| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Now, the reason Obamacare costs so much more than employer-provided health insurance is because you have so many government mandates on Obamacare. | ||
| And you have nuns that have to pay for maternity coverage. | ||
| You have teetotalers that have to buy coverage for alcohol and drug treatment. | ||
| And it is just less. | ||
| The insurance is not worth much. | ||
| And what we are saying is, look, open up the exchange. | ||
| Let's let the money go to the individual, not the insurance company, and let the individual buy insurance coverage they can afford. | ||
| And the reason for that is the total number of people that are enrolled in the Obamacare exchanges. | ||
| You know what that number is? | ||
| 24 million. | ||
| I was going to say 100 million. | ||
| No, 24 million. | ||
| Now, out of that, 12 million have never even used the policy. | ||
| The reason for that is it's more or less ghosting by insurance companies. | ||
| What these brokers will do, they have a name, they have address, a phone number. | ||
| They enroll somebody in the policy and take the government subsidy. | ||
| So it's basically a giant slush fund. | ||
| That's right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right, Senator Marsha Blackburn, it's good. | |
| It's good to see you again. | ||
| We do this every few months in this crazy town of D.C. How do you like being in this weather here? | ||
| That's how I'm going to start all of these interviews because a Florida guy, this is rough for me now. | ||
| Well, it is. | ||
| You don't expect this degree of cold before Hanukkah and Christmas and happy Hanukkah. | ||
| Thank you, Mary. | ||
| And, you know, you expect this in January or February. | ||
| And I think it's caught everyone by surprise to have the dusting of snow and the cold. | ||
| And in Tennessee, we had severe cold. | ||
| I woke up Sunday morning to 13 degrees. | ||
| So, yeah. | ||
| So you're okay here right now while I'm freezing. | ||
| But I can't wait to get home for Christmas. | ||
| How many more days do you have here? | ||
| Just a couple of weeks. | ||
| We should finish on Friday this week. | ||
| So hopefully then we're gone and out until after the first of the year. | ||
| But we're doing the National Defense Authorization Act. | ||
| We're going to confirm 98 more of President Trump's appointees. | ||
| This puts us ahead of where we were with Trump one and even with the Biden administration. | ||
| We have five appropriations bills that are pulled into a package that we are going to push to finish before we leave and make certain that we do not have another government shutdown. | ||
| Of course, the Democrats are really working overtime to try to get a shutdown. | ||
| They think that's their ticket. | ||
| So is that the plan right now? | ||
| Like they are just going to slow roll everything, hoping that they can get this thing to the midterms. | ||
| It won't go well for the Republicans. | ||
| And then in essence, Trump is kind of done at that point. | ||
| Do you think that's the case? | ||
| That is exactly what they're trying. | ||
| They want to just slow everything down and get nothing done. | ||
| And of course, as you well know, they always said that Obamacare was a stop on the way to full government control of health care, which is their goal. | ||
| So they want to keep these Biden COVID era pandemic plus up subsidies. | ||
| And people think all Obamacare subsidies are going away. | ||
| That's not true. | ||
| It is just the plus up. | ||
| And it is. | ||
| Can you explain what the plus-up is? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| During COVID, the Democrats decided in 2021 that you needed to pay more, that the government should put in more money for a health care policy because people were struggling during COVID. | ||
| So they plussed up that amount. | ||
| And then they also took off the income caps. | ||
| So people that were making a half million dollars that were buying health insurance in the Obamacare exchange would also get a subsidy. | ||
| And the government would be paying 80 to 90 percent of their health insurance costs. | ||
| Now, the reason Obamacare costs so much more than employer-provided health insurance is because you have so many government mandates on Obamacare. | ||
| And you have nuns that have to pay for maternity coverage. | ||
| You have teetotalers that have to buy coverage for alcohol and drug treatment. | ||
| And it is just less, the insurance is not worth much. | ||
| And what we are saying is, look, open up the exchange. | ||
| Let's let the money go to the individual, not the insurance company, and let the individual buy insurance coverage they can afford. | ||
| And the reason for that is the total number of people that are enrolled in the Obamacare exchanges. | ||
| You know what that number is? | ||
| 24 million. | ||
| I was going to say 100 million. | ||
| No, 24 million. | ||
| Now, out of that, 12 million have never even used the policy. | ||
| The reason for that is it's more or less ghosting by insurance companies. | ||
| What these brokers will do, they have a name, they have address, a phone number. | ||
| They enroll somebody in the policy and take the government subsidy. | ||
| So it's basically a giant slush fund. | ||
| That's right, for insurance companies. | ||
| So what we're doing is saying, let's stop that. | ||
| We also know 6.4 million people are fraudulently enrolled. | ||
| So there is a way we can address this and make certain that hardworking taxpayers have access to affordable insurance. | ||
| That is the provisions we're pushing forward with a cross-state line purchase of health insurance, health savings accounts, association health plans, and sending the money directly to the individual, not the insurance company. | ||
| Do you think there's a weird disconnect, particularly with the younger generation, when it comes to freedom versus government control in that when you say or when Trump has repeatedly said over the last few weeks, we want to give you the money, that as someone that understands the nature of freedom and what America was founded on, that obviously seems right, right? | ||
| Like you should control more of your destiny and your money. | ||
