Speaker 1: Don't want to be an American shots on Friday morning,
Speaker 1: seven hundred w all that mean we're nearing the end
Speaker 1: of our second full week of shutdown theater. Republicans are
Speaker 1: screaming at Democrats that they're forcing a shutdown to score
Speaker 1: political points. Democrats are screaming at Republicans saying they just
Speaker 1: don't want to sit down and negotiate. And of course
Speaker 1: a shutdown because Republicans Democrats can't agree to pass a
Speaker 1: funding bill. Republicans still need them to support any resolution
Speaker 1: to spend and they're holding them hostage.
Speaker 2: The result and we have the shutdown.
Speaker 1: So Greg Lansman is here, our representative, and what are
Speaker 1: we paying you for?
Speaker 2: 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: for overs Caucus that there's a bunch of Democrats who
Speaker 3: Republicans are working through at the sticking point as this
Speaker 3: healthcare question and and and these Affortable Care Acts of
Speaker 3: these they're that to expire at the end of the
Speaker 3: year and open enrollment starts in a few weeks, and
Speaker 3: you know, they're those of us who want a resolution
Speaker 3: to this now, so those extensions happen, and others should say,
Speaker 3: you know, reopen the government and then we'll talk about healthcare.
Speaker 3: But you know that that that's the crux of this
Speaker 3: is trying to get a deal done where we reopen
Speaker 3: the government and protect people's health care.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think for well a lot of us anyway,
Speaker 1: who are not political kool aid drinkers to look at
Speaker 1: and just throw our hands up and go, I just know,
Speaker 1: you know one point that we're point. It's i'most stupid.
Speaker 1: You're both wearing the same T shirt and that's essentially
Speaker 1: what this is.
Speaker 2: And we know how we are.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Democrats, you guys, you forced the government shutdown
Speaker 1: because it's the only way to bring about the negotiations
Speaker 1: because you don't hold any juice, you don't have the power.
Speaker 1: So you know, I look at that and go, can't
Speaker 1: we extend it? Well, I mean it's going to cost
Speaker 1: us like a trillion and a half dollars over the
Speaker 1: next seven weeks to just simply kick the can down
Speaker 1: the wrong and go, okay, we'll pass another continuing resolution.
Speaker 1: And that's the frustrating part all of this at least there.
Speaker 1: It's just it's continuing to add to our thirty seven
Speaker 1: trillion dollar national debt, and neither side's talking about that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's that's that's right, And the
Speaker 3: deficit is a huge part of this too, right, So
Speaker 3: I do take exception with the sort of you know,
Speaker 3: the forcing of the shutdown.
Speaker 4: I mean, the challenge was, you know, Republicans.
Speaker 3: Knew they needed Democratic votes to pass a budget, and
Speaker 3: they were told by Trump not to negotiate. Now, in
Speaker 3: previous years, there has been bypartson negotiation since I produced
Speaker 3: it by Parson budget.
Speaker 4: Or continuing resolution.
Speaker 3: They did not do that, and that that's what forced
Speaker 3: the shutdown.
Speaker 4: That would be my argument.
Speaker 3: That's the way it played out, and in the way
Speaker 3: I said it was. It would have been super easy
Speaker 3: to sit down and negotiate, and had their enough been
Speaker 3: told don't negotiate, I think they would have. But the
Speaker 3: deficit is a huge shoe piece of this fight too,
Speaker 3: because remember this all started the mess, you know, several
Speaker 3: months ago with the this this massive spending and tax
Speaker 3: bill that added you know, trillions of dollars to the
Speaker 3: deficit and then and then cut healthcare by over trillion dollars,
Speaker 3: all to pay for these tax cut, tax cuts that
Speaker 3: overwhelmingly benefit folks at the top. Now, have they not
Speaker 3: done that, we would not be in this mess, and
Speaker 3: we would not have added trillions of dollars to the deficit.
Speaker 3: But I'm a firm believer that none of that matters.
Speaker 4: No one really cares.
Speaker 3: You do not have to get in a room and
Speaker 3: sort it out and in this case, reopened the government
Speaker 3: while also protecting healthcare. And just just because this is
Speaker 3: relevant to my job as a member, I represent, you know,
Speaker 3: eight hundred thousand constituents in our districts in southwest Ohio,
Speaker 3: thirty two thousand people are going to see their healthcare
Speaker 3: beingum skyrocket if we don't do something now, and fourteen
Speaker 3: thousands folks here will lose their healthcare all together.
