C-SPAN’s Public Affairs Events episode highlights Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE) pushing a discharge petition to force a vote on Obamacare subsidies, set to expire after a 43-day Democratic-led shutdown, with a two-year extension targeting high earners ($600K+) while expanding HSAs and banning zero-premium plans. Lawler blames Democrats for prioritizing political leverage over reform, citing 96% premium hikes since 2010 and $2T Medicaid fraud, while Flood dismisses Senate inaction as "theater." Callers criticize last-minute fixes, telehealth cuts, and partisan gridlock, but Lawler defends GOP efforts—like border security and senior tax breaks—while rejecting Medicare for All due to its $38T debt cost. The debate underscores Obamacare’s flawed design by insurers and the urgent need for bipartisan solutions to curb soaring health costs. [Automatically generated summary]
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Democracy.
It isn't just an idea.
It's a process.
A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles.
It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted.
Democracy in real time.
This is your government at work.
This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered.
Can you start by telling us about your decision to join three other Republicans and sign that discharge petition led by Democrats on forcing a vote on Obamacare subsidies?
Well, remember, just two months ago, Democrats shut the government down for 43 days and they said that the expiration of this enhanced premium tax credit was an existential issue.
And so when the enhanced premium tax credit was set to expire at the end of this year, many of my colleagues got together and were talking about what we could do in a bipartisan way to address this.
And so we worked over the past few weeks, once the government reopened, to come up with a bipartisan compromise plan.
And so that plan includes a two-year extension with income limits so that somebody making $600,000, for instance, is not getting subsidized by taxpayers to purchase health care,
as well as insurance reforms, PBM reforms, HSA expansion to allow HSAs to be used to pay for premiums as well as to roll over into the next year so you're not stuck in this use it or lose it situation, and to eliminate zero premium plans so that everyone has a little bit of skin in the game and you pay a nominal fee of $5 a month or a $60 upfront fee.
This was a bipartisan compromise that we put forward.
We worked with Republican leadership to try and get this on the floor for an up or down vote.
Unfortunately, for a myriad of reasons, including hide language pertaining to federal funding of abortion, as well as the fact that many of my colleagues do not want to extend these temporary subsidies that were put in place during COVID to serve as a temporary enhancement, we couldn't get an agreement with leadership to put the bill on the floor.
And so that really led to the four of us that signed the discharge being left with no choice but to force a vote.
You mentioned the 43-day shutdown, and now that you are willing to compromise on an Obamacare subsidy extension, why did we have to have this shutdown?
So, Congressman, you said that now that the discharge petition has reached the minimum required, there will be a vote, although it won't be this year.
So how does this help the people that have had to already make the decision on their ACA and whether or not they're going to be able to afford it anymore?
Well, again, I think you have to look at the larger issue here, which is that since Obamacare took effect in 2010, the health insurance premiums for Americans have skyrocketed by 96%.
And on the open market, which is the core of Obamacare, by upwards of 125%.
Meanwhile, insurance company profits have skyrocketed by 2,000%.
Why?
Because Obamacare was written by and for insurance companies.
And so if we want to tackle this issue, it's two-pronged.
It's not just the extension of the enhanced premium tax credit, which people need to understand one thing.
The enhanced premium tax credit means that the federal government is footing the bill for 88% of the premium.
If the enhanced premium tax credit goes away, the premium tax credit is still in effect, and the federal government is footing 78% of the premium for this 7% of the market that we're talking about, the 22 to 24 million people that this impacts.
The other, you know, 93% of Americans continue to see their health insurance skyrocket because Obamacare has failed to actually do what the Democrats said it would, which is reduce health care premiums.
So, how do we actually deal with this entire situation?
You need a short-term extension with reforms, and you need to address the larger issues in health care, which we started to do yesterday, and every single Democrat voted against it.
We passed a bill that would address, for instance, associated health plans, which would allow the self-employed, small businesses, larger companies to pool together to purchase a cheaper insurance plan.
The CBO scored it, and they said it would reduce health insurance premiums by 11% nationwide.
That is a positive step forward, and yet every Democrat voted against that yesterday.
PBM reform, transparency, that was part of the bill.
Democrats voted against that.
So, this is dual track.
You can't just try to say this is all about the enhanced premium tax credit because that's not the basis for why health insurance premiums are going up.
Again, because this is two simultaneous issues to deal with: one is the ACA extension of the enhanced premium tax credit.
The second is the larger issue of health care costs in America, and how do we actually start to reduce costs?
This is but one step.
When we come back in January, there's going to be another series of bills that we focus on.
