Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE) defends recent bipartisan wins, like Nebraska’s farm tax bill and housing legislation passed 50-1 in the Financial Services Committee, while inflation fell to 2.6%—its lowest since March 2025. On healthcare, he rejects ACA subsidy extensions without fraud crackdowns, targeting pharmacy benefit managers to cut premiums by 12%, citing potential $280K–$300K earner abuse and a Butler County couple’s spike from $2,100 to $3,200. Flood’s personal ACA experience—higher costs and worse coverage than private plans—underscores his push for reforms balancing relief with fiscal discipline amid Senate gridlock. [Automatically generated summary]
Were we not supporting our NATO allies in helping Ukraine?
What is driving up the cost of our munitions and everything is 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 in Article 1,
he would release the second tap tape so the American people can see for themselves.
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 by 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, longtime 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?
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.
Representative Mike Flood, Republican of Nebraska, thanks so much.
We appreciate you joining us.
unidentified
Thank you for having me on.
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