| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
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| Welcome back. | ||
| Joining us is Representative Marlon Stutzman. | ||
| He's a Republican of Indiana, a member of the Budget and Financial Services Committee, and also a Freedom Caucus member. | ||
| Congressman, welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Great to be with you this morning. | ||
| As a member of the Budget Committee and of the Freedom Caucus, you said earlier this week that you would support a continuing resolution. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And that is to extend current funding for 45 days. | ||
| That's up until November 21st. | ||
| Is that still the case? | ||
| Are you still supporting that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I am, yes. | |
| And part of the reason is because the appropriations process is still working its way through. | ||
| It's been a challenge. | ||
| But at the same time, we need to make sure that there's stability for the economy, that people know that government's not going to shut down and give them more time to work. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The hard part, the hurdle to get over is going to be over in the Senate because they have the 60-vote threshold for cloture votes. | |
| And I don't believe that Democrats would support a Republican budget. | ||
| And so that's the hurdle that's hard to get passed on the Senate side. | ||
| We could probably get it done in the House, but knowing that the Senate would probably not get that done is just a reason that a CR makes sense for me. | ||
| And I believe that also, you know, it freezes spending. | ||
| It's one of the things that I'm, as a budget hawk, believe that we need to reduce our debt and deficit. | ||
| $37 trillion is, I believe, the greatest threat to our country. | ||
| We're paying a trillion dollars in interest. | ||
| So that's why I think this is the right move. | ||
| So if it were to pass, what do you think needs to happen policy-wise, budget-wise, after that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think the Appropriations Committee continues to do their work. | |
| We passed the defense authorization bill last week. | ||
| You know, we'll likely pass the CR this week, but it gives the Appropriations Committee the time to finish up their work. | ||
| And then, you know, we'll see where we're at in 45 days to see if there's any chance of moving those bills through the Senate and onto the President's desk as some sort of larger package. | ||
| But if not, then it looks like we'll probably have to do another CR. | ||
| A key point of contention is the ACA health insurance subsidies. | ||
| That's Obamacare, that are set to expire. | ||
| Where are you on that? | ||
| And do you think that they should be extended? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I don't. | |
| I mean, we're going to have to figure out health care altogether again. | ||
| I mean, I come from the private sector. | ||
| I was in Congress and out for eight years. | ||
| And we just continue to see the cost of health care and health insurance going through the roof. | ||
| You know, employees are depending on companies to provide the benefits for health care. | ||
| But then when they get the premiums and the businesses see what the cost of health care is, the insurance, it's enormous. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And talking to health care providers, the cost continues to go up. | |
| This is a challenge that our country is going to have to deal with because it's one of our largest budget items in the federal budget. | ||
| And so I think that we're going to have to start taking some sort of measures to say, look, we've got to rein in the cost of health care because then that'll bring down the cost of insurance. | ||
| Critics, though, are saying that people are going to lose their health insurance if these aren't extended. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't believe that's. | |
| I think what will happen, because we're seeing a lot of waste and fraud with, and abuse, more fraud and abuse, I believe, with the health insurance programs. | ||
| There's too many hands in the cookie jar. | ||
| And we're not thinking about the patients and the doctors at the end of the day. | ||
| I mean, you got large administrations that are having to manage all of these pieces of what is the price of health care. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I think that's where we need to address those pieces where we kind of get back to the basics and making sure that our patients get the care that they need, that they can go to the doctor that they want to. | |
| I mean, my wife asks me, oftentimes she's like, I'm going to go to the doctor. | ||
| Do we have insurance? | ||
| It's like, yes, we have insurance, but we're always paying out of pocket because our deductibles are so high. | ||
| So this is going to have to be... | ||
| So with the expiration of those subsidies, do you think that that would actually get better? | ||
| That you're paying out of pocket would be less? | ||
| Or would it put health care out of reach for certain people? | ||
|
unidentified
|
