Speaker 1: Do you want to be an American?
Speaker 2: Scot Will On Friday morning, seven hundred w Alwan, we're
Speaker 2: nearing the end of our second full week of shutdown theater.
Speaker 2: Republicans are screaming at Democrats that they're forcing a shutdown
Speaker 2: to score political points. Democrats are screaming at Republicans saying
Speaker 2: they just don't want to sit down and negotiate. And
Speaker 2: of course a shutdown because Republicans Democrats can't agree to
Speaker 2: pass a funding bill. Republicans still need them to support
Speaker 2: any resolution to spend and they're holding them hostage.
Speaker 1: The result, and we have the shutdown.
Speaker 2: So Greg Lansman is here, our representative, and what are
Speaker 2: we paying you for?
Speaker 1: Exactly? Landsman? Right now, you're not doing anything.
Speaker 3: What I mean, I'm trying. I'm negotiating. We're trying to
Speaker 3: negotiate with the folks. You know, I'm in the problem
Speaker 3: forverish cock It. So there's a bunch of Democrats who
Speaker 3: Republicans they're working through at the sticking plants. This healthcare
Speaker 3: question and and and these affordable care access they're to
Speaker 3: expire at the end of the year and open enrollment
Speaker 3: starts in a few weeks, and you know, they're are
Speaker 3: those of us who want a resolution to this now,
Speaker 3: so those extensions happen, and others should say, you know,
Speaker 3: reopen the government and then we'll talk about healthcare. But
Speaker 3: you know that that that's the crux of this is
Speaker 3: trying to get a deal done where we reopen the
Speaker 3: government and protect people's health care.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think for well a lot of us anyway,
Speaker 2: who are not political kool aid drinkers to look at
Speaker 2: and just throw our hands up and go, I just know,
Speaker 2: you know one point that we're pointing. It's I almost stupid.
Speaker 2: You're both wearing the same T shirt and that's essentially
Speaker 2: with us is.
Speaker 1: And we know how we are.
Speaker 2: Okay, So Democrats, you guys have forced the government shutdown
Speaker 2: because it's the only way to bring about the negotiations
Speaker 2: because you don't hold any juice, you don't have the power.
Speaker 2: So you know, I look at that and go, can
Speaker 2: we extend it? Well, I mean it's going to cost
Speaker 2: us like a trillion and a half dollars over the
Speaker 2: next seven weeks to just simply kick the can down
Speaker 2: the wrong and go, okay, we'll pass another continuing resolution.
Speaker 2: And that's the frustrating part all of this, at least
Speaker 2: the greg it's just it's continuing to add to our
Speaker 2: thirty seven trillion dollar national debt, and neither side's talking
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's that's right. And the deficit
Speaker 3: is a huge part of this too, right, So I
Speaker 3: do take an exception with the sort of you know,
Speaker 3: the forcing of the shutdown. I mean, the challenge was,
Speaker 3: you know, Republicans knew they needed Democratic votes to pass
Speaker 3: a budget, and they were told by Trump not to negotiate. Now,
Speaker 3: in previous years, there has been bypartson negotiation since I
Speaker 3: produced it, bypartson budget or continuing resolution. They did not
Speaker 3: do that, and that that's what forced the shutdown. That
Speaker 3: would be my argument. That's the way it played out,
Speaker 3: in the way I thought it was. It would have
Speaker 3: been super easy to sit down and negotiate, and had
Speaker 3: their enough been told don't negotiate, I think they would have.
