John Barrasso

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 173, S. 1437.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I withdraw the motion to proceed.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, as I was coming to the floor today, I heard the minority leader Chuck Schumer talking about wanting to send more government checks to insurance companies. That is what he said he wants to do. He is going to have a vote on it later this week. He wants to extend 3 more years the checks Democrats say we ought to send to insurance companies. I disagree with them. When it comes to healthcare, American people deserve to have the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs, at a cost that they can afford. ObamaCare has done just the opposite. And today, ObamaCare is collapsing under its own weight. What are the Democrats trying to do? They are trying to prop it up with an additional $83 billion handed directly from the Federal Government to insurance companies. They want to send $83 billion directly from the Treasury into the bank accounts of the very profitable insurance companies that have been made more profitable under ObamaCare. Democrats want to use your money to cover up for their failures. That is what is happening here. So, this week, the Senate is going to vote on the Democrat plan to extend these Biden COVID bonuses for 3 more years with absolutely no reforms to a failing Obamacare program--no reforms, not one. What do we see with the program so far they had? It caused waste, fraud, and corruption. Rich people get subsidies; insurance companies get rich. They all like it. That is why the Democrats are for it. I practiced medicine in Wyoming for 24 years as an orthopedic surgeon. I was doing that before serving now in the U.S. Senate. I can tell you, these Biden COVID bonuses are a bad prescription because the side effects are so harmful: widespread fraud and corruption, direct payments to line the pockets of big insurance companies, taxpayer- subsidized healthcare for millionaires. That is right, millionaires. You can earn $1 million a year and still get subsidized handsomely by what the Democrats are proposing, and they are bringing it to the floor to be voted on this week. That is the solution the Democrats have, throw more government money at a problem that caused the problem in the first place. The people in my home State of Wyoming cannot continue to afford this endless drain that is ObamaCare. The Democrats saw ObamaCare was failing. They saw costs were getting high. They are trying to prop it up. They are trying to hide the failures. In 2021, they used their narrow partisan majority to try to prop it up even more with the Biden COVID bonuses. Those are on top of all the other subsidies that the Democrats were sending to the insurance companies. Well, not a single Republican voted for it. Remember, these are new subsidies on top of the already generous subsidies. And now they are for everybody. No matter how much money you make, you qualify for these subsidies. This was initially designed just to go for people that needed it, people that couldn't help themselves. But now, the sky is the limit. When does that happen? Oh, and by the way, Democrats said these will only be temporary. Don't worry. This is just because of COVID. But the following year, what did the Democrats do? They said: Well, ObamaCare is not in pretty good shape. We need to keep these going, this extra layer of subsidies. Keep them going. They set the deadline date for coming up the end of this month. Again, not a single Republican voted for it, not one. Now, what did Chuck Schumer say today? He wants to extend them for another 3 years, $83 billion. So calling these Biden COVID bonuses temporary was just another way for them to cover up the damage that ObamaCare is doing to the country. They are doing it for one reason: because ObamaCare is unaffordable. It is a failure. Premiums have risen over 220 percent since ObamaCare came along. What did Obama say? Premiums are going to go down by $2,500 a year for a family. I think that was called the ``lie of the year'' by the press who evaluated those things. Even the deductibles have doubled. Look, sending another $83 billion to insurance companies is not going to fix the failures of ObamaCare. And when you create direct payments to insurance companies that are this vast, no guardrails, predictable things will happen. No. 1 is, of course, the price of insurance will go up because there is more government money coming to it; and No. 2, fraud runs wild. That is right, absolute fraud. So the Government Accountability Office recently released a report that confirms it. In 2024 and 2025, the Government Accountability Office did something very revealing. They tried to figure out how easy it was to sign up for ObamaCare using fake information. Would fraudsters be caught if they submitted fake information under ObamaCare? In fact, GAO submitted 24 fake applications. It was intentional. They submitted them to the ObamaCare exchanges to see if, under the Democrats' program, these would actually be detected as fraudulent or if money would just flow from the Federal Government to those who submitted all these false papers. Would they get approved by the government or was there anything out there that would stop them? Well, 23 of the 24 fake applications were approved to qualify for ObamaCare subsidies. Money