For my constituents and for in Northeast Indiana, we've got one health care system that's one of the most expensive in the country. | |
| And I think the only way that you force them to get their costs under control is to just, the money is not going to be there. | ||
| If the money is there, they're going to always take it and they're always going to spend it. | ||
| And so that's why I think they're going to have to find another way to provide the services with the insurance companies would bring down their rates here. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And which that's going to force the health care providers to bring their costs down as well and find more efficient ways. | ||
| I mean, this is so abnormal because, I mean, I remember growing up, you know, when my mom would go to the doctor, you know, she would pay some of the bill, turn it into insurance, and it was covered. | ||
| At this point, you know, most people are having to pay out of pocket because their deductibles are so high. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And then the premiums are just as much as a mortgage anymore. | |
| So something's wrong in the system. | ||
| Our guest is Marlon Stutzman. | ||
| He is a Republican from Indiana, and he is with us, and we'll take your calls. | ||
| So you can go ahead and start calling in now if you'd like to talk to him. | ||
| It's Democrats are on 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans are on 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| I want to turn to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. | ||
| There had been reports that a lot of lawmakers are afraid for their personal safety in the wake of that killing. | ||
| What do you think of that? | ||
| And how do you feel specifically? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I was in the state house for eight years and had multiple death threats for a variety of reasons. | |
| You know, we would always turn those over to the state police. | ||
| And of course, I've had death threats from here in Washington as well, turn those over to the Capitol Police. | ||
| And those are often very concerning times. | ||
| But I know that people's emotions get high and they say things that are not acceptable and that you have to take every one of them seriously. | ||
| But my hope is that we come together, Republicans and Democrats, and dial down the rhetoric and say, look, at the end of the day, we're all Americans. | ||
| I mean, an assassination attempt or an assassination like what happened to Charlie Kirk and an assassination attempt that happened to President Trump, we think of those in countries like Syria or other parts of the world, but it's happening right here. | ||
| And I think that there's a mental health aspect that we really need to address and focus on. | ||
| From what it appears, this assassin was very involved in the dark web and was in chat rooms and places that people he didn't even know, but there's information that he's getting that's affecting him. | ||
| I think the text thread between him and his boyfriend is very telling about who he was. | ||
| And so I think that it's concerning to me. | ||
| And I think, you know, not only do we need to address the physical health of Americans, but we also need to address the mental health as well. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And I just want to play for you at a press conference yesterday. | ||
| Here's Democratic Caucus Chair, Representative Pete Aguilar, speaking about this, and then I'll get your response. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| All of us have an obligation to reduce the tensions here. | ||
| I understand the moment that we're in. | ||
| Vice Chair and I were sworn in the same day. | ||
| And in 2015, we've been here 10 years. | ||
| He gave a litany of the political violence that we've seen. | ||
| I'd also call your attention. | ||
| Over 10 years ago, Dylan Roof killed nine innocent people in a church. | ||
| Democrats, and his sole intent was to start a race war, is what he said. | ||
| Democrats didn't blame Republicans. | ||
| They didn't try to go after Republican organizations when that came to light. | ||
| We did everything we could to bring people together. | ||
| President Obama, legislative leaders denounced all that, legislative leaders on every side of this, just like we're seeing now. | ||
| Legislative leaders have denounced this political violence. | ||
| There's no place for it. | ||
| Anything to add there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I agree with a lot of the things that he said. | |
| And I would say that most members of Congress are following that advice, but there are some members of Congress that are inciting even higher emotions. | ||
| And I think that that's what needs to be called out as well. | ||
| And I always, my mom and dad raised me that we look at ourselves first and what did I, am I wrong here in some sort of situation before pointing the finger at somebody else? | ||
| But I think that at the same time, we do have to call people out that are inciting violence and celebrating a man's death. | ||
| I mean, at the end of the day, there's no room in this country to celebrate the death of anyone. | ||
| I mean, I remember when President Biden announced that he had cancer. | ||
