WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) delivered remarks on the Senate floor slamming Democrats for pushing to extend pandemic-era health care subsidies that are riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse and would cost taxpayers $35 billion per year. Senator Blackburn highlighted a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report that shows just how easy it is to commit fraud with these subsidies. Excerpts of Senator Blackburn’s remarks are below, and video can be downloaded here.

Click here to download Senator Blackburn’s remarks on the Senate floor. 

EXCERPTS OF REMARKS

“Instead of dealing with root causes, [Democrats are] saying, ‘Let's just extend the COVID-era subsidies for another three years…’ doing nothing to reform the abuse that you're finding in the system.”

“That is not something that Tennesseans are wanting to see, and as many have reminded me, it is these exact same subsidies that the Democrats used as a smoke screen to carry out their 43-day government shutdown.”

“The pandemic is over, but they want to continue to fund like it's still going on.”

“What they're doing would cost taxpayers $35 billion a year to do nothing more than line the pockets and the profits of insurance companies.”

“Instead of lowering costs, these subsidies are continuing to prop up a very broken system.”

“Last week, the U.S. Government accountability office actually released findings that showed just how easy it is to commit fraud with these subsidies. The GAO conducted an undercover test.”

“They submitted applications for these Biden subsidies for 24 fictitious individuals, people that don't exist, addresses that are not accurate, names, [and] social security numbers that are not accurate.”

“Obamacare approved 23 of 24 of these applications.”

“I call that fraud.” 

“In the Big Beautiful Bill, there [are] provisions that require individuals who misstate their income to repay the excess subsidy amount in full.”

“Requiring applicants to verify their income, their family size, their immigration status, and residence before enrolling ensures no one can abuse the system at the expense of American taxpayers. This is what you call good old common sense.”

“Americans do not want the federal government in charge of their health care… and they definitely do not want their hard-earned tax dollars underwriting fraud.”