After weeks of obstruction by the Radical Left, enough Senate Democrats joined Republicans to reopen the government. American families were being held hostage because of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s demands to provide taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants. All while openly admitting that the suffering caused by the shutdown was their “leverage” to supposedly enact those harmful policies. That is the opposite of putting America First. Now, we can continue fighting to deliver relief for working families who are still suffering from the inflationary policies of the Biden administration.

Democrats did not shut down the government to stand up for workers or families in towns like Rolla, Dexter, and Poplar Bluff. In addition to providing health care for illegals, they did it to provide bailouts to big insurance companies. These payoffs to insurers are then used to hide the true cost of Obamacare – the health insurance they insisted on ramming down the American people’s throats which Democrats have fought tooth and nail to turn into socialized medicine.

Obamacare has been a failure for the working class from the start. Insurance premiums have risen 80 percent since the law’s passage, and they are expected to climb another 20 percent next year alone. More than 150 rural hospitals have closed since the law took effect; families are paying more and getting less; and they are losing access to their doctors. Meanwhile, insurance companies continue to deny claims at record rates, forcing even the Washington Post to admit the truth that Obamacare was never affordable.

As President Trump himself has said, we need to make sure the focus is on lowering the cost of health care for all Americans, bringing down prices at the store, and delivering the stronger paychecks and economic prosperity that Missourians felt under President Trump’s first term.

Republicans are fighting to actually lower premiums. The reforms that we enacted as part of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill – which I drafted – were found by the Congressional Budget Office to reduce premiums by 0.6 percent. Our bill expands Health Savings Accounts to nearly 10 million patients. It ensures Direct Primary Care expenses are reimbursable, arrangements between patients and their doctors that have been shown to reduce Emergency Room visits by 54 percent – a significant cost savings. And it allows more than 85 million working families – including millions of Missourians in rural areas – to access their doctor through telehealth. And we are only just getting started.

Everyone agrees that health insurance costs too much. But only President Trump and Republicans in Congress want to get at the root cause of the cost increases. Only by eliminating red tape and intrusive government mandates will patients be able to lower costs. Republicans are fighting to give patients more freedom, more flexibility, and lower costs; Democrats are fighting to continue the gravy train for big insurance companies.

Now that the government is open again, Republicans will stay focused on lowering the cost of care, protecting small town hospitals, strengthening paychecks, and restoring American prosperity. That is what the people of Missouri’s Eighth District sent us to do. And after weeks of obstruction from Democrats, we can finally get back to work.