| We put out a statement that our thoughts and prayers are with the Biden family because he's facing cancer, which was obviously something that could cause death. | ||
| We just don't celebrate that at all. | ||
| I mean, the murders up in Minnesota of state legislators, I mean, I was a state legislator. | ||
| It would be the nightmare to all of us to open up our front door and somebody is there standing there with a gun to shoot us. | ||
| I mean, no one should ever celebrate death in America. | ||
| We should always celebrate life. | ||
| And so my belief is that whoever out there on the internet that is pushing any sort of rhetoric related to celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk needs to stop. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, and you know what? | |
| There's no room for violence on either side. | ||
| Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal. | ||
| At the end of the day, we're Americans, and we need to remember that. | ||
| Do you think this will have a chilling effect on who's willing to run for public office? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It may. | |
| You know, we are actually doing a celebration of life for Charlie Kirk's life in my district next week. | ||
| And we already have over 1,500 people that have RSVP'd. | ||
| It's like people are wanting to be together in this moment where the graphic images of Charlie Kirk's death is seared in so many minds, people's minds that saw the video and the heartbreak. | ||
| You know, if you're a human being and you can't identify somehow and have a sadness about seeing a man's life taken right in front of the country, something's wrong. | ||
| And but not only mentally, but I think we also need to have a spiritual check as well in all of us that we just say, you know what, we're created in God's image and that we should never celebrate someone's death in this way. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so, yes, I think that there will be some people that say, I'm not sure that I would want to do that because of the danger that comes with it. | |
| All right, let's talk to callers. | ||
| We'll start with Patrick in Florida, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Patrick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, thanks for taking my call. | |
| Three quick things, Congressman. | ||
| The Brady Bonds had to bail out the banks in the 80s. | ||
| Then we had long-term capital, Thai bot, Russian rural crisis with the federal government, and then the ECHO collapse in 2009. | ||
| There's talk about deregulating the banks more. | ||
| I don't think that's going to work out. | ||
| Two, Richard Nixon wanted to do the blue money policy. | ||
| I don't know if you heard about that, but it was to break the bank financially of the international drug dealer where blue money, American blue money, was outside the USA, green money inside the USA. | ||
| And let me just say that Muhammad Ali, I noticed a lot of these Charlie Kirks and Coulter run the college campuses. | ||
| I heard Muhammad Ali say one time, a man in his 50s still thinks like he is in his 20s, has learned nothing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And one last thing, if you don't mind, you talked about political violence. | |
| The Speaker of the House, Johnson, said Gavin Newsom should be tarred in feather. | ||
| I don't think that's pleasant. | ||
| I think that's kind of a violent act. | ||
| Thanks for taking my call, C-SPAN. | ||
| Go right ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, you know, I mean, I think what we all need to remember in America, we're still the greatest country in the world. | |
| I mean, you know, I know there's a lot of concern about banks and Federal Reserve and government. | ||
| Obviously, they're very powerful. | ||
| We live in the most powerful nation in the world. | ||
| But at the same time, I can attest, you know, being a young boy who grew up on a farm in northern Indiana, the opportunities in America are by far greater than anywhere else in the world. | ||
| You know, I'm doing some work over in Syria right now with the new government in Syria and to see what the Syrian people lived under in a regime that brutally killed millions, I mean, over a million people in Syria. | ||
| It was just political assassinations. | ||
| It was political genocide because if you disagreed with the dictator, he would kill you. | ||
| And so we have so much, you know, we're so blessed in America. | ||
| It's not easy. | ||
| You have to go out and work hard. | ||
| And, you know, I always tell young people two things, build relationships, friendships, and if you get a chance to travel the world, travel outside of the United States so that we can see how much we have here in America. | ||
| Kurt sent you this on X. | ||
| He said about you. | ||
| He said he's a budget hawk, but voted for the stupidly named bill, giving millions to rich donors while trashing the debt and deficit. | ||
| He's talking about the Big Beautiful Bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I disagree with him when it comes to giving millions of dollars to donors. | |
| I mean, this is the working families tax cut, you know, formerly called the Big Beautiful Bill. | ||
