Bernie Sanders Erupts On The Senate Floor And Calls Out Trump Lies On Cutting Healthcare

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took on president-elect Donald Trump and called him for lying when he claimed that he would not take healthcare away from millions of Americans. 

By Jason Easley



Highlighting a May 2015 tweet Trump sent where he claimed he was the only potential GOP presidential candidate against cuts in Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security, Sanders wanted Trump to stand up to Congressional Republicans and Paul Ryan or admit he was “lying” and just trying to get votes. I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2015

The former Democratic presidential candidate also brought up Trump’s statements hammering Ryan on the campaign trail for wanting to make cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

The Senate is currently debating the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Watch the clip above of Sanders pulling out his visual aid, via C-SPAN2.Bernie Sanders Senate Floor Speech On Affordable Care Act 1/4/17

Sanders said, “What we are looking at right now is a budget process whose ultimate goal is to remove health insurance from tens of millions of Americans.”

Sen. Sanders continued, “Let us be very clear, the Republican plan, their budget plan, lays the groundwork for ending the Affordable Care Act, which will remove tens of millions of Americans from the health insurance they get.”

He demanded that Republicans come down and tell the Senate what their new plan is.

Sanders called out Trump and the Republicans for wanting to end Medicare as it currently exists by turning it into a voucher program.

Later in his speech, Sen. Sanders took direct aim at the president-elect’s lies about not cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, “Mr. Trump right now has got to do one of two things. Number one, if all that he was talking about was campaign rhetoric then what he is obliged to do now is to tell the American people, ‘Yeah, I was lying. Yeah, I said I would not support cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid but I was lying. It was a campaign ruse. I just said what came to my mind to get votes. I have no intention of keeping my word.’

Sanders said that if Trump was sincere about not cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, “I would hope that tomorrow or maybe today he could send out a tweet and tell his Republican colleagues to stop wasting their time … [and] tell the American people that he will veto any proposal that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid and the cuts Social Security.”

The speech from Sen. Sanders was a barn burner, and it was the loudest shot yet from Senate Democrats in their resistance movement against the Republican agenda.

Bernie Sanders has been one of the staunchest supporters of expanding the beloved programs in the Senate. What the Republicans have done is nothing less than an act of war against decades of social safety net progress.

Senate Democrats are going to make Republicans regret their efforts to dismantle Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.