Pramila Jayapal Challenges Senate Democrats To 'Hold The Line' And Block GOP's Continuing Resolution

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Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) tore into Republicans and the Trump Administration's budget, and called on Senate Democrats to block the continuing resolution that passed the House on Tuesday night.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Hello everybody! Are you ready to protect our health care? I want to say thank you

00:09to all of you for being out there. This is so powerful and this is a really

00:14important moment because we have seen over and over again that Elon Musk, an

00:21unelected billionaire and Donald Trump

00:29want the keys so they can strip your Medicaid, your Medicare, your Social

00:36Security. They are not even being quiet about it. Elon Musk just called Medicare

00:42and Social Security the big one that we need to eliminate. He called it

00:50entitlements. These are not entitlements. These are earned benefit programs and

00:58Medicaid is absolutely essential for nursing homes. Just get this, 60% of

01:05babies born in Louisiana, Speaker Johnson's home state, those births are

01:11paid for by Medicaid. So every one of these programs, the Affordable Care Act

01:19and God bless Speaker Emerita Pelosi for all of her work in protecting

01:23health care. We need the courage in the Senate that Democrats in the House had

01:31last night when we all voted unanimously, almost unanimously, to stop this budget

01:41bill. We voted no and Senate Democrats have the opportunity to do what

01:47Republicans have done over and over again in blocking the things that we

01:51want to do to expand Social Security, to expand Medicare, to expand Medicaid. They

01:57have filibustered us over and over on us. We cannot give a blank check to Elon

02:05Musk and Doge to continue their destruction of critical benefits and

02:14programs, critical health care, critical privacy rights, critical things that

02:20Americans across this country depend on. Senate Democrats need to hold the line

02:25and not pass this funding bill because at the end of the day we represent the

02:35people of America. We represent the people of America who deserve health

02:43care, who deserve their Medicare, their Social Security, their Medicaid. And I

02:49want to tell you about one person, one of my constituents, Adele. Adele's

02:58daughter got sick with strep when she was four. Now instead of all the usual

03:04symptoms, the strep went systemic and she was septic. Her entire body shut

03:11down within two days, two days. She needed heart surgery, lung surgery and

03:18kidney surgery and she had less than a 5% chance of survival. Now,

03:25thankfully her daughter survived this ordeal and today she's in the seventh

03:31grade and she's and she's been described by her teachers as the

03:37hardest worker they've ever seen. And guess why Adele's daughter is alive

03:44today? Medicaid. She's alive because of Medicaid. Now get this. Adele's

03:50original bill was for $1 million. $1 million. Medicaid retroactively

04:01covered that cost and the subsequent subsequent cost of the treatment. And

04:06so Adele wrote into my office and she said, quote, without Medicaid, I don't

04:10know where we would be or if she would be alive. I do know that without

04:15Medicaid, I would be forever financially destroyed. I don't think sadly that

04:22this is a unique circumstance, right? How many of you have been in this

04:27situation where you haven't been able to afford your health care, where you

04:31have been saved by Medicaid or Medicare or Social Security, the Affordable Care

04:36Act, the things that government should be providing through universal health

04:40care. That's why I'm the lead sponsor. That's why I'm the lead sponsor of the

04:46Medicare for All bill, because I believe that health care is a human right.

04:52And I don't think that people should be profiting off of your pain and your

04:57illness. We should be ensuring that every single person in America has

05:01health care and that it is through a government funded insurance program,

05:06not these private insurance companies that keep driving the cost up of your

05:11drugs and services.

05:13So look, I want to tell you that the reason I really wanted to be here today

05:18and thank you is because we are in a terrible situation in this country

05:22where our very democracy is at stake and around the country. Democracies

05:27fall in matters of months, not years. And when you have a dictator and

05:34authoritarian like Donald Trump and the shadow president, Elon Musk, an

05:38unelected billionaire

05:41trying to destroy our democracy when they don't listen to Congress and the

05:46funds that we authorize and appropriate when they don't listen to the courts and

05:51the judicial decisions, then the only possible solution is the people in

05:59coordinated organizing, strategic organizing, taking to the streets, making

06:05your voices heard, making your stories heard, pushing back on dictators and

06:09authoritarians and billionaires who want to steal from you so they can get higher

06:14tax breaks for themselves. So let me hear it. What do you say to higher tax

06:22breaks for billionaires?

06:26What do you say to protecting our health care?

06:31And are you ready to do what it takes to save our democracy and save our health

06:36care? Thank you, everybody. We've got a lot of work to do, and I'm so glad that

06:42you're out here. Let's go get it done.

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