* Curtis Hertel Jr., Chair of the MI Democratic Party, Former State Senator (D) East Lansing

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome back to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
I'm Kyle Malin, editor of the Murrs newsletter. First of all,
happy birthday to the world's oldest man. He celebrated another birthday.
Brazil's zawaw Net two turned one hundred and thirteen on Sunday.
He's the oldest man, but not the oldest person. That

(00:26):
distinction goes to Ethel Catherine Ham from the United Kingdom.
She is a one hundred and sixteen years old, apparently
the oldest man. This is wow. Sent Ethel Katheram a
birthday card back in August when she turned one hundred
and sixteen. I don't know if she returned the favor
or not. This little brief doesn't tell us that. All right,

(00:49):
here's a subject that never gets old, talking about fantasy football,
and I get a lot of advice from our next guest,
the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, Curtis er Tel.
How'd you team, dude, you win this week or not?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well? Yeah, I mean I still got tonight to worry about,
but currently have a lead.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
All right, Well that's good. Well, I've got.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
The root against Patrick Mahomes. Never never a fun place
to be in.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh, that's tough. So what limiting him to?

Speaker 3 (01:18):
What?

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Maybe one touchdown throw? That's all you that's all you got?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Uh yeah, I mean I think I think as long
as I keep him under two, he needs like twenty
five points, So I mean I should be in decent shape.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
All right. Well, unfortunately my team is going to suffer
another loss. I had Lamar Jackson, and of course he's
got the hamstring injury, so I had to sit him
and instead I brought up Dylan Gabriel. I mean, this
is how thin our waiver wire is. Oh, I had
to start Dylan Gabriel. I didn't have to, but I thought,
you know, why not, I'll roll the dice. Well, you know,
he threw two touchdown passes.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
I mean he did.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, he actually did as well as my opponent's quarterback.
But the guy I was playing has no injuries on
his team, whereas I have Jwan Jennings. He's on the bench.
Terry Terry McCollough from the Washington Commanders, He's on the
bench with injuries. So my team is not strong right now, Curtis,

(02:13):
I got to confess.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, I'm sure everyone across the state is happy to
hear about your fantasy football team. Uh, you know, if
we're going to import, you know, the tariffs may have
made trade pretty bad, but you know the idea that
we're trading to London, the you know, the Vikings and
the Browns, you know, I mean that's a pretty bad import,

(02:37):
I will say.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
I mean the Browns with a starting a starting their
backup quarterback and the Minnesota starting their backup quarterback too. Yeah,
it was not the most compelling paper.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
It was not a not a great matchup to be
showcasing NFL football a broad.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
That's for sure. Well, how long do you think this
national government shutdown is going to last?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Curt? Well, listen, I hope Republicans will come to the
table and negotiate. I mean, here's the thing. We're fighting
to make sure that healthcare is affordable for people. We know,
the premiums for the affordable character about the skyrocket, which
will make everybody's premiums go up across the country. And

(03:20):
to make sure that people have access to you know,
reasonable cost healthcare in America. What they're fighting for is
to keep the tax cuts for millionaires and millionaires. And
if that is a choice, I think that. I'm proud
that Democrats are standing up on the right side of
that choice. And all they have to do is sit negotiate.

(03:41):
The day of the shutdown, every House Democrat was sitting
in the chamber, you know. I saw Tom Barrett sit
at Sultan's you know, so, I mean in Lansing. So
I would suggest that they go and get to work
and then we actually sit down and negotiate a budget
movie for a bunch of resolution moving forward. But I'm

(04:04):
you know, I'm tired of you know, I'm tired of
Democrats not standing up. This is good. This is a
good thing that Democrats are standing up and fighting back
for the American people. I think it's what people want
to see. I think it's what has to happen. And
you know, all they have to do is sit down,
work together and figure it out. That's that's how we

(04:25):
do everything in America.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
What what what would you like to see as far
as a deal on healthcare? What what are you hoping
to see get?

