Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin
June 05, 2025
In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin slammed the Republican reconciliation plan that will kick 16 million Americans off their health care coverage, close rural hospitals
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) delivered a speech on the Senate floor exposing the disastrous provisions in the Republicans’ reconciliation plan that will slash health care and eliminate jobs to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. In his remarks, Durbin underscored that this legislation will harm Americans, as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released new estimates showing that 16 million Americans will lose their health insurance under this plan.
“What exactly were people voting for in the last presidential election? Well, many things… but the recurring theme seems to be the cost of living for the average family, the ability of mothers and fathers to make ends meet, and to see a realization of their dreams and aspirations. But we were told, over and over again, that families across this country were being overwhelmed by the cost of living, gas, groceries, housing. And so they gave a majority of the votes to President Trump, who promised he would ‘Make America Great Again.’ Since taking office, I don’t believe that the President has come near to keeping his promise,” Durbin began. “Instead he has hired many of his billionaire buddies and cut deals with the ultra-wealthy that will harm the same Americans who voted for him.”
“Hidden in more than 1,000 pages in the bill that passed the House of Representatives is a plan, a laundry list of things, that I don’t believe Americans even considered voting for in the last November election. They’re going to have a devastating impact on families in states, red and blue alike… Billionaires are going to win, and American families are going to lose,” Durbin said.
Durbin spoke about the impact of the $800 billion cuts to Medicaid included in the reconciliation bill, emphasizing that if those cuts are carried out, rural hospitals will be forced to close because they rely on Medicaid funding to operate. Nationwide, half of all rural hospitals already operate with negative margins, and more than 300 rural hospitals are at immediate risk of closure, including 26 in Kansas, 22 in Alabama, and nine in Missouri.
“Do you think the voters in last November’s election for President of the United States would actually vote to close down their local hospital? That’s what’s looming,” Durbin continued. “Three weeks ago, 20 hospital administrators from across the state of Illinois, from Chicago down to the southernmost part of our state, all took a special trip to Washington to warn me that the bill that was pending before the House of Representatives threatened the survival of hospitals across our state. These are hospitals which are not only critical for providing professional medical care, delivering babies, saving people’s lives who were in automobile accidents, but also major parts of the local economy.”
“You come to rural, small town Midwest America and ask the impact of the local hospital, and they’ll tell you, ‘we don’t know that we can keep a business or attract a business if we didn’t have it. We count on it every day to be there when we need it.’ And, secondly, it’s a major employer. In fact, in most towns, the biggest employers in downstate,” Durbin said. “Then they warned me, many of these hospitals are hanging on by a thread. The money that they receive from government insurance programs like Medicaid keeps the doors open and the lights on and the doctors in town. And now we have a proposal from Republicans to cut that Medicaid benefit and coverage for 16 million Americans.”
As if those deep cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act were not harmful enough, Republicans have included a $500 billion cut to Medicare, despite promises to protect the program in their reconciliation bill.
“Now you dig deeply into this Republican budget bill that has come over from the House of Representatives, and it turns out… they’re also cutting Medicare,” Durbin said. “Republicans couldn’t help themselves, they slashed Medicare benefits and reduced access to hospitals, nursing homes, and medications for seniors in all 50 states.”
“Why would Republicans in Congress take a wrecking ball to these two major parts of our health care system? To provide money for tax breaks for the wealthiest people in America,” Durbin continued.
“It sounds like Republicans in Congress want to be the ones deciding who is worthy of health care in America. But Americans who depend on Medicaid are not strangers. They’re your neighbors. They’re people at your church, at your school, and at your work. It probably is your family too. If you or your loved one gets sick, will congressional Republicans deem you worthy of seeing a doctor?” Durbin said.
Durbin continued on, arguing that the American people did not vote to lose their health care to pad the pockets of billionaires.
“Is that what this election was all about? Did the American people vote for tax cuts for billionaires? I don’t think so,” Durbin said.
“A party like the Republicans who claim they’re the party of the working class. ‘Working class’ billionaires? They refuse to put their money where their mouth is,” Durbin said. “Republicans in Congress may try to say they’re just trying to lower your taxes, but most of the benefit is going to wealthy people who won’t even notice it.”
“Under the Republican plan, taxpayers in the wealthiest 0.1 percent would get a $300,000 tax cut every year… Why? At the expense of health care for 16 million Americans?” Durbin said.
Durbin also emphasized that the Republican plan would jeopardize thousands of jobs created by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which invested in clean energy jobs across the country. Since the passage of the legislation, 85 percent of investment in clean energy technologies has landed in Republican districts.
“In just two years since passing the Inflation Reduction Act, businesses have announced 340 new clean technology projects. One estimate says that this will create 150,000 permanent jobs,”Durbin said. “The Republicans ‘big, ugly bill’ puts these jobs at risk, taking a hatchet to tax policy that make these projects possible. The promise of a Republican repeal has already scared the private sector into withdrawing a $14 billion investment and cancelling 10,000 clean energy manufacturing jobs. Why would the so-called party of the working class want to give their own constituents a pink slip?”
Durbin concluded his remarks by urging his Republican colleagues in the Senate to oppose the legislation that will only benefit billionaires at the expense of their constituents.
“My Republican colleagues must know that this plan does not ‘Make America Great Again.’ It makes our debt the greatest in the history of our nation. It harms families in red and blue states,”Durbin said.
“I urge a handful of my Republican colleagues, and that’s all it takes, show some courage, show some common sense. Tell the folks in the House, and tell the White House as well, this approach is not going to work. Taking health insurance away from 16 million Americans, more than has ever happened in the history of this country, is fundamentally unfair, and we all know it,” Durbin said.
“I urge my Republican colleagues to listen to their constituents. Because I know Americans who voted for Trump in November, did not vote for what I just described,” Durbin concluded his speech.
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.
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