{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=e4adde5e-205c-4b69-b135-8d9f71f4c7bd", "Senate Democrats Trying to Change the Subject from Obamacare to Judges", "2013-11-12", "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\u00a0regarding the Senate Democrats attempt to focus on D.C. Circuit Court nominations rather than the consequences of Obamacare:\u201cDespite the repeated promises of President Obama, millions of people are losing their health insurance\u2014health insurance they very much liked and were assured they could keep.\u00a0 It has been reported that so far, 3.5 million Americans have lost their health insurance under Obamacare.\u00a0 That includes over a quarter million people in Kentucky, a third of a million people in Florida, and almost a million people in California.\u00a0 \n\u201cThis is a serious problem that the President and Congressional Democrats need to do something about. The obvious answer is repeal.\u00a0 But in the meantime, the legislation offered by Sen. Ron Johnson would help Americans keep the plans they have and like. \n\u201cIf the President and Senate Democrats are serious about helping the millions of Americans who\u2019ve unexpectedly lost their insurance over the past several weeks, then they should support it.\u00a0 Unfortunately, they appear ready to ignore this problem.\u00a0 \n\u201cRather than focusing on keeping their commitment to the American people, they are focusing on things that appeal to their base.\u00a0 Rather than change the law that is causing so many problems for so many, they want to change the subject. \n\u201cAccording to one recent report, our Democratic friends want \u2018to divert as much attention as possible away from the problem-plagued Obamacare rollout at this formative stage of the 2014 campaign.\u2019\u00a0 Which brings us to the vote we will have today.\u00a0 \n\u201cWe will not be voting on legislation to allow Americans to keep their health insurance if they like it, as they were promised again and again.\u00a0 Rather, we will be voting on a nominee to a court that doesn\u2019t have enough work to do.\u00a0 \n\u201cA court so underworked that it regularly cancels oral argument days.\u00a0 \n\u201cA court whose judges tell us that if any more judges were put on the court, there wouldn\u2019t be enough work to go around.\u00a0 \n\u201cA court that is less busy now than it was when Senate Democrats pocket-filibustered President Bush\u2019s nominee to the court, Peter Keisler, for two years.\u00a0 \n\u201cAnd it is less busy based upon the very standards that Democrats themselves set forth when they blocked Mr. Keisler\u2019s nomination.\u00a0\u00a0 \n\u201cBy the way, it is also less busy now than it was then according to an analysis provided by the Chief Judge of that court.\n\u201cThe Senate ought to be spending its time dealing with a real crisis, not a manufactured one.\u00a0 We ought to be dealing with an ill-conceived law that is causing millions of Americans to lose their health insurance.\u00a0 \n\u201cInstead, we will spend our time today on a political exercise designed to distract the American people from the mess that is Obamacare, rather than try to fix it.\n\u201cIf our Democratic colleagues are going to ignore the fact that millions of people are losing their health insurance plans, they should at least be working with us to fill judicial emergencies that actually exist, rather than complaining about fake ones.\u00a0 \n\u201cThere are nominees on the Executive Calendar who would fill actual judicial emergencies, unlike the Pillard nomination.\u00a0 \n\u201cSome of them, in fact, have been pending on the Calendar longer than the Pillard nomination.\u00a0 \n\u201cBut rather than work with us to schedule votes on these nominations in an orderly manner, as we have been doing all year, the Majority prefers to concoct a crisis on the D.C. Circuit so it can try to distract the American people from the failings of Obamacare.\u00a0\u00a0   \u201cUnfortunately, our friends appear to be more concerned with playing politics than with solving actual problems.\n\u201cSo I will be voting no on this afternoon\u2019s political exercise.\u00a0 I hope the Senate will focus on things the American people care about, rather than spend its time trying to distract them.\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=e4adde5e-205c-4b69-b135-8d9f71f4c7bd"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0413071140646935, "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"}