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Speaker 1: It's seven five fifty five ker Ced Talks Station Friday Eve.

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Speaker 1: It is that time a week and I so thoroughly

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Speaker 1: enjoyed Congressman Warren Davidson joining the program on a regular basis.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back, Congressman Warren Davidson. It's a distinct pleasure to

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Speaker 1: have you on the show again.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, always an honor brand. Nice to talk with you.

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Speaker 1: You're not a senator yet, but apparently the Senate's going

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Speaker 1: to be voting on two proposals as part of the

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Speaker 1: agreement to open up the government again after the forty

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Speaker 1: three days that was shut which actually put a smile

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Speaker 1: a lot of my listeners faces, I have to say,

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Speaker 1: Congressman Davidson. But data aside, two proposals floating around the

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Speaker 1: Senate won. The Republican proposal, which is a little more complicated,

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Speaker 1: a lot different than the Democrats proposal, which is simply

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Speaker 1: to extend the healthcare supplements for an additional three years,

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Speaker 1: no other terms of conditions, just a straight three year extension,

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Speaker 1: which is what they were arguing for in essence when

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Speaker 1: they got the government down. I guess initially if that

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Speaker 1: one was to win the day, and they say so

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Speaker 1: far there is no way either of these proposals got

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Speaker 1: the votes necessary to pass. But theoretically, if that one

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Speaker 1: did pass, we're just merely kicking the can down the

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Speaker 1: road again for another three years, only to have this

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Speaker 1: argument again in three years, I presume, right, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I mean Congress is pretty good at the king aim.

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Speaker 2: But so I couldn't totally bet against that happening because

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Speaker 2: there are a couple of Republican proposals too that were

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Speaker 2: introduced as discharged petitions in the House. Brian Fitzpatrick, a

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Speaker 2: moderate from Philadelphia, wants to get Democrats to back his

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Speaker 2: proposal to do a two year extension. And then Jen

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Speaker 2: Keggin's a moderate from Norfolk, Virginia. She's got some other

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Speaker 2: scheme to basically continued. It's basically the Obamacare bailout Act, right,

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Speaker 2: I mean, clearly Obamacare failed. It hasn't made the care

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Speaker 2: more affordable. Let's, as I say, no good ideas in Obamacare.

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Speaker 2: There were things that did need fixed in our health

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Speaker 2: care system. But this isn't like all of Obamacare goes away, right,

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Speaker 2: I mean, this is just a bonus subsidy that affects

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Speaker 2: about It affects about five percent of the people that

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Speaker 2: get Obamacare, and generally the five percent of people that

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Speaker 2: it affects are you know, people if the only income

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Speaker 2: I had was pay from Congress and the only you know,

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Speaker 2: no big set of assets. Rying if you're making one

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Speaker 2: hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year and you have

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Speaker 2: a family of four, you could still qualify for these

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Speaker 2: kinds of subsidies. This is crazy. This is bonus round stuff.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, okay, people that are making one hundred and

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Speaker 2: eighty two hundred thousand dollars a year, the idea that

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Speaker 2: the government wouldn't keep subsidizing them shouldn't scare people. Right,

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Speaker 2: So the traditional Obamacare person who's you know, making you know,

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars a year, working in a job that

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Speaker 2: doesn't offer healthcare, say a restaurant or something, they don't

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Speaker 2: have benefits, and they sent it for Obamacare. Regular Obamacare

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Speaker 2: is in jeopardy. But that doesn't mean it works. Well.

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Speaker 2: Ask people, their healthcare is terrible, They get high out

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Speaker 2: of pocket expenses, their premiums go up double digits every year.

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Speaker 2: But this isn't the program that affects that, it's just

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Speaker 2: status quo. Obama care is terrible.

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Speaker 1: Well, my understanding, and I've said it many times, this

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Speaker 1: is what I understand the argument to be and why

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Speaker 1: some Republicans would extend the subsidies in spite of everything.