One of the things that I've been advocating for, for instance, United Healthcare, the largest insurance company in America, they own providers.
That should be banned.
You should not be able, as an insurance company, to own a provider or Aetna owning CVS CareMark.
You cannot own PBMs.
This needs to be addressed if we actually want to break up the insurance monopoly and start reducing overall costs within the system.
You need to allow purchasing of health care plans across state lines so that you have more competition in the marketplace, among other critical reforms.
So, to me, there's a lot of work ahead, but just voting no, as the Democrats did yesterday, is not actually solving the health care crisis.
I look at how we deal with this in a multi-pronged approach.
I think that it's important that no matter what decisions we make within the country, that we make those decisions together, united, and also afford patience in finding decisions.
So, where we haven't found a decision yet, let us be patient with one another, no matter what party you're in, and continue to walk in faith, open laws.
Let's talk to Jim in Frederick, Maryland, Democrat.
Good morning, Jim.
unidentified
Good morning.
First off, I'd like to thank you very much for coming online and really realizing that we need to come to some solution to the problem.
We have to stop pointing fingers.
And I'm a Democrat, so believe me, I'm not saying Republicans pointing at Democrats or Democrats or Republican.
Everybody's pointing at each other.
I think my basic question is: I mean, I know this is all difficult.
I mean, I think like a lot of Americans, I cannot understand the complications nor all the proposals that are being made.
It's just so complicated that you guys have to work overtime.
I guess what I'm frustrated about is why we always seem to have to wait till the last minute and really make it such a problem for people who depend on it.
So that's my basic question.
I don't know what your answer is going to be because it happens for so many things.
Everything is governed by crisis and deadline as opposed to addressing these issues in a practical and realistic way.
It's why I proposed earlier this year in conversation with leadership that we address this issue.
Jen Kiggins, myself, and several other Republicans put a bill forward in September to extend the AACA enhanced premium tax credit for one year so that we could actually address some of the larger issues.
To me, this requires bipartisan compromise.
You cannot govern my way or the highway.
That's why the clean three-year extension is not realistic.
I signed the discharge to force a vote so that we can use that vehicle to actually get bipartisan compromise out of the Senate, which I met with a bunch of senators yesterday after I signed the discharge, bipartisan, bicameral meeting, and we talked about the need to do this.
So the reality, Jim, is in America, if you want lasting change, it requires bipartisan compromise, and that's what I'm focused on.
I'm a member of Problem Solvers.
I've been rated the fourth most bipartisan member of Congress.
Last Congress, I was rated the number one most effective freshman legislator because I actually sit down and do the work, and that's critically important, and I'm committed to it.
Gloria in Kansas, Republican line, you're on the air.
unidentified
Yes, I want to know why you are agreeing with the Democrats on the subsidies when the Democrats refuse to get rid of the fraud that is in the subsidies, which is wasting a lot of our tax dollars.
Another reason, the reason this is at the last minute is because the Democrats closed the government down and you couldn't deal with it for six weeks.
Gloria, you are correct about the fact that the Democrats shut the government down and wasted a lot of time that we could have been dealing with this issue, which is what I said repeatedly during the shutdown.
Immediately following the shutdown, I sat down in a good faith, bipartisan way to actually craft legislation, as I said at the beginning, that did reform the fraud that you're talking about, that did go after the insurance companies that did eliminate zero premium plans, that required a $5 nominal fee, and that put income limits in place so that people who are making $600,000 are not being subsidized by taxpayers.
The problem with this entire thing is that the money is not going to the individual.
It's going to the insurance companies.
And the insurance companies just keep increasing premiums without any real transparency, accountability, or oversight.
And so the whole system needs to be reformed.
And the bill that I put forth along with Brian Fitzpatrick would actually do that because we put the reforms in.
The problem is that I and Brian and others worked to get our Republican leadership to put the bill on the floor for a vote, and they wouldn't do it.
They wouldn't come to an agreement with us on it.
And there's a lot of reasons why that didn't happen.
I'm not pointing fingers or blaming the Speaker.
It is what it is.
But we have a deadline.
And so, from my vantage point, the objective was to force a vote on the floor so that we could pass a bill that could go to the Senate and the Senate can use that vehicle to come back with a bipartisan compromise.
The clean three-year extension is not going to pass the Senate.
We know that because that just happened last week when they voted it down.
Thank you, Ceasevanton, for being a show that is so informative.
And I wanted to thank the congressman for having the guts to come on this show because many of your colleagues will not talk to anyone.
I've been screaming from the rafters, calling everyone I can about a specific issue concerning the health care that I wanted to ask you about.
