{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=866FE552-3C0F-48A8-A62F-C73B92D41782", "Barrasso Outlines the Future of Obamacare", "2016-11-30", "2016", "2016-11", "Republican", "House", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014 Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the future of Obamacare. Barrasso outlines how Republicans plan to dismantle Obamacare and replace it with patient-centered care.\r\nExcerpts of Senator Barrasso\u2019s remarks:\r\n\u201cThe American people have placed their faith now in Republicans \u2013 and we intend to earn that trust. We\u2019ll do it through both executive and legislative action with regard to the health care law.\r\n\u201cFirst, President Trump will have a great opportunity to start making things better for the American people by changing some of the regulations that are a huge part of the health care law.\r\n\u201cNow remember, this health care law was 2,700 pages long. And within those 2,700 pages, there\u2019s more than 1,800 places where the law gives the secretary of Health and Human Services the power to write different rules, and different regulations, and different requirements to try to spell out what the 2,700 page law says.\r\n\u201cThe Obama administration absolutely abused that power \u2013 and the administration added more than 40,000 pages of regulations, of red tape that were never actually in the law itself.\r\n\u201cIn the Trump administration, there\u2019s going to be a new secretary of Health and Human Services.\r\n\u201cHe is a physician, an orthopedic surgeon, once confirmed, who will, I believe, be able to reinterpret and then reapply the law in ways that actually help American families instead of so many ways that hurt American families, because the interpretation in the past favored big government over people.\r\n\u201cThis includes applying the law to make it easier for businesses to provide insurance to people who work for them.\r\n\u201cIt means giving power back to the states to come up with ideas that work for all of the citizens.\r\n\u201cRepublicans want to make sure the power goes back to where it belongs, with the people, the families, the states, that\u2019s where it belongs.\r\n\u201cThis executive action can start pretty quickly \u2013 and it can be a bridge to the important work that then Congress is going to have to do.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to work very hard here in the Senate, and in the House, to undo some of the damage, significant amounts of the damage that Obamacare has caused.\r\n\u201cIt means repealing the health care law and wiping the slate clean.\r\n\u201cObamacare can\u2019t be fixed by tinkering with it here and there. Not with another attempted bailout of the insurance companies, which the president has continued to promote. The solution isn\u2019t to add more government on top of what we already have.\r\n\u201cThe health care law began collapsing a long time ago \u2013 and Republicans are now ready to clear away the rubble.\r\n\u201cThen we\u2019ll write a new law, multiple, step-by-step process, a law that reforms America\u2019s broken health insurance system. One that puts American families in control of their health care. A law that is simpler, fairer, more effective, and more accountable.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the mistakes that the Democrats have made with the health care law.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that every state is different \u2013 so we\u2019re going to be looking to push as much authority out of Washington and back to the states.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that too many mandates and regulations drive up costs\u2014and they drive up the costs without improving the quality of care.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that when Washington writes bad laws, the unintended consequences are severe. These are all things that Republicans have said since the very beginning.\r\n\u201cThe failure of Obamacare has proven that Republicans were right. The election has proven that the American people want a new approach.\r\n\u201cAmerican families don\u2019t want us to tinker with Obamacare \u2013 they just want affordable health care.\r\n\u201cSo I want to make a couple of things clear. First of all, nobody is talking about taking people off of insurance without a replacement plan in place. We all understand that there needs to be a transition over time.\r\n\u201cPeople have already been hurt too much when they lost their insurance and when their rates went up because of Obamacare and the mandates, and the government saying they know better than families across the country.\r\n\u201cSo we\u2019ll be working to make the transition as smooth as possible for everyone.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re including transition period in a repeal bill that Congress passed last year and sent to the president\u2019s desk.\r\n\u201cOur goal is to do no harm.\r\n\u201cSecond, as we write a new health care law, we\u2019ll be looking to make it real reform that is actually centered on patients.\r\n\u201cNow, we can increase the use of health savings accounts. This will give more people the chance to actually control how they spend their own money on their health care.\r\n\u201cWe can support innovative insurance plans that pay for prescription drugs that work the best for patients \u2013 not just the ones preferred by insurance companies.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ll be talking about ideas, ways to protect people with pre-existing conditions, and letting young people stay on their parents\u2019 insurance.\r\n\u201cThese are important parts of the health care law.\r\n\u201cSo Republicans are going to consider any ideas\u2014any ideas that can help us to give people what they wanted all along: access to the care they need, from a doctor they choose, at lower costs.\r\n\u201cDemocrats promised that they would listen to other people\u2019s ideas, and then they went behind a closed door in an office back there, and they wrote the law ignoring all of the suggestions by Republicans, and without any Republican support at all.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re not going to make that same mistake. We will be looking for Democrats\u2019 help, we will be looking for Democrats to work with. We will be listening to Democrats\u2019 ideas, and we will be working very hard to win Democrat votes for any new law.\r\n\u201cReforming health care in this country is not going to be easy. It\u2019s not something that we\u2019re doing for the purpose of scoring political points, or to discredit President Obama.\r\n\u201cIt is something that we must do, to protect American families and their health, as well as their health care.\u201d\r\n###", 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": ["http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=866FE552-3C0F-48A8-A62F-C73B92D41782"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.71189708635211, "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"}