times in the last two days -- he is focused like a laser, he is very excited about this state vote.c the democratic party will never give us anything that fundamentally changes obamacare. we have had weeks of talking and the only time you have gotten serious is where they are afraid that my bill may pass. now they are saying what about this and what about that russian mark here is what the speaker of the house told me. i will not bring up a bill or a boat that pops up obamacare because that is not why i came here and that is not what our majority wants to do. the president of the united states is committed to repeal in bill, not propping it up.

>> i am proud to be joined by my colleagues. senator durbin, senator wyden to talk about what is going on with health care. first, we heard a lot of talk

--ut the state and governors just released was a letter, 10 governors, five democrats, five proposed the so-called graham cassidy bill and were in favor of a bipartisan negotiation such as that that senator alexander and senator murray are going toward with. i just heard how republican colleagues speak. there was a word missing, people , patients, care, all of this stuff democrat, republican, governors, washington, how about how this affects people russian mark millions will lose coverage. no guarantee of pre-existing conditions. an end to medicaid as we know it. tens of billions of people could lose coverage. people who desperately need essential services will lose it.

how republican colleagues don't seem to care about how this affects the average american. -- the why trumpcare previous trumpcare bills were so unpopular, that is why this bill is so unpopular. that is why -- despite all the efforts -- they are struggling. the latest version of health care may live under a new name brand -- cassidy. no matter how they try to dress it up or hide it, even more dangerous and reckless than the previous bill that had been defeated. sham, put, trumpcare is a they are crafting it in the dark of night. one hearing, one day without a cbo score and only two witnesses against the bill, that is the full airing of the bill? come on. they are ashamed of this bill.

they are afraid to find out what it actually does. bill in the dark of night. the process is awful, our republican colleagues -- we heard just as being blind, our republican colleagues should be walking around with blindfold. they don't want to see what is in the builder being forced to vote for. with all the basic meanness in this bill. they don't want to go home and tell the mom who learned her thatter or son has cancer an insurance company can make insurance unaffordable for them. they don't want that. they don't want to tell him middle-class family in the suburbs that mom or dad in the nursing home may no longer get coverage. they don't want to tell a 23-year-old young man who desperately needs opioid treatment that it may go away.

this isn't simply making the decisions has a state -- they make the cuts here in washington -- this is not a neutral bill. this is a built-in and medicaid as we know. why -- that is why 10 governors from the date of colorado, ohio, alaska, montana, pennsylvania, virginia, massachusetts and vermont -- five democrats, five republicans have said don't do trumpcare to. don't do graham cassidy. our budget and policy priorities will result in about $700

billion in cuts to health care by 2027. it would cause millions to lose coverage. millions. medicaid, it cut would bring us back to the days where insurance companies could discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. it would get rid of the consumer protection that gives americans access to maternity care, substance abuse prescription drugs. we would throw the individual markets into chaos, resulting in 15 million people losing coverage. if they let the cbo do its work, if it were not pressured to put out something that was just a few lines -- this would all be told by cbo. how do we know? similar bills in the past have been explored by cbo with similar provisions. they are afraid. that the public

will hate this bill. they are trying to russia through in the dark of night. protects bill that average americans. not flashes the health care they need whether the governor or washington wants to that. we want to work with a bipartisan process to make things better. we want the house -- the president -- republican leadership to stop pressuring those that want to come up with a bipartisan solution to refrain from doing it. in an make this work bipartisan way and the final thing i would say is this. we have seen some very helpful sprouts of bipartisanship in the last month. going back to this trumpcare, graham cassidy which shut down that bipartisanship that

american euros four. i will call on >> thank you very much to all of my colleagues and everybody who has never engaged the email to call, to be involved in this effort one more time. >> we won't have the full cbo score for weeks, most of the provisions have been in different ways. we know what is coming. we know it is disastrous. of michigan, across the country, certainly it is disastrous when we talk about the loss of essential basic health care provisions for people. essentially, it would let states

give insurance companies -- because this is who we are talking about making decisions -- insurance companies a bright green light to the prophets -- profits before patients. when does stopping health care? -- when does health care stopping health care? is it health insurance if it doesn't cover emergency rooms? is it health insurance if it doesn't cover people who have pre-existing conditions? is it health insurance if it doesn't cover mental health or substance abuse treatment in the middle of an opioid epidemic? i want to remind republican health care is a political, it is personal. the way they were talking about it, standing right here, was very political. and for all of us, for our families and the people in this country, it is very personal.