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Speaker 1: You just point out that, like the Continuing Resolution that

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Speaker 1: led up to the government shutdown, the Republicans approved the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four spending levels didn't try to pair it back,

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Speaker 1: much to the chagrin of folks like you, maybe Thomas Massey,

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Speaker 1: which would have liked to have seen some cuts. They

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Speaker 1: wanted to take all arguments away from Democrats as we

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Speaker 1: approach the expiration of the subsidies. So here we are.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're shutting down, but we left your funding

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Speaker 1: levels the same as last year. You have nothing to

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Speaker 1: complain about. And they really didn't. That pushed the burden

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Speaker 1: back over them to say, well, wait a minute, no,

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Speaker 1: these subsidies are going to inspire. We're all going to die,

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Speaker 1: blah blah blah. But you're the one that put the

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Speaker 1: expiration date in. The only reason they were sended and

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Speaker 1: broadened was because of COVID nineteen. Now long over, they

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Speaker 1: had no argument. Now pivoting over to this, the Republicans

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Speaker 1: would extend the subsidies because they want to get past

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Speaker 1: next November. They want to take the win out of

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Speaker 1: the argument that the Democrats will run around screaming, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, those evil Republicans took away health care from

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Speaker 1: millions of Americans. But going to that five percent figure

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Speaker 1: you just mentioned, if this is only going to impact

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Speaker 1: five percent of the voters, those who are getting subsidies

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Speaker 1: in excess of the original cap of sixty one five,

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Speaker 1: is that really an election influence percentage? Do the Democrats

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Speaker 1: really have that much traction making that argument going into

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Speaker 1: next year.

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Speaker 2: Well, here's what's succeeding in doing is you know, in

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Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, Republicans campaign on repealing Obama Obamacare. Some said

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Speaker 2: they campaigned on repealing and replacing Obamacare. Either way, it

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Speaker 2: neither happened, right, So since then, people have had bills

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Speaker 2: to try to address our healthcare system. But Republicans have

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Speaker 2: done everything possible to not talk about healthcare since twenty

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Speaker 2: seventeen because they tried and failed to get rid of Obamacare,

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Speaker 2: and so they're like scared to even talk about it.

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Speaker 2: Bills don't even come up for hearings in the committee's

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Speaker 2: of jurisdiction. So I've been pushing to say, well, then

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Speaker 2: just create a healthcare committee. Because here's the reality is,

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Speaker 2: Obamacare didn't fix healthcare. It fixed a couple problems, like

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Speaker 2: people that had pre existing conditions and had hard times enrolling,

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Speaker 2: and adverse selection where you know you already get sick

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Speaker 2: and you can't even get insurance. So things like that

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Speaker 2: were better, but none of the Republican plans really wanted

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Speaker 2: to get rid of that they were out there. But

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Speaker 2: because of that, Democrats have kind of claimed some ground

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Speaker 2: on healthcare. It's one policy area where they generally get

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Speaker 2: feedback because they're united behind a plan. Republicans haven't done

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Speaker 2: the debate to say we're united behind one plan. We've

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Speaker 2: got dozens, frankly, that are just languishing in the hopper

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Speaker 2: waiting to have a debate. So I think the Democrats

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Speaker 2: are going to force a debate here. Because people love

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Speaker 2: their doctor, they like their hospitals, they like the technology,

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Speaker 2: but when the billing time comes, they're baffled. They're like, wait, wait,

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Speaker 2: so my premiums are going up, you know, fifteen to

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Speaker 2: twenty percent every year. My out of pockets crept up

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Speaker 2: from four thousand to six thousand to now ten thousand.

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Speaker 2: You're still denying claims. You're still saying this is out

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Speaker 2: of network. I was in the same building the whole time.

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Speaker 2: How's it out of network? All these kinds of things

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Speaker 2: about paying for health care are still terrible. And what

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Speaker 2: Democrats are wanting to do is hang that entire problem

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Speaker 2: around Republicans and if Republicans don't do anything about it

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Speaker 2: and just try to avoid the problem, stick your head

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Speaker 2: in the sand. Well it's gonna work. Right. So, like,

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Speaker 2: I think the challenge for the Speaker, and this is

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Speaker 2: a meeting I was in with him this week, is

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Speaker 2: you're gonna have to do something about healthcare? Why not

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Speaker 2: create a select committee? Why not go in ahead and

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Speaker 2: roll out here are ways to address some of the problems,

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Speaker 2: because that's what people want. They're dealing with this problem.

