December 18, 2025 • 8 mins
Trump blasts Biden in address to the nation. Senior Reporter for The Hill Mike Lillis recaps the 18-minute speech and explains how GOP centrists are helping Democrats defy Mike Johnson on ACA.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go to the highline and bring in senior reporter
for The Hill, Mike Lillis. You can find all of
his work at the Hill dot com and you can
find him on x for more at Real Mike Lillis. So, Mike,
let's start with President Trump's address to the nation. It
seemed like that was an effort to try to win
the messaging battle as he's seen concerns over things like
(00:23):
affordability continue to grow in poll after poll after poll.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, that's right, Good morning, Ryan, for sure. You know,
this was a pretty typical speech except for the length.
It was short, right, an eighteen minute speech, which is
not typical for Donald Trump. But aside from that, it
was pretty typical Trump's speech. You know, he took credit
for the immigration policies, the crime fighting policies that he
that he's put in place. But the real challenge here,
as you mentioned, and likely the reason that he gave
(00:51):
the speech, is that the economy is volatile and it
shows no sign of stabilizing. So he's making the case
that the economy is in better shape than the number
show and that people feel. So he's trying to ease
the economic anxieties that that people are feeling every day,
and that is no easy task, you know, obviously, because
people are being confronted with higher costs every day on
(01:13):
a long list of stuff, right, you know, you go
to the grocery store, costs or higher utilities or higher
housing is higher, healthcare is higher, education is higher rents,
you go down the list, everything is up from where
it was when he took office. So those anxieties have
showed up at the polls on obviously where Republicans have
performed badly, and basically every special election this year and
(01:33):
then again in the elections of November fourth. So you know,
the Democrats are winning in places they have no business winning,
and they're beating the affordability drum and Republicans are starting
to sound the alarm. And that's the reason this speech happened. Now,
the effectiveness of it remains to be seen. Obviously, we
haven't seen any polls about how he did, but you know,
it was it was typical and that he was going
(01:55):
to blame Biden, who was going to blame Democrats for
for the affordability the crisis that you know, at the
same time, he's stepping on his own message because he's
he has said that the affordability crisis is a hoax
and that things are actually better than people think. But
but again, people are seeing this stuff in real time,
and so he's he's asking them, you know, who do
you believe Donald Trump or your own two eyes. So
(02:16):
it's a tough sell, especially heading into midterm elections where
we're you know, everything is up for grabs. They don't
want to lose the House, they don't want Democrats to
control the House during the last the final two years
of his term. So it's kind of a hair on
fire moment. And and we will see how he performed
and how the polls show that voters received this message.
(02:37):
But it's a tough sell because, you know, his approval
of rating is pretty low, and it's dropping, and and
it's low even on the economy, where he usually does
pretty well. So we'll see how things go. But people
are feeling the anxiety, and he's trying to quill those
those you know, those fears.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, twenty twenty six is going to be a pivotal year.
First of all, you have the President promise an awful
lot in that speech about how things will be next
year and in twenty twenty six, it's going to be
harder to continue to go back to the Biden years
and use that, you know, as the reason for where
things are. And also because like you said, it might
(03:18):
be the last stretch that Republicans have full control of Washington,
d C. The House, the Senate, the White House, and
of course, uh, you know, Conservatives dominating the Supreme Court.
The House certainly in play next year. So just passing
any kind of legislation, uh, could be tough to do
after next year.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It'll be possible after next year if there's divided government, right,
if the Democrats control the House, then there's no scenario
where you know, Trump can get his highest priorities passed.
Democrats would just never do it. So so next year
is there, you know, their last best chance to do
something big like they did this year with the with
their big tax reform bill. If they want to do
something like that that, you know, they're already talked. Mike Johnson,
(04:01):
the Speaker of the House, is already talking about doing
another reconciliation excuse me, another reconciliation bill, which is kind
of the procedure that allows them to do it without
any Democratic votes in the Senate. So they there is
that opportunity tougher to take those votes in an election
year for some of those vulnerable Republicans, especially with the
small margins in the House. So are they going to
(04:23):
do another big Republican you know bill that that is
not only messaging but also some big policy victory for them?
