CSPAN - Washington Journal Rep. Mike Haridopolos R-FL

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Oct. 24, 2025 10:53-11:04 - CSPAN

10:54

Washington Journal Rep. Mike Haridopolos R-FL

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greta brawner

cspan 01:45

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		Rust vote.
		We'll get back to you on that matter.
		Are you optimistic that you'll be able to get a trade deal with China before November 1st?
		We'll see how it goes.
		But we've got the top negotiators out there.
		It's Scott Peset and President Sean Pontace.
		I got to go back to that.
		Mr. Hausen, can I clarify?
		Is the White House looking to pay the military during the shutdown?
		Yes.
		Good follow-up.
		What about the gifts that the president was talking about?
		And on this 24th day of the government shutdown, we'll hear from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries at the U.S. Capitol about the impact of the shutdown.
		We'll take you there live at 11 a.m. Eastern here on C-SPAN.
		Today, on C-SPAN's ceasefire, in a time of sharp political divides, two senators from opposite sides of the aisle come together for a candid conversation.
		Delaware Democrat Senator Chris Coons and Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford discuss cooperation on key foreign policy and the government shutdown.
		They join host Dasha Burns to talk about what really matters today at 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
		Ceasefire only on C-SPAN.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		We are back this morning with Congressman Mike Haradopoulos, a Republican of Florida, represents the 8th District.
		Thank you for being here during the government shutdown.
		Have you stayed in Washington or are you making the trip back and forth?
unidentified		We're doing a lot of back and forth, so we are quite busy.
		My wife is actually the chief of staff to the Surgeon General, so we go back and forth.
		I'm an empty nester now, and so the kids are at college or off at work.
		And so we're spending a lot of time up here making sure we're handling constituent calls here and in the district.
		I was back in the district yesterday, meeting with a bunch of folks.
		It's really important we keep our doors open as this troubling time is taking place and making sure we're taking their own little questions, but making sure that constituent work continues to get done.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		How many federal workers do you represent?
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		What are you hearing from them?
unidentified		We're hearing from a bunch of them, of course.
		I represent Kennedy Space Center, and you can imagine how important it is to our country.
		We have to win this new space race.
		We're excited about the fact that Artemis II will go around the moon for the first time since 1972.
		These folks are working today without pay.
		We give them a lot of credit for doing so.
		We're optimistic, like myself, who voted for keeping the government open.
		They want to see the government back open and get their back pay.
		And more importantly, make sure that we keep the mission of the government in place.
		As a former history teacher, I think it's essential we do just that.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		For those federal workers in your district at Kennedy Space Center, should your leader, the Speaker Johnson, call back yourself and your colleagues to Washington and vote on legislation to pay them while they are working during this government shutdown.
unidentified		Well, the great news is we did just that.
		We voted yes.
		And as you know, I'm a former history teacher.
		And I remember as a kid growing up watching schoolhouse rock.
		We in the House did our work.
		We sent it over to the Senate.
		And for those, I was listening to some of the listeners and callers today before I walked on the set.
		And as you know, it takes 60 votes to break the debate in the Senate.
		And so we're waiting.
		We can't negotiate against ourselves.
		We already sent this over there, a clean CR.
		Of course, the Democrats did that 13 times in the Biden years.
		And as a person who's back into politics after being the leader in the Senate back in Florida, it's really frustrating to see this hyper-partisanship in place because I thought a clean CR was just that.
		We thought by offering that clean CR, and the other thing a lot of people don't know, we also went to the Democrats before this whole mess began and say, let's have a clean CR.
		And what date do you want?
		We want to go to January.
		They said November 21.
		And we said, okay, fine, November 21 yet.
		Here we are today, 24 days into the shutdown, and no one's winning because the American public is losing, in my opinion.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Democrats point to the 60-vote threshold.
		You need that in the Senate in order to advance any legislation.
		They say that's why Republicans need to come to the table with us and they need to compromise.
		We're saying if you want our votes, you need to do something about these ACA tax credits and return money to the Medicaid program.
unidentified		Well, first and foremost, the idea is that you have to have the government open to have a lot of these negotiations.
		Let's do it in the open eye.
		And I think beyond that is a sense of we passed these Medicaid changes because there was waste, fraud, and abuse in the system.
		You saw we had this big debate, of course, illegal immigration, but also this case of people did not tell the truth on their application for Medicaid.
		We want to make sure those income checks are put in place.
		And also, if you're able-bodied, you should not be on Medicaid.
		And finally, people are paying $1,500, $2,000 a month for health care, almost $25,000 a year.
		And yet other people are gaming the system.
		So we wanted to make those changes.
		And so also your viewers are clear.
		These changes don't take effect until 2027.
		So these Medicaids have not cuts, or changes have not taken place yet because we wanted to reform the system.
		We want to make sure that people have a ramp to understand what's going on, how you qualify to stay on, or if you don't qualify anymore, how to get into new programs.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		When it comes to the ACA tax credits, is there a middle ground?
		Where would you agree with Democrats on lowering, helping to lower the premiums?
		Because without these tax credit subsidies, these enhanced tax credit subsidies, you've heard from your colleague, Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying constituents in Georgia that she represents are going to see their premiums go up.
