On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) responded to a question on why, if the government shutdown is about ACA subsidies, that’s only a small part of the Democrats’ proposal by saying health care is “what I care about,” but dodged on if all the other things in the proposal that aren’t health-related should be stripped from the proposal.
Host Kaitlan Collins asked, “Democrats have said, that’s what this is about, that’s why you’re making this fight, that’s why you’re doing this, because those premiums are just going to be too high for people, and they’re not going to be able to afford them. They’re going to lose their health care. They’re going to choose not to have health care because they just can’t afford it. But if it’s all about the ACA subsidies, and that’s what you’re fighting for, why is that just one paragraph in the entire 68-page proposal from Senate Democrats?”
Kelly responded, “Well, that’s what I care about, is, these increases. And the expectation, in the state of Arizona, is, 109,000 people will lose their health insurance because they’re not going to be able to afford it. And then what that means is those families are one accident or one illness away from bankruptcy. And when folks lose their health insurance, people die. And this is easily fixed if Republicans would just come and talk to us about it. I think we’ve all made the point that this is the negotiation. This is what we are talking about, it’s the increases in premiums. And I think it’s important to note here, the reason these premiums have gone up, or are going up, is because Donald Trump and Senate and House Republicans wanted to give a big tax cut for the richest Americans, and this is the way they’re planning on paying for it.”
Collins followed up, “So, given that, would you be in favor of taking all the other stuff about space shuttle contracts, ag. marketing, NASA research, submarine programs, all these other things that are in this proposal, would you be in favor of stripping all of that out and just having it be about the ACA premiums?”
Kelly responded, “Kaitlan, I don’t want to be negotiating this on TV with you, though I do really care about the space shuttle. That matters a lot to me. That does not need to be in this proposal. What really matters, right now — and they know this, the president, I think he’s starting to get this, what happened in that meeting, earlier in the week, was, he didn’t even understand what these premium tax credits were. So, my hope is, that, once he starts to figure this out, that this is really bad for the American people and this really hurts in rural areas, and most of those rural areas voted for Donald Trump, so, it’s actually in his best interest to try to fix this. We care about how much this is going to cost here, next year, for the American people, because we know it’s unaffordable. And if we don’t do something about it, it’s really going to hurt people.”
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