forms of inequality, injustice and in health is a most shocking and the most inhuman because it also results in the sickle deaf. 51 years ago tomorrow. so today is really of values

debate as we go into it about a sense of community, who we are as a nation. the facts are very clear about this bill in terms of health care. higher costs, people will pay higher premiums, higher deductibles want out of pocket cost, plain. less coverage. trumpcare will take away health care from 24 million hard-working americans, but not only that, the latest one, the key protections gutted innocence by eradicating the essential health benefits requirement affects 155 million american to receive their benefits to the workplace. as the distinguished chairman mentioned, the essential, some while at in addition to mental health, perception drug, hospitalization, pregnancy, maternity and new baby care, rehabilitation services and devices, people with injuries,

pediatric vision and dental care, ambulatory care. under the affordable care act the secondary could add more to the essential list, but not subtract. this subtract spear it's really very sad. in addition to that there's a crushing age tax forces americans 50-64 age to pay premiums five times higher than what others pay for health coverage no matter how healthy they are. there's also a veterans tax. we seen senator duckworth yesterday with the members of our veterans affairs committee talk about the unfairness for the veterans tax, which is saying to the veterans cannot take advantage of the tax deduction if they are eligible to receive health care at the va. it is very, very unfair. our veterans committee members will be talking more about at length, but both veterans and others who have veterans issues

come on much less knowledgeable on the subject, having calling numbers about that. and then it steals from medicare. trumpcare. i didn't steal some medicare pixel at me say higher premiums, less coverage, center benefits gutted, age tax, veterans tax comes to some medicare. all of this to get a tax break to the richest people in america. it's in their day in age, they can't help themselves. this is more of a tax break bill for the rich than it is a health care bill. as we believe in the values debate that health care is a right for all americans, not just a privilege for the few. here they are getting a tax break and ironically many of the people who will lose their health care voted for president trump, live in red areas, much of the money that will go to the richest people in america are in blue areas. now, isn't that something clicks with that i am pleased to yield to our distinguished democratic whip, mr. hoyer.

>> thank you very much, chairman crowley. thanthank you very much, leader pelosi. donald trump just a few weeks ago looked at the american public in the eye through the lens of the tv camera and said that i will support a health care policy that will give everybody insurance at lesser cost and greater quality. that, ladies and gentlemen, was an alternative fact. this bill does not do that. in fact, it does exactly the opposite. 24 million americans, remember he said every american will have health care insurance. 24 million americans will lose their insurance because of this bill.

every american will pay more and get less from the insurance policy. and seniors as you heard will have to pay thousands and thousands more are if you're between 50-64 and not eligible for medicare you will pay thousands. when i see thousands, some of you will pay 10,000 more for your insurance. that's what this bill that is on the floor today does. and now it a further attempt to hurt more americans, they eliminate the provisions that we will have essential health benefits included. now, they kept that at first and now they have gutted it again for an attempt to make people who want to eliminate protections perhaps vote for this very bad bill.

leader pelosi mentioned some of those benefits that would be lost. hospitalization, you will buy a policy. you think you got protection and you go to the hospital and you call the insurance company up and they say sorry, that's not covered. that's not insurance. that's not security. that's not safety. you go to the emergency room, sorry, that's not covered. you have a mental health problem. you have an opioid addiction. sorry, that's not covered. prescription drugs you need. sorry, that's not covered. this bill has become a worse every hour that it is then considered, which is a very, very short period of time. in effect, it eliminates protections for pre-existing conditions. every parent, every individual who is sorry that they were not

able to get insurance and were so blessed when they could get it because they had a pre-existing condition is now effectively going to be turned around. the american people are getting this. the american people are understanding how bad this bill is. and hopefully enough of my republican colleagues will understand that by a ratio of three to one the american public are telling this congress, do not pass this bill. because basing its consequences. 24 million of them losing insurance. paying more for less. a substantial age tax. veterans being told where they can get their health care, a mandate on them. hopefully, there will be enough republicans responsible and sensitive to the needs and desires of the american people. i want to yield to my friends on

south carolina, the assistant leader who has been deeply involved in this for a very long period of time and he was fighting so hard to make sure that americans keep their health care security, jim clyburn. >> thank you very much, mr. whip. thank you, mr. chairman, chairman crowley, for your leadership on this very, very important issue. leader pelosi, i want to thank you for keeping us in the forefront to the minds of all americans. i think last night we experienced one of the most catastrophic evenings that ever existed for people in search of affordable, quality health care. what we woke up to this morning was the gutting of that part of the health care bill which was the most attractive to most americans. and that is having the ability to be covered when you have a

pre-existing condition. what we see now is that we have coverage of pre-existing conditions in name only. because when you cut out all of these essential benefits, you do to this law what the supreme court did in the shelby case when they give, you still have section five, but when you gut section for formula, section five has nothing to be applied to. we saw a giant backward spin with the gutting of the essential benefits. leader pelosi mentioned dr. king's speech back in 1966 at a health care conference when he called the injustice in health care as being the most egregious

and inhumane. when we pass the affordable care act, i refer to it as the civil rights act of the 21st century. i did so in large measure because i have often read that speech that king gave, and saw how he quoted health care to basic civil rights. and what we saw last night was turning over once again health care to insurance companies, who will be authorized now to sell what amounts to junk policies. that's what people will be purchasing, because no one bothers to read the fine print in all of these policies. and when they get sick and go

for treatment, they will find what we found as a family when my mother got sick at the age of 54 with multiple myeloma. she had insurance, but the doctors told us that she had eight months to live. her insurance covered it for two months. and for the rest of that time we depleted every single time that she had saved for a life, trying to keep her comfortable. i thought we took a giant step away from that seven years ago, and we did. what we saw last night was an ability for insurance companies to take us right back to that era. with that i am pleased to yield.

vice chair sanchez. >> good morning everyone. i think i now it's crystal clear that the bill that's going to be on the floor today is not about protecting the health of americans. it's about protecting and stroking the ego of donald trump. house republicans are so desperate to deliver a win for donald trump that they don't care what the cost to american families is. you've heard the numbers come staggering, 24 million people will lose coverage if this bill becomes the law of the land. that includes or a thousand people in my district alone. we know that this isn't about american working families because there's nothing in this bill that will lower premiums or that provides the care that is needed. and as the leader stated this morning, this bill is one of the worst bills for women to ever --