This is all some smoke and mirror deal here. And what we have done here today, almost 15 of us came to the floor, and what we are saying is lets fix the problems that we can all acknowledge, that we have a Health Care System where really sick people have a hard time finding affordability, and when you put really sick people into an insurance pool, it drives up the costs for everyone. So how do we manage that . The Insurance Industry tells me that the average time on the individual exchange is ten months. How do you take someone with five chronic conditions and manage enemy a tenmonth plan . You know what . You dont. So they hop from plan to plan costing more. If you want to row duce costs, you have to if you want to reduce costs, you have to figure out how we can treat the sickest among us. Until we do that we wont achieve the common goal reducing the cost of health care in this country. We cannot achieve that goal. And when all were doing is saying, no, we dont want to pay, were going to make the states pay, or were going to make people on the individual exchange pay, or were going to make people do what, you know, what theyve done before, which is not have coverage and put them into uncompensated say, that will not uncompensated care, that will not solve the problem. We have not great examples here for the immediate concern that we have that we have about the premiums that are going to be expressed. And this in some way reflects concerns about the increased cost of health care and whats hang in that individual market. But it is being driven by the failure to fulfill the statutory obligation. Reinsurance, costsharing. You know, i do are to point out i do have to point out that i find found it interesting that the objection to senator shaheens bill was that, oh, we havent had time to take a look at it. Havent had time to even consider this costsharing issue. Really . This is the last page of the republican bill. Page 145, stating in section 208, funding for costsharing payments. Now, ill give you, its a different schedule, different formula in the shaheen bill. But this is not a new concept. If we wanted today to give the Insurance Industry the certainty that they needed that would make sure that the premium increases reflected not uncertainty but reflected actual costs, wed do this. Wed take jeannes bill up. So when the very bill that the republicans have advanced says there is appropriated the secretary to the secretary of health and Human Services out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated such sums that may be necessary for payments for costsharing reductions authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act. Including adjustments to any prior obligations. Same provision was in the house bill. So how can it be objectionable to have a debate about a provision thats been advanced in both republican bills . How can that be objectionable when so much is riding on that, when the health care and availability of insurance to our families is riding on making sure that we at least have some kind of stopgap measures in the exchanges that will guarantee a stability that will make insurance available . If he would dont know whats going to happen with those counties, we know we have huge counties that dont even have an insurer in them. Senator mccaskill offered an opportunity. Guess p what . How about they get their insurance where our staffs get our insurance or some among us get our insurance . And thats objected to because of some kind of washington solution. What is ironic about that is that provision that made senate staffs in our home states get their Health Insurance on the d. C. Exchange came from senator grassley during the debate on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act. Not a democratic idea. A republican idea. And certainly something that bears at least a discussion, certainly something that ought to be talked about here. So lets not pretend that theres been an outreach to people on the democratic side. Today the democratic leader offered to go to blair house, offered to go to bring people together at blair house, have a sitdown on health care, offered to go to the old senate no cameras, lets talk about health care. And what we get is youre not serious. I want you to know im dead serious about sitting down and trying to fashion a Health Care Plan that actually fixes the problem we have right now in affordability of Health Insurance. And when someone says, well, you have to accept tax breaks of tha taxbreaks as part of that. 400 americans will get at tax break under the republican bill 40 0 just 400 americans will get a tax break. Not Health Care Reform that were talking about. That bill is not Health Care Reform. It is entitled reform. It is tax reform, making sure that the wealthiest among us get a tax break. If we want to talk about Health Care Reform, if we want to talk about fixing the a. C. A. , lets not throw out whats working. Lets make sure that were fixing and addressing the problems that we here express every day that come in our mail and that we know we have to address in order to make the system fair. And that is younger, healthier people need a break. They need to find an affordable product. And how are we going to do that . Weve seen ideas here today, ideas that could take care of even if we just made them temporary, even if we said, this is only going to be there for until 2019. We could stabilize all of this today and begin that debate. But yet its objected to. So i think the message that we want to send is, we stand ready to fix the Health Care System. We stand ready to work with the opposite with the other side of the aisle. We stand ready to address the concerns that we hear from our constituents about the Health Care System. And if we really want to respond to the concerns that the American Public has about the United States congress, we better start working together. We better start finding a path forward to solve problems. Real problems, not pretend problems, but real problems in this country. That way we will in fact enrich and enhance our democracy. But until we do that, we continue to struggle to get credibility with the American Public, and that is not ladies and gentlemen, members of senate, that is not a formula for success for our democracy. With that, i yield the floor. Quorum call mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer the senator is recognized. Mr. Mcconnell i mo to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer all those he in favor say aye. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to executive session to consider executive calendar number 116, david nye to be United States district judge for the district of idaho. The presiding officer all those in favor say aye. The ayes appear to have it the ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk david c. Nye to be United States directs judge. We, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of david c. Nye to be united unid states district judge for the district of idaho signed by 17 senators. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call with respect to the cloture motion be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each are. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i have nine requests for committees to meet during todays session of the senate. They do not have the for the seven dz day they will not be permitted to meet after 2 00 p. M. I ask consent that the list of committees requesting authority to meet be printed in the record for todays session and the previous two days. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the appointments at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i understand there is a bill at the desk and i ask for its first reading. The presiding officer the clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. The clerk s. 1460, a bill to provide for the Energy Resource policies for the United States and for other purposes. Mr. Mcconnell i now ask a second reading and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i object to my only request. The presiding officer objection is heard. The bill will be read for the second time on the next legislative day. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 11 00 a. M. , june 29, further following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. Finally, following leader remarks the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the rao nomination with time until the cloture vote equally divided between the two leaders or designees. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell if there is no further business to come pf the senate, before the senate i senate, before the senate i the senate today considering confirmation for nominees to head the White House Office of regulatory affairs. We are expecting a confirmation vote on that tomorrow. The senate had planned to debate the republican healthcare replacement bill this week. Yesterday, majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell pulled the bill. It lacked votes to pass. Senator mcconnell now says he will make changes to the bill i bring it to the senate floor after the fourth of july recess. See live coverage of the senate on cspan2. We will go live to the House Armed Services committee reviewing the proposed members to the legislation. They are finishing up an amendment vote and expectingo
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