when a young cancer patient can't afford their medications that keeps her alive because her insurance won't cover it, it is personal. when a mechanic realizes his lifetime dream of owning his own shop has to pay more for insurance because he hurt his back a few years ago, that is very personal. when a woman has to pay more for her health insurance just because she is a woman, that is personal. you know what? i take it personally. people in michigan take it personally. all of my colleagues take it personally. that is why we will fight this in every way possible on behalf of the people we represent. >> senator durbin. >> thanks, chuck. we were watching in the other room when the republicans gave their press conference.

it is interesting. one of the people said this is about the great national debate between socialism and states' rights. really? it is not about the debate over socialism and states rights. it is about the basic health care for the families of america. if this is a hot deal for governors across america, how do you explain five republican governors, like the governor of alaska and the governor of nevada, coming out publicly against the notion of states' rights? why would they be turning their back to make this decision locally and be popular for votes, as one of these senators said? because they can count. and when they count they realize , there is not enough money under this plan coming from washington to sustain health care in their states and to keep up with the cost of health care in the future. they are realists. they understand it full well. it is not a question between socialism and states rights. it is a question about whether or not we provide basic care.

i don't see a lot of people across america complaining about social security because it is a washington program. heck they complain about it, they realize it has liberated them in their senior years. the same is true for medicare. the second issue i want to raise was one raised by the other sponsor of this legislation, the jimmy kimmel test. remember when he referred to that? you know what that is all about. this gentleman who is well-known on late-night tv as a comedian had a tough time. his baby was born with a serious problem. he raised a question on his tv show. what is going to happen to families like mine under all this talk about the new trumpcare? well i can tell you under this new trumpcare version, it is not a good outcome. first off, if the family happens to be under medicaid, there is a serious question as to whether there is enough coverage. half the babies born in illinois are covered by medicaid. their moms are covered by medicaid under prenatal care.

you want a healthy baby, you want a healthy mom too. when you cut back on medicaid, you limit the opportunity. once the baby is born, left the family has a child with a pre-existing condition, under this trumpcare bill will haunt them the rest of their lives when they try to buy health insurance. that is one thing we stood up or -- stood up for on the affordable care act and said we're not going to give in on this at all. we do not want people discriminated against because they have a member of their family or with a birth defect or because someone has survived cancer care or someone has diabetes in their family. they walk away from it in this bill. they say that is one of the options insurance companies can play with when they decide what your premiums will be. time and again when you look at , this bill, there is a real reason why they do not want the american people to take a hard look at it. the rates are going to go up for senior citizens. that is a given. that is why aarp is opposed. the reimbursement that hospitals will go down. that is why the american

hospital association and all the state chapters oppose it. it will not provide quality care that nurses and doctors note we -- know that we all need. this is a rally point. many people thought july this battle was over for this year. it is not. the battle is going to pick up in steam and in importance for every family forward. >> senator schumer, i am just going to make a couple of additional points. my colleagues have said it very well. the first point is right after graham-cassidy-heller passes, health care markets are going to enter a freefall. the reason that is the case, i would urge you to talk about state insurance commissioners about trump 2.0. is you would have a combination no cost sharing plus a rollback in consumer protection

so that you will have a particularly large number of people who are frail invulnerable. but make no mistake about what happens when graham-cassidy passes, freefall in the insurance market. the i want to mention is several second point of the republicans talked in the press conference about how great their proposal will be for chip. children's health insurance program. you need to understand trump 2.0 uses chip as a money program. and the reality is you cannot have a strong chip program if you decimate medicaid. the two are that directly links. -- linked. the idea that somehow this bill is going to be good for chip is just absurd. this is a bargain, basement block grant. we are going to pull out all the

stops to derail it. people power beat trumpcare before. we are going to be using people power to beat it again. >> senator, i was talking about the groups reengage in the area -- reengaging. are you concerned about the speed this has regained? schumer: a week ago this hadn't even raised its ugly head. now, the groups are mobilized. you will find the hospitals, the aarp, the nurses, cancer care, and all the societies that represent -- they are all mobilized. they realize it is even worse than the last one. this weekend, you will see huge mobilization. >> you always go first. you stand here. this guy. >> in the earlier press conference, the tough vote for senator of missouri, senator mccaskill and others, are you

saying this will not get any democratic votes? >> i am. it hurts people in every state. you won't, you can be deprived of pre-existing insurance if you have a pre-existing condition in every state. there are dramatic cuts to medicaid in every state. it hurts every state. whether you are democrat or republican, if you are representing your people, you do not want this bill. >> senator graham basically laid out a campaign ad against a lot of your democratic colleagues saying, hey, you put natural interest ahead of people in your state. >> i don't even get what they say. we are putting the -- we are talking about the people. their conference with simply about state, national, washington, federal, socialism, states' rights. they didn't have about people -- you know why? because this hurts people, and they know it. let me tell you -- we are this because we care about people. if the 2018 election as a

-- is a referendum on trumpcare, they are going to get clobbered, and they know it. >> he will make a decision on iran deal. as someone who voted against it, do you think the united states should stay in the iran deal? >> i do. i thought the agreement was a bad agreement, but i also sent -- said that let's see. once it passes, let us give it a little time to see if it works. if iran violates the deal, that is one thing. if they don't and do other bad things, not let's not violate the deal. let's go after the other bad things, icbm's, terrorism, etc. >> thank you. >> by the way, unlike our republican leadership, we are not trying to hurry to get out of here. we're happy to talk about this issue. do you notice all the --? [laughter] >> are you concerned because you say the bill had only raised its head a few days ago? you talked about groups are going to mobilize this weekend.

because there is a degree of uncertainty, because this has been dropped out of midair, is that white people are so concerned on your side? why are you so nervous? >> what we have done it looked at what the bill does and then we looked at how cbo has scored previous bills with similar provisions. we have strong numbers. if the republicans dispute our numbers, they should wait for a cbo score. >> follow-up on that. talking about how this came up suddenly. do you think that was the republican strategy to let things go quiet for a while then bring this up right before the deadline? >> they have never been willing with trumpcare 1, 2, 3, or 4 to have hearings, to have debate, to have discussion. because they know while they are being pushed why some of their hard right benefactors that want to get rid of all of the safety , medicare, safety medicaid, they know it is unpopular. the last trumpcare bill is not even as severe as this one.

fewer than 20% of americans supported it and a majority of trump voters were against it. so they know that this is a very, very bad medicine vote for the american people and politically for them. that is why they try to rush, that is why they try to hide it and that is why they don't want to have discussions. that is why the republican leadership were so quick to get out of here after graham and cassidy talked about their bill. >> can you talk about discussion by the senate? the speaker has communicated that leader mcconnell, senator alexander and senator murray would talk about something that can pass. do you think that the talks are stalled? chuck schumer i spoke to patty : murray. the offer she gave to lamar alexander was generous. he even said it was a good offer, so i have a lot of faith in senator alexander's believe

in bipartisanship. i hope he won't let those partisan pressures get him off course. howard baker moment would be how to go forward on this, and we know how much senator alexander admires howard baker. announcer 1: in the senate finance committee, a hearing monday on the latest republican health care plan, the cassidy graham proposal. that is live monday afternoon at 2:00 eastern on c-span two. now more on the plan. senate republican leaders were joined by senators graham and cassidy after the weekly party lunch. later we will hear from democratic leaders. and on one final matter, the men and women we represent under obamacare have suffered a lot. plummeting costs. many of us thought our constituents deserved better. that is why we did as we promised in voted to repeal this so we could replace it with something better. the forces of the status