Dear Oklahoma friends and neighbors:
It’s almost Thanksgiving. If you’re like me, you wanted your Christmas tree up when the first leaf fell off a tree early this fall, but now the holiday season is really getting into full swing, and Christmas lights are going up around our state.
In all the bustle of the holidays, I pray no one loses sight of what’s really important about the season: giving thanks for our many blessings, coming together as families, looking for ways to serve others, and most importantly for me and my family, celebrating the birth of Jesus on Christmas. I hope you will take time to rest and feel encouraged about our days ahead as a state and nation. We are at our best when we are hopeful, engaged, and steadfast in our values.
Keeping the US Open
Here is something to be thankful for: the government shutdown is behind us. After 15 votes to reopen the government over five weeks, we are open. If you want all the detail on the shutdown and my work to get us back open, CLICK HERE.
Five years ago, I proposed to the Senate that we never have a shutdown again. I offered a simple bill to keep the government open if we did not pass the appropriation bills on time, which would require the House and Senate to be in session seven days a week until we resolve our budget issues. That would mean no federal employee, SNAP recipient or airline would feel any effect of the funding debate, only members of Congress. My bill received 57 votes during the last session of Congress, just three votes shy of becoming law. I’m getting close to shutting down shutdowns forever. I will keep working.
CLICK HERE to read my op-ed in National Review on my bill to end government shutdowns.
What’s Next?
In the coming days and weeks before the end of the year, the Senate has plenty of work to complete. Thankfully, Senate Republicans began working earlier this year on the National Defense Authorization Act (known as the Defense Bill) to finish the important work of providing for our nation’s heroes before January—which Congress has been able to get done every year since the end of World War II. I work every year for our Oklahoma military installations and our national defense.
CLICK HERE to read more about the priorities I secured for Oklahoma military members and their installations.
In the next few months, we need to pass at least five more appropriation bills to fund the government before January 30, 2026. We also need to finish the second half of the Farm Bill, pass energy permitting reform, finalize the transportation bill, and confirm at least 70 more nominees for President Trump.
Addressing the Cost of Health Care
When Obamacare passed in 2009, Democrats promised that healthcare costs would drop by 25%. We are still waiting for those healthcare cost savings. In reality, the opposite was true. Once the bill was fully implemented, from 2013-2019, the cost of commercial health insurance in Oklahoma went up 29% and the cost of the Obamacare marketplace plans went up an astounding 198%. Everyone’s healthcare costs have skyrocketed.
During the COVID pandemic in the first year of the Biden Administration, Democrats passed a four-year emergency COVID bonus payment to insurance companies on top of the Obamacare healthcare subsidy for about 10 million people. Four years later, as the bonus payment was set to expire, there were 19 million people getting the subsidies, some making over $500,000 a year. Democrats devised a system to send money directly to insurance companies so they could get around the law that prevents federal tax money from paying for elective abortions. Most Oklahomans I meet do not want their hard-earned tax dollars being used to pay for someone’s elective abortion or subsidizing the health insurance of people making half a million dollars.
The answer to rising healthcare costs in America is not sending more and more money to insurance companies and hoping they use the money efficiently. It is about getting less expensive options to every American. It is also about lowering the cost of prescription drugs by taking on the pharmacy benefit managers (known as PBMs) who control the formulary and costs of our prescription drugs. As a member of the Senate Finance Committee and as a member of Senate Republican leadership, I am directly involved in working on real options for lower healthcare costs and making sure we protect life in our nation.
I do not know yet if we can find consensus in the next few months on health care, but I am going to work until we do.
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