I won't let Republicans jack up health care costs

On Tuesday at midnight, President Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress decided they would rather shut the federal government down than protect hardworking New Mexicans from skyrocketing health care costs. We are only a few days into this shutdown, but I can tell you this: It was entirely preventable.
Republicans control the House. They control the Senate. And they control the White House. They had every single lever they needed to negotiate a deal.
All Democrats asked for was to protect our constituents from dramatically higher health care costs, because under the current Republican budget, folks in New Mexico can expect to see their health care premiums go up by 36%. That’s a difference of $300 to $500 a month. So we asked Republicans to extend the ACA health care premium tax credits, to make it just a little bit less difficult for working Americans to get by.
Republicans said “no.” In fact, according to his own team, when President Trump learned about the ask, he told me and my colleagues to “go F” ourselves.
Imagine that: We asked the president of the United States to protect hardworking American families from having their health care costs go up by hundreds of dollars a month, and their president says, “screw off.”
But we see what’s happening firsthand from the people we represent. We know what’s at stake, and we will dig our heels in.
When I was in Las Cruces recently, I heard from doctors, community leaders, students and parents. Every person told me the same thing: that if we don’t do something right now, their families will be forced to choose between paying rent, paying utility bills, paying their car payment, or paying for health care.
Many will lose health care altogether.
Now, I don’t know about you. But after the last few years of increased costs, when you think about how inflation and tariffs have impacted everything from beef to eggs to coffee to energy prices to home construction costs, I don’t know many New Mexicans who can afford another $300 or $400 a month on their health care premiums.
The truth is that if the Republicans have their way, tens of millions of hardworking folks in New Mexico and across the country will suffer. This isn’t a problem for some other group of people. This is a problem for all of us — our neighbors, our families, everyone.
It is unacceptable. It is irresponsible. And it is cruel.
Here is the cold, hard truth: Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress have spent the last nine months driving up health care costs and fueling inflation. And now, they’ve manufactured a new crisis: A shutdown of our federal government.
While they refuse to keep Americans healthy, and we fight to make sure Americans can afford to stay healthy, the effects of a shutdown will be devastating for the people who need these benefits the most.
In New Mexico, roughly 46,000 mothers, infants and children are at risk of losing the food and health support they rely on through WIC. That’s because WIC only has roughly enough money for one month.
Almost 18,000 service members in New Mexico are at risk of not getting paid on time. And the same goes for our nearly 30,000 government employees, who are at risk of not being paid until the shutdown is over. Farmers won’t be able to access new federal loans. Families living in rural communities will not be able to get new federal loans for housing, either.
And during hunting season — when many of you have already planned your annual fall harvests to fill your game freezers — our public lands employees will be limited in the services they can provide and the maintenance they can complete, making you less safe.
For most people, these are scary prospects. And that is the point: President Trump, Russ Vought and their Republican cronies in Congress want to sow fear, chaos and confusion. All at the expense of hardworking families.
Now, despite what the other side is telling you, Democrats are trying to negotiate in good faith with the Republicans. I can tell you that because I am one of those Democrats on our Appropriations Committee, and I have never let up trying to negotiate on our Senate appropriations bills.
But we are still waiting on Republicans, who have yet to bring us any proposal that protects the health care of hardworking New Mexicans.