Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Nicole Malia Takis, Republican from New York, is with us
Speaker 2: in studio in Washington, and it's great to have you
Speaker 2: back on Bloomberg TV and radio. Is this a Republican
Speaker 2: or a Conservative concept? The idea of capping interest rates
Speaker 2: on credit cards is something that you're comfortable with?
Speaker 3: Well, I think in general a lot of Republican members,
Speaker 3: including myself, have expressed concerns with any type of price controls. Right,
Speaker 3: that's not something that we generally believe in. We applaud
Speaker 3: the President for trying to address this issue of affordability,
Speaker 3: and quite frankly, twenty nine percent is a little bit ridiculous, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, you know I can go to a loan
Speaker 3: shark in down the block from in my district and
Speaker 3: basically get a better deal. The issue, I think is no,
Speaker 3: and of course we do just joking, but but the
Speaker 3: reality is is that, you know, how can we address this?
Speaker 3: I actually was speaking to somebody who represents a credit
Speaker 3: union the other day and they are capped at eighteen percent.
Speaker 3: That so maybe maybe eighteen percent should be more of
Speaker 3: what we're looking at for a one year to kind
Speaker 3: of bring it in par but I think this is
Speaker 3: going to be a real big discussion on Capitol Hill
Speaker 3: because I can tell you I was remember the Main
Speaker 3: Street Caucus, which there's more center right. Members of our conference,
Speaker 3: a lot of them have expressed concerns about this in
Speaker 3: our last meeting, which took place on Monday, and so
Speaker 3: I do believe that this is really really gonna be
Speaker 3: something that he's going to get a lot of opposition
Speaker 3: to on the Hill.
Speaker 1: This falls into the whole affordability category.
Speaker 2: You can come at this from a lot of different ways,
Speaker 2: whether it's housing, whether it's pharmaceuticals. Obamacare subsidies is one
Speaker 2: that we have been talking about a lot. And as
Speaker 2: the Senate prepares to go home today, there are some
Speaker 2: saying that this Bernie Moreno bill is going nowhere, that
Speaker 2: it's time for a new plan, open enrollment is closing.
Speaker 1: Where are we in this debate?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I think that the President just a little
Speaker 3: while ago came out with his Great Healthcare Plan and
Speaker 3: we're currently reviewing that, and it does hit on a
Speaker 3: lot of the points. I mean, I think one of
Speaker 3: the big issues where we see some opportunity is pharmaceuticals, right,
Speaker 3: he's proposed his most favored nation. He wants to pay
Speaker 3: Americans to pay the same price that many other countries
Speaker 3: are paying. Why are we subsidizing the research and on
Speaker 3: top of it paying the highest prices. So he has
Speaker 3: a point with that, But I think the bigger issue
Speaker 3: is PBM reform if we want to rein in those
Speaker 3: PBMs that are those middlemen between the insurance companies and
Speaker 3: the pharmacies, and in some cases is vertical integration where
Speaker 3: the insurance company is the PBM and the pharmacy, and
Speaker 3: that is I think a real problem because we're seeing
Speaker 3: them put small moment pop pharmacies out of business. They're
Speaker 3: dictating what their competitors are making, and they are have
Speaker 3: no transparency in terms of, you know, what's going on
Speaker 3: in the middle in between phase and how much they're profiting.
Speaker 3: So in fact, our committee next week, Ways and Means
Speaker 3: is going to be having these health insurance executives that
Speaker 3: do also own these PBMs come before us and the questions.
Speaker 3: It's going to be interesting, especially when we ask them,
Speaker 3: you know about the two hundred and thirty percent increase
Speaker 3: in profits and the premiums increasing at the same time
Speaker 3: despite those taxpayer subsidies. That's going to be a big topic,
Speaker 3: I think in the next couple of weeks, and we'll
Speaker 3: see where that goes. But I'm hopeful that we're still
Speaker 3: going to get something done to bipartisan way, if not
Speaker 3: through reconciliation. What the President proposed today could be done
Speaker 3: through the reconciliation process, which means only Republicans are needed
Speaker 3: to pass this.
Speaker 1: Wow. Interesting, So reconciliation two point zero is real for you?
Speaker 1: I think it's a possibility.
Speaker 3: I think, look, our margin keeps getting slimmer and slimmer,
Speaker 3: but I think that's very well possible. Maybe as it
Speaker 3: relates to healthcare and housing. There's a lot of discussion
Speaker 3: surrounding housing and affordability there.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 3: I think one of the biggest things we also need
Speaker 3: to do, and I think as a really to credit
Speaker 3: card companies, financial literacy is so important, right teaching young
Speaker 3: people about what it means to take on debt and
Speaker 3: that you know what's behind the actual dollar. And I
Speaker 3: think that that's something we need to get back to
Speaker 3: the basics. In our education system.
