Welch calls on Republicans to join forces with Democrats to avert government shutdown
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Monday night on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) led seven Senate colleagues in imploring Congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to protect health care and avert a government shutdown.
In his remarks, Senator Welch emphasized the urgent need to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, which help nearly 27,000 low- and moderate-income Vermonters access health coverage through the ACA marketplace.
“There is, in this country, an affordability crisis. People can’t afford homes, and they definitely cannot afford health care—folks are terrified of a person they love in their family getting sick if they don’t have insurance. And what is about to happen— if we don’t act before this shutdown— is that folks who are getting their health care on the Affordable Care Act…in your state and mine, are going to lose their health care…That is the urgency of this,” said Senator Welch.
“We’ve had brinksmanship before. But before, we’ve had situations where—as we approached the midnight hour— the policy differences that were vast between Republicans and Democrats were being discussed by Democrats and Republicans. And that discussion was often at the behest, or the insistence, of the Executive — playing a proper role to get us to talk and resolve those differences. This time is different. We have an Executive who said that his party should not even speak to Democrats,” he said. “I’ll just ask the common sense question every Vermonter would ask: ‘Peter, if you disagree with somebody and you won’t talk to them, how can we resolve the disagreement?’”
Welch continued: “I want to say this to my Republican colleagues: We have an Executive who pays no respect to the role that the Legislative Branch of this government plays in the affairs of this country. We passed a budget with Republican and Democratic support, and we have an Executive who said he didn’t care what it was we passed. Whether it was foreign aid or health care, he could decide. That is a total and complete violation of the constitutional separation of powers. And to the extent that this body, Congress, puts its head in the sand and disregards the assault on our authority by the Executive, we have relinquished our authority. We have relinquished our duty.”
“We have a situation where the people all of us represent will lose their health care if we don’t resolve that. Now—right now—because they are starting to hear about the premium increases that will make it completely unaffordable for them to have access to health care.”
Watch Senator Welch’s speech below:
If Republicans refuse to work with Democrats and extend these discounted premiums, the tax credits will expire on December 31, 2025, resulting in rate increases and pushing affordable health care out of reach for millions of Americans. In his remarks, Senator Welch highlighted how uninsured rates in Republican states like Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, and South Carolina will skyrocket if Republicans fail to extend ACA premium tax credits.
Senators Welch and Baldwin were joined on the Senate floor by Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
This Congress, Senator Welch has led the introduction of several bills to make health care more accessible and affordable for Vermonters, including the Strengthening Medicare and Reducing Taxpayer (SMART) Prices Act, Fair Prescription Drug Prices for Americans Act, End Price Gouging for Medications Act, Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act, Protecting Pharmacies in Medicaid Act, Fair Funding for Rural Hospitals Act, and the Rural Hospital Support Act.
Learn more about his work by visiting his website or by following him on social media.
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