REPUBLICAN SHUTDOWN DAY 35: Senator Murray Slams Trump for Refusing to Fully Fund SNAP, Calls Out Republicans for Doing Nothing to Stop MAGA Health Care Hike

REUTERS: Obamacare premiums double, adding post Halloween fright for US health insurance shoppers

ABC : Trump hosted 'Great Gatsby' Halloween party hours before SNAP funding lapsed

***WATCH: Senator Murray's remarks***

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks on government funding at this afternoon's Senate Democratic leadership press conference on the thirty-fifth day of President Trump and Republicans' shutdown.

Senator Murray's remarks, as delivered, are below:

"As we all know, right now, open enrollment is underway, and Americans are now seeing the true cost of the MAGA health care hike.

"And look, it's not just the 'MAGA health care hike' because Republican leaders are refusing to do anything. Four out of five people who rely on the ACA enhanced premium health care tax credits live in states that Trump won. That is why it's a MAGA health care hike.

"And over 80 percent of the people who will end up uninsured if these expire are in Trump states. That is why this is a MAGA health care hike.

"The five states with the largest percentage increases, where premiums are quadrupling? All Trump states. The next five, where premiums are tripling? All Trump states. The next five after that? You guessed it, all Trump states. That is why this is a MAGA health care hike. But Republicans won't lift a finger.

"I have heard one painful story after the next. Dianne in Wenatchee said she is going to see her premium increase by fourteen hundred dollars a month. Damian told me his family faces a $2,000 monthly increase.

"And that's just my state. A senior in Idaho told me his premium is increasing nearly eightfold. There's a woman in Tennessee whose premium will jump from $10 a month to well over a thousand.

"Every day, the MAGA health care hike gets harder to fix. But the House is on vacation-seven weeks and counting! Republican leaders are openly saying, 'Don't look to us, we never wanted to lower health care costs in the first place.'

"As for President Trump, he's throwing a blow-out Gatsby party down in Mar-a-Lago. He is pardoning people who helped terrorists launder money-all while he refuses to work on reopening the government, and actively chooses to break the law and ignore the courts to force 42 million Americans to go hungry.

"Remember, USDA had a plan to keep SNAP running longer, even before this shutdown started. Then Trump scrapped it, pulled it off their website. And now he's proudly posting about blocking SNAP. I mean, he's basically taking credit, promising it won't go out.

"And as Speaker Johnson put it-they don't want to release the 'pressure.' They are using the American people as leverage.

"Trump still has the funds to keep benefits going out in full and on time right now. He is choosing not to use them-all while he chooses to build himself a new ballroom.

"Do Republicans not realize that all those families who cannot afford to put food on the table, all those families facing the MAGA health care hike-they are watching as Trump guilds his office in gold and bulldozes the East Wing to build a fancy new ballroom. As he jacks up costs for working families with tariffs and shovels billions at Argentina. And as he showers goodies, pardons, and party favors on his friends, and Republicans shower tax breaks on billionaires.

"These families that are getting hurt are watching us. Their grocery bills rise, their premiums double, and the Republican lawmakers are doing nothing.

"Republicans need to get it into their head: families will not forget this, because they are going to be paying the cost of the MAGA health care hike. Every. Single. Month.

"So they need to get serious. They need to come to the table. And they need to work with us to stop the MAGA health care hike and reopen the government."

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