is going to go, fake applications, incompetent Federal Government--that is what the American people see. So the GAO dug deeper, and they found, when they checked Social Security numbers, that a single Social Security number was used for enrolling 125 different ObamaCare policies, all of which qualified for subsidies. Yes, those Democrats love sending the money out. That is the thing they do. GAO also found that 58,000 Social Security numbers that matched death records were also receiving subsidies. There they go. That is the way the Democrats roll. Democrats want to continue paying ObamaCare bonuses directly to insurance companies for signing up people with Social Security numbers of people that are dead. Let's be very clear: The money from the Biden COVID bonuses is never actually seen by the American people. It goes right from the Department of the Treasury, mainline to the insurance companies. Insurance companies have recorded record profits. Their stocks are up 500 to 1,000 percent since ObamaCare became law. Democrats created a system where insurance companies' profits are higher, and they go higher and higher the higher the premiums rise. So it is in their best interest to continue to raise premiums. As long as Democrats are willing to subsidize all that, that is what you are going to continue to get: a drain on the Federal Treasury, taxpayers being taken advantage of, insurance companies getting rich, and Democrats saying everything is fine when it is not. There are no cost controls. There are no incentives to compete on the insurance companies. Competition in healthcare basically collapsed in terms of the insurance markets and many rural counties, Mr. President, in your State and mine, there may be only one choice. It is a monopoly. That is what we are finding across Wyoming. Many families have only one choice for health insurance: Take it or leave it. It is a monopoly. Charge what they want. Insurance companies, if they have to compete to offer people what they want to buy, people have the money to make their own decisions, that is going to bring down costs; it is going to provide more choices. If Democrats get their way, premiums are going to keep going up. Insurance companies are going to continue to collect big checks from taxpayers directly into their bank accounts, and there will be no reforms to stop the fraud. And there is plenty of fraud. The Government Accountability Office has found it. It has been headlined in papers, including the Washington Post this morning. Yet the Democrats come to the floor and say: Nope, $83 billion right out the door right to the insurance companies. And that is their solution for a failed ObamaCare healthcare. Look, we need to empower families to make their own decisions. People get it at home that Obamacare has failed the American taxpayers. People know they want the care they need from a doctor they choose at a price they can afford. They are not going to get that with ObamaCare. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum calls with respect to the Crain and Maxwell nominations.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that we stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito) and the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Justice).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to immediate consideration of Calendar No. 102, S. 414.

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. BARRASSO

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

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Justice), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito) and the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Justice).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor just having listened to the minority leader talk about our nominees for various positions in the Trump administration, and I am happy to report that this month, December of 2025, we will confirm nearly 100 more of President Trump's qualified nominees. This is going to bring the total number of nominees confirmed this year to nearly 420--we will surpass 400--and this far surpasses the number that Joe Biden confirmed in his first year in office. One of these highly qualified nominees is Arjun Mody, whom I would like to talk about now. Arjun is an extraordinary leader and a trusted friend. Arjun has been nominated to serve as Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Now, in choosing Arjun, President Trump has chosen the very best. I have known him for 15 years, and he has helped shape my work in the Senate. He ran three of my Senate leadership offices, and in each one, he transformed how we served the Members of this body. Prior to that, Arjun worked for Senator Elizabeth Dole of the Presiding Officer's home State of North Carolina and for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. When you hire staff, you need people you can trust completely. I saw Arjun earn that trust in moments both big and small. Here is the truth about Arjun: If something needs to get done, he is going to get it done with excellence. He doesn't just know policy and process; he knows and understands people. He doesn't just build high- impact teams; he builds loyalty among the teams. He doesn't just work hard; he works well with everyone. When the stakes are the highest, he always delivers results. I have watched Arjun take on the toughest challenges and find solutions that