Tough to say. There's a lot of mixed messages coming
out of the out of that conference, and it'll be
you know, you saw how tough it was to get
their big, beautiful bill passed even in a non election year,
tougher an election year. So we'll have to see what
(04:43):
that looks like. But you can envision a scenario where
there are policies that obviously Republicans all agree on. You
is there another tax cut coming? Is there something like that?
It's kind of low hanging fruit. They could put it
on a reconciliation bill and get it done before the elections,
not only messaging but a big policy win. See that
scenario playing out as well, But we are in wait
and see mode. You are right that the politics are
(05:05):
different because as we move further away from Biden, it's
tougher to blame your predecessor when he hasn't been in
office for a number of years and so, and you
know Trump is still blaming Biden obviously yesterday. But you know,
inflation in September was the same as it was in January,
so that that argument becomes tougher to make as you
(05:26):
move further away from Pride administration. At some point you
have to take credit or responsibility for the economy, especially
in a unified government.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We're joined by senior reporter for The Hill, Mike Lillis.
Real quick, let's talk about what House Republicans did with
this healthcare bill. The one that passed does not extend
those Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. It's also a bill
that is really going to go anywhere, it looks like
in the Senate. Then you have this upheaval with a
centrist group of House Republicans joining Democrats to extend those taks.
(05:55):
It's just it's chaos around healthcare in Congress, and it
sounds like ultimately the bottom line is going to be
nothing gets done.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
That's right, It is chaos. It was quite a week,
and you know, this was the culmination of months of
debates and bickering, as you know, you know, somewhere in
the middle of it, we had that long shutdown, which
seems either like yesterday or a million years ago, depending
on your perspective. But of course that was all about healthcare.
And then the only bill that gets passed is, as
you say, a Republican bill. They won't even get passed
(06:24):
in the Senate, let alone become law. Nor does it
address the Obamacare subsidy cliff that's coming on January first,
which was, of course the entire reason that this healthcare
debate has started to begin with. So a lot of
tensions there in the Republican Party. They're moderate Republicans who
are facing really tough reelections next November, who wanted to
extend these subsidies. And at the end, they didn't even
(06:47):
want to extend the subsidies, they just wanted to vote
on extending the subsidies. Speaker Johnson promised them that vote.
Then he walked it back and said, I won't give
you the vote. Then he said, okay, let's talk about
giving you the vote, and he made sure that they
didn't get the vote. So this week was just a
pendulum going back and forth, back and forth, and we were,
you know, standing outside some of those closed door meetings.
(07:08):
You could hear yelling in the meetings, so people are unhappy.
They're going into the holidays really unhappy. They're going to
get an earful from constituents. And then, you know, the
ultimate kind of symbol of the of that fury was
that four moderate Republicans signed on to the Democrats Discharge petition,
which is a procedural tool that forces bills to the floor,
(07:31):
even over the opposition of Speaker Johnson, and that's a
clean three year extension of the subsidies. Hackem Jefferies has
endorsed that bill, has sponsored that bill, and so the
first thing that's going to happen when they return in
January is that bill is going to hit the floor.
So it's not like this debate is over. We were
thinking Johnson might want to rip the band aid off,
(07:52):
put it on the floor this week and just get
it done going to the holidays and not have to
worry about it. He has not done that. The thinking
seems to be that he can use the holidays to
talk some of these moderates off the cliff and have
them vote against the bill when it hits the floor.
We saw no indication of that at all. They're going
to have to come up with some alternative that is
not just a Republican bill. It's going to have to
(08:14):
deal with the Obamacare issue. So January is going to
be all healthcare all the time as well. And then
of course at the end of the month there's this
government spending deadline, and then the question is is there
another government shut down around healthcare again? And the answer
is very possible.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Well, lots to look forward to for twenty twenty six.
Mike Lillis, Senior reporter for The Hill. You can find
all of us working a whole lot more at the
Hill dot com and you can also follow him on
accet real Mike Lilis, Mike, appreciate all the time and
insight this year out of DC, and we look forward
to talking to you again in the new year.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Thanks Ran, glad to be you with you.