Speaker 3: But the deficit is a huge, huge piece of this
Speaker 3: fight too, because remember this all started the mess, you know,
Speaker 3: several months ago with the this this massive spending and
Speaker 3: tax bill that added you know, trillions of dollars to
Speaker 3: the deficit, and then and then cut healthcare by over
Speaker 3: trillion dollars all to pay for these tax cut, tax
Speaker 3: cuts that overwhelmingly benefit folks at the top. Now, have
Speaker 3: they not done that, we would not be in this
Speaker 3: mess and we would not have added trillions of dollars
Speaker 3: to the deficit. But I'm I'm a firm believer that
Speaker 3: none of that matters. No one really cares. You do
Speaker 3: not have to get in a room and sort it
Speaker 3: out and in this case, reopened the government while also
Speaker 3: protecting healthcare, just just because this is relevant to my
Speaker 3: job as a member I represent you know, eight hundred
Speaker 3: thousand constituents in our districts in southwest Ohio, thirty two
Speaker 3: thousand people are going to see their healthcare beingum skyrocket
Speaker 3: if we don't do something now, and fourteen thousands folks
Speaker 3: here will lose their healthcare altogether. I can't. I can't
Speaker 3: just punt on that, you know what I mean. I've
Speaker 3: got to get that result. I got to get right,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 2: Get the short term necessity for this, Greg Lansman. So
Speaker 2: the fact that so the substantes expire and the premiums
Speaker 2: for those in the Affordable Care Act, the marketplace right
Speaker 2: would more than double on app goes up for like,
Speaker 2: I think I saw eight hundred and almost nine hundred
Speaker 2: dollars to nineteen hundred dollars a year for individuals, it's
Speaker 2: like one hundred plus percent increase. I'm bad at math,
Speaker 2: forgive me, but that's a hell of a lot of money,
Speaker 2: right so, and that's going to hit tens of thousands
Speaker 2: of people in the district. And I look at that, go, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's real money. It's going to affect real people, and
Speaker 2: that is a that's a huge problem. And I guess
Speaker 2: the thing is the fact that that why isn't anyone
Speaker 2: just talking about how we're just extending more subsidies, like
Speaker 2: it's not really affordable, We're just taking money from a
Speaker 2: different pile and moving it to this pile to help
Speaker 2: people out. When you look at it, you go, wow,
Speaker 2: why does it cost so much for healthcare in this country?
Speaker 1: Why why aren't we addressing that?
Speaker 2: Is you're rather than saying, hey, we can't socialized medicine
Speaker 2: like Republicans claim to, you know, you guys, they very
Speaker 2: least have a plan. It's Affordable Care Act and you know,
Speaker 2: patchwork Medicare, Medicaid and everything else, and it's we know
Speaker 2: that doesn't really work, because subsidy is just transferring more
Speaker 2: money and covering up the problem. It shouldn't cost thirteen
Speaker 2: thousand dollars per person in the United States for just
Speaker 2: basic level healthcare. The other side, you know, Republicans don't
Speaker 2: really have an alternative solution to the healthcare crisis here.
Speaker 2: Why don't we ever address that as opposed to just
Speaker 2: band aids?
Speaker 3: Because it's hard, right, and politicians don't usually like to
Speaker 3: do the hard work. That's that's the stuff I love
Speaker 3: the most. I actually think that the healthcare complexity is
Speaker 3: what the and that's one of the reasons why I
Speaker 3: joined Energy and Commerce because that's where we take on
Speaker 3: the healthcare fight. And ultimately this gets back to who's
Speaker 3: paying for healthcare? And so for a long time, you know,
Speaker 3: employers did, and most employers would cover your health care costs.
Speaker 3: And that's not the case anymore. You have more and
Speaker 3: more people who are working who don't get healthcare through
Speaker 3: their employees, so we have to go buy it separately.
Speaker 3: And it's it's just too expensive for most people based
Speaker 3: on what people are earning. And so you know, the
Speaker 3: question is do you want those folks to have no
Speaker 3: health insurance? Which screws everybody, right, because healthcare costs go
Speaker 3: up across the board. Or an't it bad to just,
Speaker 3: you know, have people running around without health insurance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you work two or three jobs and it's part time,
Speaker 2: and you know, the again the engine that drives American economy.
Speaker 2: Of course, small business and those who went with the
Speaker 2: vast material businesses employ less than two hundred people and fewer,
Speaker 2: and fear of those businesses are offering healthcare mefoits because it.
Speaker 1: Costs too much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so then there are two places that a
Speaker 3: lot of folks go. I mean, you know, there's obviously Medicare,
Speaker 3: there's Medicaid if you're you're working and you're not making
Speaker 3: enough money to buy health insurance in the private marketplace,
Speaker 3: and your employer does not give you health care, which
Speaker 3: is the case for these lower wage jobs. And then
Speaker 3: and then you have a lot of middle class folks
Speaker 3: who are working really hard. They can't cover They can
Speaker 3: pay maybe you know, five six hundred dollars a week,
Speaker 3: but they can't a month, But they can't pay the
Speaker 3: thousand dollars are being asked to pay. So the subsidy
Speaker 3: helps to cover that and keep people ensured that helps
Speaker 3: small businesses because you know somebody's helping, so they're stick
Speaker 3: around and they're they're not losing employee.
