Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Representing the 12th District of California
Washington, D.C. – Today, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks on the House Floor condemning Republicans’ latest effort to dismantle health care protections for millions of American families.
In her speech, Pelosi underscored that not a single Republican voted for the Affordable Care Act to protect Americans with pre-existing conditions, keep young adults on their parents’ insurance plans or prevent discrimination against women in health care. She detailed how Republicans have repeatedly sought to strip away health care access for families, seniors and people with disabilities.
Watch Speaker Emerita Pelosi’s Floor remarks in opposition to the bill here.
Read the transcript of Speaker Emerita Pelosi’s Floor remarks below:
Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro. I have the greatest honor of yielding two minutes’ time to the the gentlewoman from California, the distinguished Speaker Emerita, Ms. Pelosi. Probably the epitome of the best Speaker the nation has ever had, in addition to which millions of Americans have health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act because of Speaker Pelosi.
Speaker Emerita Pelosi. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding—Madam Chair, once and future Chair of the Appropriations Committee—and I thank her for her leadership and her kind words.
I take heed, Mr. Speaker, of your comment to address my remarks to you and not to your colleagues.
So I can say to you, and perhaps you can tell them, either they don’t know what they’re talking about, or they don’t care about meeting the needs of the American people.
Did any one of them vote to eliminate the need for pre-existing conditions in health care? Not one of them.
Did any one of them vote to say that children can stay on their parents’ policies until they are 26? Not one of them.
Did any of them vote to eliminate being a woman as a pre-existing medical condition? Not one of them.
The list goes on and on.
Did any one of them vote for the Affordable Care Act—which, Mr. Speaker, you can tell them was paid for?
And then later, when we decided that we could extend the tax credits further so that more people could have more access to care, did any one of them vote for that? No.
All they have done is try to eliminate access to health care in our country. The public is catching on to them.
You might tell them: if a woman gives birth to a child that has a heart condition, she’s out of luck with what they are proposing.
If a father gets a stroke, forget about it.
If you have a sibling with a disability, they don’t care.
And if your wife has breast cancer, you’ve got big bills to pay, because they want to take away health care.
Whether it’s Medicaid—tens of millions of people—or a half-trillion dollars from Medicare for seniors and people with disabilities, or millions of dollars added to the costs families pay for access to the Affordable Care Act, the list goes on and on.
Either they don’t know, or they don’t care.
I’ll say one more thing as a grandmother and mother: how about the President of the United States on Halloween night having a Halloween party and saying to the Supreme Court, ‘Please don’t make me feed the children or the poor people in our country,’ going to the Supreme Court for that?
Cruelty is not even close to the word needed for that kind of behavior.
The worst president for children America has ever seen. I’ll yield back.
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