announcer: later today, vice president mike pence will give the closing speech at the conferencing d.c.. our live coverage begins at 6 p.m. eastern here on c-span.

this week, the white house did not release a presidential weekly address. senator tim kaine of virginia delivers the democratic weekly address. his topic, the health care law. kaine: hey, everybody, i'm tim gain, senator from virginia. i wanted to talk about an issue that is critically important to every american, health care. and to share some good news and bad news. you deserve the peace of mind that if you or a loved one gets sick, you can get health care when you needed without facing mountains of debt. because health care is a right, no something reserved for just it.e who can afford that is why consistently push for reforms to expand access to quality affordable care. the affordable care act helped us to provide health insurance to millions of americans, but it was in perfect. that is why so many of us have pushed for improvement to the law. it is also why i have been such

a vocal advocate for the need for states to expand medicaid. in virginia for years, republican lawmakers stood in the way of hundreds of thousands of virginians receiving care while still leaving taxpayers -- taxpayers footing the bill. last year's elections in virginia waved to the way for the state legislature and state officials that were finally wrong.o write this i am so proud that last week, the virginia general assembly cast legislation to expand access to health care for up to 400,000 additional virginians. this huge accomplishment will allow people to get the care need. our communities will be healthier as a result, and i am so thankful for everyone in virginia who fought tirelessly to make this happen. for virginia has fought progress, the trump administration's actions over the past year have weakened our health care system across the country, and threatened access to care in virginia and everywhere. first republicans tried again and again to repeal the

affordable care act come but which millions of americans rely on for care. with the help of so many of you who raised your voices, democrats in the senate and a few of our republican colleagues successfully defended the aca and we protected health care for millions of families. when the trump administration failed to repeal the aca, they settled for strategic attacks that increased premium costs for american families. from eliminating the coverage requirement, to reducing the aca enrollment period, to cutting off cost-saving reduction , the trump administration and republicans in congress have repeatedly taken the steps to some attach america.re in a few weeks ago, it was announced that they are proposing to raise premiums as much as 64% on virginia families who get their care through the individual market, and most

cited the trump administration's actions as a reason for these new increases. have seen similar announcements from maryland, new york and washington. i will not stand idly by as virginians are stuck with the painful consequences of the sabotage.nisttion's it is very important that we not only act in ways to preserve the aca, but also act to make it better. we need to pass a bill like the bipartisan mary alexander legislation that we have worked on, to stabilize the health care market for the future. i hope congress will take up my medicare x bill to provide more options for low cost high quality health care, and every zip code, used in competition and bringing down prices. the bill i have worked on with senator bennett of colorado was built on the medicare framework, to establish a public insurance plan.

this would allow americans to choose among the existing private insurance plans, or a meaningful public plan. helpful be particularly in rural communities across the country, where often, there are limited options and prices are too high. i hope senate republicans and president trump will finally join democrats who are asking leader mcconnell, to spend the month of august working to pass proposals like these that bring down the price of insurance, and description drug for families. we need to continue the recent progress we made in virginia, and expand access to affordable health care at the federal level. my democratic colleagues in the senate are joined together to do all we can to protect health care. i hope our republican colleagues will join us in efforts to make health care more affordable and accessible to all. we will keep encouraging the trump administration to stop playing games to drive up health care costs for american

families. the only way to get health care right in this country is to focus on real solutions that work for folks across the country. it is time to strengthen, not weaken our health care system for all. announcer: vice president mike pence will speak this evening at the faith and freedom coalition conference here in washington dc. our live coverage begins at 6 c-span.tern on while we wait for that to begin, a discussion on president trump's tariff and trade policies from today's washington journal. atwe will take a deeper look the trump administration's trade and terror of policies, with two guests at the table with us. from george mason university's locator center, a senior research fellow. thank you for being here, veronique. ofalso welcome the president the alliance for american manufacturing, thank you for being here.