Washington, D.C. — Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement following an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on the impact of Senate Republicans’ latest plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without a replacement:
The U.S. Senate has somehow managed to take legislation that was an immoral abomination and make it worse. In a stunning failure to lead the country, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and President Donald Trump are putting craven politics over human lives by trying to jam through straight repeal of the ACA, which would leave 32 million individuals without health care coverage and 75 percent of the country without a functioning individual insurance market.
Their horrifying desire for a political ‘win’ through a burn-it-down approach somehow leaves Americans worse off than a bill already rejected by the vast majority of the country. And yet amazingly, repeal—just like the unpopular Better Care Reconciliation Act and House bill—still includes hundreds of billions in tax cuts, largely for the wealthiest among us, insurance companies, and drug companies.
Just as they have rejected previous attempts to strip millions of their health care to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, the American people will reject this monstrous ‘repeal and delay’ strategy too. The only path forward remains a return to regular order—not a unilateral disaster attacking the most vulnerable in our country. It’s time for the Senate leadership to put country over party and develop a bipartisan bill to ensure people have the health care they need and deserve.
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