Chairman Aguilar: The American people can't afford inaction from Republicans, and it's time that they put politics aside and do the right thing—lower costs, save health care,[...]

Chairman Aguilar: The American people can't afford inaction from Republicans, and it's time that they put politics aside and do the right thing-lower costs, save health care, put the American people first.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and Vice Chair Ted Lieu were joined by Representatives Shomari C. Figures and Sarah McBride for a press conference about the Republican health care crisis. You can watch the full press conference here and read the transcript below.

CHAIR AGUILAR: Hello, everyone. Honored, as always, to be joined by Vice Chair Ted Lieu and also Representatives Sarah McBride and Shomari Figures, new Members to Congress who have been amazing advocates for their communities, for their regions. I'm honored to have them here.

We're here today because Donald Trump and House Republicans are failing the American people. They're failing to address the health care crisis that they've created. They're failing to lower costs, and they're failing to make life more affordable for hardworking Americans. Families are struggling to get by, yet Republicans continue to be more focused on the bidding of their billionaire class friends than helping people that they represent. Ahead of the holidays, Americans are seeing prices go up for gifts and groceries and the family gatherings that they are planning are becoming more expensive.

On top of that, Republicans have no real plan to ensure Americans' health care premiums don't skyrocket before the end of the year. They highlighted that, and stood for that, even just moments ago. For months, House Democrats had been sounding the alarm that Republicans need to work with us on extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits to keep health care costs low for American families. We put forward a plan that has the support of every single member of the Democratic Caucus. We only need four Republicans to join with us in signing a discharge petition to prevent the American people from losing their health care coverage.

Because we know when people don't have health care coverage, they don't stop getting sick, they don't stop needing medication, they don't stop needing to take their kids to the doctor. If they can't afford to go to the doctor, they won't see one, or they'll go to the emergency room, which is the highest cost, most expensive way to get care, and limits our already burdened health care system. Which Republicans will be brave enough to join us? We just don't know. The American people can't afford inaction from Republicans, and it's time that they put politics aside and do the right thing-lower costs, save health care, put the American people first. Now, I'll turn it over to Vice Chair Ted Lieu.

VICE CHAIR LIEU: Thank you, Chairman Aguilar and I am so honored to be here today with two of our amazing freshmen, Shomari Figures and Sarah McBride. I also want to note that we had an election yesterday in America, and I want to congratulate Eric Gisler in Georgia for flipping a State House District. And just to give you some context, Democrats lost that district last term by 22 points. He won it last night. And I want to congratulate Eileen Higgins, the incoming Mayor of Miami. She flipped that seat from red to blue, and she overperformed by 20 points. She is the first Democrat in nearly 30 years who is going to be Mayor of Miami, and I dare Florida Republicans to try mid-decade redistricting, because we're going to win the seats that you have to weaken among Republican incumbents if you try this.

Now, we have an affordability crisis in America. Electricity costs are surging. Grocery prices continue to increase, and health care costs are skyrocketing. What is the President of the United States focused on? I'm just going to read you one of his many posts on social media. This one was from two days ago.

'The only reason Marjorie 'Traitor' Brown (Green turns Brown under stress!) went BAD is that she was JILTED by the President of the United States (Certainly not the first time she has been jilted!). Too much work, not enough time, and her ideas are, NOW, really BAD - She sort of reminds me of a Rotten Apple! Marjorie is not AMERICA FIRST or MAGA, because nobody could have changed her views so fast, and her new views are those of a very dumb person. That was proven last night when washed up Trump hating, 60 Minutes 'correspondent,' Lesley Stahl, who still owes me an apology from when she attacked me on the show (with serious conviction!), that Hunter Biden's LAPTOP FROM HELL was produced by Russia, not Hunter himself (TOTALLY PROVEN WRONG!), interviewed a very poorly prepared Traitor, who in her confusion made many really stupid statements. My real problem with the show, however, wasn't the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a shot like this to air. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME! Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE! Oh well, far worse things can happen. P.S. I hereby demand a complete and total APOLOGY, though far too late to be meaningful, from Lesley Stahl and 60 Minutes for her incorrect and Libelous statements about Hunter's Laptop!!! President DJT.'

Now, it is my great honor to introduce an amazing freshman from Alabama, the great Representative Shomari Figures.

