Floor Statements

Mr. President, it has been a busy year here in the U.S. Senate. The new Republican majority has been working hard to deliver on our promises to the American people, and while there is still more to accomplish, we have gotten a lot done in just 1 year.

We are putting more money in Americans' pockets and supporting farmers, ranchers, and small businesses and helping them grow. We are making

America safer and stronger, investing in law and order here at home and a strong military to safeguard our national security. We are creating a brighter future with new opportunities for Americans wherever they live and whatever their American dream may be.

I want to take some time today to talk about how Republicans' agenda is at work in my home State of South Dakota, and I want to begin with the tax relief that Republicans have delivered.

Whether I am visiting a small business in Isabel, SD, or talking to farmers at Dakotafest, higher prices are a concern for South Dakotans, as they are for many Americans. Affordability begins with more money in your pocket, which is exactly what Republicans have delivered with the working families tax cuts.

If Congress failed to act this year, a typical family in South Dakota would have had less money in their budget. They would have been looking at a $2,500 tax hike next year. A typical farm would have seen a $5,000 tax hike. Tens of thousands of small businesses would have seen their taxes go up as well.

Republicans were determined not to let that happen. Thanks to the working families tax cuts, which we passed in July as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill, South Dakotans won't see a tax hike next year. Instead, they will start seeing tax relief in the new year when the new tax law takes effect. They will be able to take advantage of a larger child tax credit, a bigger standard deduction, and a bonus deduction for seniors this tax season. They will see larger tax refunds come April, and they can expect that to be the new normal because the working families tax cuts deliver permanent--permanent--tax relief. That is right--no tax hike next year; no tax hike ever.

Working families aren't the only ones who will be benefiting from tax permanence. Thanks to Republicans' tax cuts, farmers, ranchers, and small business owners can also look forward to having more breathing room in their budgets next year. They will benefit from permanently lower tax rates. The 199A deduction now is also made permanent. The full expensing provision, also now permanent, makes it easier to replace a piece of equipment and upgrade their operations. And the now- permanent research and development expensing provision is already helping South Dakota businesses innovate.

Then there is the death tax relief. South Dakotans believe the death tax is fundamentally flawed. It threatens too many family farms and ranches and family businesses. Republicans agree. And so in the Working Families Tax Cuts, Republicans permanently raised the death tax exemption threshold to protect a lot more family farms, ranches, and businesses from this unfair tax.

South Dakota farmers and ranchers are always at the top of my priority list. These hard-working South Dakotans are seeing more than tax relief. The One Big Beautiful Bill made significant updates to the farm safety net to support farmers and ranchers through the economic headwinds they continue to face.

Our bill increases reference prices for every covered commodity and makes these prices more responsive to market conditions in the coming years. It increases crop insurance coverage and affordability. It supports livestock producers by making existing programs more responsive to drought and by funding prevention of animal diseases that can devastate livestock. And it invests in critical conservation programs, including programs that support South Dakota's wild bird populations, something that matters a lot this time of year as hunters flock to our State for pheasant season.

Republicans also made the Agriculture appropriations bill a priority. This year's bill, which was signed into law in November, supports agricultural research programs and facilitates marketing U.S. ag products both domestically and internationally. And it provides robust funding for the Farm Service Agency, which producers depend on to access the programs which keep their operations running smoothly.

We are not just strengthening farms and ranches; we are also working to support rural communities in South Dakota and across the country. The needs of rural areas look a little different from other places' needs. They do receive attention from the new Republican majority this year. As I said, we prioritized the Ag appropriations bill, which delivered significant funding for rural broadband. And I worked with the Trump administration to develop internet access to unserved areas.

Then there is healthcare. Folks whose homes are in a rural area know simply accessing a doctor or emergency room can be challenging. That is all the more true with the troubling trend of rural hospital closures over the last several years. With the One Big Beautiful Bill, Republicans have taken action to support rural hospitals. All 50 States have now applied for funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill's Rural Health Transformation Program, including South Dakota.

South Dakota intends to address key priorities with this funding. The State is looking to recruit healthcare professionals to rural areas and train professionals for rural needs, incentivize regional hubs for emergency services and maternal health, and bolster healthcare facilities that serve rural parts of our State. This fund will truly be transformative for healthcare providers in South Dakota and other rural areas across the country.

We also used the One Big Beautiful Bill to repeal a burdensome staffing regulation that would have threatened the viability of a number of South Dakota nursing homes. The Biden staffing mandate was unworkable in my State and many others. The One Big Beautiful Bill rescinded it, ensuring South Dakota nursing homes can continue serving our residents.

