John McCain

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Phoenix Business Journal, September 2, 2016: ``Phoenix Health Plan dumps Obamacare Exchange, leaves Cigna as sole carrier in Maricopa County.'' The Arizona Republic, August 17, 2016: ``Pinal County left with no ACA options as Aetna exits Arizona.'' Politico, August 22, 2016: ``The county Obama forgot.'' USA TODAY, August 30, 2016: ``Health Care Choices Choked Further.'' Havasu News, August 10, 2016: ``Obamacare consumers face higher costs in fall.'' TIME, August 25, 2016: ``Aetna Has Revealed Obamacare's Many Broken Promises.'' The Arizona Republic, August 26, 2016: ``Arizona consumers fret as `Obamacare' insurance options dwindle.'' The Arizona Republic, June 14, 2016: ``Insurers seek rate hikes for ACA plans.'' Come November 1, this will be the reality for hundreds of thousands of hard-working Arizonans currently enrolled in ObamaCare. Already, UnitedHealth, Humana, Health Choice Insurance Co., Aetna, and now Phoenix Health Plan have all announced they are exiting Arizona's marketplace. Up until late last night, Arizona had the dubious distinction of being home to the only county in America without a single health insurance provider offering plans in 2017. While I am pleased that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona decided to step in to save Pinal County from having no choices in the Federal marketplace, there is no reason to believe this is an economically viable or sustainable end result. The fact remains that this is a far cry from what President Obama promised before and after signing his signature health care reform bill into law. The mass exodus of health insurers from the ObamaCare marketplace should come as no surprise to anyone. Over the last few years, these providers have reported massive financial losses as a result of their participation in the Federal exchanges. UnitedHealth, for example, recently projected to lose well over $1 billion as a result of the poorly constructed ObamaCare marketplace. For the insurers who continue to participate in the exchanges, their only option is to raise premium rates astronomically high in order to cover their losses. In fact, one of the insurers in Arizona, in Maricopa County, said they are going to ask for a 65-percent rate increase. Copays are going up into the thousands of dollars. What is clear is that ObamaCare is crumbling and Arizonans are being left to pick up the pieces. Let me direct the attention of my colleagues to this map. As we can see, as it stands today, 14 of Arizona's 15 counties will have a single--that is one--a single health insurer to shop for coverage when open enrollment begins on November 1. That includes Maricopa County, Arizona's most populous county, impacting more than 120,000 of my fellow citizens. This is down from the eight health insurance options Maricopa County residents had in 2016. Let me repeat that. In 2016, they had eight health insurers to choose from. Guess what they are going to have in 2017. One, along with every other county in Arizona, with one exception that will have two. As we can see, none have three. Up until yesterday, Pinal County was in the red. Worse still, of those 14 counties, 13 Arizona counties will see their premiums increase on average by 51 percent. Thirteen of these counties will see their premiums increase on average by 51 percent. For some families, this could mean thousands of dollars per month out of their paychecks. I doubt that their standard of living and their pay has increased sufficiently to cover a 51-percent increase in their premiums. That is why Cynthia Cox, associate director of health reform and private insurance at the Kaiser Family Foundation, recently stated: In most other parts of the country, large cities like Phoenix have multiple insurers participating in them. Arizona is by far the most affected state when it comes to these exits. For a law that President Obama said would bring ``[more] choice, more competition [and] real health care security,'' ObamaCare has delivered nothing more than empty promises. Today, thousands of my fellow citizens are asking ``What happens if the only plan being offered in my county doesn't cover my current doctor or the coverage is insufficient for my family's needs?'' or ``Should I purchase health insurance at all, given all the upheaval in the market?'' Well, when crafting this law, President Obama and congressional Democrats thought it would be a good idea to penalize those people who don't enroll by forcing them to pay a fine--to pay a fine if they didn't enroll. Put simply, if you don't enroll, you pay a fine. If there is a monopoly in a given county with no competition, you are penalized. Being forced to choose between a much more expensive plan and paying a fine is unconscionable. In other words, they have two choices: not accepting the one plan or paying a fine. That is unconscionable. That is why yesterday I joined Senators Cotton, Sasse, Flake, Johnson, and Barrasso in introducing legislation that would protect individuals living in a county with no competition in the Federal marketplace from having to pay a penalty. These Americans should not be forced to bear the burdens of a health care system that was fatally flawed from conception. The collapse of ObamaCare in Arizona and across the country confirms what Republicans have warned about all along: Government-mandated health care is unsustainable. Now that the law is unraveling, it is no surprise that Democrats are clamoring for a so-called ``public option'' that is nothing more than government-run health care. If anything is clear about this failed law, it is that more government intervention is the wrong solution to fixing our health care system. This failed law will only continue to place undue burdens on Arizona families unless we repeal and replace ObamaCare with real reform that encourages competition and empowers patients to make their own health care decisions. I will continue to push for this bill with Senator Perdue that would do just that--replace ObamaCare with commonsense solutions that empower patients and doctors, not the government, to take back control of their health care. Until then, hard-working Americans will continue to bear the consequences of a failed ObamaCare. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy with the Senator from Wyoming.

