Obamacare and the Shutdown

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
About day fifteen now of the government shut down. I
had another vote yesterday, and everybody is intractable in their positions.
I want to chat a little bit more about this
with Richard Stern from the Heritage Foundation.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Richard, good morning, Hey, good morning, Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
You, Bet, I appreciate you coming on here. We have
no end in sight according to all the principal players.
What do you see happening here? What's the endgame?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
So I think new end insight is definitely a good
way to sum it up. What's unclear at the moment.
And this is really what the question hinges on is.
Does Schumer actually want a deal at all? Or which
is what I think is going on, he actually wants
his own moderates to bail on him and vote to
reopen the government for Republicans, so that Schumer can go

(00:47):
to his very far left progressive base and say I
never would have voted to reopen the government Republicans. It's
the moderates in our caucus that betrayed us, and voter
with them. It helps the moderates and Schumer look like
a far less liberal. So that's what's going on. It
could be quite some.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Fun, interesting Uh, isn't there if that's if that theory
is correct, isn't there a back channel way for him
to let them know that they should do that without
uh and still have deniability.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, what I will tell you is the rumors that
I'm hearing from my friends that are still in the
Hill I used to work there, of course, is that
is what's going on. So you're absolutely right about that.
And look, I can't I can't prove that there's you know,
very few people know precisely that's happening. But that's certainly
with the room of Millas.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Right, because otherwise the Republicans are not going to go
for this, uh, the demand that the Democrats have so
uh there and but there has to be a way out.
Can you explain to me? I keep hearing different things
about what their demands are the Democrats. Uh. And it
has to do uh with healthcare? Is it? Is it
the original Obamacare subsidies or is it the enhanced COVID

(01:59):
Obama Care subsidies that they're stuck on.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
It's the enhanced COVID subsidies that they're stuck on. So
what's going on right now? And this is part of
what's a little unprecedent about all of this is that,
you know, we're used to shut down politics, We're used
to both political parties trying to outbid the other one.
But the Democrat requests here are are quite frankly absurd.

(02:23):
They want to add one and a half trillion dollars
to the federal deficit. Just to put that in perspective,
it's eleven thousand dollars per American household and it's mostly
for exactly that, to continue what had been emergency covid
Era healthcare subsidies, mostly for well off people who have

(02:44):
jobs and insurance to their employers and don't need welfare.
And you know, one of the target populations they can
take advantage of these subsidies are illegal aliens and that's
part of who they are fighting to get these welfare
subsidies too. So you know, I think even knew that
these were non starter requests.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, and of course they deny that no, illegals can't
get health care. But the way it works, right as
they go to emergency rooms, and then the emergency rooms
go to the government for compensation, and regardless of who
it is legal or illegal, right, well.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
That's probably how they do it. That's certainly one of
the avenues. The other is, frankly, under Joe Biden, they
were giving solid security numbers two illegal aliens, and so
you actually have a lot of them who have been
helped in being able to commit fraud by the foundation
that have been laid by Joe Biden by Democrats when
they controlled the White House. So the combination is quite something.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Man, I Richard, I hope your theory is right about
what Humor's up to, because you're right, he's watching his
left flank. He's scared to death right of AOC primary
ing him, and so he's got to be able to
say I'm pure on this part of my caucus betrayed me,
but I'm pure vote for me.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well, well, thank you, absolutely, And you know it's important
to remember that that's the kind of hold the far
left progression progressive Caucus has over their entire party that
they could they could manipulate and run something like the
shutdown that we're seeing now. But that's the reality of
where the Democrats are right now in Congress.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Very very interesting analysis, Richard. Thank you. I hope you'll
come back on with us.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Sometimes always a pleasure. Thanks.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
I appreciate you about Richard Stern, acting Director of the
Thomas A. Row Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the
Heritage Foundation. Here on kfab's Morning News