Speaker 4: I can't. I can't just punt on that, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. I guess I've got to get that result.
Speaker 4: I got to get and I.
Speaker 1: Get the short term necessity for this, Greg Lansman. So
Speaker 1: the fact that so the substantes expire and the premiums
Speaker 1: for those in the Affordable Care Act, the marketplace right
Speaker 1: would more than double on app goes up for like
Speaker 1: I think I saw eight hundred and almost nine hundred
Speaker 1: dollars to nineteen hundred dollars a year for individuals. It's
Speaker 1: like one hundred plus percent increase. I'm bad at math,
Speaker 1: forgive me, but that's a hell of a lot of money,
Speaker 1: right so, and that's going to hit tens of thousands
Speaker 1: of people in the district. And I look at that, go, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's real money. It's going to affect real people, and
Speaker 1: that is a that's a huge problem. And I guess
Speaker 1: the thing is the fact that that why isn't anyone
Speaker 1: just talking about how we're just extending more subsidies, like
Speaker 1: it's not really affordable. We're just taking money from a
Speaker 1: different pile and moving it to this pile to help
Speaker 1: people out. When you look at it, you go, wow,
Speaker 1: why does it cost so much for healthcare in this country?
Speaker 1: Why why aren't we addressing that issue rather than saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we can't socialized medicine like Republicans climate you know, you guys,
Speaker 1: they very least have a plan. It's the Affordable Care Act,
Speaker 1: and you know, patchwork Medicare and Medicaid and everything else,
Speaker 1: and it's we know that doesn't really work because subsidy
Speaker 1: is just transferring more money and covering up the problem.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't cost thirteen thousand dollars per person in the
Speaker 1: United States for just basic level healthcare. The other side,
Speaker 1: you know, Republicans don't really have an alternative solution to
Speaker 1: the healthcare crisis here. Why why don't we ever address
Speaker 1: that as opposed to just 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 you 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 just gets back to who's
Speaker 3: paying for health care. And so for a long time,
Speaker 3: you know, employers did, and most employers would cover your
Speaker 3: health care costs. And that's not the case anymore. You
Speaker 3: have more and more people who are working who don't
Speaker 3: get healthcare through their employees, 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 health care costs
Speaker 3: go up across the board. Or an't it bad to
Speaker 3: just you know, have people you know running around without
Speaker 3: health insurance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you work two or three jobs and it's part time.
Speaker 1: And you know, the again the engine that drives American economy.
Speaker 1: Of course, small business and those who went with the
Speaker 1: vast majory of businesses employ less than two hundred people
Speaker 1: and fewer, and fear of those businesses are offering health
Speaker 1: care mefods simply because it 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
Speaker 3: Medicare medicate 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, right.
Speaker 2: I understand that.
Speaker 4: My point.
Speaker 1: My point is, Greg, it doesn't okay, you're just taking
Speaker 1: more tax payer money and subsidizing it. And I know
Speaker 1: we're in a nation of substies, but the point is
Speaker 1: it's it's so expensive because of the system that's in
Speaker 1: place right now. You said this is a hard problem.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's that hard To'll be honest with you.
Speaker 1: Hear me out for a set. Okay, So you've got
Speaker 1: these enhanced subsidies that were started in twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: from COVID nineteen and we got on through twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: which I don't know. We're far moved from COVID right now.
Speaker 1: And it's been a cover for a long time to say,
Speaker 1: well it's COVID.
Speaker 2: Well no, it's a you know.
Speaker 1: This has to do with the Inflation Reduction Act. And
Speaker 1: by the way, all those things were pasted like Trump's
Speaker 1: doing right now with executive order. So Congress has literally
Speaker 1: been rendered at gelding here in this case because you guys,
Speaker 1: you know if we're going to have executive decree, an
Speaker 1: executive branch and the president just sign away an executive
Speaker 1: order everything, this is what we wind up getting. And
Speaker 1: this is why the government shut down because Congress is
Speaker 1: kind of feckless. So I look at the failures in
Speaker 1: healthcare in the market and go, you know, I buy
Speaker 1: life insurance. You have here can well life insurance policy.
Speaker 1: I got car insurance. I buy that on the market.
Speaker 1: I have homeowners or I have renters insurance. We buy
Speaker 1: stuff on the open market all the time. Healthcare doesn't
Speaker 1: work like that. And I think if you just simply
Speaker 1: it really is it for Congress Doo goes. Listen, if
Speaker 1: you're an employer, you can't offer health care benefits anymore.
