{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/reality-check-propping-up-obamacare-failures-wont-lower-costs/", "Reality Check: Propping Up Obamacare Failures Won\u2019t Lower Costs", "2025-10-28", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", "barrasso", "https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom/news-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cThis isn\u2019t about making healthcare more affordable. It is organized theft of taxpayers. And it is all to prop up a program that never worked.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Senate Majority Whip, today spoke on the Senate Floor about how Democrats broke America\u2019s healthcare system and are now holding the government hostage to cover up their failures.\n\nClick HERE to watch Senator Barrasso\u2019s remarks.\n\nSen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks as prepared:\n\n\u201cToday marks Day 28 of the Schumer Shutdown. Democrats continue to block a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government. For them, it is a big game while Americans suffer. Listen to their own words. Senator Schumer gloated to the press, \u2018Every day gets better for us.\u2019 The House Democrat Whip told the press, \u2018Of course there will be families that are going to suffer\u2026 but it is one of the few leverage times we have.\u2019 That is the politics of pain: your suffering is their leverage. Leverage for what? Giving taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants. Slashing $50 billion in funding for rural hospitals. Enacting $1.5 trillion in permanent new spending.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m a doctor. I\u2019ve practiced medicine in Wyoming for 24 years. I want Americans to have high quality, affordable healthcare. Right now, this is impossible because healthcare in America is broken. Democrats broke it. They broke it the day they passed Obamacare. A headline in The New York Times this Sunday admits, \u2018Obamacare is pricey.\u2019 The Washington Post Editorial Board agrees. They wrote recently, \u2018The real problem is that the Affordable Care Act was never actually affordable.\u2019 That\u2019s The New York Times and The Washington Post. They\u2019re right. Obamacare is a failed program. Democrats created it. They continue to defend it today.\n\n\u201cDemocrats tried to prop up Obamacare with juicy subsidies to try to hold down out of pocket costs. Then, when Joe Biden became president, Democrats added COVID Bonus payments. These payments are an admission that Obamacare\u2019s flaws had only gotten worse. Democrats voted twice to make the Biden Bonus COVID payments temporary. They first scheduled these payments to end in 2022. Noting the failure of Obamacare, they then extended the payments through the end of this year. They set the expiration date. They created this cliff. They created what they now call a crisis.\n\n\u201cRemember, Democrats created both Obamacare and the Biden Bonus COVID payments without a single Republican voted. These payments were always intended to be temporary. Democrats\u2019 own report says they were to be applied \u201cduring the public health emergency.\u201d Today, Democrats are demanding $350 billion in permanent new spending to prop up Obamacare once again. When Democrats say \u2018fix it now,\u2019 what they really mean is \u2018prop up Obamacare forever.\u2019 COVID is over. Democrats seem to have missed the memo.\n\n\u201cEven after the Biden Bonus COVID payments expire, the federal government will still pay for 80 percent of the average Obamacare enrollee\u2019s premium. What is expiring is the added cash Democrats paid insurers during the pandemic.\n\n\u201cThe Biden Bonus COVID payments are riddled with waste, fraud, abuse, and even corruption. Democrats removed every income limit on the subsidies. There is no means-testing whatsoever. Even millionaires and billionaires are eligible for taxpayer-funded healthcare. In 2024, 12 million enrollees got insurance they never used. Since the subsidies flow directly from the government to insurers, insurers pocketed tens of billions of dollars, even though enrollees did not make a single claim. In 29 states, more people are claiming full benefits than are eligible for those benefits in the state. 6.4 million people were improperly enrolled this year. That is $27 billion paid for by hard-working taxpayers. At least 1.6 million people are duel-enrolled in both Medicaid and Obamacare \u2013 which is not allowed.\n\n\u201cThis isn\u2019t about making healthcare more affordable. It is organized theft of taxpayers. And it is all to prop up a program that never worked.\n\n\u201cHealthcare costs continue to rise. Obamacare failed to address that. Who caused those rising costs? Democrats did. When government pays any price, insurers charge any price. That\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happening today. And now, American families are paying the price.\n\n\u201cRepublicans will not allow Democrats to paper over the inadequacies of Obamacare. Republicans want to get to the root cause of the cost of medical care. Democrats are protecting waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption while federal workers go unpaid. Enough is enough.\n\n\u201cEven liberal labor unions are fed up with Democrats\u2019 politics of pain. Yesterday, the American Federation of Government Employees urged Democrats to join Republicans and reopen the government. They said, \u2018Both political parties have made their point.\u2019 They go on to say, \u2018It\u2019s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.\u2019 Will Democrats listen? So far, Democrats have rejected a clean continuing resolution twelve times.\n\n\u201cAllow me to echo Leader Thune. Republicans are happy to discuss how to address Obamacare\u2019s many failures. But first, Democrats must reopen the government. Republicans will not negotiate with hostage-takers. Our troops, women, infants, and children should not be leverage for Democrats to save their failed programs.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/reality-check-propping-up-obamacare-failures-wont-lower-costs/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8859760127961636, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}