Sounding the Alarm on Health Care Cuts

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul joined elected and community leaders in Western New York to sound the alarm on Washington Republicans’ devastating agenda, including the recently enacted “Big Ugly Bill” that rips away health care coverage from 1.5 million New Yorkers, cutting critical food assistance programs and pushing a disastrous trade war that is hurting small businesses and sending prices skyrocketing. Republicans’ cuts to health care will result in an estimated 31,388 residents of NY-24 losing their health care coverage, and health care costs increasing 33 percent for the average couple who purchases Marketplace insurance with tax credits. Republicans also slashed funding to local hospitals and health care services, with NY-24 set to face a total fiscal impact of $241,200,755, with hospitals losing $31,247,472 due to uncompensated care costs alone.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor’s remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:

 Good morning — afternoon. Yeah, afternoon, I was just kidding. You talked about my Buffalo roots and therefore you must say, instead of saying “hello,” I'm saying “Go Bills.” Okay.

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Oh, come on. Go Bills.

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Okay, okay — that's much better. Marv Levy would appreciate that on his 100th birthday. First of all, I want to thank Dr. Holmes for welcoming us to an institution that I was honored to represent as a member of Congress just, well, over a decade ago. His leadership here has transformed the lives of many young people who are looking to get that opportunity, that ladder of opportunity to take them to a new career, and I want to thank him — let's give him another round of applause for his hospitality here today.

And we'll be one of the beneficiaries of our new law put in place where we're going to have free SUNY tuition for students going back to college who are age 25 to 55 because we believe in investing in our students who are heading into those high-demand careers. So, thank you.

I also want to thank Congressman Tim Kennedy. Thank you all the way from Washington — sometimes, not always — but I want to thank you for representing the region with such heart and passion, and you come from many, many years of experience of working together in local government and state government so it's great to see our Congressman here as well as Jim Briggs, the President of the Niagara-Orleans Central Labor Council. Jim and I have done a lot together — let’s give him a round applause, and all the men and women in labor who are here today.

Dr. Ansari, the CEO of the Community Health Center of Buffalo — Rockstar in her own right. We also have Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes — I want to thank her for joining us here as well. Crystal's in the room, I'm told. Crystal. All right, she's coming. She's on her way.

Commissioner Tim Hogue, our Commissioner of Civil Service; a neighbor down the road, County Executive Mark Poloncarz — thank you for joining us.

Today, we stand in solidarity with the people of Western New York and here today in Niagara County. All of us, everyone in the state right now is under attack. It's come from an administration that is heartless and callous, and I want to thank all the people who are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me as we strategize, work hard, mobilize, organize to take on these fights.

For the last six months, Donald Trump and his co-conspirators have been waging an all-out war on the working class. We've had spineless Congressional Republicans — including seven from our state and in this district — who've given President Trump free reign to unravel the social safety net that I know, personally, so many people rely on in this region, and it’s going to have, literally, a wrecking ball swung against our economy.

On Friday, this reckless trade war meant one thing: new tariffs. How do you spell tariff? T–A-X — it is nothing other than a disguise tax. And who would you do that with? One of our greatest allies, people that we know as our friends and neighbors, the people of the great country of Canada.

Now these are also just — plain and simply — going to raise taxes on everything. The cost of everything is going to go up, everything. And all the hard earned work you do to bring home that paycheck, it's going to go less and less to buy the groceries you need like the ones we see here.

Real consequences when parents start heading back to the stores for back-to-school shopping — something I'm really glad I don't have to do anymore, but I know what it's like. We used to try and figure it out. Where are we going to get our clothes from for the kids? How are we going to manage this? They outgrew their sneakers from the year before; the backpack looks a little ratty, time for a new one; they outgrew the clothes. I know this experience as a mom, and my heart goes out to them because they're working so hard. I always brag about the work ethic of the people here in Western New York, because I know how hard everyone works. We have grocery stores that'll be bringing in produce that cost more. Home builders — I want more building; I want more homes built in this entire region to give people the dignity of home ownership. And now the costs will keep going up and up because of the additional costs on Canadian labor.