But I would be remiss to just say, and I'm an Independent, I'm an equal opportunity basher of both parties, but this Republican Party, led by Donald Trump and Mike Johnson, is so depraved, they just don't care about people.
And Democrats and Republicans fighting with each other as a senior citizen, born in Philadelphia, lives in Atlantic City.
I'm a Jewish American.
It's a disgrace.
To all the citizens out there, please vote.
You have the power.
Okay.
My question is to you, Congressman.
I'm a senior citizen.
I am on my husband's insurance field, but I have Medicare also.
And my mother is 92, and she has Medicare and she's blind.
And we've been using telehealth.
And I don't say, I've been screaming from the rafters.
I really want you to try to promise me that you'll bring this up because telehealth is going away.
I'm in Atlantic City, Atlantic Hare in Atlanta County is no longer able to provide telehealth services to senior citizens.
Well, I believe it got birded out through the Bird rule.
But all of us are in agreement about the need to extend telehealth.
That was one of the few positive things that obviously happened during COVID: telehealth and the expansion of telehealth services.
I think most medical professionals will tell you it's been a tremendous godsend in terms of the ability to serve the community and to be able to provide medical care to patients, especially in more rural areas where it may be harder to have access to a doctor.
And so that is something we all agree needs to be extended, and I am a big proponent of that.
and we'll continue to fight for it.
I would just push back respectfully on your notion that Republicans don't care about people, don't care about Americans.
That's not true.
We have fought tirelessly to address numerous issues from securing the border, stopping the massive influx of drugs into our country, which kill 75,000 Americans every year.
We have fought tirelessly to address the affordability crisis, passing the largest tax cut in American history, including for seniors who are going to get a $6,000 tax deduction next year when you go to file, lifting the cap on salt, which was critical for New York, so that people can be able to afford where they live, afford their mortgage payments, afford their grocery bills, afford their energy costs.
We work tirelessly to address issues like combating anti-Semitism.
We have seen the ugly scourge of anti-Semitism in this country and around the globe, standing up and protecting people every day against violent crime in major cities.
So these issues matter, and we care deeply about people, and I know I do, representing the people that I represent in the 17th Congressional District of New York.
Well, of course, when you look at our country, regardless of party, everybody wants a few basic things in life.
They want a good paying job to provide for their families, a quality education for their children, access to housing and health care, and they want to live in a safe neighborhood.
I don't think there's any question we want to make sure people have access to health care.
The question is how you deliver that.
Democrats proposed Obamacare 15 years ago to increase access and reduce cost.
Many more people are insured.
The problem is the entire basis of that is based on government subsidies and funding to provide that care and coverage.
And so the cost of that program has exploded and the cost of premiums has risen dramatically.
So when Democrats say we have an affordability crisis in health care, they're right.
They created it.
You have to look at how to address this.
If you think you're going to have Medicare for all or single-payer health care, that will be trillions upon trillions upon trillions of dollars in new taxes.
You cannot afford that.
We are already $38 trillion in debt.
We are running $7 trillion budgets with $2 trillion deficits.
That's why we're in this crisis as a federal government.
So yes, we want people to be able to have access to health care.
It requires us actually reforming the health care system, creating more competition in the marketplace so that people can get cheaper plans and can actually purchase health care, that small businesses and larger corporations can actually provide plans to their employees.
You need catastrophic plan coverage.
You need to pool together small businesses to be able to purchase plans at a cheaper rate.
As I said, the associated health plans, you can actually pool together.
And CBO estimates it's going to reduce premiums by 11%.
So there's a lot we can and should do to reduce the cost of health care and increase access in the marketplace for people to be able to purchase their plans.
And what the president is talking about is rather than subsidizing insurance companies, we actually give the money directly to the American people through tax credits or in HSA accounts so that they can purchase their health care plans and pay for their premiums.
Hey, listen, and I heard your answer about why we can't do original Medicare for everybody.
You know, I got dropped from original Medicare this year and got put into an Advantage plan.
And I think that there's probably some insurance companies that were delighted about that.
I mean, if we're not going to let the insurance companies just scrabble over the 20% that original Medicare doesn't pay for if we went to Medicare for all, I have a suggestion.
And I know it's going to sound humorous, but what if we had like a big TV show, like the Oscars or the in fact it could be at the Super Bowl and we could put the top 20 healthiest, cost-effective systems everywhere else on the planet on a big wheel and just spin the wheel and we could let President Trump he would love this, he could throw a dart.
We could only do better than what we're doing now.
Look, I think there's no question Medicare Advantage needs to be reformed.