Speaker 1: We're going to open it up to insurance companies from
Speaker 1: around the country. They're going to bid on it. It's innovative,
Speaker 1: the lowest cost wins. And then all the money that
Speaker 1: we spend on bureaucracy and compliance and share all that stuff,
Speaker 1: all that money can go and help people who fall
Speaker 1: between the cracks, who really need it.
Speaker 2: And look at the gig economy.
Speaker 1: So many people are stuck in jobs they hate or
Speaker 1: they're underpaid because they have health care benefits. If we
Speaker 1: freed people from employment and health care benefits and liberated them,
Speaker 1: the economy would explode. Why aren't we doing that? It's
Speaker 1: the easiest thing in the world for you guys to go. No,
Speaker 1: you're a business. You can't offer health insurance. You're not
Speaker 1: giving me car insurance. You're not taking care of my
Speaker 1: homeowners insurance. You're not by my pet insurance or my
Speaker 1: renters insurance. Why are we doing those.
Speaker 4: With health care? Are you as sure as I'm sorry?
Speaker 4: Are you making an arguments for a single pair?
Speaker 2: I'm out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here's the thing, right, So here's the thing, and
Speaker 1: it's based on and there's still going to be subsidy,
Speaker 1: of course, because there's people that again you said, you know,
Speaker 1: if you make the standard what eight hundred, I forget
Speaker 1: what the percentage is, but a percentage your income goes
Speaker 1: to health care costs, just like it does for everything else.
Speaker 1: And if you can't meet that, the government can come
Speaker 1: in and help you there, and we'll have more than
Speaker 1: enough money to not only put that towards the deficit
Speaker 1: greg but also help people who really need it. That's
Speaker 1: good for Republicans and Democrats isn't it.
Speaker 3: I mean, I do, I do believe that the current
Speaker 3: passwork 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: I believe there should be a single payer or at
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 4: Be uh, you know, for profit.
Speaker 3: Like I just don't think that these healthcare companies should
Speaker 3: be running big profit.
Speaker 2: Well you're 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.
Speaker 4: Like people should not be.
Speaker 3: Making you know, billions and billions of dollars, you know,
Speaker 3: running these healthcare companies or pharmaceutical companies when in fact
Speaker 3: you have all of these people who are struggling to
Speaker 3: pay for their health care. So I don't think that
Speaker 3: the current system works.
Speaker 4: But we're not going to obviously we're not going to
Speaker 4: 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, you know, radar for most people.
Speaker 3: But like, why are we sending twenty billion dollars to
Speaker 3: argent I mean seriously, yeah, when it could easily solve
Speaker 3: this problem and reopen the government. You know, I just
Speaker 3: don't get it, Like I I I agree that, like,
Speaker 3: you can't subsidize everything, but so far this administration has
Speaker 3: picked a few things until uh, you know, maybe some
Speaker 3: additional companies as really this TikTok deal and some other
Speaker 3: things We're not entirely sure and Argentina, but you can't
Speaker 3: help people pay their health care.
Speaker 4: That doesn't make any sense to me. Zero.
Speaker 1: Right, He's Greg Landsman, a representative here this morning with
Speaker 1: slowly on seven hundred WLW. How long do you perceive this, 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 4: At?
Speaker 2: What point is enough enough? When is the point made?
Speaker 4: When? I mean, like at least for me.
Speaker 3: Like I've got to I've got to keep fighting for
Speaker 3: the healthcare piece, just because I've got so many constituents
Speaker 3: who are gonna weak for healthcare if we don't get
Speaker 3: this done. I suspect that one of two things will happen.
Speaker 3: Either Trump finally gets involved. I've never seen this happen
Speaker 3: where the presidents are sort of unplugged, like you do
Speaker 3: need the president to step in and say, okay, we're
Speaker 3: going to get a deal done, and he has not
Speaker 3: done that yet. They had an hour meeting in the
Speaker 3: White House a couple of weeks ago. He mostly just
Speaker 3: kind of listened. I don't I think he was getting
Speaker 3: caught 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.
Speaker 4: That's right, yes, 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 2: Of Senators.
Speaker 3: Jane Shaheen and Lisa mccowski and a few others, you know,
Speaker 3: Republican Democrats and a group of us on the House
Speaker 3: side who have been pushing this notion that you have
Speaker 3: to just open things up, get the steps 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 1: Well, well here's what and and I think, okay, it
Speaker 1: may force And then in seven weeks do we do
Speaker 1: this all over again?
