Congressman Vicente Gonzalez Votes Against Stripping Health Care from South Texans

Washington, D.C. — Today, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34) released the following statement on voting against a spending bill that will raise health care costs for South Texas families by failing to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits:

“Republicans control the White House, Senate, and House, yet wasted weeks doing nothing to end a government shutdown which continues to hurt hundreds of thousands of South Texas families. I refuse to abandon the 60-year-old couple in my district who earns $82,800 a year and will see their health insurance premiums increase by $16,639, or 280 percent, if the ACA tax credits are allowed to expire. Any deal to reopen the government should have addressed the skyrocketing health care premiums for the nearly 130,000 people in the 34th Congressional District of Texas, who depend on this tax credit to afford the care they need.  

“Congress needs to do the work our constituents sent us to Washington to do; I’m ready to work in a bipartisan way to resolve the health care crisis, but not at the expense of South Texans. It’s past time Republicans get serious about putting ‘America First’ as they so eagerly claim. Without an honest negotiation with Democrats, Republicans are once again placing working Americans last.”

###