ICYMI: On Meet the Press and State of the Union, Kelly Presses Republicans for Action to Stop Health Care Cost Spikes

"It's important for all Americans to know that this fight right now over this government shutdown is about one thing; it's about the cost of their health care"

In case you missed it, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joined NBC's Meet the Press and CNN's State of the Uniontoday to discuss the urgent need for Congress to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits and prevent health care costs from spiking for millions of Americans.

Kelly made clear that the current fight in Washington isn't about politics but about whether families will be able to afford their health care in the coming weeks. And he called out Congressional Republicans for leaving Washington during a government shutdown and refusing to negotiate with Democrats on a solution.

Watch the full Meet the Press interview here and State of the Union here. See key excerpts below:

From Meet the Press, on what the fight in Washington is really about…

"I think it's important for all Americans to know that this fight right now over this government shutdown is about one thing; it's about the cost of their health care."

From State of the Union, on the real stakes for American families…

"The reason we're here is because this administration is about to drive our health care system for 23 million people over a cliff. When these subsidies go away, people's health care prices are going to triple. So, for me, this is not political-this is about real people. I was on the phone with a woman from Phoenix last week. Her name is Cricket. She pays $350 a month and recently had a head injury. Her bill was $10,000, but because she had the ACA, she only had to pay $1,000. If she didn't have that, she told me she would have lost her home. It's about people like her. In Arizona, 109,000 people could lose their health care because of this."

From Meet the Press, on the need for real negotiation and leadership…

"We need a real negotiation. We need this corrected for the American people. For so many people, their healthcare is running towards a cliff, and if we don't fix this, it's going to go right over it. The president has indicated that he wants to do something about this, and he wants the government open. Well, we want this fixed, and we want the government open. So why is there a problem here? And all this is going to take is putting everybody in the room for an extended period of time and coming up to some reasonable conclusion. This isn't one of these cases where you have people that want different outcomes. The president has said he is interested in extending these subsidies."

From State of the Union, on Republicans taking time off instead of working to reopen the government…

"For months we have been trying to negotiate with the White House and Republicans in the house and in the Senate on health care. […] What did speaker Johnson do, his republican members have been gone for 4 weeks now. They've only worked 14 days since July 25th. They should be here negotiating. And now I can't have conversations this weekend because John Thune gave everybody a 4-day weekend while the government is shut down. I'm here in Washington and will talk to anybody about this."

From Meet the Press, on the importance of protecting the rule of law…

"I generally have faith in our legal system. But our legal system has become incredibly more complicated with the president who will send orders via Truth Social in a direct message to the attorney general to prosecute people. That's not the way this is supposed to work-it's never worked this way, as far as I know, in the history of our country. So, we have a president that's ordering the DOJ to prosecute his perceived political enemies through our justice system. […]. And that is wrong."

From State of the Union, on the politicization of the federal workforce…

"There aren't Democrat workers or agencies and Republican agencies-that's ridiculous. He's trying to politicize the federal government and he's picking winners and losers. These are people with families. They have mortgages, rent to pay, and food to put on the table. We've never seen a president do anything like this before. The vice president said we have to lay off federal workers because of this government shutdown-that's not true. They do not have to punish people who shouldn't find themselves in this position."