Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference on Senate Postponing Vote on Trumpcare

Contact: Ashley Etienne/Caroline Behringer, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined House Democratic Leaders press conference to address Senate Republicans postponing the vote on their ‘mean' and heartless Trumpcare bill. Below are the Leader's Remarks:

Leader Pelosi Opening Remarks

Leader Pelosi. Good afternoon everyone. Well the American people have spoken; hopefully the Republicans in the Senate and the House will continue to listen.

Today is a significant day as the Republican Leader in the Senate [Mitch McConnell] pulls his Bill, says he's going to go back to the drawing board I understand. So this fight is not over, but it is interesting to see the success of the American people. They know that what the Republicans were putting forth was a Bill that would increase their costs, give them fewer benefits, have an unfair age tax, undermine Medicare and 22, 23 or 24 million depending on which one of their bill will have people losing their health insurance.

In addition to that, it would do serious benefits to essential health benefits. Most important among the changes that Republicans were imposing is the devastating impact of their cuts in Medicaid. Our colleagues will address some of these concerns but it's important to note that they've done all of this – this is salt on the good health of the American people so that they can have tax break for these people and corporate America.

It's just not fair, we'll continue to make the fight, and we thank all our friend on social media and in the outside mobilization for honoring what Abraham Lincoln always told us, ‘Public sentiment is everything.' With that I'm pleased to yield to the distinguished Democratic Whip of the House Mr. [Steny] Hoyer.

Leader Pelosi Closing Remarks

Thank you, I'm honored to be here with my colleagues who have worked so hard on this subject, as has our entire caucus. We're very proud of the unity in our entire caucus on the subject of saving the Affordable Care Act, making it better and pushing back on this Republican bill.

So today when we were at the National Children's Hospital we heard the stories of the families, with their children right there. I wondered, could these Republican Senators look in the eyes of these families, of these children, of these parents and say, ‘give me a tax break for the rich, it's much more important to us than saving the lives of your children'? Could they look at themselves in the mirror and say ‘I really did a good thing today, I gave $700 billion tax cuts to the high end at the expense of working families in our country and their children'?

These children are America's children, some of them with complex, disabilities and the rest. As Distinguished Whip [Hoyer] and Distinguished Leader [Clyburn] both said what they are doing is doing violence to the American people with their bill.

Yes, sir. And we'll probably have two questions because we have work to do.

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Q: Would you just touch on what your strategy will be over the next ten days or so as you and other lawmakers go onto recess? How will you take advantage of this window Democrats currently have? Are you going to be organizing with outside groups to hold town halls?

Leader Pelosi. The American people – as [Whip] Steny [Hoyer] said, we are shining a bright light, a spotlight on what the Republicans are doing. The American people, they are doing that themselves. But, again, in terms of town meetings, in terms of visiting offices, in terms of social media, in terms of calls to the offices, they have definitely had an impact. And, clearly, as has been said by Mr. [Joe] Crowley and others, this is not over. Do not be misled. And Mr. Scott said it as well, the House bill died by a two vote majority or something and that came back to haunt us with an even worse bill that went further to the right.

Again, our fight is for the American people. If you are a senior, you have so much to lose in this bill. If you are a veteran, between one and two millions veterans who are on Medicaid will suffer from this. If you are a child with disabilities, or just a child with some physical challenges that are not as complex as others, you will pay a price for this. If you're a woman…any person you can name suffers greatly from what the Republicans are doing. We want to make sure they know that. It is impossible to exaggerate the harm this bill will cause.

Q: Obviously, you guys took a similar tactic… turning up the heat after they pulled the bill in the House of Representatives… Scott and others have said this, it came back. Doesn't that imply there was a mistake in the tactic?

Leader Pelosi. No. With all due respect to you, Chad [Pergram], and you know I do respect you. There is no logic in what you are saying. The fact is they went farther to the right and, quite frankly, poisoned the well for the Senate because people knew what to look for in the Senate. Once they increased costs and lowered benefits, had an age tax, took 22 to 24 million people off of the rolls and undermined Medicare and then moved further to the right, that told people who they really were.

That they didn't care about prenatal care or any of that, maternity care, if you're in the hospital, can use prescription drugs, whatever it happens to be, that will be discretionary from now on, not mandated as was essentially required in the Affordable Care Act.

So I think that what we did then was a very important roadmap to how to view the Senate bill and, again, if they move further to the right and are not only willing to say what they're going to do the American people, it will tell people what they have or have not in their souls.

Any comments from my colleagues on any of these subjects?

Thank you all very much.

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