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Speaker 2: And you know, not necessarily everybody. I mean a lot

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Speaker 2: of the folks that work at Proctor and Gambo or

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Speaker 2: Kroger or something have great plans, they love them, and

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Speaker 2: the company kind of eats a lot of that cost.

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Speaker 2: But most of America doesn't work in a place that

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Speaker 2: has that kind of benefits. Most Americans get their insurance

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Speaker 2: through work, and that is way better than Obamacare on balance,

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Speaker 2: but it still has these kinds of problems, and Congress

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Speaker 2: isn't addressing them.

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Speaker 1: Well, Congressman David Sentem, isn't the elephant in the room

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Speaker 1: the fact that nobody wants to go back to pre

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Speaker 1: existing conditions. I mean, if you don't. The analogy I

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Speaker 1: draw all the time is you can't get fire insurance

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Speaker 1: for your home if your house is already on fire.

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Speaker 1: The incentive is to get it ahead of time, so

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Speaker 1: you're covered if the catastrophe happens. That was the incentive

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Speaker 1: behind pre existing conditions. Look, if you get sick and

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Speaker 1: you don't have medical insurance, you're going to be on

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Speaker 1: the hook for that. They're not going to cover a

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Speaker 1: pre existing condition. You can't actually account for what that

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Speaker 1: cost is going to be across an entire population. And

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Speaker 1: yet out the door went pre exclusions. Welcome to a

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Speaker 1: flood of houses on fire that are now required to

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Speaker 1: be covered by the insurance company or Obamacare is the

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Speaker 1: case maybe, which is the American taxpayer. That's why premiums

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Speaker 1: have gone up.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big factor. I mean, you know there

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Speaker 2: are things like that, and you know there are tons

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Speaker 2: of programs like that. In the federal government where you're

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Speaker 2: creating incentives to do to wait dysfunctional bad things, and

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Speaker 2: so the government says, well, let's create a government program

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Speaker 2: for it. And for a lot of people that say,

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Speaker 2: well we have free xyz. Now there's no free there's

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Speaker 2: a chance transfer of who the payer is. And sometimes

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Speaker 2: the reality is, oh, well we're going to soak the rich. Okay,

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Speaker 2: Well that's briefs okay, and they are on balance paying

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Speaker 2: most of the taxes. But the reality is they're not

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Speaker 2: paying all the taxes. We have massive depth CITs every

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Speaker 2: year and this causes inflation. People are like, well, gee,

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Speaker 2: why is a five dollars foot long twelve dollars? Well,

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Speaker 2: because the federal government spends seven trillion every year and

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Speaker 2: only collects five trillion in revenue, and they keep subsidizing

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Speaker 2: thing and the things they subsidize healthcare, housing, education, The

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Speaker 2: rate of inflation there is way bigger than the rest

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Speaker 2: of the economy. But okay, yeah, if you get the subsidy,

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Speaker 2: it feels a little better. So that's kind of the race.

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Speaker 2: Now it's like, well, we need more free stuff for

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Speaker 2: more people. Well, it's because it's not free. So there's

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Speaker 2: a cost and that's what's happening, and the inflation, in

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Speaker 2: frankly is going to keep going because the free stuff

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Speaker 2: for people is popular.

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Speaker 1: It is, indeed, and that's why once you start a

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Speaker 1: government program, even if it has an expiration date, it

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Speaker 1: tends to go on forever, much like the Bombacare subsidies.

