In response to the news that the House of Representatives will vote on TrumpCare today, Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) said:

“TrumpCare would be a disaster for the people of Texas. It will strip health care from 24 million Americans. Many of the rest will get less coverage at a higher cost, especially people over 50, who will face a crushing age tax even if they are healthy. That’s more than 185,000 people just in my district.

And anyone with a pre-existing condition will be put at extreme risk. It steals from Medicare and even cuts services for children in special education, leaving their families with fewer options.

It is also financially irresponsible; the independent Congressional Budget Office has not even had a chance to score this legislation, so we don’t know what it will cost our taxpayers.

I represent one of the highest uninsured populations in Congress. This bill hurts the most vulnerable to help the most powerful. It gives the richest 400 Americans (including the President and most of his Cabinet) an average $7 million tax cut by cutting Medicaid for poor children. That’s not what my constituents in Texas sent me to Congress to do.

A few weeks ago, I held a telephone town hall meeting with members of my district, to hear their concerns about health care. One constituent, a breast cancer survivor, shared her story. She is alive today because a cancer screening found a tumor. But the Republican plan will take preventive care like cancer screenings away from many Americans, including some on employer-sponsored plans. She wondered if her neighbors and friends would die from treatable cancers, without access to those life-saving screenings.

Because of constituents like her, I plan to vote against this legislation. I urge my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to do the same.”