other people have missed. That is exactly what Social Security needs right now in our Nation because for 90 years, Americans have relied on Social Security--not just for income but for the independence these people have earned. They count on it to keep a roof over their heads and to put food on the table. That promise matters, and it needs leaders who understand both its importance and its challenges. Arjun is going to modernize the Social Security Administration, he is going to help strengthen its core mission, and he is going to ensure that payments are timely, accurate, and secure. At the same time, he is going to work with this committee, with the Senate, and all across the government. Most importantly, he will never forget that behind every case number is a person and that every beneficiary matters, whether they are a senior, whether they are a survivor, or whether they are someone with a disability. Social Security works because Americans can trust it month after month, year after year. With Arjun, that trust is in capable hands. I have trusted Arjun to lead my staff, and the President has trusted him to strengthen Social Security. Now I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to trust him with their vote. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Montana (Mr. Daines), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Mississippi (Mrs. Hyde-Smith), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy), the Senator from Florida (Mrs. Moody), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Banks), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. McCormick), the Senator from Florida (Mrs. Moody), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, you just heard the minority leader. He came to the floor, and he said that the Democrats want a 3-year extension--3 full years--for Biden's COVID bonus payments with absolutely no change to the law; not a single reform to deal with the waste, the fraud, the abuse, and the corruption of these payments from ObamaCare, not a single one. They want to send billions of dollars-- actually, it is likely to be $100 billion--directly from the U.S. Treasury to insurance companies. Insurance companies are highly profitable, and that is their position: just send more U.S. dollars to insurance companies, just do a direct transfer of money. Should I remind him--does he need to be reminded that the COVID problems are over? But they want to send another $100 billion of Biden COVID bonus payments directly to insurance companies. Remember, the Democrats shut down the Government of the United States for 43 days because of healthcare, because of ObamaCare. Actually, they wanted, at one point, to give money to illegal immigrants for healthcare. That was part of their demands, free healthcare for illegal immigrants, shut down the government, deny the American people the services they need, transportation, all of those things. Think of the damage they did to the economy, the damage they did to the country by forcing the American people--43 days of the politics of pain and now the ongoing pain of having to live under ObamaCare with this failed healthcare system that we are living with today. ObamaCare is a program that undermined healthcare in America. Democrats are saying they want to talk about ObamaCare. Let's talk about what has happened for the last 15 years. I am a doctor. I practiced medicine for 24 years in Wyoming before coming to the U.S. Senate. The Democrats refused to tell the American people--refused to even admit it to themselves, living in denial--that ObamaCare is broken, and it broke healthcare in America. ObamaCare is a failure. ObamaCare is unaffordable. Let me point out, not a single Republican voted for ObamaCare, not one. Premiums for people on ObamaCare have gone up over 220 percent since ObamaCare became law 15 years ago. For people that have ObamaCare, their deductibles have doubled. A family of four now pays $10,000 more for the coverage today than it did before ObamaCare. Competition for selling insurance in the United States has collapsed. In rural counties in my home State of Wyoming, your home State, Mr. President, of Oklahoma, people lost so many of the options they had to buy insurance. The insurance providers have dried up. Today, many counties are left with one provider only for people to buy from. Some counties have none. Rural hospitals are struggling. More than 100 rural hospitals have closed since ObamaCare became law. Hundreds more are at risk because of the devastating effect of ObamaCare on healthcare in our Nation. Let's go back and recall what President Obama told the Nation as he was promoting ObamaCare and every one of the Democrats voted for it, every single one of them. He said: If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. He said: If you like your policy, you can keep your policy. These are the things that the President of the United States told the American people when Obama was in the White House. He went on to say probably the biggest lie of all. He said your insurance premiums would go down by $2,500 a year for families. Every single one of these was a lie. The American people see it. The American people--even the New York Times said that ``ObamaCare is pricey.'' They said that about a month ago. The Washington Post admitted that ObamaCare was never affordable. These aren't my words; these are the words of the New York