Speaker 4: No, I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Like I'm I'm a big fan of saying like, we're
Speaker 3: not doing this for like, we're not going to do
Speaker 3: this every couple of weeks. So if we pass a
Speaker 3: continuing resolution that also includes these healthcare provisions that should
Speaker 3: be for the year, and if we can get a
Speaker 3: budget done, an actual budget, great, then put that on
Speaker 3: the floor and and that can.
Speaker 1: Be incredibly I got an actual budget done at this point,
Speaker 1: he's Representative Greg LANs. Greg, Before I let you go
Speaker 1: real quick, I want to pivot to another issue here,
Speaker 1: and that would be the peace in Israel. Hamasa President
Speaker 1: may fly this weekend to the Middle East of Egypt
Speaker 1: as a hammer.
Speaker 2: Looks like we've got a deal.
Speaker 1: How optimistic are you that this is going to be
Speaker 1: a lasting piece based on what you've seen in.
Speaker 3: Her I'm cautiously optimistic. I mean, you know, I know
Speaker 3: the reason why I know these players Well, I've been
Speaker 3: there you know a time in the last thirty months, yere,
Speaker 3: you know, two years, three years, and work there for years.
Speaker 3: This is something I've cared about for decades, right and
Speaker 3: working on like I desperately want there to be a
Speaker 3: lasting piece.
Speaker 4: It does sound like there's a deal to.
Speaker 3: Get the hostages home and to end the war, which
Speaker 3: I have been a big proponent of. What happens next
Speaker 3: is it's still a question for me, you know, what
Speaker 3: happens with Tamas, because I think you have to free
Speaker 3: Gaza of Hamas, both for Palestinians and for Israelis and
Speaker 3: for the region. Like they can't they can't stay there
Speaker 3: and continue to dig tunnels and kill innocent people and
Speaker 3: start start wars. And so this comes back to this
Speaker 3: coalition of Arab countries and if if the administration can
Speaker 3: lock in and dedicate more staff to that coalition and
Speaker 3: formalizing that coalition so that they are there as a
Speaker 3: permanent you know, uh, a permanent leadership. Uh you know
Speaker 3: source right, you know.
Speaker 2: That one of so to speak, there's gonna be a
Speaker 2: 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 to steal done because they
Speaker 3: pulled this group together, which is what I spent with Cop.
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 air through the air of nations. Once
Speaker 3: they declared they were done with Hamas, the door was open.
Speaker 3: That was three or four or five months to go.
Speaker 3: And uh, now you've got to pull them together, which
Speaker 3: they've done to get this deal done. But then you
Speaker 3: have to keep them together in order to get to
Speaker 3: that lasting piece.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: My fear is as long as you have a ran around,
Speaker 1: you're going to have some It may not be Hamas
Speaker 1: and maybe a hostile light or a different group in Tyree,
Speaker 1: but you're going to that's the problem.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: So anyway, he is a representative, Greg Lance, Can you
Speaker 1: go cuff? Can some constituents lawns? I feel like you
Speaker 1: know we're doing You're doing something for the people, Greg,
Speaker 1: because the sitting around is not a good look for
Speaker 1: You're an active.
Speaker 3: Guy coming I am still yeah, but like I have
Speaker 3: really been and like desperately trying to you know, get
Speaker 3: get something resolved here.
Speaker 4: I also suspended my pay Yeah.
Speaker 3: And and and and I go back to DC next
Speaker 3: week no matter whether, no matter if the speaker calls
Speaker 3: us back, I'm going back to just keep plugging along
Speaker 3: to try to get this in.
Speaker 4: What you can do, I mean, yeah.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, hey man, I appreciated friend, thanks again
Speaker 1: for checking in. He is our represent Greg Landsman on
Speaker 1: the Scotsland Show on seven. Have a great weekend, okay,
Speaker 1: be well, appreciate it as always. Although we disagreed somewhat there,
Speaker 1: but that's that's actually how it should be, right without
Speaker 1: screaming at each other. Yeah, I just uh, well, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of problems with this. I'm running late, and
Speaker 1: we could kick as to why and how we got here.
Speaker 1: And a lot of this has to do with executive
Speaker 1: orders because Biden did it and then Trump said, hold my,
Speaker 1: hold my diet coke. This is how you do executive orders,
Speaker 1: and this is how we now govern. The executive order
Speaker 1: in Congress does nothing, And here we go again. Slanely
Speaker 1: seven hundred w