These are real consequences on our towns and cities, and our people, but also the tourism industry is taking a hit. Our culturals, sporting events, the downtown areas that people have visited for so long with ease coming over from Canada. Guess what, my friends? They don't want to come anymore because they've been insulted, disrespected by the President of the United States. And I know this personally because I convened with other Northeastern Governors, the premiers of all the Canadian provinces — I sat down with them.

“What will it take to get things back on track? We love you. It wasn't us, it was him,” and you know what? The hurt is deep when you insult them and their leaders, and say that you should be the 51st state. I talk about the impact directly on Western New York because I know it's real. I took my grandbaby — first visit to Buffalo ever, she's three years old last weekend. Canal side — I've always looked at that and said, “I want to have grandkids someday because they'll like this so much.” And finally the grandkids are here. I said to the leadership at Explore & More, an extraordinary children’s museum — I said, “What's it been like for you?” He says, “We're devastated. We used to get 1,400 Canadians visiting every month, now it's 40.”

That's just one example of what's going to happen to our museums, and our culturals and our malls. They come in to shop, stay in our hotels, come for sporting events. All unnecessary — this infliction of pain on so many others. And where are we going with this? Our restaurants are going to be hurting, our hotels, small businesses.

But when I look at these groceries next to me, it's not just that, it's health care, and health care is deeply personal to me. I was proud to have this as my congressional district. I worked hard. We saved the air base that I just flew into. Worked hard to support our community colleges, try to create connections for people to get the skills and get jobs. That was my passion. And when in a Republican Congress, I refused to repeal the Affordable Care Act that I knew there were people who maybe didn't like the sound of it — it scared them, Obamacare — but I knew that they needed this. When I would not repeal that, I lost my seat the next year. I'll always stand up and take votes that are courageous in the sense and take the consequences.

But that was when people didn't realize that something like food nutrition programs, SNAP — we always took that for granted. Democrats and Republicans had always supported this because there was a sense, “We can support this, it helps the farmers,” and I was so proud to represent so many farmers here in Niagara County. But also, it helps little kids whose tummies are growling, helps their parents feed them. Now that's on the chopping block.

Health care — health care, my friends. Medicaid cuts are going to be devastating. 1.5 million New Yorkers will lose their health insurance coverage, including 30,000 right here in this district — 30,000.These cuts will decimate our entire health care system, our hospitals and providers. My God, they're working so hard, hardworking nurses there as well. They stand to lose $8 billion in federal funds every single year. How do you make that up? Layoffs. We're predicting 34,000 hospital workers, including 1,000 in this district alone.

My friends, they didn't tell you this. They thought you wouldn't notice. “We’ll push off some of this pain until after the next election,” because they don't think people are smart enough to remember what they did to them. My job is to remind you what they're doing to you and our community, and some of them are union members that have joined us here today.

I come out of hardy union stock. I talk all the time about my dad and grandpa working at the Bethlehem Steel Plant, family members who were plumbers, longshoremen, electricians, many in health care and teaching. These are men and women who dedicate their lives, many to help people injured get back to their health, take care of the sick people. And our health care workers, they put their lives on the line during COVID, and now how are they rewarded? “I'm sorry. You're dispensable. Here's your pink slip.”

I also want to say this — despite the fact that half of all New York children are on Medicaid, one third of all New Yorkers are on Medicaid — even if you're not on Medicaid, a hospital closes in a more rural area or they have to scale back their services, lay off people, the wait times for the emergency room, and maybe your loved one has been in a car accident or you're rushing in to have a new baby delivered.

I have a three week old baby, I'm thinking about that — grand baby, she's my baby. It's going to have an effect on the entire community. So don't just say it's just the Medicaid people are gonna be hurt, it is everybody. We deserve better than that. This puts people's lives in jeopardy. We have got to do something about it, we have got to do something about it. And I just refuse, just refuse — and I know everyone in this room doesn’t want to abandon sick children and seniors in nursing homes. The largest Medicaid dollars are spent on our grandparents, our parents who need nursing home care.

I'm mentioning SNAP — we have about 84,000 children who are going to lose food. It is chilling to me as a mom, but there are some people who don't have that same heart, who don't seem to care as much, and I'm referring to the seven Republicans in Congress who had the power to do what was right. If any one of them, two of them walked together into the Speaker's office and said, “You know what? We just can't do that to our districts. We're from New York, we can't do it. Don't go there.”

None of them did it, including Congresswoman Tenney who now represents this district. They're all more concerned about lining the pockets of billionaires. “Oh, we can give you tax cuts.” Well, how do you pay for it? All these poor people aren't going to do anything about it. They don't have any power. Really? I mean, her priority is making President Trump's birthday a national holiday instead of fighting for hungry kids?

Come on. It gets a little frustrating, but I'm motivated — I'm fired up. Continued teaming up with our great congressional delegation, Tim Kennedy from here all the way down to Hakeem Jeffries in Washington. Some of these people don't have any idea what compassion's all about, but we do. Compassion means you take care of people.

We don't turn our backs on others, and I'm going to tell you this as we're wrapping up on this: I have done everything I can to help in the State of New York. I consider being your Governor the highest honor of my life. In our Budget this last year, I said — last year, the year before — I said, “We have to do more to put money back in people's pockets.” They're struggling, so we worked together.

Crystal Peoples-Stokes has joined us. We worked hard to find a path to put upwards of $5,000 back in the pockets of hardworking families. How do we do that? For families of little kids, if you have a child under the age of four — which I know personally is the most expensive time because all that formula and diapers cost so much — $1,000 back in their parents' pockets. Older kids, $500 per child. School lunches and breakfast — we're covering the costs so parents don't have to get up and make breakfast anymore, and no little child will go hungry in school, or suffer the shame and indignity of being that child that everybody else knows has to get the special assistance because their parents are poor. They're no longer going to be stigmatized, and that makes me so proud. That's $1,600 back per child back in people's pockets.

The largest middle class tax rate cut in 70 years. Money back in people's pockets. An inflation rebate, $400 back in pockets to help with this. So, I'm working hard, the Legislature's working hard; money back in your pockets. But, you know what? By artificially having the cost of everything go up because of these tariffs, it's going right back out.

How do you get ahead?

But my heart will not be filled with despair. I still have hope. I don't want people to worry, I want them to know they have leaders who care about them deeply, but will also fight like hell for them and we are ready to fight back. And I don't care about those who say you can't do it. No matter what it takes, just before I came here, I hosted some Democratic State Legislators from the State of Texas. Now what are they doing in the State of New York? Those of you shaking your heads know this story. Yes, they left their state to make sure there was not a quorum for a vote that would've turned our democracy on its head at the direction of Donald Trump because he wants to cheat. How? Every 10 years we redistrict — I know about this — based on population shifts. Ten years, every state does it. They're calling a special session to change the rules now so they can take away five Democratic seats in Congress from the Houston, Austin and Dallas areas.

I met with them this morning. I met with the people who represent them in their state legislature. So they're fighting. They got on a plane last night under threats from their Governor, substantial financial penalties, and they took off and said, “We are not going to be witness to the destruction of our democracy. It is not happening under our watch,” and I said, “I'll do the same.”

I'll look at our laws, I'll find a path because we cannot take this lying down, my friends. We can't surrender when we have a fight for our lives. The following year, I'll make sure everyone knows about this — everybody's going to know in the State of New York what has happened to them. But all of you have a job to do as well. You all have your networks, your circles, your workplaces, your union members. I need your voices to rise up because I've said all along, the power lies and ordinary citizens to say, “We fought hard. Our democracy has endured for 250 years in this great country, and we're not going to let it slip away now.”

History will judge us in this moment. Where were we? What did we do? Were we complacent? Did we cower? We stand up and fight. And I know that standing together and calling out exactly what is happening so all your neighbors know the consequences — they too will feel the same anger that I feel, and they'll turn that anger into a march on election day to go vote and turn this around. That is the power of our people, and I know I can count on them to do this. So as long as I have every breath in my body, I'll help lead that fight. And I thank all of you here today for being part of that incredible journey.

Thank you very much everyone. Thank you, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, let me bring up our great Congressman, Tim Kennedy.