U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) literally walked off the Senate floor rather than answer questions about reopening the federal government — during the longest shutdown in American history.
Schumer acknowledged to Senator Bernie Moreno, R-OH, that he did not have a written proposal to address the Affordable Care Act. “We can’t give you a counter in writing, but it’s very simple,” Schumer said. “Because we have two sentences we would add to any proposal which would extend the ACA benefits for one year.”
Moreno surprisingly revealed that the Affordable Care Act imposed no income caps, meaning people who make millions of dollars a year can obtain taxpayer-subsidized health care. “It does still have no income caps, so people who make $1, $2, $3 million a year…” Moreno said before Schumer interrupted him.
“Once we pass the one-year fixe so people right now aren’t in difficulty, we would sit and negotiate that,” Schumer said. “The leader has said that he won’t negotiate before. We’re willing to negotiate once the credits are extended, plain and simple.”
Moreno then asked, “So for one year, people making millions of dollars would still receive these COVID-era subsidies?” At that, Schumer yielded the floor after accusing Moreno of carrying about billionaires before walking away.
“I was going to ask him before he stormed out of the room because evidently he doesn‘t want to hear any opposing views or actually engage in meaningful negotiation … Would he continue 0 dollar premiums, which we know for a FACT, have enormous levels of fraud,” the Ohio Republican noted. “If he had stayed, I would have asked him a third question: Does he want these monies to go directly to insurance companies?”
Earlier today, President Donald Trump urged Senate Republicans to give health care funds directly to consumers instead of health care companies.
Schumer continues to keep the government shut down, holding hundreds of millions of Americans hostage because he is afraid a little girl from the Bronx who used to be a bartender will take his phony baloney job.