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Speaker 1: But real quick here, one of the proposals over in

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Speaker 1: the Senate is to provide individuals with between one thousand

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Speaker 1: and fifteen hundred dollars to help pay for the premium,

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Speaker 1: put them in accounts like a health savings account. You

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Speaker 1: can use that money to pay for insurance premiums. That

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Speaker 1: would create a market force because very few people are

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Speaker 1: aware even that there is a whole world of private

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Speaker 1: insurance companies out there that provide medical insurance policies that

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Speaker 1: can cost a lot less us this flexibility with the money,

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Speaker 1: if you're not bound to spend that HSA funding on Obamacare,

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Speaker 1: you can go out into the open insurance market and

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Speaker 1: find a much better plan of coverage for less money

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Speaker 1: and use that money, and the market forces could then

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Speaker 1: drive the cost down.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, this is one of the bills that

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Speaker 2: Republicans of United behind for a long time, some not

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Speaker 2: so much because of the subsidy part. But if you

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Speaker 2: are going to spend federal dollars and subsidize something, it

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Speaker 2: would make sense to send the money to the doctors

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Speaker 2: or hospitals because they're the ones incurring the cost, and

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Speaker 2: then they wouldn't pass it on to consumers. Would be

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Speaker 2: agreement there, or you would give it to the consumers.

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Speaker 2: But the worst idea of all would give it to

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Speaker 2: the insurance company. Yes, because I mean and the evidence

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Speaker 2: is in. It's not debatable whether the insurance companies have

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Speaker 2: done a good job with the money that you give them.

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Speaker 2: They've been terrible. So I think the dumbest play call

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Speaker 2: possible would be to do the three year status quo

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Speaker 2: reform plan. But if you go out to the betting markets,

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Speaker 2: I would say it's probably considered the more likely option.

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Speaker 2: But look, Chuck Schumer has pushed for that in the Senate.

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Speaker 2: He got Thune to agree to call the vote as

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Speaker 2: part of opening up the government. I don't know whether

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Speaker 2: it'll pass the Senate or not. The reality is it

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Speaker 2: doesn't have the votes to pass in the House. Right

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Speaker 2: the Speaker doesn't have to put any of this on

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Speaker 2: the floor. But that's what discharge petitions do. It takes

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Speaker 2: the power away from the speaker. It gives the power

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Speaker 2: really to the minority party. And then a handful of

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Speaker 2: Republicans that would sign on with the discharge petition. And

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Speaker 2: so that's the concern. You got like six Republicans that

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Speaker 2: are pretty public about wanting to do this, maybe a

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Speaker 2: dozen or so they want to do this, and you know,

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Speaker 2: if the alternative is that Republicans are going to do nothing,

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Speaker 2: it's hard to peel those Republicans that feel like, well,

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Speaker 2: we better do something on healthcare. I got a lot

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Speaker 2: of constituents that are getting hit by this, and that's

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Speaker 2: I think part of the pressure is, like the speaker

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Speaker 2: a man, you're going to have to call a player.

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Speaker 2: You're going to have to do something. And if you

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Speaker 2: give them a viable alternative to say, Okay, we are

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Speaker 2: going to do something, let's talk about that, then I

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Speaker 2: think we have a chance to do something smarter on

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Speaker 2: healthcare that really will help solve problems for the whole

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Speaker 2: population instead of this stupid play to keep pretending Obamacare works.

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Speaker 1: Well, one might be dealing with fraud, waste, and abuse upfront.

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Speaker 1: At least the Republican proposal over in the Senate that

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Speaker 1: provides this cash payment to deal with premiums also requires

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Speaker 1: states of valor verify citizenship immigration status before coverage will

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Speaker 1: even be issued. One small, but could be potentially effective

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Speaker 1: measure in keeping fraud, waste, and abuse out of the system,

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Speaker 1: not notably in a wealthy small population in Minnesota. We'll

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Speaker 1: continue with Congress Warren Davidson find out out a bombing

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Speaker 1: smugglers after a brief break, beginning with Susette lows Acamp.

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Speaker 1: She's fantastic if for a mortgage related issue. Friday Eve

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Speaker 1: to you, Congress from Warren Davidson on the phone, talking

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Speaker 1: about some of the issues flowing around healthcare. The real

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Speaker 1: quick here, Congressman davisoncause I want to find out your

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Speaker 1: position on bombing the smugglers off the coast of Venezuela.