Speaker 1: Right, I understand that. My point.
Speaker 2: My point is, Greg, it doesn't. Okay, you're just taking
Speaker 2: more tax pair money and subsidizing it. And I know
Speaker 2: we're in a nation of subsidies, but the point is
Speaker 2: it's it's so expensive because of the system that's in
Speaker 2: place right now. You said this is a hard problem.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's that hard To'll be honest with you.
Speaker 2: Hear me out for second. Okay, so you've got these
Speaker 2: enhanced subsidies that were started in twenty twenty one from
Speaker 2: COVID nineteen and we got them through twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: which I don't know. We're far moved from COVID right now.
Speaker 2: And it's been a cover for a long time to say,
Speaker 2: well it's COVID. Well no, it's a yeah. You know,
Speaker 2: this has to do with the Inflation Reduction Act. And
Speaker 2: by the way, all those things were passed like Trump's
Speaker 2: doing right now with executive order. So Congress has literally
Speaker 2: been rendered at gelding here in this case, because you guys,
Speaker 2: you know, if we're going to have executive decree in
Speaker 2: an executive branch and the President just signed away an
Speaker 2: executive order everything. This is what we wind up getting,
Speaker 2: and this is why the government shut down because Congress
Speaker 2: is kind of feckless. So I look at the failures
Speaker 2: in healthcare in the market and go, you know, I
Speaker 2: buy life insurance. You have a hearing complain well life
Speaker 2: insurance policy. I got car insurance. I buy that on
Speaker 2: the market. I have homeowners or I have renters insurance.
Speaker 2: We buy stuff on the open market all the time.
Speaker 2: Healthcare doesn't work like that. And I think if you
Speaker 2: just simply it really is it for Congress too, goes, Listen,
Speaker 2: if you're an employer, you can offer healthcare benefits anymore.
Speaker 2: We're going to open it up to insurance companies from
Speaker 2: around the country. They're going to bid on it. It's innovative,
Speaker 2: the lowest cost wins. And then all the money that
Speaker 2: we spend on bureaucracy and compliance and share all that stuff,
Speaker 2: all that money can go and help people who fall
Speaker 2: between the cracks, who really need it.
Speaker 1: And look at the gig economy.
Speaker 2: So many people are stuck in jobs they hate or
Speaker 2: they're underpaid because they have health care benefits. If we
Speaker 2: freed people from employment and health care benefits and liberated them,
Speaker 2: the economy would explode.
Speaker 1: Why aren't we doing that?
Speaker 2: It's the easiest thing in the world for you guys
Speaker 2: to go no your business. You can't offer health insurance.
Speaker 2: You're not giving me car insurance. You're not taking care
Speaker 2: of my homeowners insurance. You're not by my pet insurance
Speaker 2: or my renters insurance. Why are we doing little of
Speaker 2: health care?
Speaker 3: Are you as sure as I'm sorry? Are you making
Speaker 3: an arguments for a single pair?
Speaker 1: I'm out?
Speaker 2: Yeah, here's the thing, right, So here's the thing, and
Speaker 2: it's based on and there's still going to be subsidy,
Speaker 2: of course, because there's people that again, but you said,
Speaker 2: you know, if you make the standard what eight hundred,
Speaker 2: I forget what the percentage is, but a percentage your
Speaker 2: income goes to healthcare costs, just like it does for
Speaker 2: everything else. And if you can't meet that, the government
Speaker 2: can come in and help you there, and we'll have
Speaker 2: more than enough money to not only put that towards
Speaker 2: the deficit, greg but also help people who really need it.
Speaker 2: That's good for Republicans and Democrats, isn't it.
Speaker 3: I mean, I do. I do believe that the current
Speaker 3: patchwork does not work, and and and sort of taking
Speaker 3: away from that is just going to create this crisis, right,
Speaker 3: So that that that I agree with, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: there I believe there should be a single payer or
Speaker 3: at least a public option where people can buy into Medicaid,
Speaker 3: which is an incredibly efficient, uh you know, healthcare system,
Speaker 3: and it's got the lowest overhead. I'm not I'm not
Speaker 3: a big believer that everything should be uh, you know,
Speaker 3: for profit. Like I just don't think that these healthcare
Speaker 3: companies should be running a big profit.