Times and the Washington Post. How do Democrats continue to cover up the failure, to continue to mislead the American people? They tried to do it with government subsidies. They tried to cover up the failures of ObamaCare with government-paid subsidies--not to the American people but directly to the American insurance companies. When they found out those subsidies weren't enough, what did they do when those juicy subsidies weren't carrying the day? They said: Let's add new subsidies on top of it, which is what they are talking about extending. Those new juicier subsidies today, they want to extend those for 3 more years. They put them in place during COVID. They called them the Biden COVID bonus subsidies. Now they want to make them permanent. They want to extend them 3 years. Now they want to make them permanent, have the American people--have the Treasury of the United States send more money to insurance companies as the cost of healthcare continues to climb. When Biden was President, Democrats created these Biden COVID bonuses, new subsidies, added on top to prop up ObamaCare because it was falling. ObamaCare was toppling. Democrats said: We can't have this. Let's send hundreds of billions of more dollars to insurance companies. Let's be very clear: The money does not go to the American people. It is a main line straight from the U.S. Government Treasury into the bank accounts of big insurance companies. The American people, the consumers, are cut out of the equation. American consumers have no way to say how the money is spent, and they need to have a voice in this. They have the government writing big checks. There is no incentive to control costs. Zero incentive to compete. As a result, insurance companies continue to raise premiums as high as they want, and their profits continue to go up. These increases aren't because the Biden COVID bonuses are expiring, although that is what the Democrats are trying to say. Remember, Democrats chose the date of the expiring of these subsidies when they put this into law in 2022. That is what they did. They had the House, Senate, White House and said: We are going to put more money in--even they realized COVID was going to be done by the end of this year--so they set this up as an expiring date. Now they realize: Oh, no, ObamaCare continues to topple over. We need to prop it up with more government money to insurance companies. The end of these Biden COVID bonuses explain about 4 percent of next year's projected 20-percent spike in insurance premiums. These huge premium increases explain why the stock prices of insurance companies have soared for 500 to 1,000 percent since ObamaCare became law. That is what we are seeing. That is the reality of this. Big insurance companies, not the American people, are whom the Democrats continue to support financially. Democrats created a system with zero accountability. Now they want to extend this broken system with these additional subsidies for another 3 years with zero reforms, nothing. They are not going after the waste, not going after the fraud, not going after the abuse. Oh, no, Democrats are happy paying massive subsidies, and for everybody, for people making over a quarter of a million dollars a year, people making over half a million dollars a year. Nope, keep sending the money over to the insurance companies for all their rich, fat-cat friends. The Biden COVID bonuses are not improving patient care, I will tell you that as a doctor. For every taxpayer dollar spent on these subsidies, Americans believe they get about 34 cents of value. Where does the rest of the money go? Waste, fraud, abuse, and, yes, corruption. How do we know there is corruption? Last year, the American people filed over 200,000 complaints with the Federal Government about that specific thing. They complained because they were unknowingly signed up or switched into ObamaCare plans, things they didn't choose, they didn't want, they didn't ask for. Those are 200,000 that complained. How many more were there that didn't know about it or didn't know enough or whom to complain to? Insurers signed up individuals for insurance plans they didn't even know they had. Biden COVID bonuses are an expensive, fraud-ridden failure, and the Democrats want to extend them for another 3 years. Continuing to pour billions of dollars more into the pockets of big insurance companies without meaningful protection against fraud will not lower costs in healthcare. It will not help the American people. Republicans believe Americans deserve high-quality affordable care. It is not what people got under ObamaCare, not at all. Republicans believe taxpayer dollars should go directly to hard- working people, not to the big insurance companies. Give buying power to the people. Let people make decisions. I trust the American people. You want to empower Americans to make their own decisions about healthcare, certainly, and about their own families and what the needs are for their family, what is right for them. There is a clear divide between the Democrats and Republicans on healthcare. And on one side of the aisle, you have Democrats protecting a broken system with not a single plan to lower costs. On this side of the aisle, we have Republicans fighting to give people what they wanted all along, the care they need from a doctor they choose, at a price they can afford. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.