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Speaker 1: Have we got a moment of clarity or moment of

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Speaker 1: awakening yet? In government? Can we please please pay focus

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Speaker 1: primarily and upfront on ferreting out and following up on fraud,

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Speaker 1: waste and abuse. Shouldn't it be job one making sure

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Speaker 1: the American taxpayer dollar isn't being ripped off because every

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Speaker 1: damn program that the government comes out with turns out

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Speaker 1: to be some great opportunity for someone to rip off

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Speaker 1: the American taxpayer. Let's start with COVID funds. Let's look

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Speaker 1: at the NGOs receiving money and not following through with

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Speaker 1: what they promised it. And we could go on ad nauseum. Please,

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Speaker 1: Dear God, can't we make that a focus and make

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Speaker 1: it a bipartisan focus.

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Speaker 2: By partisan I don't know about that, but for Republicans, yes,

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Speaker 2: And this was the whole point of DOGE. The rumors

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Speaker 2: of its demise are inaccurate. They're still cranking away at DOGE.

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Speaker 2: It's going to have been normalized. It's kind of running

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Speaker 2: within regular departments. It's officially called the US Digital Service,

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Speaker 2: which is something Barack Obama created, right, So they're they're

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Speaker 2: still doging out there, and that's part of how you're

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Speaker 2: finding some of these problems where you know Medicaid, they're

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Speaker 2: like doing tests and frankly, the Government Accountability Office is

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Speaker 2: an ongoing operation like that where they provide this kind

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Speaker 2: of oversight, they are exposing it. The question is what

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Speaker 2: are you doing about it? And a lot of this

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Speaker 2: comes to states, and I'll give a shout out to

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Speaker 2: you know, our auditor, you know, done very good. Keith

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Speaker 2: Favors rooted out a lot of this when he was

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Speaker 2: auditor in Ohio. But some states, when it comes to

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Speaker 2: you know, welfare fraud, say food stamps, they don't really

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Speaker 2: have an incentive structurally to get rid of it. That's

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Speaker 2: why states like California are like, you know, giving it

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Speaker 2: to illegals, because all this federal money comes into the

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Speaker 2: state and it gets spent in the local economy, so

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Speaker 2: they don't even really want to turn it off. They're

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Speaker 2: wanting the cash to flow, and they want it to

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Speaker 2: flow even bigger. They want more checks from DC there.

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Speaker 2: So it's essentially another way for Californi to steal money

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Speaker 2: from Ohio.

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Speaker 1: Amen, Congressman Davidson, your thoughts on blowing up boats off

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Speaker 1: the coast of Venezuela. I had massy on yesterday, Congressom Massie,

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Speaker 1: Judge and Polatana. When Polton has been on a tear

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Speaker 1: on this one of late. He believes it to be unconstitutional.

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Speaker 1: We don't have an authorization for you some military force.

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Speaker 1: There is no declaration of war. If this was a

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Speaker 1: country that could defend itself, if it had nukes, I

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Speaker 1: don't think this will be happening. But you know, no

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Speaker 1: sympathy for Venezuela. But we can pick on someone with

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Speaker 1: no military and they are indeed sending drugs to our country.

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Speaker 1: But can we definitively say the boat that was floating

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Speaker 1: off the coast fifteen hundred miles away was coming here?

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Speaker 1: Did they represent an imminent threat? What's your take on

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Speaker 1: all of this, Congressman.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, generally I agree with all that cast of characters.

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Speaker 2: I do think these are legitimate targets. I do think

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Speaker 2: they're operating as part of the enemies of our country.

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Speaker 2: Whether they're terrorists or not, they're clearly enemies of our country,

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Speaker 2: and their activities are clearly killing Americans. People aren't intentionally

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Speaker 2: taking xanax's laced with Sentinel in dying right. My friend's

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Speaker 2: daughter did you know, not smart to take his anex

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Speaker 2: at a party, But it's not supposed to kill you, right,

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Speaker 2: And that's the thing. You've got tens of thousands of

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Speaker 2: Americans dying from this. You need to take out the

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Speaker 2: organizations that are doing it and these boats. Frankly, when

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Speaker 2: it comes to targeting, these aren't like Venezuela and flagged boats,

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Speaker 2: so this isn't an act of war against Venezuela. They're

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Speaker 2: essentially pirates. They're running unflagged. They want to go undetected,

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Speaker 2: and they want to get the drugs out of you know,

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Speaker 2: Central South America into the United States market, which is big.