| And the reason we called it the Big Beautiful Bill, we didn't know all was going to be in it because it being a larger bill, you know, my concern is the debt and deficit. | ||
| And he's right in that sense. | ||
| But, you know, at the same time, we could either raise taxes to fill that gap, I mean, which is a large gap, which would hurt the economy. | ||
| We gave the federal government the ability to borrow. | ||
| President Trump's tariff policy has brought in additional revenue. | ||
| We've actually had the first month where we had more revenue than we had expenses. | ||
| So we had since 2005, that hasn't happened for over a decade, two decades. | ||
| And so I think that it's going to take some time to turn this shit back around. | ||
| But we need a growing economy. | ||
| If we don't have a growing economy, you can't pay your bills. | ||
| You mentioned the tariffs and being against taxes, although many economists consider tariffs a tax because that money that is coming into the Treasury is being paid by American consumers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, yeah. | |
| Well, I mean, you know, my focus is what is the government spending? | ||
| I mean, we're spending almost a trillion dollars, two trillion dollars more than what we're taking in. | ||
| I mean, the numbers are getting to be so difficult to even comprehend anymore. | ||
| When I was first elected in 2010, the debt was right at $10 trillion, and today we're at almost $37 trillion. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, the problem is our spending problem. | |
| We have the largest economy in the world. | ||
| We have a growing economy, but part of the problem over time is that we have regulated our economy to slow, it has slowed down economically. | ||
| The growth has typically we're used to a 3% growth. | ||
| Well, we were down around 1.7 at one time. | ||
| So that's a lot of money that's not coming into the federal treasury because of a slow economy. | ||
| And so that's why you need an economy that has good growth, then the revenues come in, and then that can help cover those gaps. | ||
| Here's Willie in Little Rock, Arkansas, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, go ahead, Willie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I've been listening to the gentleman about tariffs and revenue that the tariffs are bringing in. | |
| What the dude don't seem to realize is tariffs is a tax. | ||
| And regardless of what kind of revenue it's bringing in, it's a tax on everything that we get imported from other parts of the world. | ||
| And we got to pay the tariffs. | ||
| And I don't give a damn how you look at it. | ||
| A tariff is a tax. | ||
| And it taxes everybody. | ||
| And not no one society. | ||
| It taxes the whole society. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And I mean, do you believe that President Trump is usurping the role of Congress in levying those tariffs? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that's a question the Supreme Court's going to give us an answer on. | |
| I mean, you know, there's a better challenge. | ||
| You know, I think that there needs to be cooperation between the administration and Congress. | ||
| You know, taxes start in Congress, usually in the House of Representatives. | ||
| But I support President Trump's policies on tariffs. | ||
| You know, I understand what the gentleman is saying, that it is a tax, but everybody's promoting taxes. | ||
| They just want somebody else to pay the taxes. | ||
| And the taxes were going to go up if we didn't pass the big beautiful bill, now the Working Family Tax Cut Act. | ||
| Taxes were going to go up on all Americans. | ||
| And so I think that everybody says, look, I don't want to pay more in taxes, but we also have to address the debt. | ||
| We don't want tariffs. | ||
| Well, somebody's, then we have to stop spending then. | ||
| You can't just keep spending if you don't want to somehow have the revenue coming in to pay for the spending. | ||
| Melissa is in Otto, North Carolina, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| My question is: does the government subsidize large corporations, health insurance? | ||
| And then the other question was if he thinks just cutting out the subsidies for the Obamacare would just make the insurance companies reduce their price and then the constituents just suffer until they get the message. | ||
| And I'll take my answer offline. | ||
| I think people are suffering now. | ||
| I mean, that's what I hear every day, and I see it. | ||
| You know, the cost of health insurance is unaffordable. | ||
| I mean, the cost of everything has gone up over the last five years. | ||
| Inflation has driven the price up. | ||
| You know, I was talking to the CBO the other day, and they were raising their budget from around $50 million to almost $70 million. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I asked him, why are you raising your budget $20 million? | |
| This is a government office, the Congressional Budget Office that gives us our numbers for the budget. | ||
| And the answer for Mr. Swegle was, well, inflation is causing us to have to increase our budget. | ||
| So where does that extra $20 million come from? | ||
| It comes from taxpayers. | ||