There is a lot more I could talk about that we have accomplished for South Dakota this year. There are the investments in Ellsworth Air Force Base, including full funding for the B-21 mission and supporting infrastructure. There is the support for local law enforcement in the One Big Beautiful Bill and new border security resources to help stop illegal immigration and the flow of drugs across our southern border. Ron Parsons is confirmed and back on the job as South Dakota's U.S. attorney.

We have repealed electric vehicle mandates that were simply not realistic for a State like ours, where long distances and cold weather are a fact of life.

The Biden administration's WOTUS rule has been repealed as well, saving farmers and ranchers from massive compliance costs.

And we are even doing our part to keep the pheasant population in our State strong. I come here every day to work for South Dakota, and we have done a lot this year that South Dakotans can be happy about.

But it is not just my State. Republicans' agenda is supporting Americans in all 50 States. We are working to make America safer and more secure, put more money in Americans' pockets, and create new opportunities for a brighter future.

Mr. President, we are keeping our foot on the gas.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the motion to concur in the House message to accompany S. 1071.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 560.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 70.

Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 574.

Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of Executive Calendar No. 574, Alexander C. Van Hook, of Louisiana, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana.

John Thune, Katie Boyd Britt, Tommy Tuberville, Tim

Sheehy, Jon A. Husted, Joni Ernst, Shelley Moore

Capito, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mike Rounds, Bernie Moreno,

Jim Justice, Pete Ricketts, John Barrasso, Ted Budd,

Eric Schmitt, Ashley B. Moody, Tom Cotton.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 476.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, later today, we will vote on the Democrats' partisan messaging bill, which is a clean, 3-year extension of the Biden COVID bonuses. And when I say ``clean,'' all that I mean by that are no reforms, straight-up extension--3 years of a program without any reforms, any revisions, any changes that would actually help drive down healthcare costs instead of increasing healthcare costs and get rid of the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in this program.

The Democrats' plan--that the Democrat leader called it on the floor the other day. It is their ``plan.'' Apparently, they think that a 3- year extension with no reforms to try and disguise the real impact of ObamaCare's spiraling costs is actually a plan. I don't know how you can call it a plan.

I came down here yesterday to talk at length about some of the many problems with ObamaCare and the perverse incentives it provides to move employees off of employer-provided insurance and into taxpayer- subsidized plans that have rampant year-over-year increases in premiums; the perverse incentives it provides to insurance companies to enroll Americans--some of whom don't even know that they have been enrolled--so that the insurance companies can rake in even more subsidies.

And then this so-called plan is rampant--and I say ``rampant''--with fraud and abuse. A Government Accountability Office report released just last week found a whole host of problems, including the successful enrollment of fake individuals, Social Security number fraud, failure to verify or sometimes even request documentation, improper payment of subsidies, and the list goes on.

I want you to take a look at this. This is the finding that came out of that study that was done by the Government Accountability Office. This was their conclusion:

ObamaCare subsidies granted without documentation to 90

percent of fake accounts set up by government watchdog.

Ninety percent--not 10 percent, not 5 percent. I mean, if you had a program that had 10 percent fraud in it, I think that would be a huge red flag, right? Wouldn't you be alarmed by that? I

think most people would. I think most people would go: Wow, that is a huge number. We need to do something to fix that.

This program that we are talking about today, that they want to do a straight-up extension on--no reforms, no revisions--was found by the Government Accountability Office--an entity and Agency the Democrats love and support found that 90 percent of the accounts that were set up in the ObamaCare exchanges were fake--fake. Think about that. You can't make this stuff up. We are talking about tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse on a yearly basis. They don't want to do anything about it. They just want a straight-up extension on a program that the Government Accountability Office says has a 90-percent fraud rate.

That is obviously a huge problem, but I haven't even gotten to the central problem. That is that ObamaCare has utterly failed to control healthcare costs.

Since 2013, ObamaCare enrollees have seen a 221-percent increase in premiums.

Let me just repeat that. Since 2013, ObamaCare enrollees have seen a 221-percent increase in premiums--221 percent. That means ObamaCare premiums have grown at approximately five times the rate of inflation-- so much for making healthcare more affordable.

This graph, I think, illustrates that. Actually, this understates the problem because this shows that since 2014--in the first year of its inception, when the Obama exchanges went live, there was a huge increase that the insurance companies built into their premium costs to cover all the things they had to cover in the new program.

So since 2013, that number is 221 percent, but even since 2014, when the exchanges were fully up and operating, it has had a 129-percent increase in premiums at the same time that the group market--in other words, the large- and small-group market where a lot of people get their insurance coverage through their employer--was going up at about half that rate; 68 percent in the small- and large-group market, which is about where 150 million people get their insurance.

Frankly, the more people we could push into that market, it would not only lower their costs, but it also spreads the risk among a bigger pool. That, ultimately, is the way, in the long term, you want to spread your costs.