I mean, the insurance companies are bilking the system here, but the fact is that again, we want to be able to protect Medicare and make sure that our seniors have the health care that they need and that they have paid into.
For all these years we have sought to protect Medicaid and root out the waste, fraud and abuse and make sure that the system is not losing billions upon billions of dollars every year, as CBO has said, as the GAO has said, over repeatedly to waste fraud, abuse.
We want to protect that for the most vulnerable, the IDD community children, single mothers seniors veterans, etc.
But we have to address the issue of health care affordability, and that's why I have been working in a bipartisan way to do that to reform this system, especially in the private insurance market and in the Obamacare exchanges, because it's not working.
People are paying through the nose for health care.
This didn't just start this year, and for Democrats to act as though this is just a result of Republicans Republicans fail to recognize that this is the system they created.
This is the system they wanted, and it's not working.
They have to acknowledge that, and we have to work together to fix it.
Roy in Woodstock, Georgia, Republican, you're on the air.
unidentified
Correct me if I'm wrong, but to my understanding, private equity funds are buying out private doctors left and right, and they're the one that's controlling the cost of health care.
We're paying private equity funds, it's collecting all of the money.
As far as Medicare, Medicaid to me, Medicare Advantage, need to be discontinued.
Because as it stands right now, the government is paying insurance company a premium 12 months out of a year.
12 months out of a year, the government is paying for Medicare Advantage.
Whether you go to the doctor or not.
Me being on Medicare, if I go to the doctor twice a year, then the government pays for my Medicare.
Not for 12 months as they're doing under Medicare Advantage.
And so that's something that you really need to look at.
And then this thing with Medicaid, people do not understand, and we keep crying about putting people on Medicaid.
But if you go on Medicaid, they would take everything you own over $2,500.
They would take your car, your house, your insurance cash, if it's over $10,000.
You would lose everything.
And people are not aware of that.
So anything that the government gets involved in, anything they subsidize, is going to be abused.
And to my understanding, the Democrats are really supporting abusing the system.
And I think it has to be something in it for them, for them to continue to allow this to happen.
So on the issue of consolidation, that's been a major problem.
And you see all of these doctors, these health care providers being gobbled up by either private equity, larger corporations, or the hospital systems.
And so access has become a major challenge across the country.
As I said, Medicare Advantage needs to be reformed.
This is not working, certainly not the way that people had hoped it would.
And again, with respect to Medicaid, we want to protect it for the most vulnerable, for the poor, for the people that really rely on that system and make sure it is not being abused.
We put in place reforms that were necessary, including citizenship verification, work requirements, eligibility verification, and rooting out some of the corruption that was going on with the states, like the provider tax, which is really a scam.
It's a way for the states to get more federal dollars without doing a state match.
And so we've put a cap on that.
The state-directed payments we've brought back to what it was prior to Joe Biden changing the law and allowing state-directed payments for Medicaid to be paid out at private insurance rates as opposed to a one-to-one ratio with Medicare.
We've phased out the MCO tax, which again, like the provider tax, is just a way for the states to get more federal dollars without any control.
And the program was exploding.
I mean, Medicaid doubled in the last five years.
You can't sustain that.
And that's what we were rooting out while protecting it for the IDD community, for working single mothers, for our seniors who rely on these critical services.
Henry Woodruff, South Carolina, Independent Line, good morning.
unidentified
Merry Christmas to everyone.
I would like for the congressman to tell me where I'm wrong in this historical analysis of ACA.
ACA is actually a brainchild of the Republican Party.
When Mitch Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he instituted a very similar program there, which President Obama drew from.
So this is actually a brainchild of the ACA, I mean of the Republican Party.
The second thing, and tell me where I'm wrong on this, is that from the beginning, there has been a unified effort from the Republican Congress to the governors to set out to make the ACA fail.
And for 15 years now, instead of working together with the Democrats or independents and making this a better program, it's always been just to destroy it, just to destroy it.
And I believe with all my heart, it was because President Barack Obama was the author of it because there was an elderly lady, local, Caucasian lady, and she said, I don't want that Obamacare.
I want my ACA, but I don't want that Obamacare.
And when she was told they were one and the same, she looked so baffled.
So this thing about Obamacare has some connotations.
Whether you call it Romney Care, Obamacare, Affordable Care Act, the fact is it was actually written by the insurance companies for the insurance companies.
They've seen their profits skyrocket by over 2,000% over the last 15 years while health care premiums have soared.
It is not affordable.
It is not working the way it was intended, or at least the way they told us it was intended.
And so from my vantage point, it's not about casting blame at this point.
It's about looking at the system and saying, how do we fix this?