Mr. McCAIN. I see my friend Dr. Barrasso. I would ask Dr. Barrasso, what happens to average citizens when, as is the case in my State, all but one county only have one option, one health care provider? What happens then?

Mr. McCAIN. If I could ask another question, and that is, we see--and it is well publicized--the increases in premiums. For example, in Maricopa County, the health care provider remaining is asking for 65 percent increases in premiums, but what about the copays? In other words, isn't it hard for Americans to understand why they would literally pay thousands of dollars before they would be eligible to receive the care?

Mr. McCAIN. So if you are an average citizen and you see your deductible at a couple thousand dollars, it seems to me that your only other option really is to go to the emergency room, the most expensive form of health care.

Mr. McCAIN. So at the next townhall meeting you or I have, somebody is going to stand up and say: OK, ObamaCare has failed, Senator Barrasso, or Senator McCain. What is the answer?

Mr. McCAIN. In a townhall meeting, someone will stand up in Cody or Tucson and say: Senator McCain, the cost of my prescription drugs has gone up 100 percent, 200 percent or whatever. How do we answer people who literally can no longer afford, in some cases, lifesaving prescription drugs?

Mr. McCAIN. It seems to me that as we debated for weeks on the floor of the Senate, the fundamental premise of ObamaCare was to take money from healthy young Americans in order to pay for the health care needs of older, not so well Americans. We are seeing a lot of young Americans who are saying: I would rather pay the fine. I would rather pay the fine. So the estimates of those who would be enrolled is roughly half of what the Congressional Budget Office predicted would be enrolled. Obviously, this has a huge effect on the whole ability of health care, ObamaCare, to care for these people.

Mr. McCAIN. If you are a young person and you have paid the fine and then you get in an automobile accident on the way to the hospital, wouldn't you want to sign up for ObamaCare?