But what ObamaCare does, because it uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize and pay insurance companies directly--premiums go directly to the insurance companies, so insurance companies are making bank. They are getting enriched by this. But what it does at the same time is there is no incentive to control costs, and it is pushing people into that market.

If you are an employer or employee, for that matter--because most people respond to incentives--and you are told that you can get into a market where the taxpayers are going to cover it, the employer is going to say: Well, why should I pay for health insurance coverage for my employees if I can have the taxpayers pay for it?

So it is pushing more and more people out of the group market, this market right here, where there is a 68-percent increase--still way too much--over the last decade, pushing more and more people out of that market into this market, which has double the rate of increase in premiums. That doesn't include, as I said, the first year of its inception. If you add that first year back in there, that number is 221 percent.

So you have this system that is pushing more and more people into insurance coverage where the rates are skyrocketing, where the payments are going directly to the insurance companies, and where lower income taxpayers are subsidizing higher income taxpayers because there are no income levels.

So now you can have people making $500,000, $600,000 a year who are getting subsidized by the Federal taxpayer--people making $40,000 or $50,000 a year--at a cost to the Federal taxpayer, in their bill alone, which is just a 3-year extension, of $83 billion. You tell me in what universe that makes sense.

That is astonishing, to have a program where 90 percent of the people who are fraudulently enrolled got approved; a program where the rate of increase is twice the rate in the group market and three times the rate of inflation, the Consumer Price Index, over the same time period. Insurance companies are getting rich. Lower income taxpayers are footing the bill so more affluent Americans can have coverage. The American taxpayer is paying $83 billion just for the 3-year extension-- waste, fraud, and abuse, higher rates, fiscally irresponsible, and the list goes on.

Mr. President, even Democrats have to be well aware of the fact that ObamaCare has utterly failed to do what it promised. As I mentioned yesterday, we had one Democrat Senator come down to the floor during the shutdown, and, to his credit, he admitted the truth.

This is what he said:

We did fail to bring down the cost of healthcare.

That is a direct quote: ``We did fail to bring down the cost of healthcare.''

So what are Democrats proposing to do about that failure? As I said, exactly nothing. Democrats' so-called plan is a 3-year extension of the status quo--no reforms, no revisions, no rethinking of the way that ObamaCare works; just a 3-year extension of the status quo which, I might add, was put in place in response to the pandemic. When they extended these subsidies back in 2022, it was in August. The pandemic was long over--long over.

As I said, you can't make this stuff up.

So it is not going to do anything to address the perverse incentive to push Americans out of the employer-sponsored healthcare system and onto taxpayer-subsidized plans. It is not going to do anything to address the perverse incentives that encourage insurance companies to enrich themselves at the taxpayers' expense and do nothing to address the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in ObamaCare. Most of all, it will do nothing to bring down healthcare costs. Nothing. Zero.

Under Democrats' plan, insurance premiums will continue to spiral. American taxpayers will find themselves on the hook for ever-increasing subsidy payments. And don't think all those payments are going to be going to vulnerable Americans. As I said, the Democrats' decision to remove any income cap on the Biden COVID bonuses has Americans making as much as half a million dollars or more qualifying for taxpayer subsidies--half a million dollars. Do Democrats really think middle-class families should subsidize healthcare premiums for those making half a million dollars?

Democrats don't have a healthcare plan. They want to extend the status quo--a failed, flawed, fraud program that is increasing costs three times the rate of inflation.

On the other hand, Republicans today will offer something that does actually lower costs. Earlier this week, we introduced legislation-- drafted by the chairmen of the relevant committees, Senators Crapo and Cassidy--to make structural reforms to the individual health insurance market.

In contrast to the Democratic bill, our bill would actually lower, as I said, ObamaCare premium costs, and it would redirect government savings from the bill into health savings accounts for eligible ObamaCare enrollees earning less than 700 percent of the Federal poverty level, paired with more affordable insurance plans.

These accounts would help individuals to meet their out-of-pocket costs, and for many individuals who don't use their insurance or who barely use it, it would allow them to save for healthcare expenses down the road.

We have two paths here--one, a plan to start addressing the spiraling healthcare costs in ObamaCare and make structural reforms that would drive down premium prices; two, a proposal for a 3-year extension of the status quo. So you tell me who is serious about actually addressing the affordability of healthcare.

Democrats may talk about helping Americans, but their bill is nothing more than a political messaging exercise that they hope they can use against Republicans next November. So I hope that after today, they will feel like they have checked the messaging box and will get serious about actually doing something about the spiraling healthcare costs under ObamaCare.

Republicans are ready to get to work. I am not sure yet the Democrats are interested.

I yield the floor.