Speaker 1: You need to get a Bloomberg terminal in every classroom.
Speaker 2: I didn't really say that, I want to ask you
Speaker 2: about immigration because the conversation that we had so frequently
Speaker 2: throughout the campaign has evolved. Following the Ice raids, we
Speaker 2: saw the deadly shooting in Minneapolis.
Speaker 1: You can't wake up.
Speaker 2: In the morning without the doom scroll on your phone
Speaker 2: and seeing somebody pull out of a car, pulled out
Speaker 2: of their home. President actually, if you go back and
Speaker 2: listen to his rhetoric on the campaign trail actually set
Speaker 2: in an interview, this could be difficult for some people
Speaker 2: to see.
Speaker 1: Is this what you expected?
Speaker 2: Look?
Speaker 3: I think I think what we really wanted and needed,
Speaker 3: particularly my district, was the President to wance secure the border,
Speaker 3: which he's done. We now zero crossings and number two
Speaker 3: deport the criminals, right, and I think that in many
Speaker 3: ways they've been very successful. We are seeing thousands of
Speaker 3: criminals that have committed real serious crimes deported. Those migrant
Speaker 3: shelters that were popping up all over New York City
Speaker 3: being funded by the taxpayer are now closed. But we
Speaker 3: also see that there are areas where they've gone too far.
Speaker 3: And we've had a real discussion about this with the
Speaker 3: Speaker and with the White House because we want to
Speaker 3: see some type of balance here. And I think that's
Speaker 3: what the American people want. So you secured the border,
Speaker 3: you're deporting the criminals. But when it comes to these raids,
Speaker 3: I think they are problematic. But I think the other
Speaker 3: issue is that the municipalities are not cooperating to deport
Speaker 3: those criminals. So if they're not turning over these people,
Speaker 3: which in New York City recently there was an article
Speaker 3: saying seven thousand individuals, including murderers and rapists, were released
Speaker 3: back onto the street instead of turned over to ice.
Speaker 3: And so when you have a situation where the local
Speaker 3: government is not cooperating to enforce the laws of our nation,
Speaker 3: these raids happen because now they've got to go in
Speaker 3: there and find those criminals. And the problem is you're
Speaker 3: putting public at risk, you're putting those officers at risk.
Speaker 3: And so we really do need to see a cooperation
Speaker 3: in some common ground. They're going to focus on those criminals,
Speaker 3: but we need these local governments to cooperate with us.
Speaker 3: And then the second part of this is obviously immigration reform.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a group of US Hispanic Republicans who
Speaker 3: met with the Speaker recently. We've been also pushing for
Speaker 3: a meeting with the President himself to talk about the
Speaker 3: need for immigration reform. I represent a district where we
Speaker 3: have a very diverse population and even you know this
Speaker 3: Ukrainian parole program that's now when people have to renew
Speaker 3: for that, it's taking a very long time. And these
Speaker 3: people are here legally and working and they end up
Speaker 3: losing their jobs because they can't get their parole renewed.
Speaker 3: And we're seeing the same thing with work authorizations and visas.
Speaker 3: People who are here doing the right thing, follow the rules,
Speaker 3: they're working hard, they're paying taxes, and you know what,
Speaker 3: they lose their legal status and then they lose their job.
Speaker 3: And fortunately, we need to figure out a system that
Speaker 3: improves that and also gives more employers opportunities to hire
Speaker 3: foreign workers for jobs that they cannot fill with Americans.
Speaker 2: Well, that was a comprehensive answer, and I only have
Speaker 2: a minute left. I want to just see your thought
Speaker 2: on the discord over these ice raids impacting the budget
Speaker 2: for DHS.
Speaker 1: Could this hold up funding at the end of the month.
Speaker 3: Quite frankly, I think the Democrats are playing politics here
Speaker 3: with this. I think that first of all, we just
Speaker 3: gave billions of dollars to our ice to be able
Speaker 3: to carry out these deportations in the Reconciliation Bill where
Speaker 3: you're going to see some impact if they choose to
Speaker 3: take this route. Coast Guard, for example, is going to
Speaker 3: get hurt. These are serious other federal law enforcement. They're
Speaker 3: the ones that are going to get impacted. Counter terrorism, cybersecurity,
Speaker 3: our coastline, those are the areas we're gonna see some
Speaker 3: impact if they don't work with us to get the
Speaker 3: job done and fund the government