Democrats are saying health care costs are an existential threat, yet they don't want to acknowledge that this is the system they created.
This is the program that they said would solve the problem, and clearly it has not.
So how do we actually fix the system is the question.
How do we improve upon the existing law?
I'm not interested in repeal and replace and the drama of the tit-for-tat political game.
I want to fix the system so that we actually reduce health care costs.
That should be the focus.
And I don't care if the idea comes from the left or the right.
If it's actually going to ensure that people have access and it's going to reduce overall cost, we should embrace it.
We should figure out how to make it work.
And we should work in a bipartisan way to get it done.
We are in Open Forum and we will take your calls very soon.
You can start calling.
And now while you're calling, we're going to speak with Representative Betty McCollum, a Democrat of Minnesota and ranking member on the Appropriations Subcommittee.
What was disheartening in the fact that the president took up a posture of anger, being frustrated?
That's not what we want to hear from our president.
We want to hear solutions.
We want to know that he is paying attention to what is happening in our district.
So that was disappointing.
And, you know, the frustration that was in his voice the entire time, the anger that was in his voice, the misdirection blaming someone else for what's happening today in the present was just totally uncalled for.
My constituents, they know that the cost of their health care is going to go up.
Many of them can't afford to either sell their house because someone can't afford to buy it, move into a smaller house to create a housing opportunity for a new family, or afford basic rent after getting their first job.
And then the whole issue about prices going up, I'm in Minnesota.
We're farm country, and we still are seeing grocery prices be higher than we would like them to be.
And then you had the holidays and trying to Christmas shop on top of it.
The president was tone-deaf about what's going on in the economy.
Four of your Republican colleagues signed a discharge petition yesterday forcing a vote on a three-year extension of Obamacare subsidies.
What's your message to those four and to the other Republicans that are not on board with that?
unidentified
Well, I try never to question anybody's motives, but I have to be honest here.
It was too little, too late.
We should have done this in November and moved a discussion forward with the Senate that was sincere and honest about addressing some of the things that should be fixed in the Affordable Care Act, but focusing on making sure that everyone could afford health insurance.
I talked to a small business person who was in my office just yesterday, and we were there to talk about his business, and I said, you know, this just happened on the floor.
Some Republicans joined in and signed this discharge petition, which allows for a vote in January.
And he said, that's too late.
He said, I had to pick out a plan.
And he and I talked about people we know who are going without insurance at all because they can't even afford the most basic plan.
Now, Republicans make the argument that the ACA is a broken system and it's not working for Americans.
And why should we continue to throw good money after bad?
What's your response to that?
unidentified
Will you tell the people who have had cancer surgeries, the people who don't have medical debt anymore, the parent who doesn't worry about taking their child in for a strep test that it's broken?
What I'm hearing from people is, you know, if there's things that need to be fixed on it, talk to us about what's working and then work on what isn't.
You know, one of the things that they say is that the costs are just prohibited.
Well, explain to somebody how on average the Affordable Care Act had a 5% health care raise increase.
I'd like to see that go lower.
I'd love to work with people on that.
But what a lot of people are facing right now is, you know, 25-30% raise in their insurance, and it's not covering as much as it did the previous year.
That's what's broken, not having, you know, insurance available to families.
And lawmakers will point to health insurance companies who they say are gouging the consumer.
What's your reaction to that?
And is there something that, I mean, what's Congress going to do about that if that is the case?
unidentified
If there is waste fraud and abuse and Medicaid, Medicare in our health insurance system, get to work and hold hearings on it.
Bring the insurance companies in here.
They have the gavel.
They could have been doing this the whole time since January, last January.
They could have been having hearings on how we can work together.
If insurance companies are gouging insumers and gouging the government, let's do some hearings.
Let's do our job.
Let's do the oversight.
None of that happened.
So it's frustrating to me that I hear about all these problems that they want to fix.
Well, then let's fix them.
But first you have to honestly address the problem, have hearings, have the experts in, and see what we can do.
Instead, I just hear about let's repeal the whole Affordable Care Act, let everybody's health care crash, and then maybe we'll do something about it.
I'm not going to do it that way.
I want to fix the system where it needs to be fixed, but I want to do it in a responsible way that doesn't put, you know, Americans in a bind without any health insurance for them or their families.
And speaking of working on something, this will be it for the House this week.
They are going to be ending their session.
What are your priorities for next year?
unidentified
Well, my priorities for next year is to work with my Republican colleagues, especially on the Defense Committee, to do some serious oversight about what's going on in the Caribbean.
I think what we are doing down there is unlawful.