Speaker 1: You're in the wrong country then, buddy.
Speaker 3: But yes, and no, like there are certain places where
Speaker 3: we don't say okay, like we say, look, we want
Speaker 3: the profits or any additional resources here to go into
Speaker 3: people's care. Like people should not be making you know,
Speaker 3: billions and billions of dollars, you know, running these healthcare
Speaker 3: companies or pharmaceutical companies when in fact you have all
Speaker 3: of these people who are struggling to pay for their
Speaker 3: health care. So I don't think that the current system works.
Speaker 1: But we're not going to obviously we're not going to
Speaker 1: say that.
Speaker 3: The question is it's like, you know, this this is
Speaker 3: being negotiated or worked on simultaneously with the President announcing
Speaker 3: a twenty billion dollar subsidy for Argentina. Now that went
Speaker 3: under the radar screen radar for most people. But like,
Speaker 3: why are we sending twenty billion dollars to our Tina?
Speaker 3: I mean seriously, yeah, when it could easily solve this
Speaker 3: problem and reopen the government. You know, I just don't
Speaker 3: get it. Like I I agree that, like, you can't
Speaker 3: subsidize everything, but so far this administration has picked a
Speaker 3: few things until uh, you know, maybe some additional companies
Speaker 3: as really this TikTok deal and some other things. We're
Speaker 3: not entirely sure and Argentina, but you can't help people
Speaker 3: pay their health care. That doesn't make any sense to me. Zero.
Speaker 2: Right, He's Greg Landsman, a representative here this morning with
Speaker 2: slowly on seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 1: How long do you perceive this?
Speaker 3: Guy?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know you're kind of get inside You're
Speaker 1: hearing stuff too. Is how long does this drag on?
Speaker 3: At?
Speaker 1: What point is enough enough? When is the point made?
Speaker 3: When I mean, like at least for me, like I've
Speaker 3: got to I've got to keep fighting for the healthcare
Speaker 3: piece just because I've got so many constituents who are
Speaker 3: going to leave for healthcare if we don't get this done.
Speaker 3: I suspect that one of two things will happen. Either
Speaker 3: Trump finally gets involved. I've never seen this happen where
Speaker 3: the presidents are sort of unplugged, like you do need
Speaker 3: the president to step in and say, okay, we're going
Speaker 3: to get a deal done, and he has not done
Speaker 3: that yet. They had an hour meeting in the White
Speaker 3: House a couple of weeks ago. He mostly just kind
Speaker 3: of listened. I don't I think he was getting caught
Speaker 3: up based on my you know, understanding of the meeting,
Speaker 3: like you need a president, Like if you were president
Speaker 3: or I was president, we would we would lock a
Speaker 3: couple of people in a room and just say get
Speaker 3: a deal done. That's right, yeah, and it would get resolved.
Speaker 3: That's the other option is that it's sort of you know,
Speaker 3: from the bottom up, which is that there's a group.
Speaker 1: Of Senators.
Speaker 3: Jane Shaheen and Lisa mccowski and a few others, you know,
Speaker 3: Republicans and Democrats and a group of us on the
Speaker 3: House side who have been pushing this notion that you
Speaker 3: have to just open things up get the he's done,
Speaker 3: and maybe with some reform, capping it, for example, at
Speaker 3: a certain income level, and and and then live to
Speaker 3: fight another day. And if that happens, I think that
Speaker 3: forces that forces in the sea.
Speaker 2: Well, well here's what and and and I think, okay,
Speaker 2: it may force And then in seven weeks do we
Speaker 2: do this all over again?
Speaker 3: No, I wouldn't. Like I'm I'm a big fan of
Speaker 3: saying like, we're not doing this for like, we're not
Speaker 3: going to do this every couple of weeks. So if
Speaker 3: we pass a continuing resolution that also includes these healthcare
Speaker 3: provisions that should be for the year, and if we
Speaker 3: can get a budget done, an actual budget, great, then
Speaker 3: put that on the floor and and that can.