unidentified		Yeah, first of all, everyone's premiums are going up because of the failure of Obamacare.
		Remember, they promised lower costs.
		They promised you can keep your doctor.
		Those did not prove to be true, unfortunately.
		And the subsidies are in place because the prices are going up.
		I think Speaker Johnson put it correctly, 60% since we began.
		So I'm a person who's intimately involved in healthcare.
		My wife's a medical doctor.
		And also, of course, when I was in the Senate, we dealt with Medicaid a lot.
		It's a federal state program.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Florida Senate.
unidentified		I'm sorry.
		So as Florida leader, we always look to reform the system because we want to help the people most in jeopardy, those who are disabled, pregnant women, kids of low-income parents.
		We want to help those folks out.
		We don't want to make it a waste station or a free health care system when other people have to pay out of their pocket.
		So this is a cohort of, what, 24 million people are on the Medicaid, or excuse me, on the Obamacare subsidies, up from 11 million just a few years ago because of the COVID changes.
		What we want to do is what we do with Medicaid.
		Let's make some reforms in the system and let's make it where we get rid of the waste and fraud.
		And we also make it clear that everybody is in this game together.
		There's 24 million people.
		There's also 165 million people who pay privately and are paying $1,500 or $2,000, if not more, dollars a month.
		And they have to have a vested interest here, too.
		It's not just that one group they're worried about.
		I think there's a lot of things we can do, including people who are on this system who don't qualify for Medicaid, need to put some money into this system because they're getting a benefit that a lot of people are paying a lot of money for.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		You're saying some people pay $0 for their premium.
unidentified		About half do.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		About half.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		And there's also reports where Republicans have argued that there are people that don't even know they're on it because they pay $0.
unidentified		Yeah, they called it the phantom.
		This is the thing that blew my mind as I really got into this issue.
		The one good thing I can say about the break is that I've spent a lot of time studying Obamacare and understand what we can try to improve.
		And these phantom things are amazing, especially in my state of Florida.
		People get a call, hey, you can get free insurance.
		Did you know that 35% of the people who were on these Obamacare subsidies did not use any of those health care needs, meaning they didn't even go a script field, didn't see their GP, didn't get a COVID shot or any kind of vaccine at all.
		That means the insurance company got paid and there were no services rendered.
		And can you imagine any business operating, I'm going to give you money, but you don't have to do anything for it.
		Remember, these tax credits are not given to the citizens.
		They're given directly to the insurance companies.
		And that's one of the reforms we're obviously looking at.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		You would like to see these tax credits go to the participants on ACA.
unidentified		I'm a big believer in health savings accounts.
		As you know, the medical system is very different than when you go shopping at the mall.
		You don't even know what the price is sometimes when you walk into a doctor's office.
		And so we need to have more medical transparency.
		Let's empower the individual to make smart decisions with their health care.
		Because right now, all you're seeing, this big Obamacare system, really comes down to tax credits not going to the individual, going to insurance companies.
		And that's created a perverse system, in my opinion.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Let's get to calls.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		Linda, in Corning, New York, Democratic Haller, you were up first for the Congressman.
unidentified		Yes.
		Number one, I believe I heard Mr. Clyburn say the other day that Congress, the Democrats and Republicans should come back and work together because they can't possibly come to any agreements when they're not even in the same room together.
		Some of them actually might talk together, some of them might actually negotiate.
		You can't do that if you're not in the same room together.
		Number two, I do know I have heard that many seniors, their senior supplement to Medicare are being canceled or their costs are tripling.
		The other thing is I remember Trump promised in his first term, of course he never liked the ACA because it had Obamacare on it.
		He promised he'd get rid of that and simultaneously slip right in a new health care plan you'd want to get sick.
		They have not done anything on that.
		So complaining about Obamacare, which they worked really hard on and got through, and yes, it may have some bugs here and there, but it has been a blessing to a lot of people.
greta brawner ▲ ● ▼		All right, Linda, we'll take your three points.
unidentified		Well, first and foremost, this is a pretty simple equation.
		For all these years, we always said that we would have a clean CR.
		I'm amazed that some Democrats say this is not a clean CR.
		I'd like to see them point to anything like that.
		But we think a clean CR, because if not, this is going to be a total hostage situation.
		We want to open the government up, but we've done our job in the House.
		We paid folks.
		The Senate said no because the Democrat votes at this time.
		As far as Obamacare, it's not Republicans stopping changes to Obamacare.
		It's Democrats.
		They want to keep the system, and they want to continue to subsidize the system that's costing the rest of the health care system a lot more money.
		We think the reforms that can take place would mirror what we did with Medicaid.
		We think those are common sense type reforms.
		We want people to understand they actually have health care as opposed to these phantom situations.
		And let's have a more transparent debate and ask the health care system to do the same.
		Put more transparency so that people understand what it really costs.
		I've had a lot of people come to me and say they go in and their insurance has one price and then the cash pay for another.
		And it just makes for a really discombobulated system that really doesn't help anyone.
		And so I hope the Democrats will come to the table and offer some changes as opposed to the reflexive no, which has been their answer throughout 2025.

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