| And so government is growing faster than the private sector. | ||
| So I would just encourage people to understand that we've got to fix our health care system. | ||
| I mean, it is too expensive. | ||
| The cost of it is too expensive. | ||
| We've got to get the middleman out of the way and really get back to focusing on patients and doctors and health care providers rather than insurance companies taking all these profits out of the middle. | ||
| So I think that's going to be something President Trump addresses at some point. | ||
| You're on the Financial Services Committee that oversees the Fed. | ||
| They are having a meeting today. | ||
| What do you want to see come out of that meeting? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Lower interest rates. | |
| By how much? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, whatever they decide, I mean, anything is going to be helpful because the housing market is flat. | |
| I mean, again, I understand what your callers are saying this morning that they're frustrated because the cost of life is higher than it has ever been. | ||
| The cost of food, the cost of rent, insurance costs are going up. | ||
| So, you know, the only thing that's really come down is our energy costs. | ||
| Those have maintained and even come down. | ||
| But at the same time, when you get the bills in the mail, you're just like everything goes up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Utility prices are going up. | |
| So I want to see them lower the interest rates because auto loans are costly to Americans. | ||
| It's hard to even buy a new car anymore. | ||
| If you buy a car, you used to maybe have a $250 payment to a $500 payment. | ||
| Now that's anywhere between $500 and $1,000 because of interest rates. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I think that the Fed has made a mistake by not moving quicker. | |
| The economy is getting pretty flat and stagnant because they're just not willing to make big moves because of interest rates. | ||
| Let's talk to Linda in Corning, New York. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I remember in President Trump's first term, he came out when he was running and saying he would have a health care system so good you'd want to get sick. | ||
| He has not done anything, and he's not going to. | ||
| And he said, oh, I think Trump will deal with some of the health care issues. | ||
| No, he didn't then, and he's not going to now. | ||
| And as far as a lot of the rhetoric that's coming down, separating Americans, it's coming from the top at the president's level. | ||
| He did that the first term. | ||
| He's doing that now. | ||
| Always, just like with Charlie Kirk getting killed, he comes out and says, it's that radical left. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They're the only ones that are the problem. | |
| And he knows that's not true. | ||
| Democrats have been killed. | ||
| Shapiro house burnt. | ||
| You know, we need a president that will come out. | ||
| And as this man said, we are all Americans. | ||
| And to come out and to be the chief, the comforter, and the one who heals. | ||
| And that is not ever going to happen with this man. | ||
| And for all these Republicans that just stick up, stick up, stick up for everything he says. | ||
| Many Americans are just tired of it. | ||
| We know the truth. | ||
| We know what's in front of us. | ||
| We know January 6th. | ||
| We know that he pardoned all those people. | ||
| It's not normal. | ||
| He's not normal. | ||
| The whole presidential, the whole president right now is not normal. | ||
| All right, Linda. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, again, I mean, I understand her concern, but again, you know, politics is a tough business. | |
| We've known that. | ||
| We've seen that for years. | ||
| I mean, this is not the first time that a politician has said something about another politician. | ||
| But the fact is, is that you have to draw a line. | ||
| You know, you can have verbal jabs, but you don't cross the lines of physical assault. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You don't cross the lines of, obviously, an assassination attempt. | |
| I mean, look at, I mean, President Trump was nearly assassinated. | ||
| That's what I think people need to remember, is that this man was within an inch of his life. | ||
| And that would have been an even horrible day. | ||
| It was bad enough. | ||
| But if President Trump would have been assassinated, I hate to know where the United States would be today. | ||
| Linda specifically mentioned his response to the Charlie Kirk killing and saying that he immediately blamed the radical left. | ||
| Do you think that that crossed a line rhetorically? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, I don't. | |
| I mean, I think the evidence is already pointing that direction because, I mean, you think about this. | ||
| This man is 22 years old. | ||
| He drove three hours to a point in his home state planning. | ||
| I mean, this was such a premeditated murder that how did this young man get to that point? | ||
| I mean, he apparently grew up in a Christian home, a Republican home, but something radicalized him. | ||