Let's go to the highline and bring in senior reporter
for The Hill, Mike Lillis. You can find all of
his work at the Hill dot com and you can
find him on x for more at Real Mike Lillis. So, Mike,
let's start with President Trump's address to the nation. It
seemed like that was an effort to try to win
the messaging battle as he's seen concerns over things like
(00:23):
affordability continue to grow in poll after poll after poll.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, that's right, Good morning, Ryan, for sure. You know,
this was a pretty typical speech except for the length.
It was short, right, an eighteen minute speech, which is
not typical for Donald Trump. But aside from that, it
was pretty typical Trump's speech. You know, he took credit
for the immigration policies, the crime fighting policies that he
that he's put in place. But the real challenge here,
as you mentioned, and likely the reason that he gave
(00:51):
the speech, is that the economy is volatile and it
shows no sign of stabilizing. So he's making the case
that the economy is in better shape than the number
show and that people feel. So he's trying to ease
the economic anxieties that that people are feeling every day,
and that is no easy task, you know, obviously, because
people are being confronted with higher costs every day on
(01:13):
a long list of stuff, right, you know, you go
to the grocery store, costs or higher utilities or higher
housing is higher, healthcare is higher, education is higher rents,
you go down the list, everything is up from where
it was when he took office. So those anxieties have
showed up at the polls on obviously where Republicans have
performed badly, and basically every special election this year and
(01:33):
then again in the elections of November fourth. So you know,
the Democrats are winning in places they have no business winning,
and they're beating the affordability drum and Republicans are starting
to sound the alarm. And that's the reason this speech happened. Now,
the effectiveness of it remains to be seen. Obviously, we
haven't seen any polls about how he did, but you know,
it was it was typical and that he was going
(01:55):
to blame Biden, who was going to blame Democrats for
for the affordability the crisis that you know, at the
same time, he's stepping on his own message because he's
he has said that the affordability crisis is a hoax
and that things are actually better than people think. But
but again, people are seeing this stuff in real time,
and so he's he's asking them, you know, who do
you believe Donald Trump or your own two eyes. So
(02:16):
it's a tough sell, especially heading into midterm elections where
we're you know, everything is up for grabs. They don't
want to lose the House, they don't want Democrats to
control the House during the last the final two years
of his term. So it's kind of a hair on
fire moment. And and we will see how he performed
and how the polls show that voters received this message.
(02:37):
But it's a tough sell because, you know, his approval
of rating is pretty low, and it's dropping, and and
it's low even on the economy, where he usually does
pretty well. So we'll see how things go. But people
are feeling the anxiety, and he's trying to quill those
those you know, those fears.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, twenty twenty six is going to be a pivotal year.
First of all, you have the President promise an awful
lot in that speech about how things will be next
year and in twenty twenty six, it's going to be
harder to continue to go back to the Biden years
and use that, you know, as the reason for where
things are. And also because like you said, it might
(03:18):
be the last stretch that Republicans have full control of Washington,
d C. The House, the Senate, the White House, and
of course, uh, you know, Conservatives dominating the Supreme Court.
The House certainly in play next year. So just passing
any kind of legislation, uh, could be tough to do
after next year.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It'll be possible after next year if there's divided government, right,
if the Democrats control the House, then there's no scenario
where you know, Trump can get his highest priorities passed.
Democrats would just never do it. So so next year
is there, you know, their last best chance to do
something big like they did this year with the with
their big tax reform bill. If they want to do
something like that that, you know, they're already talked. Mike Johnson,
(04:01):
the Speaker of the House, is already talking about doing
another reconciliation excuse me, another reconciliation bill, which is kind
of the procedure that allows them to do it without
any Democratic votes in the Senate. So they there is
that opportunity tougher to take those votes in an election
year for some of those vulnerable Republicans, especially with the
small margins in the House. So are they going to
(04:23):
do another big Republican you know bill that that is
not only messaging but also some big policy victory for them?