We had two votes on the floor to pass a War Powers Act, which would have Congress be more involved in what the President is doing with our military and pre-positioning it.
These boat strikes that are happening where people are drowning at sea after our military does a hit before with no danger to our military at all.
We should have gone in and we should have attempted a rescue.
And this whole thing about putting up blockades, I'm on the Defense Appropriations Committee.
I'm the ranking member.
I've asked time and time and time again, how much is this costing?
What isn't happening because of the president doing this?
Where are we not doing our preparedness?
Where are we not supporting our NATO allies and helping Ukraine?
What is driving up the cost of our munitions and everything?
Some of these adventures that the president is going on, putting our military at risk and putting our economics base at risk with not providing the full cost of what, and I'm going to call him adventures, he's doing because if he was serious about informing Congress and having Congress be a partner as we should be as an Article I, he would release the second tap tape so the American people can see for themselves.
And it's through Qigong practices, through meditation.
unidentified
There's so much we can do, and our whole body is like potential of medicine.
And if we just know the tools and the practitioners, and that's what we do as acupuncturists, we empower our patients to take their health into their own hands.
And I can tell you thousands of amazing success stories where I help people get over digestive problems.
They're not taking medications.
They don't have to pay for, you know, three, four, five, ten medications, have surgery.
It's just preventable.
And it's just time we talk about these really great ideas.
Thank you for joining for adding to the conversation.
This is Christopher in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Republican.
Go ahead, Christopher.
unidentified
Hi there.
I want to say a good morning to all, to C-SPAN.
I want to comment on yesterday's President Trump's remarks on the ACA benefits.
I personally see this as a victory for the American people.
Obamacare has been scanning the American people for too many years.
They haven't been covering a lot of medical stuff.
Corporations and the medical insurances need to negotiate.
I mean, the medical, the medical practices.
They need to negotiate and sit down with the medical insurances.
Why?
Because when you create something of the government, it just creates more bureaucracy and more problems.
We need to limit the amount of stuff that the government can do in medical and unnecessary stuff and leave it, as President Trump says, healthy competition between health insurances and medical practices to create the best and most affordable cause for the American people.
So if you're on the phone, please just hold on because we're going to speak now to Representative Mike Flood, Republican of Nebraska and a member of the Financial Services Committee.
Just passing the one big beautiful bill, the reconciliation process, we allowed farmers in Nebraska to be able to pass their farm on to the next generation without paying incredible taxes, which would force them to sell the farm, to pay the taxes, to stop the next generation.
unidentified
We have made progress on unleashing American energy independence.
And just this morning, a new CPI report came in and said the inflationary number came in below expectations.
unidentified
They were expecting 3.1%.
It's at 2.6%.
That's the biggest drop since March of 2025.
So there is a lot of good news out there.
And I think when the American people start to experience these tax cuts, start to take advantage of the lower prices that are coming, 2026 will be a great year for America.
I know that home affordability is an issue right now.
unidentified
Something your viewers probably don't know is that yesterday, and only C-SPAN had this, by the way, yesterday, Democrats and Republicans in the Financial Services Committee, on a vote of 50 to 1, advanced landmark legislation to the floor that will cut, that will address home affordability.
It will make cities like Lincoln and Chicago and Baltimore more effective in deploying federal dollars by removing burdensome regulations like unnecessary environmental reviews and some of the Build America, Buy America restrictions that make it hard to price a refrigerator.
All of that is coming.
We're going to unleash the power of manufactured housing.
That's the real story of this Congress.
And if you were watching that hearing yesterday, and by the way, sadly, the only media in America that had it was C-SPAN because you carried our hearing.
But you heard Maxine Waters, Emmanuel Cleaver, long-time housing advocates, on the same page with me and French Hill as the chair of the housing subcommittee.
There are good things happening in Washington and there are good bipartisan things happening because in our committee, we involve the Democrats from day one.
unidentified
That's how we got to a vote of 50 to 1.
That should be the story today, not the divisiveness that everybody feeds on.
Congressman, did you say you're on Obamacare right now?
unidentified
Well, every member of Congress is on the government-sponsored plans per the Affordable Care Act.
And I can tell you when you look at, now, I'm not on the exchange.
I get it through the House of Representatives, but I can tell you what I was paying as an employee of a company, a private employer, I got a much better rate and I got much better coverage, I thought.
Now I'm on the government plan, I'm paying a lot more in premium, and I'm not seeing the same benefits.
So listen, I understand it.
I get it.
I know this is an issue.
I don't want to diminish it, but we have to find a way to do real reform, and we have to talk about something that can actually pass.