| But the more that I think the messaging gets out there, I think there's just young people that they actually now fully believe the government is just supposed to do this stuff. | ||
| So they can't even connect that to how they're supposed to live in a way. | ||
| And there are many younger individuals who have grown accustomed to things being free. | ||
| They get online and it is, give us your data and this is free. | ||
| Well, of course, there is a cost to everything. | ||
| And when you're online, you're the product. | ||
| But they have grown up with that looking at their phone and saying, okay, here's a discount. | ||
| Here is something that is free and not realizing it is their worth that they are trading for that. | ||
| And the danger in government controlling healthcare, the danger in government controlling all of these access points is a danger to your individual freedom and your choice and options. | ||
| So how do you think that can be messaged differently? | ||
| Because it's just sort of low resolution thinking, but you can get, you can sort of understand what the Democrats are doing. | ||
| We'll give you stuff. | ||
| We'll give you stuff. | ||
| Everyone's like, I like stuff, right? | ||
| You just said it with the apps. | ||
| They're all free. | ||
| It's fantastic. | ||
| You're the product. | ||
| But is there some better messaging that you think Republicans need to do or that Trump should be explaining to people so they get it? | ||
| You know, Dave, I think that it is society needing to wake up and realize when they are on that phone that they're the product and they're being trolled. | ||
| They're being data mined. | ||
| And that is being sent or sold to the highest bidder for that amount of data. | ||
| That's why we're trying to pass the Kids Online Safety Act so that we can protect children when they're in that virtual space. | ||
| You know, there are all sorts of consumer protection laws in the physical space. | ||
| There are child protection laws in the physical space. | ||
| You can't sell alcohol, tobacco, drugs. | ||
| You can't have kids enter into contracts. | ||
| There are things that a child, a minor, can do when they're 16, 18, 21. | ||
| And as society has said, this we think is important. | ||
| So thereby we make these laws. | ||
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| So what are the teeth of that bill? | ||
| I just spent some time in Australia where they were about to pass the 16 and under law. | ||
| Now it has been passed. | ||
| You're seeing all sorts of push and pull from the more libertarian types and everything else. | ||
| So what are the teeth in the bill? | ||
| The teeth in the bill are a duty of care that is placed on social media platforms. | ||
| And of course, on these AI platforms and chatbots, which are so incredibly dangerous. | ||
| And they have to meet that standard, pardon, open their algorithms and then make certain there's a toolbox for kids and parents. | ||
| Have a portal where you can report bad actors and require the social media platforms to take those bad actors down. | ||
| So all of that is in the legislation. | ||
| Those are good, solid steps that put that burden on these platforms in order to protect children and to give parents and children the ability to delink from these algorithms. | ||
| So it is a good solid step making certain that we have those virtual space protections in place for our kids, because right now it is the Wild West. | ||
| And if you sold alcohol to a minor, the sheriff would padlock your store. | ||
| They would take you down to the sheriff's department. | ||
| They would fingerprint you. | ||
| They would find you. | ||
| And you would have a horrible time trying to get that liquor store reopened. | ||
| So you're not sympathetic to the argument that the kids will just, they're smarter than us and they're just going to figure out a way around it. | ||
| I was hearing a lot of that from the more libertarian types in Australia. | ||
| Well, of course you do. | ||
| And of course you're going to hear that from people that are libertarians. | ||
| But there are child endangerment laws in the physical space. | ||
| We as a society have said this is important. | ||
| It is in the virtual space where there's nothing. | ||
| How concerned are you that the same people from these same companies, say Facebook and the old regime edX and YouTube and everything else, they're the same ones that are going to be leading us into this AI revolution. | ||
| And, you know, most of them did not pay any price for mass censorship and all sorts of stuff that you guys are focused on. | ||
| You know, and I'm working with the White House and President Trump on drafting the AI legislation. | ||
| It has to protect kids, creators and innovators, conservatives and consumers. | ||
| So you have to build in protections for those groups. | ||
| And then you put the guardrails in place. | ||
| When you have light touch regulation, everybody knows what the game is and what the rules are. | ||
| And you're going to see more innovation because of that, not less. | ||
| Let me ask you one thing in our limited time here. | ||
| Last thing. | ||
| You know what it is already. | ||
| Governorship seems to be on the way. | ||
| You're running. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| What do you think is going to happen here? | ||
| I'm going to win. | ||
| To the great state of Tennessee. | ||
| I am going to win. | ||
| I will be the next governor for the state of Tennessee. | ||
| I am so excited about the campaign and the race and a lot of great support across the state. | ||
| Congressman Burchett's already endorsed me. | ||
| And we are going to make certain that Tennessee becomes America's conservative leader. | ||
| We're a well-led, well-governed state. | ||
| And we want the state of Tennessee to be number one in innovation, number one in educating children, delivering health care, producing energy, number one in individual freedom. | ||
| Those are our goals, and we're going to make it happen. | ||
| We will compete with you in Florida, but that's a good competition, I think. | ||
| I'll win. | ||
| Great to see you. | ||
| Good to see you. | ||
| If you're craving more honest and thoughtful conversations about politics, check out our politics playlist right here. |