Tough to say. There's a lot of mixed messages coming
out of the out of that conference, and it'll be
you know, you saw how tough it was to get
their big, beautiful bill passed even in a non election year,
tougher an election year. So we'll have to see what
(04:43):
that looks like. But you can envision a scenario where
there are policies that obviously Republicans all agree on. You
is there another tax cut coming? Is there something like that?
It's kind of low hanging fruit. They could put it
on a reconciliation bill and get it done before the elections,
not only messaging but a big policy win. See that
scenario playing out as well, But we are in wait
and see mode. You are right that the politics are
(05:05):
different because as we move further away from Biden, it's
tougher to blame your predecessor when he hasn't been in
office for a number of years and so, and you
know Trump is still blaming Biden obviously yesterday. But you know,
inflation in September was the same as it was in January,
so that that argument becomes tougher to make as you
(05:26):
move further away from Pride administration. At some point you
have to take credit or responsibility for the economy, especially
in a unified government.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We're joined by senior reporter for The Hill, Mike Lillis.
Real quick, let's talk about what House Republicans did with
this healthcare bill. The one that passed does not extend
those Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. It's also a bill
that is really going to go anywhere, it looks like
in the Senate. Then you have this upheaval with a
centrist group of House Republicans joining Democrats to extend those taks.
(05:55):
It's just it's chaos around healthcare in Congress, and it
sounds like ultimately the bottom line is going to be
nothing gets done.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
That's right, It is chaos. It was quite a week,
and you know, this was the culmination of months of
debates and bickering, as you know, you know, somewhere in
the middle of it, we had that long shutdown, which
seems either like yesterday or a million years ago, depending
on your perspective. But of course that was all about healthcare.
And then the only bill that gets passed is, as
you say, a Republican bill. They won't even get passed
(06:24):
in the Senate, let alone become law. Nor does it
address the Obamacare subsidy cliff that's coming on January first,
which was, of course the entire reason that this healthcare
debate has started to begin with. So a lot of
tensions there in the Republican Party. They're moderate Republicans who
are facing really tough reelections next November, who wanted to
extend these subsidies. And at the end, they didn't even
(06:47):
want to extend the subsidies, they just wanted to vote
on extending the subsidies. Speaker Johnson promised them that vote.
Then he walked it back and said, I won't give
you the vote. Then he said, okay, let's talk about
giving you the vote, and he made sure that they
didn't get the vote. So this week was just a
pendulum going back and forth, back and forth, and we were,
you know, standing outside some of those closed door meetings.
(07:08):
You could hear yelling in the meetings, so people are unhappy.
They're going into the holidays really unhappy. They're going to
get an earful from constituents. And then, you know, the
ultimate kind of symbol of the of that fury was
that four moderate Republicans signed on to the Democrats Discharge petition,
which is a procedural tool that forces bills to the floor,
(07:31):
even over the opposition of Speaker Johnson, and that's a
clean three year extension of the subsidies. Hackem Jefferies has
endorsed that bill, has sponsored that bill, and so the
first thing that's going to happen when they return in
January is that bill is going to hit the floor.
So it's not like this debate is over. We were
thinking Johnson might want to rip the band aid off,
(07:52):
put it on the floor this week and just get
it done going to the holidays and not have to
worry about it. He has not done that. The thinking
seems to be that he can use the holidays to
talk some of these moderates off the cliff and have
them vote against the bill when it hits the floor.
We saw no indication of that at all. They're going
to have to come up with some alternative that is
not just a Republican bill. It's going to have to
(08:14):
deal with the Obamacare issue. So January is going to
be all healthcare all the time as well. And then
of course at the end of the month there's this
government spending deadline, and then the question is is there
another government shut down around healthcare again? And the answer
is very possible.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Well, lots to look forward to for twenty twenty six.
Mike Lillis, Senior reporter for The Hill. You can find
all of us working a whole lot more at the
Hill dot com and you can also follow him on
accet real Mike Lilis, Mike, appreciate all the time and
insight this year out of DC, and we look forward
to talking to you again in the new year.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Thanks Ran, glad to be you with you.
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