LEADER JEFFRIES: "DONALD TRUMP AND HOUSE REPUBLICANS AND SENATE REPUBLICANS ARE RUNNING SCARED"
Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries held a press conference about Donald Trump canceling a planned meeting to discuss government funding and how House Democrats are continuing to hold the line against the out-of-control Republican attack on the healthcare of the American people.
Leader Jeffries: Leader Schumer and I are ready to meet with anyone, anytime, at any place to discuss the issues that matter to the American people and avoid a painful Republican-caused government shutdown. Democrats do not support the partisan Republican spending bill because it continues to gut the healthcare of the American people. Our country is in the midst of an unprecedented Republican healthcare crisis. Republicans have enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. Millions of people will lose access to care.
As a result of the Republican One Big Ugly Bill, hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health clinics are closing all across the country, including in rural America. More than 20 million Americans are at risk of experiencing dramatically increased healthcare costs—premiums, copays and deductibles—because of the Republican refusal to extend the tax credits connected to the Affordable Care Act. Medicare is facing a $536 billion cut at the end of the year as a result of the One Big Ugly Bill that Republicans jammed down the throats of the American people. And at the same time, Republicans have effectively ended medical research in the United States of America, including research for children with cancer. And in the Republican appropriations spending bill, they continue the assault on the public health infrastructure in this country, vaccine availability, the National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control.
Democrats are ready, willing, and able to sit down with anyone at any place, at any time, to avoid the Republican-caused government shutdown that we are on the brink of experiencing and in order to address the Republican healthcare crisis. It's clear that Donald Trump and House Republicans and Senate Republicans are running scared, which is why they refuse to even sit down and have a conversation to discuss the Republican government shutdown and the healthcare crisis that is going to cause people in the United States of America to die because of the actions that Republicans have taken and want to continue to undertake in ways that hurt the people I represent here in Brooklyn and folks all across this country.
Full press conference can be watched here.