Voter Asks Brian Schatz What He's 'Most Angry About' In GOP Budget

7 months ago

During a Senate Democrats "Ask Me Anything" event on Wednesday, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) was asked about cuts to healthcare and other social services in the Republican budget.

Transcript

00:00all right hey everybody I just wanted to thank you for tuning in and I want to

00:08reiterate what Chris just said look I think we can kill this bill and I think

00:14that we should not get too fancy with our thinking and our strategy the

00:18objective here is not to improve this bill it can't be improved there's

00:22nothing that's worth doing inside of it it raises the debt it increases prices

00:28for everybody all in the name of increasing or decreasing taxes for people

00:33making four million bucks a year or more so the first question who loses their

00:40Medicaid in this bill look I the estimates I've seen are around 14 million people

00:44getting kicked off Medicaid but the other thing I kind of want to point out here

00:48is that it has a big secondary effect even if you're not personally on Medicaid it

00:55screws up the revenue stream especially for rural hospitals and clinics but

00:59any any health care provider that has a payer mix right so a composition of

01:05payers that includes a big chunk of Medicaid they're gonna lose a big chunk of

01:09their revenue and so if you're a big big provider you can probably sustain the cut

01:14you just provide way way less in the way of service to the community but there are

01:18a bunch of especially rural hospitals that are always on the edge of shutting

01:21down anyway and they will so even if you're not on Medicaid if you're in a

01:26place where the main hospital or clinic depends on Medicaid you're also gonna get

01:30screwed by this bill and then the premium support problem is huge a lot of

01:36people have no idea how much their individual health care plans are being

01:40subsidized so a lot of people are gonna pay like five hundred dollars more per

01:44individual per month and if you're on a family plan it's gonna be ten grand more a

01:50year there's a bunch of us who remember how expensive health care was pre Obamacare

01:55and for as screwed up as our health care system remains it is still a hell of a lot

02:00cheaper to go on the exchange and get some kind of plan this will blow that up for

02:06another several million Americans and so everybody loses for this bill and very

02:11very very few people benefit huh is it possible this is a poly from Instagram this is a question I ask

02:20myself like almost on the daily is it possible to fix what Elon and doge and

02:24Trump have done to agencies of course it is now how quickly that can be done I

02:28think depends on the agency there are some agencies that can snap back to you

02:33know operating in the normal fashion I think you know this is a small small

02:37example so I don't want you to think I'm I'm only tracking this but the US

02:41Institute for Peace is basically illegally shuttered they brought in US

02:44mark it was nuts it was complete like you know emerging autocracy stuff they

02:52finally abided by the court order and the US Agency for Peace is starting to

02:57operate as normal now they did find a bunch of drugs and drug paraphernalia all

03:02throughout the offices so there's like a physical aspect of thing be things being left in a

03:07shambles but also administratively and money wise so I'm not like overly

03:12optimistic that it'll snap right back into you know working very very well but I

03:18think we have to believe enough in the American experiment to believe that once

03:23we get back to a more normal political environment that these agencies can be

03:27fixed now I just want to add one thing Democratic Party cannot be the party of

03:32everything is fine and everything is already working fine so some of these

03:36agencies actually do need to modernize and reform and we should be in on that

03:41project and leading that project and that is sort of in opposition to let's

03:45just go in and light the place on fire people are smart enough to know the

03:49difference right between someone who wants to actually reform agencies

03:53modernize agencies make them work for actual people and someone who says you

03:58know government is not working as well as it should be so why don't we make it work

04:01even less well so but I do think we have to articulate that we understand things

04:06are not perfect as they were six months ago and commit ourselves to that kind of

04:10change but lawful change logical change and a kind of a approach to things that

04:17understands that these are serious enterprises they do serious things and you

04:24can't light them on fire and expect them to recover oh well please talk to us about

04:32what y'all will do to protect our government employees you know one of the things that

04:37I've kind of I promised myself after the second Trump inauguration is I wouldn't

04:42give you BS about where our part of powers are and I and I actually think the tools to

04:48protect government employees are mostly in existing law and you may or may not know

04:54that Trump has lost close to 96 percent of all lawsuits and that includes a

05:00substantial portion of them that have to do with civil service and collective

05:04bargaining and other rights that our federal employees have so most of what is

05:09happening is illegal already we do not need a new law we need the current law to be

05:14enforced okay Katie from Instagram hi senator shots how will this bill impact

05:30native communities it's mostly the Medicaid cuts that make me the most nervous

05:35for native communities but you know native communities not everyone but many are

05:44extremely sensitive to cuts in public services so you may not know that

05:52especially on tribal lands the FBI is often the primary source of law enforcement

05:57and public safety and security so that's an aspect but mostly it's going to be

06:02Medicaid and what that does to rural hospitals but in particular Indian health

06:08service hospitals

06:09Ana on Instagram how do Republicans justify increasing our spending and deficit to fund

06:18inhumane deportations versus health care and food for Americans and the world

06:23through yes USAID they don't even bother I mean let's be honest they don't bother

06:27they're not troubled by trying to be like consistent ideologically or

06:31intellectually this whole enterprise is very simple they are increasing your costs

06:36right your health care costs your grocery costs your retail costs your electricity costs

06:42right and what are they going to do with that money well they need to find a pay for which

06:47is a fancy way of saying they need money for the purpose of cutting taxes for the wealthiest

06:53wealthiest corporations that have ever existed on planet earth and people making more than four

06:58million dollars a year so I'm not going to make their arguments for them but I'll also say they're not

07:02even really making their arguments themselves they're just kind of shrugging them shoulder their

07:06shoulders and lying about it and I'll take one last question and then turn it over to my dear

07:11friend and not although he's new to the senate my now mentor uh uh Peter Welch from the state of

07:17Vermont I'm kind of I'm a big fan of anyone who has um you know been the the senate president in a

07:23local legislature I think that's harder than anything we do up here in the congress okay last question

07:28what are you most angry about on this bill it is the Medicaid cuts well okay I know you said what

07:33are my most angry I'll give you two things it's the Medicaid cuts because I just know people on

07:38Medicaid and I visit rural hospitals and I know how much this is going to crush both individuals and

07:44the institutions that serve you know some of the folks that need health care the most but I think

07:49the cherry on top of the sundae um that makes this the absolute worst is that this money is not to pay

07:55down the deficit this money is not for some you know we're not at war trying to fight fascism and

08:00we need to find revenue everywhere we can um this isn't to reform the system um this isn't to invest in

08:07education or or um or try to buy down the debt this is simply to cut taxes for people making more than

08:15four million dollars and before I give it over to Peter I just want to say we can win this thing

08:21this last couple of days have been pretty rocky for the Republicans and um uh so I don't want you

08:29to give up hope there are some instances where I don't think we're going to win and all we can do is

08:32raise our voices and maybe sue and and see what happens in the next election um this is not one of

08:38those times we can actually win this damn thing so I'll be back in about a half an hour to take a

08:42couple more questions but here's Peter Welch come on in

Voter Asks Brian Schatz What He's 'Most Angry About' In GOP Budget

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