During a Senate HELP Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) spoke about President Trump's nominee for Deputy HHS Secretary.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Brooks. Thank you so much Chair Cassidy and for those who are wondering I am not Bernie Sanders
00:05I am Angela also Brooks. Ranking member Sanders is unable to be here this morning
00:11but I'd like to say a few words on behalf of the minority. Today we are considering
00:17President Trump's nominee to be the Department of Secretary, the Deputy Secretary of Health and
00:23Human Services Jim O'Neill. We were also going to consider the President's nominee to be the
00:29next Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Jeanette Neshwat, a Fox News medical contributor
00:36and a graduate of medical school but for whatever reason President Trump abruptly withdrew her
00:42nomination yesterday afternoon. And as we all know this is the second time that President
00:48Trump has withdrawn a nominee within our committee's jurisdiction. In March he withdrew the nomination
00:54of Dave Weldon who spent years lying about the safety and efficacy of vaccines to head
01:01the CDC about an hour before his hearing was set to begin. At any rate Mr. O'Neill thank
01:08you so much sir for being here today and Mr. Chairman I'd like to say that in America today
01:14we have a health care system that is broken, outrageously expensive and horrifically cruel. We also spend twice as much per capita on health care as any other
01:23country on earth over $14,500 per year and despite these huge expenditures we remain the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a human right.
01:40Over 85 million Americans are still either uninsured or under insured. The result? Over 60,000 people in our country die each year because they cannot afford to go to a doctor when they should.
01:55More than half a million Americans go bankrupt due to medically related debt and one out of four Americans cannot afford to buy the medicine their doctors prescribe.
02:05Sadly, as dysfunctional as our current health care system in America is, this administration and many of my Republican colleagues are actively working to make it worse.
02:17As we speak, Republicans in Congress are writing a quote reconciliation bill that would decimate Medicaid and throw millions of Americans off the health care that they have in order to give huge tax breaks to the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America.
02:33And let's be clear, when some of our Republican colleagues talk about cutting Medicaid by up to $880 billion, they are talking about making devastating cuts to community health centers, which rely on Medicaid for 43% of their revenue, mostly children, and provide primary health care to 32 million people.
02:56They're also talking about cutting funding for nursing homes, which depend on Medicaid for some two-thirds of their revenue.
03:03Further, since the president has been in office, 20,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services have been terminated or forced out, threatening the health care and well-being of millions of Americans who rely on Head Start, the Older Americans Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and LIHEAP.
03:21My home state of Maryland has been reeling from these cuts.
03:26Not only do we have over 150,000 dedicated federal civil servants in Maryland, but we are home to federal health agencies like NIH, FDA, SAMHSA, CMS, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and AHRQ.
03:44We need a Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services who will speak out against these devastating cuts and strongly oppose decimating Medicaid.
03:56All of us want to make the government more efficient, but we don't do this by slashing the agency in charge of the health and well-being of tens of millions of seniors, children, people with disabilities, working families, and the most vulnerable people in our country.
04:12We need a Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services who will fight to continue health care as a human right, not as a privilege, regardless of whether you are poor, working class, or wealthy.
04:24So, Mr. O'Neill, I have carefully reviewed your record and background, and unfortunately, it is very clear to me that you, sir, are not that person.
04:32And I am concerned that you will be just another rubber stamp for Donald Trump's rapid movement toward the destabilization of our health care system.
04:41Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:42Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:43Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:44Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:45Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:46Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:47Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:48Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:49Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:50Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:51Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:52Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:53Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:54Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:55Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:56Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:57Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:58Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:59Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:01Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:02Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman.