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Sanders: ‘I Wish I Didn’t Have to Say’ GOP Health Bill Will Kill Thousands, ‘But It’s True’

‘It is common sense’
By Grabien Staff

CHUCK TODD: Appreciate it. Let’s turn over to Senator Bernie Sanders over Vermont. He is not at all conflicted about the Republican healthcare bill. He is holding rallies this weekend in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, in an attempt to generate opposition to the bill and plainly says, “If it passes, thousands will die.” Senator Sanders joins me now from Columbus, Ohio. Senator, welcome back sir.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Good to be with you, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD: I want to first address that rhetoric. You tweeted that issue of saying that yes, you thought people would die. And then Senator Orrin Hatch retweeted, he said here, “Let us be clear. This is not trying to be overly dramatic. Thousands of people will die if the Republican healthcare bill becomes law.” Orrin Hatch retweeted you and said, “This brief time when we were not accusing those we disagree with of murder was nice while it lasted.” Any regrets at using the rhetoric you used?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: No. Chuck—

CHUCK TODD: Considering what Senator Hatch said?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Chuck, what the Republican proposal does is throw 23 million Americans off of health insurance. What Harvard University, what a part of Harvard University, the scientists there determine is when you throw 23 million people off of health insurance, people with cancer, people with heart disease, people with diabetes, thousands of people will die.

I wish I didn’t have to say it. This is not me. This is study after study making this point. It is common sense. If you have cancer and your insurance is taken away from you, there is a likelihood you will die and certainly a likelihood that you will become much sicker than you are today. That’s the fact. Unpleasant, but it’s true.

Second of all, while they throw 23 million people off of health insurance, while they defund Planned Parenthood, while they raise premiums for older workers, people who are in their 60s, they see premiums that’ll be 50 percent, 75 percent higher, they are going to provide some $500 billion in tax breaks to the top 2 percent, to the insurance companies, and to the drug companies. Is what America supposed to be about, taking away health insurance from kids with disabilities, from people with cancer, in order to give tax breaks to billionaires?

That is what this entire debate is about. And one of the things that bothers me very much, Chuck, 60 percent of the American people, according to a recent poll, don’t even know what is in this healthcare, so-called healthcare legislation.

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