Mr. McCAIN. I would like to say to Dr. Barrasso that I have appreciated your leadership on this issue, and your knowledge and background, frankly, ever since ObamaCare was passed. The Senator has been very helpful to people such as I as we have gone through this odyssey, where the President had said there would be more choice, more competition, and real health care security. He also said, by the way--I think you might recall it, in his own inimitable style, saying: If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan, period. Remember the ``period'' he added to the comment? So I thank the Senator, and I want to assure the citizens of Arizona that I will do everything in my power to repeal and replace ObamaCare, which is causing so much harm to the people of my State. It is unconscionable, unnecessary, and I would have it as one of my highest priorities. I thank Dr. Barrasso and I yield the floor.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I am proud to come to the Senate floor to call attention and to honor the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, FL, tonight at 7 p.m. In the finest traditions of space exploration, this spacecraft will journey on a 7-year roundtrip mission to an asteroid that NASA has classified as ``potentially hazardous'' to Earth--to complete a survey and return to Earth with the largest sample of extraterrestrial material since the Apollo lunar missions. This program will yield insights into asteroid composition and how asteroids move in space. The truth is that, despite the potential for large asteroids to impact the Earth in catastrophic ways, we still know relatively little about them. The OSIRIS-REx mission will shed light onto both their physical and chemical properties, which is information that will be critical for predicting their movements and designing strategies to prevent catastrophic asteroid impacts to the Earth, as well as aid in the commercial exploitation of near-earth objects. The most unique aspect of the OSIRIS-REx mission is the large and pristine sample of the asteroid that will be brought back to Earth, which will allow scientists to examine the composition of an asteroid using instruments and techniques that are far more advanced than what could be done in space. Scientists from the University of Arizona, UA, will also examine the sample for the resources that could be mined from asteroids in the future, such as precious metals. Interestingly, medium- to large-sized space rocks might contain hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in minerals and precious metals. Perhaps the most important aspect of this mission is the research into the origins of our universe and galaxy it will provide. The samples that the mission will bring back will help begin to answer some of the most profound and fundamental questions that have intrigued mankind since the beginning. The OSIRIS-REx mission is funded by NASA and led by UA from my own great State of Arizona. I would like to congratulate UA president Ann Weaver Hart and former president Robert Shelton for championing space exploration; Dr. Dante Lauretta of the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory for his leadership as principal investigator; and his team, for bringing this exciting mission to the launch stage. I understand that under the leadership of the late Dr. Michael Drake and Dr. Lauretta, UA has been working on this concept for the last 15 years. I would also like to acknowledge the other project partners, which include NASA's Goddard Space Center; Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft bus on which the various science instruments are mounted; Arizona State University, which built an instrument on the spacecraft that will investigate mineral abundances and provide temperature information; KinetX Aerospace; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and United Launch Alliance I also appreciate our international collaborators, including, the Canadian Space Agency and the Centre national d'etudes spatiales, CNES, i.e., the French Government space agency. This mission is the latest of a long list of achievements by UA and its globally recognized space scientists. In fact, UA scientists have collaborated in every single American mission to the Moon and contributed to every mission to Mars since 1964, including serving as the lead on the Phoenix Mars Mission. With this mission, UA is expanding the boundaries of space science, including innovating in the global challenge of planetary orbital object tracking through their Space Object Behavioral Sciences, SOBS, Initiative. Furthermore, I applaud UA, NASA, and Lockheed Martin for helping maintain U.S. leadership in near-Earth space, particularly at a time when the international community is showing a high interest in moving into this arena. I wish the OSIRIS-REx team the best of luck for a successful launch. As the OSIRIS-REx countdown clock that has been hanging in my office for the last year gets very close to zero, I look forward to tuning in to NASA TV to watch history being made. Thank you.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to address the Senate in a colloquy with my colleague from Arizona.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I am proud to join my colleague from Arizona on several issues that are very important to our constituents. And I believe by working together we have been able to make some significant progress in a number of areas, but we also are facing an enormous challenge. Our State of Arizona has the unique category of having a county without a single health care provider--not one. Our largest county, Maricopa County, is now down to one from six. So if there is ever an object lesson in the failure of ObamaCare, it is right there in our home State of Arizona, where we have a very large aging population, we have a very large young population, and we are asking young people to pay for the health care of seniors when the fact is, it was a flawed idea from the beginning. The fact is, I stood on this floor until Christmas Eve morning fighting against ObamaCare, when it was rammed through on a strictly partisan basis: 60 votes they had, 60 votes they used. For the first time in history, we had a major entitlement reform that was done on a totally partisan basis, and we said at the time it would fail. It is unravelling as we speak. I would ask my colleague from Arizona, what is entertaining is now our friends from the other sides of the aisle and in the administration are saying: Well, we would like to sit down with the Republicans and fix it, and we could make some much needed changes. The same people who didn't even allow us a single amendment on one of the most massive entitlement reforms in history, and now our citizenry--our citizenry-- are paying the price, as are citizens all over the country. As I mentioned, we now have one county in Arizona--Pinal County-- which has the unique distinction of being the only county in America without a single provider. Maricopa County, where the majority of our constituents live--guess what--one provider, increases of 65 percent, 100 percent, 200 percent. It is amazing. It is amazing. By the way, Maricopa County--where there is one health insurance option in the ObamaCare exchanges--about 128,000 people. And don't ever forget the immortal words of the President of the United States: If you like your health care policy, you can keep your policy, period. Wasn't that clever the way he said ``period'' at the end of that? Because he was sure that if you liked your health care policy, you could keep your health care policy. And he also said, by the way: If you like your physician, you can keep your physician. How has that turned out? How has that worked? I thank my colleague from Arizona for his work on the NDAA. We have protected the A-10, we have protected our bases, we have protected the Goldwater ranges. There has been no stronger proponent for those wonderful Apache helicopters that are made in Mesa, AZ, and the Raytheon missiles that are down in Tucson, AZ. I ask my colleague this: What do you think this impact is in our State--in our beautiful State--of 10,000 people being without a health care option and 180,000 who are going to now be presented with one? Is that what this administration called choice?