And when you talk about it coming up again in January and possibly acting retroactively, can you explain how that would work for people's health insurance?
unidentified
Well, where there's a will, there's a way, right?
You know, I was told that in the past we've acted, and as long as we get it done before April 15th or whatever, you can deal with a lot of things because there's deadlines there.
But listen, when I say I'm open-minded, that means I'm open-minded.
That means I want to solve the problem to the best of my ability.
I want to cut the fraud.
I want to not be handing this out to people that are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
They have to be in the exchange for at least, he does, for another two years, and his premium goes from $2,100 to $3,200.
unidentified
I know this guy.
I've talked to him.
He lives in Butler County, Nebraska.
I sat down, I understood his situation, and it's a real pinch, and it's a real problem.
But at the same time, we can't be handing out upwards of $12,000 a month to somebody that fraudulently is gaming the system, and there's up to 12 million people that are doing it, 12 million recipients or fraudsters out there.
That's not right either.
If you were running a business and you knew that your health insurance costs were skyrocketing and that one half of all of the premiums you're paying out are fraudulent, I should say tax credits, you'd shut the stage lights off and say that's not right.
We can't operate this way.
People expect fiscal responsibility, and that's what we have to deliver while we talk about reform.
And we are back in open forum up until the end of the program, which is about 10 minutes.
The House is gaveling in early at 9 a.m. Eastern.
So in the meantime, we will take your calls.
Pat is in New York.
Democrat, go ahead, Pat.
unidentified
Good morning.
I think I have more comments because I'm listening to the Republican representatives talk about what the Democrats didn't do and how they destroyed this, that, and the other.
And I'm listening to the Republicans saying that we're going to do this, that, and the other.
And I haven't seen anything come in fruition yet.
They talked about reforming this health program.
Well, they closed, they shut down the communication with both sides so the health program would not go for it.
Then they talk about the food, how the prices they have come down.
But then they shut down the government and won't give people food stamps.
Then they talk about the war in Venezuela.
It started because of narcotics or drugs.
But now President Trump said yesterday it's all because of the oil.
Then they talk about the jobs.
You look fired 200,000 people, and now you have at least 100,000 jobs that are open.
Yes, the job market will improve because you got 200,000 people seeking employment.
And now they're seeking lower-paying jobs, two or three jobs, just to support their family.
This is a confusing state this country is in now.
You hear one thing that one side didn't do, and then you hear something from the other side what they're supposed to do.
And I haven't seen anything.
I mean, absolutely nothing that has come into fruition that they said they were going to do.
I'd like to ask everybody to call the 800 number on their milk or juice carton because I got arthritis and constricting my fingers to the size of that cap is difficult and painful.
And call the 800 number and tell them that's a waste of good, high-quality plastic, and we need to do something about that.
The other thing, you all ought to sell piñatas that look like the moderators, because I'm sure a lot of people would like to work on some of those pinatas.
This is the New York Times with these live updates.
Inflation slowed to 2.7% in November when data was distorted by the shutdown.
It says inflation has remained elevated this year in part because of President Trump's tariffs.
The latest consumer price index creates an uncertain picture for the Federal Reserve.
That is the latest on the inflation numbers.
Summer in Jonesboro, Tennessee.
Democrat, good morning.
unidentified
Good morning.
Hey, Mimi.
It's good to see you this morning.
Okay, so we all know we're not stupid.
We are not stupid.
Politicians, that guy that was just on there, he thinks we're stupid.
We go to the grocery store.
We get groceries.
We see how much everything is.
Christmas is astronomical this year.
Then on the ACA Act, I haven't seen one Republican do anything for our insurance.
It was always Hillary, which she messed it up, we all know.
And then it was Obama, and it did come from Mitt Romney.
That guy was right.
It did come, and it did well in his state.
What happened was the insurance company owned by, you know, who backed up the premiums because the Republicans do not want the little people in this country to have anything.
But, you know, when I go buy gas, when I get my tires rotated or new wipers on my windshield, I don't use my car insurance.
I don't.
I pay out of pocket.
There are a lot of things we do to maintain our car that don't involve the car insurance that we pay for.
We're not here talking about car insurance because the consumer has choices and they take ownership of the dollars that are spent when they go get their car repaired.
So the cost, when you compare the inflation rate of car repairs, which is higher than it was six years ago, it's not near as high when you compare it over the past 20 years or 15 years.
You're saying it's not as high because people don't use insurance for it.
unidentified
They pay out of pocket.
Correct.
When people have a stake in the cost of goods and services, the cost will be lower.
Competition does that.
Now, here's one example.
I Googled just a couple of days ago LASIC surgery costs in 1995.