Speaker 2: Be incredibly I got an actual budget done at this point.
Speaker 2: He's Representative Greg LANs.
Speaker 3: Greg.
Speaker 2: Before I let you go real quick, I want to
Speaker 2: pivot to another issue here, and that would be the
Speaker 2: peace in Israel. Hamasa President may fly this weekend to
Speaker 2: the Middle East to Egypt. As a hand, it looks
Speaker 2: like we've got a deal. How optimistic are you that
Speaker 2: this is going to be a lasting piece based on
Speaker 2: what you've seen.
Speaker 3: In her I'm cautiously optimistic. I mean, you know, I
Speaker 3: know the reason why I know these players. Well, I've
Speaker 3: been there, you know, a con in the last thirty
Speaker 3: months year, you know, two years, three years, and work
Speaker 3: there for years. This is something I've cared about for decades,
Speaker 3: right and working on like I desperately want there to
Speaker 3: be a lasting piece. It does sound like there's a
Speaker 3: deal to get the hostages home and to end the war,
Speaker 3: which I have been a big proponent of. What happens
Speaker 3: next is it is still a question for me, you know,
Speaker 3: what happens with Tamas, because I think you have to
Speaker 3: free Gaza of Hamas, both for Palestinians and for Israelis
Speaker 3: and for the region, like they can't. They can't stay
Speaker 3: there and continue to dig tunnels and kill innocent people
Speaker 3: and and start start wars. And so this comes back
Speaker 3: to this coalition of Arab countries and if if the
Speaker 3: administration can lock in and dedicate more staff to that
Speaker 3: coalition and formalizing that coalition so that they are there
Speaker 3: as a permanent you know, uh, a permanent leadership. Uh
Speaker 3: you know source right, you know.
Speaker 1: That one of the so to speak, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of people.
Speaker 3: Then I think you have to have a big coalition,
Speaker 3: particularly of Arab countries, which is how they got this
Speaker 3: deal done. Right. They got this steal done because they
Speaker 3: pulled this group together, which is what I spent with cops.
Speaker 3: This you know, not to toot my own horn, but
Speaker 3: this is this was the plan I sent to with
Speaker 3: cop months ago, which is like the path to this
Speaker 3: is through these airs, through the air of nations. Once
Speaker 3: they declared they were done with Hamas, the door was opened.
Speaker 3: That was three or four or five months ago, and uh,
Speaker 3: now you've got to pull them together, which they've done
Speaker 3: to get this deal done. But then you have to
Speaker 3: keep them together in order to get to that lasting piece.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my fear is as long as you have a
Speaker 2: ran around, you're going to have some It may not
Speaker 2: be Hamas, it maybe a host light or a different
Speaker 2: group in Tyre, but you're going to that's the problem.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So anyway, he is a representative, Greg Lance, can you
Speaker 2: go cut? Can some constituents lawns? I feel like you
Speaker 2: know we're doing you're doing something for the people, Greg,
Speaker 2: because the sitting around is not a good look for
Speaker 2: You're an active guy coming.
Speaker 3: I'm still yeah, but like I have really been and
Speaker 3: like desperately trying to you know, get get something resolved here.
Speaker 3: I also suspended my pay. Yeah, and and and and
Speaker 3: I go back to DC next week, no matter whether,
Speaker 3: no matter if the speaker calls us back, I'm going
Speaker 3: back to just keep plugging along to try to get
Speaker 3: this what you can do, I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, hey man, I appreciate sciated friend, thanks
Speaker 2: again for checking in. He is our represent Greg Landsman
Speaker 2: on The Scotsland Show on seven. Half a great weekend, Okay,
Speaker 2: be well, appreciate it as always, although we disagreed somewhat there,
Speaker 2: but that's that's actually how it should be, right without
Speaker 2: screaming at each other. Yeah, I just uh, well, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of problems with this. I'm running late, and
Speaker 2: we could kick as the why and how we got here.
Speaker 2: And a lot of this has to do with executive
Speaker 2: orders because Biden did it and then Trump said, hold
Speaker 2: hold my died Coke. This is how you do executive orders,
Speaker 2: and this is how we now govern. The executive order
Speaker 2: in Congress does nothing, and here we go again. Slanely
Speaker 2: seven hundred w