Mr. McCAIN. Could I just say to my colleague, I think he put it very well. First of all, we are going to have people who have no option but under the present law are going to be paying a fine. How does that work? Then, of course, those with only one option are seeing projected premium increases that are as high, in one case, as 65 percent. Then, of course, we also have a situation where, if you only have one option and the premium increases, then obviously they have no choice. The deductibles are now, in some cases, in the thousands of dollars-- deductibles. So why do you want to buy an insurance policy that you are going to pay a couple thousand bucks before you are part of the plan that gives you the health care you need? The fact is, and I would ask my colleague, ObamaCare is unravelling. It has now proven to be a colossal failure because it was based on the false premise that young people would willingly pay huge amounts of money to care for the health of older, sicker people. Of course, our great Congressional Budget Office had predicted there would be 21 million people who would have taken advantage of it, and I believe the actual number is 11 million. So this is a failure. In the short term, Senator Flake and I want to make sure no one would ever pay a fine when there is not any option available or only one option available. Then, I say to my colleagues, we had better start in either the later session of this Congress or the beginning of next year and repeal and replace ObamaCare. It needs to be replaced. If we don't replace it, then we are going to see these horror stories like in Pinal County, AZ, all over America. That is unfair to average American citizens who right now have seen--thanks to the massive regulations issued by the Obama administration--very little improvement in their incomes and their lives. In fact, the actual number of the middle class has been shrinking. So I thank my colleague for all his hard work on behalf of the men and women who are serving in the military and at our wonderful bases throughout Arizona and also for his leadership in this whole effort of trying to make sure all Americans have affordable and available health care. By the way, the answer is not the European-type health care system.

Mr. McCAIN. I yield the floor.

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I was about to leave the Chamber, but in light of the results of the last vote, I am compelled--I am compelled to speak out more in disappointment than in rage. Although I think a lot of men and women who are serving in the military who are dependent on what we do for their safety and their livelihood, for pure--pure-- partisan and political reasons, we will not be moving forward to consider a bill to train and equip the men and women who are in the military, to give them their pay and benefits and defend this Nation. How? How do you do that in good conscience? I understand we are in an election year. I understand all that, but how in the world do you refuse to take up legislation that its only purpose is to defend this Nation, which is under assault? I just came back from spending the Fourth of July with the troops in Afghanistan. They depend on us. They depend on us. We are their elected representatives, and what have we done now? We refuse to move forward with legislation that allows them to defend themselves, and they are in harm's way. All I can say is that when we see polling data that shows the American people have a very low opinion of us--I see numbers, 13, 14 percent of the American people approve of Congress--this is validation. This is validation of their absolute disgust with our failure to do the work to protect the Nation. Isn't that our first priority? That has always been mine, to secure the Nation, to make sure we protect ourselves as much as possible. We rely on these young men and women. We rely on them to defend the Nation, and now we will not even act to train, arm, equip, pay, and care for them. That is disgraceful. That is disgraceful. Yes, this side of the aisle has been guilty of partisan behavior, and I will plead guilty to all that. But how in the world--how in the world do you go back to your home State, as we will tonight and tomorrow, and meet these young men and women who are serving, as is one of the great privileges we have, and look them in the eye--look them in the eye and tell them I voted against legislation which was to arm and train and equip you and protect this Nation. I voted against it because the Democratic leader said, well, he didn't want an amendment that would increase spending on defense--on defense. Without getting too redundant, I hope maybe we might take the next couple of months before we come back and examine what we are doing and why we can't agree at least on debating and amending and making better--which we can do because that is what the Senate is all about. Can't we do that for them? Do we have to be so divided that we will not even move forward with perhaps one of the most important pieces of legislation this body and this Nation is responsible for? I hope my friends on the other side of the aisle will examine their conscience. Madam President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCAIN

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

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask to be recognized, and if the Senator from New Hampshire, Mrs. Shaheen, comes to the floor, I would yield to her until the time that I already have reserved. Mr. President, we are about to vote on a couple of motions to instruct the conferees on the Defense authorization bill and the Defense appropriations bill to move forward on it. All of these votes are very vital to the future of this Nation in a time of turmoil, a time of the greatest number of refugees since the end of World War II, threats throughout the world, and attacks on the United States of America. Very appropriately, Senator Sullivan's motion to instruct the conferees is for us to account for and authorize funding for the recent actions taken by the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense--a force of 8,400 sailors, airmen, and marines within Afghanistan; the President's budget for the European Reassurance Initiative, which is additional funds sufficient to enable the air, ground, and amphibious force structure to fulfill the commitment that Secretary Carter made at the Shangri-La dialogue within the Pacific theater. The list goes on and on. Every time we turn around, we hear of another increase in our military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and buildups, for example, in Eastern Europe, which was recently decided at a meeting of the NATO nations. Yet, with all of these promises and commitments, we see no request for additional funding to take care of these new missions and new requirements for our military activities. So I think Senator Sullivan's motion is entirely in order. Does it really make sense to have these very large, when you put them all together--billions of dollars of increased requirements, announce them with great fanfare, and yet never come over--not yet once--to request additional funding for them? That is obviously, at best, disingenuous. So I urge my colleagues' support for the motion by Senator Sullivan to disagree and insist that the final conference include authorization for the commitments that are described in the motion. The second, of course, is an issue that has been plaguing us or has been the subject of great discussion and debate and heartache, frankly, on the floor of the Senate, and that is the issue of the Afghan special immigrant visas. It is heartbreaking that Members of the Senate, for their own parochial interests--just a couple, actually--would block this legislation, which calls for us to be able to bring to the United States these people who literally risked their lives on our behalf and whose lives are in danger as we speak. My colleagues don't have to take my word for it. Ambassador Ryan Crocker--probably the most distinguished diplomat I know--speaking of these interpreters, recently wrote: ``This is truly a matter of life and death.'' I repeat what Ambassador Crocker said: This is a matter of life and death. I know hundreds of people who have been threatened because of their affiliation with the United States. Some have been killed. Today, many are in hiding, praying that the United States keeps its word. We can and must do better. General Petraeus said: Many of our Afghan allies have not only been mission- essential--serving as the eyes and ears of our own troops and often saving American lives--they have risked their own and their families' lives in the line of duty. General Petraeus has stated eloquently that these individuals put their lives on the line to save the lives of American service men and women, and yet we have Members of this body who block a proposal to allow them to come to the United States of America. Remarkable. Remarkable. General Nicholson, our commander in Afghanistan, said: It is my firm belief that abandoning this program would significantly undermine our credibility and the 15 years of tremendous sacrifice by thousands of Afghans on behalf of Americans and Coalition partners. I say to my colleagues, this is pretty straightforward. This is a pretty straightforward issue. That we even have to do this is testimony to the nature of the way we seem to be doing business around here, and that is that people would literally put the lives of our allies in danger for their own parochial interests, for their own amendment, which they are demanding not only be taken up but passed, which has nothing to do with the lives of these great individuals who saved the lives of Americans and whose lives are in danger, according to our military leaders and our most respected diplomats. Retired GEN Stanley McChrystal, an individual known to all of us, said: ``Protecting these allies is as much a matter of American national morality as it is American national security.'' In the view of General McChrystal, one of our great, outstanding leaders, we are talking about our moral obligation. I hope and pray we will get a unanimous vote on this