Now that's a cost out of pocket.
And I know it's planned and everything, but the cost for LASIK surgery in 1995 was anywhere from $2,000 to maybe $3,500 per eye.
And today, it's about $2,000 to $4,000 per eye.
And the results are better and more, you know, more long-lasting and the recovery distills are everything's better about it.
And the inflation rate's practically flat.
So if the government had arrangements where they gave money to families, to households that are dollars that are dedicated to health care, that they owned, they would protect those dollars.
They would use them as they need them.
But my whole point is a 60-year-old couple doesn't need the kind of insurance that a 28-year-old couple needs.
Yep, Congressman Rich McCormick brought that up yesterday about LASIC surgery not being covered by insurance and that that price has been relatively stable.
unidentified
That's all about acupuncture.
Those are wonderful things.
When people own the cost of the goods or services they buy, acupuncture, a chiropractic.
So I have a friend who's a chiropractor.
I pay cash.
You know, that kind of stuff.
Those things, people are more sensitive to price points.
The House gavels in at 9 a.m., and we'll take you there at that time.
Before we get started with our topic this morning, yesterday, the bodies of two Iowa National Guard soldiers and their civilian American interpreter were returned.
They were killed in Syria.
They were returned yesterday with President Trump leading the dignified transfer at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base.
The images were on the front page of all the national papers.
So we wanted to show that to you and alert you to that.
Getting back to our topic, President Trump did address the nation yesterday from the White House.
And after just one year, we have achieved more than anyone could have imagined.
Starting on day one, I took immediate action to stop the invasion of our southern border.
For the past seven months, zero illegal aliens have been allowed into our country, a feat which everyone said was absolutely impossible.
Do you remember when Joe Biden said that he needed Congress to pass legislation to help close the border?
He was always blaming Congress and everyone else.
As it turned out, we didn't need legislation.
We just needed a new president.
We inherited the worst border anywhere in the world, and we quickly turned it into the strongest border in the history of our country.
In other words, in a few short months, we went from worst to best.
We're deporting criminals, restoring safety to our most dangerous cities.
Just take a look at Washington, D.C.
It's at levels of safety that we've never seen before.
And they decimated the bloodthirsty foreign drug cartels.
We did that all by ourselves with our people, and we're so proud of it because they were poisoning and destroying our population.
Drugs brought in by ocean and by sea are now down 94 percent.
We have broken the grip of sinister woke radicals in our schools, and control over those schools is back now in the hands of our great and loving states where education belongs.
After rebuilding the United States military in my first term, and with the addition we are adding right now, we have the most powerful military anywhere in the world, and it's not even close.
I've restored American strength, settled eight wars in 10 months, destroyed the Iran nuclear threat, and ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East and secured the release of the hostages, both living and dead.
Here at home, we're bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin.
The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices and everything at levels never seen before.
I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast.
Republicans have launched an all-out assault on the health care of the American people, and it continues today with this toxic piece of legislation that will rip health care away from an additional 4 million people and jam junk health insurance plans down the throats of the American people.
Democrats are strongly opposed to this legislation, and the American people know Republicans have zero credibility on fighting to protect their health care.
In this great country of ours, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, it should be the case, we believe, that access to high-quality health care should not simply be a privilege available only to the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected.
Access to high-quality health care should be a right available to every single American.
And that's what House Democrats are continuing to fight hard to achieve.
And one of the ways we can make sure that we strive to achieve that principle is to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which are scheduled to expire in 15 days.
And that means that tens of millions of Americans, working class Americans, middle-class Americans, people in urban America, rural America, small-town America, suburban America, the heartland of America,
black and brown communities all throughout America, tens of millions of people, Americans of every stripe in every region, are about to experience their health insurance premiums increase in some instances by $1,000 or $2,000 per month.
That is unacceptable.
And now we have a bipartisan coalition here in the House of Representatives, at least 218 votes to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years to provide everyday Americans with the certainty that they deserve.
We made clear all the problems of the last five years are over starting today.
unidentified
And so we don't have to worry about inflation anymore.
If there's inflation, it's the president's fault.
If there are no jobs, it's the president's fault.
And we know that going forward, we don't have to worry about what Joe Biden did anymore after this speech.
So I appreciate that.
With regard to the health care subsidies expiring, I hope it can be raised to the attention of any of the Republican representatives that you have on this show that a lot of the Republican callers seem really in favor of universal health care.
And I just want to highlight that for anybody who's listening: Democrats and Republicans all want everybody to have health care.
They just disagree about who should pay for it.
And that's something that we could talk about.
But everybody wants health care and nobody likes insurance.