Schumer Challenges Trump to Host Bipartisan Health Care Discussion at Blair House

Congressional Documents & Publications

Date: June 28, 2017

Contact: Matt House, (202) 224-2939

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today delivered remarks on the Senate floor challenging President Trump to work together on bipartisan health care legislation by inviting all 100 senators to the Blair House. Below are his remarks:

So, I'd make my friends on the Republican side and President Trump an offer: let's turn over a new leaf. Let's start over.

Let's abandon more tax breaks for the rich; let's abandon cuts to Medicaid; and discuss what the American people are really concerned about: premiums, deductibles, the costs and quality of healthcare.

President Obama invited both parties, Democrats and Republicans, to Blair House to discuss healthcare reform in front of the American people early in his first term as President.

President Trump, I challenge you to invite us - all 100 of us, Republican and Democrat - to Blair House to discuss a NEW bipartisan way forward on healthcare in front of all the American people.

It would focus about what you Mr. President have talked about in your campaign: lower costs, better healthcare, "covering everybody" - not on tax cuts for the rich, not on slashing Medicaid. President Trump, you said you wouldn't cut Medicaid. We don't want to either.

We Democrats are genuinely interested in finding a place where our two parties can come together on healthcare.

We want to bring down premiums too. We want to bring down deductibles too. We want to stabilize the marketplace. We want to control the outrageous costs of prescription drugs, another thing the President talked about in his campaign. There is plenty of common ground for us to come together around.

We believe our healthcare system has made important progress over the past eight years, but it still needs to be improved, in many ways. We admit that the Affordable Care Act isn't perfect - there are ways we can improve on that law and on our entire health care system. So let's talk together about how we can achieve that in a bipartisan way.

If my Republican friends abandon cuts to Medicaid, highly unpopular with the American people, abandon tax breaks for the wealthiest few, highly unpopular with the American people, we Democrats are more than willing to meet with them and the White House to talk about how to improve healthcare for the American people. How to lower deductibles. How to provide better healthcare for more people at a lower cost.

Because that's who we Democrats are fighting for, the average American family, not the wealthy few.

Today, we can turn over a new leaf and discuss healthcare legislation the way our founders intended our government to discuss legislation, as a true debate between all of our country's representatives.