Senator Hassan Statement Ahead of President Trump’s Address to the Joint Session of Congress

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) released the following statement ahead of President Trump’s address to the Joint Session of Congress:

“No matter what President Trump says, boasts, or promises tonight, the past six weeks have made the President’s priorities painfully clear. At a time when American families are struggling to keep up with high costs, the President has endorsed a budget that would end Medicaid as we know it and increase costs on Americans in order to pay for more tax breaks for corporate special interests and billionaires. I remain ready to work with the President and my Republican colleagues to lower costs. But the President has shown that his focus instead is on making families pay more for home heating oil, cutting veterans services, and appeasing brutal dictators like Vladimir Putin. It is long past time for this Administration to get serious and get to work on bringing down prices, bringing the country together, and delivering for the American people.”

Senator Hassan’s guest of honor for the President’s address this year is Cheri Bryer of Lebanon. Eleven years ago, Cheri was battling addiction and other mental health challenges. Thankfully, Cheri was eligible for Medicaid, which allowed her to access residential addiction treatment and enter recovery. Because of the care that Cheri got through Medicaid, she was able to return to work and now gets her health insurance coverage through her employer. Today, Cheri works as a senior perinatal peer support educator and coordinator in the Maternal Health Innovations grant on Dartmouth Health’s Population Health team. The budget proposal from President Trump and Congressional Republicans, which guts Medicaid to pay for tax giveaways for corporate special interests and billionaires, threatens the care for 180,000 Granite Staters – care that helped Cheri enter recovery and re-enter the workforce.

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