| And I believe it was through the gaming part of his life, to these chat rooms, that he was talking to people who radicalized him. | ||
| Obviously, what he was telling his boyfriend and text threads, I think we'll find out even more evidence. | ||
| But there are people out there, and not just in the United States, there's people around the world that have access to our young children through the internet that want to create division and want them to cause harm to other Americans to weaken America. | ||
| Tim in Maryland, Independent Line, you're on the air. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I was going to say one thing about that big, beautiful bill, but I'm going to go back to the Charlie Kirk shooting. | |
| I don't think that boy was radicalized. | ||
| He came from a Utah conservative family. | ||
| I think it was his depression and anxiety got in. | ||
| Tim, did we lose you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm going to finish. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Like his depression said, and Charlie Cook talked about homophobia, she'll be shot and stuff like that. | ||
| I think the boy just got depressed. | ||
| He couldn't come out and tell his family that the boy was gay or anything like that. | ||
| He coming from a conservative state, this boy had this boy had problems. | ||
| It wasn't no radicalization or nothing like that. | ||
| The boy was just in love with another guy, had depression problems, and he just couldn't take the fact that someone else was saying, all the homophobia, people that was gay should be shot or killed. | ||
| And about this terrorist thing, this person has think we were to 10% amount of tax. | ||
| And that big tax cut, he said, all Americans get, we're paying for that right back, but school supplies, the grocery show bills are high. | ||
| There's nothing working out for the middle class or the poor. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Anything you'd like to respond to there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The boy was radicalized. | |
| I mean, it's a radical thing to shoot someone else. | ||
| Eva in Columbia, Mississippi, Democrat, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I'm listening to all this. | |
| They talk about his boyfriend, this and that. | ||
| Everyone has their own relation, and they have put this young man down. | ||
| But they're riding the one that he killed. | ||
| No one should have died like that before their family. | ||
| But to put the other one down is very sorry for America. | ||
| All right, Eva, we got that. | ||
| And I want to bring this in from Colleen in Pensacola, Florida. | ||
| Where does the senator, you just got a demotion? | ||
| You just got a demotion. | ||
| Where do you stand on term or age limits for Congress? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I do support term limits. | |
| And I think they need to be reasonable, anywhere between 12 and 18 years. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, you know, once you're, there's 435 members of the House, there's 100 members of the Senate. | |
| I think that a length of time is important compared to the president for eight years. | ||
| To work your way up through seniority in the House of Representatives takes a lot of time. | ||
| But I do think there's a point in time where we all need to say, you know what, I've served long enough. | ||
| It's time for somebody else to step in. | ||
| So I do support term limits. | ||
| Age limits are a little harder. | ||
| And so I'd be hesitant there. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And I want to ask you about redistricting because you're the first federal official in Indiana's delegation to back redrawing of Indiana's map. | ||
| And this is what you said on X. Quote, Democrats have proven they will use every tool available to them to gain and keep power. | ||
| For years, Republicans have idly stood by while the left has weaponized government against us. | ||
| Can you be specific about what Democrats have done that Republicans have not? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I mean, look at the maps of Illinois versus Indiana. | |
| We're two states right side by side, you know, similar size in geographic, you know, the land is geographically similar, but you look at the population of Illinois versus Indiana, we're different. | ||
| But the maps, there's 17 congressional districts in Illinois, and we have nine in Indiana, so about half of Illinois. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And you look at how the maps are drawn, you know, we always talk about gerrymandering. | |
| Their maps are gerrymandered. | ||
| I mean, you've got some sort of little like snake that's sweeping through. | ||
| Republicans have done that as well. | ||
|
unidentified
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But not in Indiana. | |
| And so for Indiana, we're not a sanctuary state. | ||
| And Illinois is, California is. | ||
| And so it's a reaction to what Illinois and California have already done. | ||
| And they drew their maps to favor Democrats, to gain more power. | ||
| Texas is doing it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| And you want Indiana to do it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Does this stop? | ||