Speaker 2 (04:36):
I think yeah, at the very least, we should be
restoring the premiums that the premium assistance that was available
to people. We know that if we don't that will
cost millions of people across this country to lose their
access to healthcare. When they lose access to healthcare, it

(04:57):
puts our rural hospitals at risk, and it means all
of our pre meiums go up. And so we lived
in a time when health care was the number one
cause of bankruptcy in America. The Affordable Care Acts stopped
that from happening. And they don't, you know, I think
that's been two weeks since, you know, President Trump was

(05:19):
going to put out a rival health care plan, and
that was eight years ago, and there have been a
lot of two weeks in between those times. And since
he doesn't actually want to put together another proposal on
the table, we have to continue to fund the premiums
to the Affordable Care The Premium Systems is an affordable
care Act to make sure that healthcare is affordable in

(05:39):
this country. And that is that is the choices that
we have available to us, and they have. All they
have to do is sit down, and I think at
that point we're more than willing to have a conversation
and be reasonable. But to be clear, the budget that
they passed, the Big Beautiful Bill or whatever we want
to call it, cut food from people, cut healthcare from

(06:03):
assistance from people, and Gabe's tax cuts to the richest
people in this country. And I don't think that Betsy
Debos needs another yacht or Jeff Bezos needs another fifty
million dollar wedding in Europe. I think that money would
better be spent on making sure that all people have
access to good quality care and also that the rest

(06:24):
of us our premiums don't go up, and then we
don't have hospital closures across the state, which we're already
seeing hospitals in real trouble in Michigan because of the
actions that we're taken.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Well, I'm glad you mentioned a way that we could
pay for the healthcare premium assistance that you're talking about.
Because the national debt we're up to thirty seven trillion dollars, Curtis,
how do we scale that back?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, again, the Big Beautiful Bill made that worse. I mean,
you know, I mean I there was a time in
this country where we had real debates about fiscal responsibility
and they didn't solve that. They are spending huge amounts
of money on increases in spending while they also are

(07:11):
giving task cuts to the people in this country who
needed the least. So you know, at that point, I
think you have to have a real conversation about it
if they want to be you know, if we want
to have a discussion about fiscal responsibility, that's a reasonable
thing to do. You can't increase cost cut care to
people and also give tax cuts to the richest people

(07:34):
in the country. That doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
And you're having a press conference zillone later today to
talk about this further. You got the House Democratic Leader
run jief Pori coming in, also got a veteran coming
in to talk about this. How long do you think
this government shut down can last? Though, before the public
pushes back and says, yeah, I mean we'd like to

(07:58):
have these healthcare initiatives by you know what, we kind
of like to get our government funded too.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
I think that is certainly true. And again, but I
think when you talk to most people, if you say,
do you think that Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos need
more money or we can provide healthcare assistance to all
Americans to keep the actual cost of healthcare in this

(08:25):
country lower, I think the decision point is fairly easy.
So this idea that this is Republicans control everything. They
have the Presidency, the Senate, at the House. All they
have to do at the end of the day is
sit down and negotiate and this thing can get done.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
All right, Well, we'll see if they can do that.
We appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention. Curtis
er Tell, Junior, the Michigan Democratic Party chair and former
State Center you're listening to Michigan's Big Show. Sorry, Michael
Patrick Shields. I'm Kyle Willen filling in with Tony Kuppery.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Have you ever wondered why health insurance costs seem to
keep going up? I was doing some research online and
I stumbled upon some surprising information on Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Michigan's websitemibluedaily dot com slash affordability. I was
surprised to learn that the cost Blue Cross pays for
prescription drugs rose by a staggering fifteen percent last year.

(09:21):
Fifteen percent. That's five times higher than inflation. It's no
wonder healthcare costs or a concern for so many of us.
That's why Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Michigan is working
hard to help all of us better understand the factors
driving up healthcare costs and sharing what they are doing
is a business to address it because Blue Cross knows
that healthcare is personal and needs to work for everyone,

(09:42):
and affordability matters. So I encourage you to take a
minute and check outmiblueedaily dot com slash affordability and get informed.
You'll be glad you did. It's eye opening information that
can help everyone better understand the complexities of the healthcare
system and its impact on your health insurance costs. Michael
Patrick Shields here. As you all know, I have fuzzy

(10:04):
math and I'm at Dusty Cellar for my October six
for sixty six dollars wine club. And there's a surprise.
It's seven for sixty six dollars Matt Rhodes.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
As a thank you to all our Loyer Wine Club
members and anyone who'd like to join, we're offering a
seventh bonus bottle with the club packs.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
Do I get to choose the seventh bottle.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
We'll have a number of option for you to choose,
from being red white or a sparkling wine.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
I'm in for that. The club is still the same,
no cost to join, no commitments, and discounts on all
the beer and wine purchases.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
That's right, all the same benefits, just as you mentioned.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
As long as I'm here, I think I'm going to
get a gift card for a client. How can those
be used at Dusty's Matt.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Nice thing, the water gift cards, they can redeemed here
in the cellar for any retail purchase and also with
the tap room your local neighborhood pub.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Seven for sixty six in October. For the wine club,
it's Dusty Cellar on Grand River and Okamus online too
at Dustysellar dot com.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
Cheers, Michael Patrick