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Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot of demand from drugs. It's

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Speaker 2: a fair point, that's part of the problem, but that

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean it's okay. So I think they're legitimate targets.

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Speaker 2: I do agree that if you want to do a

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Speaker 2: regime change war in Venezuela with traditional military forces, that

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Speaker 2: would require a declaration of war. But there are a

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Speaker 2: lot of reasons why you would want to go to Venezuela.

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Speaker 2: People say, oh, it's about the oil. It's really a

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Speaker 2: big nexus for the whole operation. So with the cover

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Speaker 2: of a nation state, you can do the money laundering easier,

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Speaker 2: and when you've got oil flowing, you can attach laundered

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Speaker 2: money to that transaction. And a lot of this is

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Speaker 2: flowing to China, just like the fentanyl's coming from China.

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Speaker 2: You know, it used to be that to launder money,

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Speaker 2: you know, it would cost the cartels ten to twenty percent,

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Speaker 2: So they had to say, a million dollar drug sale,

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Speaker 2: they would get eight eight hundred thousand, and you know,

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Speaker 2: a couple of hundred thousand would go to the guys

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Speaker 2: that launder the money. China's eating that cost because there's

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Speaker 2: so much demand for dollars out of Asia that they're

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Speaker 2: working in operation to launder the money there. So these

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Speaker 2: are things and I think, you know, look the economists,

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Speaker 2: which I wouldn't count on them being a reliable source,

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Speaker 2: you know, for all kinds of information, but they had

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Speaker 2: a good write up on this recently. It's you know,

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Speaker 2: so this is the kind of thing that's going on.

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Speaker 2: Does that mean we should go to war with Venezuela.

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Speaker 2: I don't know, but I do think we should take

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Speaker 2: we shouldn't tolerate this to continue happening.

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Speaker 1: Couldn't it work so into an authorization, use the military force,

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Speaker 1: which would set forth the parameters, like the back of

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Speaker 1: the one back from two thousand and one, which allowed

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Speaker 1: us to go after terrorists, Islamic terrorists in the aftermath

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Speaker 1: of nine to eleven. I mean, isn't that compressional stamp

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Speaker 1: of approval with parameters the appropriate thing to work under.

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Speaker 2: I think it's a great way to do it. I

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Speaker 2: have such a bill whether I've worked on for years. Rightly,

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Speaker 2: I've wanted to go after the cartels in this way

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Speaker 2: for a long time. They should be treated as enemies

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Speaker 2: of our country. And I've got the legislation to do it.

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Speaker 2: But you know, the administration isn't interested in the legislation.

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Speaker 2: They say, we have the executive authority, we don't really

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Speaker 2: want to have the debate. Yeah, and I think, look,

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Speaker 2: the reality is you've got colleagues who don't believe that

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Speaker 2: they should do it in the first place. So I

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Speaker 2: think they're right. They may not be able to pass.

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Speaker 2: There are Democrats who generally has supported but if it

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Speaker 2: allowed announce the discretion for Trump, they're like, oh, I can't,

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Speaker 2: I can't support that. You know, Trump in syndrome, it's

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Speaker 2: in play every time. Ever, I think, look, they're finally

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Speaker 2: going after these guys, and I think that needs to

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Speaker 2: be done.

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Speaker 1: Conreor some more and Davidson. Appreciate your thoughts and comments.

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Speaker 1: As always, I look forward to having another conversation with you,

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Speaker 1: hopefully next Thursday, and between now and then, best of

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Speaker 1: health you and your loved ones, and we'll talk soon.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Brian, God bless shore and all your listeners and.

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Speaker 1: You, sir, thank you seven twenty eight right now. But

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Speaker 1: if I've care se the talks