motion to instruct. Finally, we are going to again have a vote to move forward on the Defense appropriations bill. I understand that it probably will fail, and that is an unbelievable act. It is unbelievable, given the situation in the world today and the threats we face--in the words of the Director of National Intelligence, in the words of the Director of the CIA, there will be further attacks on the United States of America--that my friends on the other side of the aisle are refusing to take up the legislation that pays for the defense of this Nation. It is beyond belief. I don't like provisions in the Defense appropriations bill, and I have made it very clear, and I want us to be able to take it up and amend to make it better. Maybe some of us--maybe a majority of us have priorities that were not in the Defense appropriations bill. Suppose we don't like the fact that they appropriated $1 billion for an icebreaker that has nothing to do with defense or that they have this long laundry list of porkbarrel projects that they call scientific research projects. I want to debate and amend those. A lot has happened since the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee unanimously passed out the Defense appropriations bill. A lot has happened, and all 100 of us should have the ability to amend and make it better. Instead, we are being put down on the path to a continuing resolution and an omnibus bill on which there will not be debate and amendments to make it better for the men and women who are serving. The President just announced that we are going to have 8,400 men and women who are serving this country in Afghanistan instead of 5,400- some. Shouldn't we take that in consideration in our deliberations on the appropriations bill? Shouldn't we accommodate for that, as is our role and obligation as the Congress of the United States? We have the power of the purse. We are now looking at a situation where we have a world that is literally on fire. That is apparent every day we pick up the newspaper or turn on the television. Instead of having a robust debate and discussion and amendments as to how we can best defend this Nation, we are going to again have my friends on the other side of the aisle stop us from taking it up. Why? The Appropriations Committee reported it out unanimously. The Democratic leader said that he didn't want another ``McCain amendment'' that would increase funding for defense without a commensurate increase in funding for nondefense. I have said to my colleagues: If you are talking about the CIA, if you are talking about homeland security, if you are talking about other agencies of government to protect this Nation, then fine. Mr. President, I note the presence of the Senator from New Hampshire on the floor. I ask unanimous consent that she be granted 5 minutes and that I be granted 2 minutes after that.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry: How much time is remaining on the Republican side?

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time until just before the vote at 11:30.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent that my time be preserved for the remaining 7 minutes before the vote.

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

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Perdue be recognized for 5 minutes and that it not be taken from my time.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from New Hampshire for her leadership, her dedication, and tenacity in making sure this issue is not dispensed with until it is finished and we fulfill our commitment to the men and women who are serving, who have literally sacrificed their lives as interpreters for the good welfare and the safety of our members in the uniformed military, whom the Senator from New Hampshire and I hear from all the time on behalf of their interpreters. We hear from them all the time, saying: Don't abandon them. They saved my life. Can't we understand how important this moral obligation is? Finally, I hope my colleagues will not vote to block consideration of the Defense appropriations bill. We need to debate, we need to improve, and we need to provide for the needs of the military and this Nation's security in an ever-changing environment. Mr. President, I yield the floor. Cloture Motion

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 2 minutes.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, please don't take my word for it. How about general David Petraeus. Many of our Afghan allies have not only been mission-essential, serving as the eyes and ears of our own troops and often saving American lives, they have risked their own and their families' lives in the line of duty. This program falls far short and has serious national security implications. Ambassador Ryan Crocker: This is truly a matter of life and death. I know hundreds of people who have been threatened because of their affiliation with the United States.