{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=02be47c1-7006-48f6-aefb-680ac5e8f463", "Obamacare: The Blame Game", "2013-11-07", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the disastrous effects of Obamacare:\r\n\u201cYesterday, Secretary Sebelius came back to Capitol Hill to testify about Obamacare.\r\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t learn much from her testimony, but some of the Q&A was revealing.\r\n\u201cShe admitted that the number of folks who\u2019ve enrolled in Obamacare is \u2018very low.\u2019\r\n\u201cWhen pressed on the Administration\u2019s promise that Obamacare would drive down premiums, here\u2019s what she said about premium rates on the individual market: \u2018I didn\u2019t say they are going down.\u2019\r\n\u201cWhen asked if convicted felons could become Obamacare navigators and acquire Americans\u2019 sensitive information, here\u2019s what she said: It\u2019s \u2018possible.\u2019\r\n\u201cThese revelations are really concerning.\r\n\u201cAmericans were counting on the President\u2019s claim that their families\u2019 premiums would go down, not up, under a new health regime.\r\n\u201cAmericans who\u2019ve lost their insurance and find themselves forced onto the exchanges \u2013 the last thing they need is to worry about some felon stealing their identity.\r\n\u201cAnd to many Americans, the Administration still seems more interested in deflecting blame than taking responsibility for the real harm its law is causing. Yesterday\u2019s hearing did little to dispel that notion.\r\n\u201cBy now, we\u2019ve heard our friends on the Left blame just about everyone and everything for the disaster they forced on our country. Everyone and everything, of course, except themselves.\r\n\u201cThey\u2019ve tried to blame the same contractors they hired\u2026Republicans\u2026the Tea Party\u2026I\u2019m sure they\u2019ve even tried to pin this on George W. Bush.\r\n\u201cOf course, the Administration has repeatedly tried to blame insurance companies for lost plans too.\r\n\u201cBut here\u2019s what The Washington Post\u2019s fact-checker had to say about that: \u2018The administration\u2019s effort to pin the blame on insurance companies is a classic case of misdirection.\u2019\r\n\u201cThey got Three Pinocchios for that whopper.\r\n\u201cUnfortunately, that doesn\u2019t seem to have deterred our friends on the other side from indulging in the blame game.\r\n\u201cWithin just the past week, we\u2019ve seen the White House lash out at the words of a cancer survivor and try to point a finger of blame at Texans.\r\n\u201cAnd a few days ago \u2013 get this \u2013 one of the President\u2019s close political allies attacked the very kind of folks who are now losing their health coverage under Obamacare. \u2018Free riders,\u2019 he called them.\u00a0\r\n\u201cYou know, the folks he\u2019s talking about\u2026these aren\u2019t people who\u2019ve done anything wrong. They\u2019re not freeloaders, or free riders, or anything else. They\u2019re our neighbors. Our constituents. And they\u2019re not looking for handouts from the government.\r\n\u201cIn fact, these are folks who went out and spent their own hard-earned money \u2013 not taxpayer money, mind you \u2013 to purchase the kind of health and protection that best suits their families.\u00a0\r\n\u201cAnd for this, the President\u2019s allies attack them.\u00a0\r\n\u201cMany just want the government to leave them alone.\r\n\u201cMany just want to be able to keep the plans they like, instead of only the plans the President likes.\r\n\u201cHere\u2019s what a small business owner in North Carolina said after his premiums shot up 400%. \u2018I just wish I could have my insurance back.\u2019\r\n\u201cI just read about a constituent this morning who lost his insurance and is finding that policies on the exchange will more than double his premium and increase his annual deductible. That\u2019s partly because as a 31-year old single male, he\u2019ll now be required to buy a policy with features he doesn\u2019t need, such as pediatric dental care and maternity care. \u2018It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me,\u2019 he said.\r\n\u201cAnother constituent from Caldwell County had this to say after learning of changes to her plan: \u2018My husband and I work hard, pay a lot in taxes and ask for little from our government. Is it asking too much for government to stay out of my health insurance?\u2019\r\n\u201cNo, it\u2019s not asking too much. It\u2019s simply taking the President at his word for the promise he made over, and over, and over again. The promise that so many Democrats here in Washington made to their constituents\u2014but that we now know is false.\r\n\u201cI understand that the White House is in a tight spot here. They did a poor job preparing the country for this law. They wasted time making promises that simply couldn\u2019t pan out, and they chose to ignore the warnings from my party and experts across the country that these very kinds of things would happen\r\n\u201cWell, this is the result. And people are really getting hurt.\r\n\u201cPremiums are rising.\r\n\u201cTaxes are going up for millions in the middle class.\r\n\u201cFolks are losing access to the hospitals and doctors they like.\r\n\u201cAnd, at this point, more Americans have lost health coverage than have gained it. As I mentioned yesterday, more than 50 times as many Kentuckians have lost private health coverage as have signed up for private plans on the state exchange.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s 280,000 folks we\u2019re talking about here \u2013 280,000 Kentuckians who\u2019ve lost their insurance.\r\n\u201cIn Louisiana, we\u2019re talking about 80,000 folks.\r\n\u201cIn Minnesota, it\u2019s 140,000.\r\n\u201cClose to half a million in Georgia.\r\n\u201cSo it\u2019s way past time for Democrats to end this blame game. Instead, they need to start acknowledging the consequences of their law, and actually do something about the mess they created.\r\n\u201cIf they\u2019re ready to do so, Republicans are willing to help.\r\n\u201cLet\u2019s work together to undo the harm of Obamacare and start over with real, bipartisan, cost-saving reforms\u2026reforms that will actually allow Americans to keep the health plans they like.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of reform Americans really want. And, if Democrats are ready to work together with us, we can give them just that.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=02be47c1-7006-48f6-aefb-680ac5e8f463"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9654569439589977, "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"}