Rep. Andy Barr on today's inflation news, obamacare wrasslin' match, Trump speech, more

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kentucky Congressman Andy bar joins us, lying from Washington. He
represents Kentucky sixth District. Welcome back, Andy, Good have.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
You on, Hey Terry, how are you? Merry Christmas? And
happy Hankhah to all your listeners.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy holiday season everyone as well.
All right, what did you take away from the President's
speech last night? Were you surprised at all by anything
you heard?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
No, I tell you what though, I'm very encouraged by
and I know that the President was as well, using
all the charts that he wanted to use. I understand
that CNN and some of the other more mainstream media
outlets did not share some of the economic statistics that
the President was sharing. But the big news, of course

(00:46):
on the economy is declining inflation. The numbers came in,
and I'm monitor this a lot terry, not only because
I serve on the Financial Services Committee and have jurisdiction
over the Federal Reserve and their monetary policy, so you know,
inflation is a big part of our oversight, but also

(01:06):
just because my constituents have really struggled over the last
five years with the cost of living. Biden inflation really
drove up the cost of living. We had the highest
inflation in forty years. But we're turning that around under
President Trump and this Republican Congress. November inflation fell to

(01:27):
two point seven percent, below expectations of three point one percent,
and core inflation was down to two point six percent.
That was the biggest drop in US inflation in some time,
and inflation was well below expectations. We're moving in the
right direction, and the way we're doing it is we're

(01:49):
supplying more of everything. We're supplying more energy. We've restored
an energy dominant strategy. Energy goes into everything, and so
when you produce more energy and you lower the cost
of energy, that lowers the cost. We're reducing regulation, We're
reducing red tape that obviously goes into the cost of

(02:09):
doing business. When you reduce the cost on business, those
businesses can lower prices. And then finally, and this is
what I'm working on, we're reducing the cost of capital.
We're reducing the cost of credit by deregulating financial services
and restoring our deep liquid capital markets as the most

(02:31):
competitive in the world. That's a big deal because it
means cheaper financing businesses and the dream of home ownership.
And I anticipate that these interest rates will continue to
come down as inflation comes down, and the FED will
have more, you know, more to do. It's like this

(02:51):
is the to.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Do list, indeed, to put the squeeze on certain things.
There are a lot of people that are concerned about
these conglomerates that are buying up homes and squeezing the
housing market. A lot of people are fearful there's going
to be another housing crisis. Is it okay that Chinese companies,
Chinese related companies are buying groups of residences.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
No. We we We are the world's most competitive capital market.
We believe in cross border capital flows. That's what capitalist
countries do. But in the case of China, they engage
in predatory foreign investment. That's why we have the Committee
on Foreign Investment in the United States, which screens inbound
investment that threatens our national security. One thing that I'll

(03:40):
I'll say is that you know, in dealing with affordability,
housing affordability is a big deal. We passed a bipartisan
housing bill out of the Financial Services Committee this week.
We even we even't got Maxine Waters to vote for
our our Republican bill to lower lower housing. We've got
a lot of good ideas to lower the cost of housing,

(04:03):
you know in Kentucky and in real estates. Manufactured housing,
that's that's something I've really focused on. It's a great
affordable housing option for both urban and rural places. And
I've passed a legislation that would eliminate a regulation that
would make it harder for lenders to finance manufactured housing.
We're also working on updating the definition of manufactured housing

(04:26):
to allow the removal of the temperate chassis. You don't
need the chassing, you don't need the chassis, it's just
an extra cost, so that loures. But here's one that
I'm really excited about. I'm sponsoring a bill that will
incentivize shared appreciation mortgages. This is a really good idea.
There's some innovative companies that are doing this. Where the

(04:50):
crowdfund investment investors, so you have co investors come in
to help you buy a home. So if you're a
new first time home buyer, your down payment is smaller,
your monthly payment is smaller. You build equity, albeit at
a slower rate, but you have co investors who realize
the upside of the appreciation of that mortgage with you.

(05:11):
And so there's a ton of capital out there that
can co invest with home buyers, and once you build
up enough equity, you can buy out the co investor
so that you have a full one hundred percent ownership
of that home. That is a very innovative idea that
doesn't involve more taxpayer funding. It doesn't involve you know,

(05:32):
zoning and planning laws. But those are some ideas that
we're promoting.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Appreciate that, Congressman or speaking of Andy Barr, Kentucky's sixth
district representative. Today, of course, the Trump administration moved to
end gender related care for miners, and some headlines are saying, well,
let's threaten hospitals that offer it. What is your takeaway
from what they're doing, Robert Kennedy Junior and so forth,
when they were talking about gender assignments on children, Well.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
I mean, you know, yeah, I mean the children. You know,
children who are not you know, adults yet who are
experiencing dysphoio of other issues. They are not. They are
not in a place where adults should be coercing them
or pressuring them to have irreversible surgeries or damaging hormone

(06:24):
therapies that would advance some political transgender ideology or agenda.
The bottom line is, these are children, they're miners, they're
not adults. And the exploitation, and I really believe it's
exploitation of our children to advance this radical transgender ideology
is unhealthy and it's a mental health crisis in our

(06:47):
country and it shouldn't happen. So I applaud the administration
and we certainly and I'm working very hard with the
Trump administration right now to protect our girls from biological
men invading their private spaces and keep biological men out
of girls' sports. Is personal to me because my daughters
are athletes and I want to protect the privacy of

(07:09):
our children and they shouldn't be forced to compete. People
say this is really not an issue. It is an issue.
Last year, Terry, there were six hundred cases of biological
men stealing the championships or the awards or athletic victories
from female athletes. So this is actually a real problem understood.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Okay, as far as the healthcare bill, that the wrestling
match is still going on, what do you foresee happening
since this looks like it's going to trip into twenty
twenty six, I'm talking about the Obama Affordable Care Act extension.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah. What we found out is that the Affordable Care
Act is totally unaffordable. The premiums in the exchanges have
increased since the passage of the law in twenty ten.
Premiums in the exchanges have increased sixty percent higher than
mums and employer sponsored plans. So Obamacare is broken. And
what we've also found out is according to the Government

(08:06):
Accountability Office, which did a study and basically a covert
operation where they submitted fictitious applications one hundred, we found
out that one hundred percent of the fake applicants were
approved for subsidies in twenty twenty four. Eighteen out of
twenty fake identities remained enrolled and subsidized in twenty twenty five,

(08:28):
and monthly subsidies paid to health insurance on behalf of
these fake identities exceeded twelve thousand, three hundred dollars a month.
There were sixty six sixty six thousand Social Security numbers
in twenty twenty four, more than a year's worth of
subsidized coverage, meaning multiple Social security numbers were being reused
across different policies. Bottom line is, there is rampant fraud

(08:51):
in Obamacare, and we would be derelict in our duty
to honor the taxpayers if we just simply continued to
subsidize all of this fraud. So the answer is not
to subsidize a broken system. The answer is to give
patients more competition and choice. Give patience, not the insurance companies,

(09:12):
but patients the tax credit so that they can shop
for their own insurance that fits their needs, and force
real competition. That competition and choice is what will lower
the cost of health care.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
All right, Congress, on the amount of time, I appreciate
yours this afternoon, Thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Hey, Merry Christmas and happy Honkat everybody. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
That's Andy Barr live from Washington, stand by Matt Jones Show.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
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