| Are we just going to continue this tit-for-tat on redistricting? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's going to happen because if that's how one team is going to play, they're going to play rules by the rules that favor themselves. | |
| And we all know it. | ||
| You know, there's roughly 12 million illegal non-citizens in the country. | ||
| California counts them in their census. | ||
| And that goes towards their house seats proportion. | ||
| So apportionment. | ||
| So we don't do that in Indiana. | ||
| We're not a sanctuary state. | ||
| So Hoosiers are at a disadvantage compared to the census because our policy says, no, we're not going to be here giving out benefits to illegals like California does. | ||
| So that's why I think, in fact, 100,000 Illinois have moved from Illinois to Indiana in the last five years because they're wanting to get away from the Chicago policies. | ||
| They're wanting to get away from the taxes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that's the other answer to a lot of this about taxes is watch where people are moving because they're moving away from the high-tech states. | |
| Here's Michelle in Sheridan, Michigan Independent. | ||
| Hi, Michelle. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I have a question. | ||
| It's about health care. | ||
| That was a topic earlier. | ||
| I want to know why the largest Medicare fraud scheme in United States history, this couple stole $205 million from 2002 to 2010. | ||
| Their last name is Valerie. | ||
| They are from Florida, I believe. | ||
| And Trump commuted their sentence. | ||
| And I want to know why, when it comes to dollar crimes or fraud, President Trump thinks that's okay, and he pardons these people. | ||
| Just like the Chrizlis who are on TV again, who were sentenced to prison for their fraud. | ||
| And President Trump has no problem letting people who commit crimes of that nature, he signs pardons and lets them free. | ||
| And I want to know why you think or why the Republicans back this kind of stuff when they're taking and robbing money from the American people. | ||
| I don't know about that particular case, but I do know that the Justice Department did arrest almost 300 people who are abusing and defrauding the American people through these programs. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, we have, I mean, I'm glad she brought that up. | |
| I don't know that that's the circumstances, and I would want to find out more details if that's, if President Trump actually did pardon somebody like that. | ||
| But I know that's been an emphasis with this administration that we're going to go after those who are defrauding the American people through Medicare, Medicaid. | ||
| I mean, there are professional fraudsters, as she mentioned, that know how to abuse the system. | ||
| And I think that's one of the things that needs to be fixed immediately. | ||
| And I know Dr. Oz has focused on that. | ||
| Robert Kennedy has focused on that because there's been no accountability over years. | ||
| In fact, when Elon Musk was the head of Doge, he came in and was talking about how payments are being made that we don't even know where the money's going. | ||
| And so Washington, the federal government needs a big cleanup. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I don't believe that President Trump would pardon somebody who's defrauded the American people, but I would definitely look, I'll definitely look into that case. | |
| All right, that's Representative Marlon Stutzman. | ||
| He's a Republican from Indiana, member of the Freedom Caucus, and on the Budget and Financial Services Committee. | ||
| Thanks so much for joining us today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Good to be with you. | ||
| The House today considering two bills on Washington, D.C.'s policing and criminal sentencing reform. | ||
| Lawmakers also working on debate rules related to a seven-week funding package for the federal government beyond September 30th and a resolution to honor conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed last week in Utah. | ||
| In recess now, members are expected back at 4.30 p.m. for more debate before taking votes. | ||
| More live coverage when the house returns right here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Middle and high school students join C-SPAN as we celebrate America's 250th anniversary during our 2026 C-SPAN Student Cam Video Documentary Competition. | ||
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| Earlier today, FBI Director Kash Patel testified at an oversight hearing for the House Judiciary Committee. | ||
| He took questions about the FBI and Justice Department's handling of politically sensitive investigations and addressed allegations of politicization within the Bureau. | ||
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| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
| Next, Vice President Vance touring a manufacturing facility in Michigan. | ||
| He talks about the Republican tax and spending cuts bill and comments on the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. | ||
| This event is half an hour. | ||
| Thank you, Tom, for that kind introduction. |