ICYMI: Granite Staters Pointed Out Sununu and Brown’s Disastrous Records on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security

ICYMI: Granite Staters Pointed Out Sununu and Brown’s Disastrous Records on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security

In Case You Missed It, Granite Staters held a press conference about Republican U.S. Senate candidates John Sununu and Scott Brown’s disastrous records on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The press conference occurred two days before the 91st anniversary of Social Security becoming law and just under two weeks after the 61st anniversary of when Medicaid and Medicare became law. 

Watch here and read the transcript below for more information on why Sununu and Brown are running to be rubber stamps for more of Donald Trump’s cuts to these vital programs. 

House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson

• I’ve spent a lot of my professional life supporting families at some of the hardest moments in their lives. And I’ve seen firsthand just how impactful Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security really are. 
   
• For so many Granite Staters, these programs are the freedom to see a doctor without going broke or the opportunity to grow old with dignity after a lifetime of work.
   
• A couple of weeks ago, Granite Staters celebrated the 61st anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid being signed into law, recognizing the tremendous impact that these two critical programs have had in making health care affordable and accessible all across the country. 
   
• Now, this Friday marks the 91st anniversary of the Social Security Act. It came into effect 91 years ago and has provided a reliable safety net for seniors ever since. 
   
• So across New Hampshire, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security support hundreds of thousands of Granite Staters by helping them to afford to visit the doctor or to pay their groceries. 
   
• These vital programs have played a foundational role in our communities for decades, yet both of the Republican candidates running for the United States Senate this year have shown that they would tear those foundations down.
   
• John Sununu and Scott Brown have terrible records when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid. While in Congress, Sununu voted to cut both Medicare and Medicaid multiple times and Brown voted for legislation that would have triggered deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
   
• Time and again, these two have been reliable votes for gutting the programs that Granite Staters depend on. And given the chance, they’ll do it again.
   
• After Donald Trump signed into law the largest health care cut in American history — which wiped away a trillion dollars in Medicaid funding and ripped health care away from tens of thousands of Granite Staters, all to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest few, Sununu and Brown praised it. 
   
• They both support Trump’s Big Ugly Bill, while Sununu tells voters he thinks that Republicans “did the right thing.”  
   
• And they’ve stood by Trump while his administration chose to let the Medicare drug subsidy lapse, a decision that’s going to raise prescription drug costs for about 173,000 Granite Staters. 
   
• When this program came up in the Senate, John Sununu voted against creating it.  
   
• Their silence while Granite Staters are wondering how they’ll afford higher prescription drug costs is disappointing, but unfortunately not surprising. Both Sununu and Brown have sold Granite State seniors out before.
   
• While in office, Sununu was committed to privatizing Social Security, introducing legislation that would help pad Wall Street profits by exposing retirement accounts to the risky stock market, rather than sticking to more reliable returns. 
   
• Meanwhile, Brown voted for a bill that would’ve cut over $600 million in funding for the Social Security Administration, making it that much harder to ensure recipients get their benefits on time and in full. 
   
• Granite Staters are already paying the price of Trump’s disastrous policies. We are all paying more at the grocery store and the gas pump due to the tariffs and the war with Iran. And sending John Sununu or Scott Brown to Washington would only add more fuel to the fire as they rubber-stamp Trump’s cuts and sell Granite Staters out to the corporate special interests that are fueling their campaigns. 
   
• The anniversaries of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security being signed into law remind us that we can’t afford to take them for granted. 
   
• Democrats built these programs, and Democrats have defended them over and over again. 
   
• We can send someone to Washington who will protect that chance to grow old with dignity or to see a doctor without having to worry about the cost, or we can send someone who’s already shown us, again and again, that they will sell out those freedoms and dignities to pad their donors' bottom line. 
   
• I know which one I prefer, which is why it’s so important that we send an all Democratic federal delegation back to Washington in November. 

Candidate for Grafton County Register of Deeds Brie Choate

• The conversation about affordable health care is near and dear to me. 
   
• My husband and I own a small auto repair shop in Woodsville, up in the White Mountains, and as small business owners, we’re handling a lot of financial responsibility. 
   
• We’re not just paying the bills to keep the lights on at home, we also got to keep the lights on at the repair shop and ensure we have enough earnings left over for food, gas, and the upkeep of our home and our business. 
   
• Up until the start of this year, my husband and I relied on the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credit to help us afford health insurance. 
   
• When that tax credit expired, our premiums skyrocketed way out of our budget and we found ourselves in the stressful position of being unable to afford health insurance.  
   