REP. FIGURES: Thank you, Congressman Lieu. Look, we're in the middle of a health care crisis, and the stakes could not be higher. Millions of Americans rely on health care subsidies to be able to afford coverage-and 50,000 of those Americans are located in my district in Alabama. And it's not just a talking point back home. This is real life for people. I represent one of the poorest districts in the country. The individual median income in my district is just north of $32,000. To say that another way, 50% of the wage earners in my district earn less than $32,000. And so when we talk about 50,000 people's health care premiums on average, increasing by a little more than double in a district where the income is just north of $32,000 on average, it's more than a talking point. It's something that hits people real in real ways, in real life. It's not something people can afford. And beyond the personal side of it, my district, as a whole, is one of the worst for health care access and outcomes in the country. 13 counties in my district-you can only deliver babies in two of the 13. Ten of the 13 counties either have hospitals that have closed, are in the process of converting to REHs so they don't close or are on literal financial life support under the threat of closure.

And by the way, the largest hospital in my state capital of Montgomery, which I also represent, which is one of only two hospitals in that county, is in the middle of a bankruptcy. And so health care access is something that is deeply personal to my district, and to make the cost of health care unaffordable, for people, completely unaffordable, to put it completely out of reach for people, is something that is irresponsible and something that we have the ability to be able to stop, because it's going to put more stress on the hospitals that we still have, and people are going to continue to suffer some of the worst health care outcomes. Because all of that that I just said is all in a district that has the third lowest life expectancy in America. And so this is something that we have to, have to, get Republicans on board to fix. We just need a few. We just need a few to join us to do the right thing. We need a few to step up to the plate to show that they understand and they know that supporting life doesn't end at birth. It is something that we can do, and something that we need to do here in Congress to make sure that the American people in the richest nation that the world has ever known that health care coverage-health care access-is not something that is a luxury, that is only available to the wealthy, something that is only available to the few. And so I am proud to stand here with my colleagues to bring up this issue once again, yet again, something that we have been pressuring since I've been here in Congress for the better part of the last 10 or 11 months, but something that obviously Democrats have been pushing for decades. We're going to continue to wave this flag, we're going to continue to beat this drum, we're going to continue to do this on behalf of the constituents in Alabama's Second Congressional District and those across this country, because it's the right thing to do. And with that, I'll turn it over to Representative Sarah McBride.

REP. MCBRIDE: Thank you so much to my fellow freshman, Representative Figures. And thank you so much Chair Aguilar and Vice Chair Lieu for inviting us today. Across Delaware and around the country, families are being hit from every direction-at the grocery store, at the pharmacy, and of course, now, in their health care premiums.

In 2024, Donald Trump promised the American people that he would lower costs on 'day one.' But we all know that whether it's his business partners, people who work for him or the American people, the one through line throughout Donald Trump's life is that he has never met a promise that he was not willing to break. Because one year into the second Trump presidency, all we have are a litany of broken promises and billionaire tax breaks.

This affordability crisis is not a hoax. It is a choice by Congressional Republicans and by Donald Trump. A choice to impose a tariff tax on small businesses and consumers, a choice to cut food assistance and a choice to insert a $1 trillion bomb into the center of the American health care system. That bomb is now going off. Premiums are skyrocketing. The largest cut to Medicaid in American history is on the horizon. Rural hospitals and doctors offices are already closing. Trumpcare has arrived, and it is dangerous and it is deadly. I hear it every single day back in Delaware.

Dave, a constituent of mine in New Castle pays $350 a month right now for his wife's marketplace plan. Next year, without the ACA tax credits, those premiums will jump to $1,200 a month. His wife lives with a disabling spinal condition, diabetes, hypertension, depression, and takes dozens of daily medications. Without this tax credit, they will lose their coverage that is keeping his wife alive. People like Dave are doing everything right, but Republicans in Congress continue to fail them. It's not too late for my Republican colleagues to do the right thing, to make a different choice.

As has been mentioned, we only need four Republicans in Congress to demonstrate courage on behalf of their constituents by signing this discharge petition to force an up or down vote on protecting care. But I'm not going to hold my breath, because while we are freshmen, while we are new, what has become abundantly clear to us in the last 11 months is the only thing that Congressional Republicans are more loyal to than Donald Trump is to cutting the health care of the American people. Imagine winning those elections, getting all of that power and spending all of your political capital on kicking millions of people off their coverage and jacking up health care prices for everyone else. People deserve so much better than what Congressional Republicans and Donald Trump have offered them. I ran for office after my experience as a caregiver to my husband during his battle with terminal cancer. And I simply do not believe that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, any American should have to go without the health care that they need to live and thrive, and so long as there is air in our lungs and breath in our bodies, House Democrats will fight for an America where every single American can get the health care they need, regardless of where they live and regardless of who they voted for in the last election. And so with that, I'll turn things back over to Chair Aguilar to answer any questions.

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