CNN hosted a debate between Senator Tex Cruz, R-Texas, and Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT, last night. CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderated the debate, which covered healthcare reform.
President Donald Trump campaigned to repeal and replace the ACA, former President Barack Obama's signature legislation, and on inauguration day President Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling it.
Sen. Cruz backed President Trump's initiatives to repeal the ACA while Sen. Sanders took a more critical view, arguing the ACA has key benefits for the American people.
Here are 10 quotes from the debate, in the order in which they occurred:
Opening arguments
"The United States is the only major country on Earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a right. I believe we should move in that direction. The ACA has been a step forward. We have got to go further and join every other major country on Earth and say that if you are an American, you are guaranteed healthcare as a right, not a privilege." — Sen. Sanders
"I think healthcare works better when you're in charge of your family's healthcare decisions, when you can sit down with your doctor and decide the care that's best for your family without government setting rules, without government rationing with wait periods." — Sen. Cruz.
ACA repeal
"Once Obamacare is repealed, we need commonsense reform that increases competition, that empowers patients, that gives you more choices, that puts you in charge of your healthcare, rather than empowering government bureaucrats to get in the way." — Sen. Cruz.
"Do we have to improve the Affordable Care Act? Of course we do. But let us remember where we came from. Before the Affordable Care Act, as Ted probably knows, if you were a family of four during the eight years under George Bush, your premiums doubled. So it's not like, 'Oh gee, just in America today, healthcare costs are going up.' They went up much higher before we had the Affordable Care Act." — Sen. Sanders.
Cost of care
"There should be a Medicare-type public option available in all exchanges, in all states in the country. And I think that would substantially lower the cost of healthcare in this country and provide real competition to the private sector." — Sen. Sanders
"There is way too much paperwork in healthcare. There's way too much complexity. I'll tell you, when you talk to doctors, when you talk to nurses, they say, 'I don't get to practice healthcare anymore. I spend my time filling out paperwork.'… If you want your doctor to get back to caring for you, if you want to drive down costs, get government out of the business of dictating and controlling healthcare." — Sen. Cruz
"In Texas, we passed tort reform. We fundamentally limited lawsuits and lawsuit abuse. And you know what we've seen? We've seen the number of doctors increasing dramatically. We've seen medical malpractice premiums dropping. Those are the kind of solutions supported at the state level that will result in more doctors." — Sen. Cruz
"Two things we can do immediately — Ted is right. I introduced and will introduce and look forward to your co-sponsorship of legislation to say that pharmacists and distributors and the American people should be able to buy FDA-approved medicine any place in the world. That will drive down prices in this country, because then you'll have international competition. Second thing we need to do, and I believe, believe it or not, I think even Donald Trump may be on board [with] this, hard to believe, but we should be negotiating drug prices through Medicare. Medicare spends zillions of dollars on medicines. Right now Republicans put language in some years ago which prevents them from negotiating prices." — Sen. Sanders
Closing arguments
"To my mind, Obamacare is a step forward. We have got to go further. But what Ted wants to do is do away with many of the patient protection bills, provisions, that were passed, pre-existing conditions, a cap on what you have to pay, making sure that women are not discriminated against, making sure that young people can stay on their parents' insurance programs. Under Ted's idea, all of that is gone. You are on your own. I think that is a very bad idea." — Sen. Sanders
"We can do better. I believe we are going to honor the promises we made to the American people and we are going to repeal what Bill Clinton called Obamacare, the craziest law in the world. Instead, we're going to give you a choice, let you buy insurance across state lines, expand health savings accounts, make insurance portable, block grant Medicaid to the states so you can have experimentation, health savings accounts so we can meet your need, put you in charge of your healthcare with your doctor, not government." — Sen. Cruz