• We weren’t the only ones affected. Tens of thousands of Granite Staters saw their insurance premiums skyrocket just like us. 
   
• Faced with an impossible budget to balance, families like ours had to decide whether to enroll in a bare minimum plan for medical catastrophes or forgo health insurance altogether. 
   
• When health insurance becomes unaffordable, people like my husband and I skip annual check-ups and ignore problems, letting small issues snowball into larger issues that can overcrowd emergency rooms and increase wait times for everyone. 
   
• This disastrous situation could’ve been avoided, but Donald Trump called on Republicans in Congress to let the ACA credit expire, and they fell in line. 
   
• Here in New Hampshire, both John Sununu and Scott Brown have opposed the Affordable Care Act. Sununu said permanently extending the tax credits was “totally unnecessary” and “fundamentally wrong,” while Brown described the ACA as a “mess.” 
   
• Now, they’re both defending Trump’s Big Ugly Bill and that has put New Hampshire’s overburdened health care system in an even more dire situation by cutting billions of dollars from Medicaid over the next decade and threatening deep cuts to Medicare. 
   
• Since the law came into effect, over 15,000 Granite Staters, including more than 5,000 children, have dropped off of Medicaid. The health care center 40 minutes north of our home was forced to close its doors on nearly 1,600 patients.
   
• Both of these Republican Senate candidates claim to care about affordability, but the ultra-wealthy tax cuts Sununu and Brown love to support come at the expense of people like me. 
   
• They would rather appease Donald Trump and rip away vital funding from our communities than help our small businesses, our seniors, and our most vulnerable. 
   
• My husband and I are not alone. New Hampshire’s economy is full of small businesses like ours that are working hard day after day to make ends meet. 
   
• This November, Granite Staters need to elect a strong Democratic candidate who will fight for our health care funding and stand up for working families, instead of greenlighting more of Trump’s drastic health care cuts. 

Representative Mary Jane Wallner

• And in recent conversations I’ve been having with constituents, one issue that comes up again and again is that costs just keep rising. 
   
• Groceries, gas, prescription drugs, housing, and the list goes on, they’re all getting more expensive. Yet Donald Trump, the Republican majorities in Washington, and the Republican majorities right here in Concord are making things worse. 
   
• That’s one reason Granite State seniors simply cannot afford to let Republicans John Sununu and Scott Brown return to the U.S. Senate. 
   
• Here’s another reason: John Sununu has spent his entire political career focused on privatizing Social Security, repeatedly introducing legislation that would boost Wall Street firms’ profits while directly exposing Granite Staters’ retirement accounts to stock market swings and crashes.  
   
• He even co-sponsored a bill that was forecast to make Social Security insolvent by 2032 — seven years earlier than had been predicted at the time. 
   
• Scott Brown, on the other hand, voted for legislation that would’ve made deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare, leaving our seniors out to dry. 
   
• Both candidates expressed support for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which laid off thousands of employees at the Social Security Administration and shrunk its budget, making it harder for them to reliably deliver benefits to those who rely on them. 
   
• Sununu has said DOGE “needs to be done” while Brown has said he’s “glad you have Elon in there.” To them, Granite Staters’ Social Security benefits are an expendable afterthought, not a priority. 
   
• As the other two speakers have also pointed out, Sununu and Brown support Trump’s Big Ugly Bill which has sped up the projected timeline for Social Security to become insolvent — a worrying development for the hundreds of thousands of Granite Staters relying on its benefits. 
   
• Their disregard for the high costs our seniors face every day is readily apparent. In addition to putting Social Security benefits at risk, John Sununu has also sold Granite Staters, Granite State seniors out to Big Pharma by voting for higher prescription drug costs. 
   
• He repeatedly voted to cut Medicare and also voted four times — including casting a tie-breaking vote — against allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors. Then, after he lost reelection, Sununu went to work for a lobbying firm that listed Pfizer, Merck, Bayer, and Johson & Johnson among its clients and disclosed up to $425,000 in pharmaceutical stocks and bonds. 
   
• With a track record like that, it’s imperative that John Sununu never return to the United States Senate. And his primary opponent Scott Brown isn’t any better. 
   
• I can’t say for certain whether it’ll be Sununu or Brown’s name on the ballot in November, but I know that Medicare will be on the ballot, Medicaid will be on the ballot, and Social Security will be on the ballot. 
   
• Our best opportunity to take a stand against these cuts will be on Election Day, when it’s absolutely critical to elect Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.