The Battle Over Healthcare

Fox News Radio's Ryan Schmelz joins us to discuss the deadline Congress has to pass to extend healthcare subsidies before they expire. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is West Michigan's Morning News, Steve Kelly and Brett Mekata.
So Congress is racing against this three week deadline to
tackle not just healthcare. Let's get the latest from the
White House this morning, our friend John Ryan Schmels. We
talked to Jonathan Savage last night. Ryan Schmell is at

(00:20):
the White House. Ryan, what's going on? Man bangs?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
All right, Well, yeah, there's supposed to be a vote
on healthcare between now and the end of the month,
which would extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. But
you know, Democrats have the option of putting something on
the floor, and whether they put something on the floor
that actually has the votes to pass is going to
be a mystery. You know, there's about twenty million people
who could be seeing substantially higher insurance premiums if this

(00:49):
program expires. But you know, it has raised other questions like, well,
if Obamacare needs to be subsidized, what does that say
about Obamacare? Who's on the program, And whether or not
there could be cracked downs or reforms when it comes
to waste fraud abuse or or age caps in income
caps and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
So the President has this sort of signaled that he
could before extending things, but we've also heard from Republican
leadership that something entirely new should be looked at.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, we've also heard that President Trump preferably would like
to see the entire program expire and then replace it
with something different. So there's a little bit of mixed
messaging about what ultimately President Trump is willing to accept.
And keep in mind, you know, the thought amongst a
lot of Republicans on Capitol Hill is that any bill
that's going to pass or have a chance of getting

(01:40):
signed in the law related to healthcare is going to
be the blessing of President Trump in the end, no
matter what.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
We are not just facing that. There's Defense authorization and
then there's another deadline that's looming right in January.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh yeah, I mean the government funding debtline is looming
in January. So yes, there's going to be a question
about Defense author there's the Defense Appropriations Bill and whether
or not they can fund the military before that deadline.
And then there's a number of other agencies that are
up that that need to be funded as well. But
at the same time, you know, you have things like

(02:14):
SNAP as well as the Department of veterans affairs that
were funded through the entire fiscal year when we had
the last government shut down battle, So at least some
of those things won't be on the chopping block if
we hit another deadline.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
When is the story? I'm looking at Fox's three weeks.
But lawmakers got to go home for their little holiday
break too, do we know when that sort of thing was?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
At the end of December week at Christmas?

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Gotcha? In the meantime, we hear that they're going to
start opening up tours again for the White House for
a select few. Did they let guys like you go
through and see what the Christmas decorations look like?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yet I was allowed to go. I completely forgot to
sign up for that though, so that did not happen
this week. Unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
There's a tree from West Michigan that is there, and
we're all kind of excited about it. So if you
get a chance and you can take a picture, send
it to us.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Will you do you know where it is?

Speaker 1 (03:11):
I'll get back to you on that. I'll just send
you a text.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
I'll get away. I'll Stafford to send it to me.
I think I should get that for you.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
It's kind of a big place, bigger than people think so.
Ryan Smells with Fox News Radio at the White House.
Thanks for your time today, of course, thank you