House Speaker Mike Johnson said Republicans plan a major January push to codify up to 150 of Donald Trump’s executive orders into law. The effort aims to make policies permanent, focusing on affordability, healthcare costs, and living expenses. Trump and GOP leaders say work is already underway, citing strong voter support.
#MikeJohnson #HouseRepublicans #TrumpEOs #AmericaFirst #GOPAgenda #USPolitics #Congress #ExecutiveOrders #BreakingPolitics #JanuarySurge #PolicyPush #HealthcareCosts #CostOfLiving #Affordability #July4thBill #TrumpPolicies #VoterMandate #RepublicanParty #PoliticalMomentum #WashingtonDC #Legislation #DomesticPolicy #Leadership #PoliticalNews
Also Read
Mike Johnson Dismisses Elon Musk's Criticism of Republican Tax and Budget Bill :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/mike-johnson-downplays-musks-influence-on-republican-tax-bill-011-4175853.html?ref=DMDesc
Mike Johnson Re-elected as House Speaker Amidst Tense Vote and GOP Challenges :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/mike-johnson-re-elected-house-speaker-dramatic-vote-011-4032999.html?ref=DMDesc
Bipartisan House Vote Swiftly Defeats Greene's Move Against Speaker Johnson :: https://www.oneindia.com/india/house-rejects-greene-effort-remove-speaker-johnson-011-3820109.html?ref=DMDesc
~ED.420~HT.408~
#MikeJohnson #HouseRepublicans #TrumpEOs #AmericaFirst #GOPAgenda #USPolitics #Congress #ExecutiveOrders #BreakingPolitics #JanuarySurge #PolicyPush #HealthcareCosts #CostOfLiving #Affordability #July4thBill #TrumpPolicies #VoterMandate #RepublicanParty #PoliticalMomentum #WashingtonDC #Legislation #DomesticPolicy #Leadership #PoliticalNews
Also Read
Mike Johnson Dismisses Elon Musk's Criticism of Republican Tax and Budget Bill :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/mike-johnson-downplays-musks-influence-on-republican-tax-bill-011-4175853.html?ref=DMDesc
Mike Johnson Re-elected as House Speaker Amidst Tense Vote and GOP Challenges :: https://www.oneindia.com/international/mike-johnson-re-elected-house-speaker-dramatic-vote-011-4032999.html?ref=DMDesc
Bipartisan House Vote Swiftly Defeats Greene's Move Against Speaker Johnson :: https://www.oneindia.com/india/house-rejects-greene-effort-remove-speaker-johnson-011-3820109.html?ref=DMDesc
~ED.420~HT.408~
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00well good morning everybody Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah it's good to see everybody
00:18I want to begin today by addressing this week's tragedy because of hate anti-semitism and terrorism
00:27lives were lost in Syria Australia and at Brown University my prayers are with the family of
00:36these victims and I stand with so many who hope the light of Hanukkah drives out the horrific
00:44hate that we've seen now turning to the topic this week which is one of the topics which is
00:52health care let me begin by being very clear and very honest about the state of health care today
00:57the Democrats health care program has failed and I want to remind everybody what's the name of the
01:05health care program Obamacare this was a Democrat program and I'm finally excited to see that the
01:13Democrats now have got on board with us that the affordable health care is anything but affordable
01:21so again Republicans stand united to fix the problem again but let's not forget where the
01:29root of the problem started Democrats broke it we will fix it and happily to do that most Americans
01:36can't afford Democrats insurance plan the plans are riddled with waste with fraud with abuse and if
01:43we're being honest they only work for one group big insurance companies Democrats health care plan
01:50doesn't work it's never worked so Republicans are pursuing options that do things a little bit
01:58differently first we're working to fundamentally lower costs through reforms like cost sharing
02:04reductions you'll see a common theme lowering costs versus subsidies we want to lower premiums for
02:12all Americans second we're proposing options that actually expand access to all Americans when
02:20Democrats passed their disastrous health care law in 2010 they promised that if you like your plan
02:27you can keep it they promised choice they promised you low costs not a single one of those promises
02:36were true not one in fact health care premiums have risen over 60 percent since the implementation of
02:46the affordable air care act and I ask you this profitability from the insurance companies are 600 percent greater since Obamacare
02:56has your income increased 600 percent ask yourself that I know mine hasn't
03:02here's the difference Republicans are fighting for a solution Democrats actually want this issue
03:10they want health care to be an issue Republicans actually want solutions for Americans to bring down premiums not subsidies that's why Democrats are refusing to rally around real reforms instead they're embracing the very broken system of which they created but this has been true all year Democrats have have pushed political issues while Republicans have actually delivered solutions
03:40no one's talking about no one's talking about no one's talking about the border today right why is that it's because we fixed it the borders closed people are safe but you don't hear anyone talking about that because Republicans fixed it Republicans delivered bigger paychecks by eliminating taxes on tips taxes on
03:59taxes on overtime taxes on social security Republicans delivered lower gas prices by cutting regulation and expanding permitting reform time and time again Republicans delivered results for the American people real results and we're just getting started when we return in the new year we're going to see a continued focus and push for lower costs and bigger paychecks because that's what the American people need
04:28need from us that's what they want from us that's what they want from us now with that I'm going to turn it over to representative Marionette Miller Meeks who is a veteran and a doctor who's actually been the leading voice here in the Republican health care solution
04:43Marionette
04:44well I thank Chairwoman McClain but also Speaker Johnson Leader Scalise Whip Emmer it's an honor to stand with the House Republican leadership to talk about one of the biggest issues facing
04:58American families today in American families today and that's the rising cost of health care. As Chairwoman McClain said I'm an army veteran I was both a nurse and a physician and I'm the only member of Congress to have served as the state director of a public health department. Not only is this issue important to me I started my journey as a doctor because I was burned at 15 years old so it was health care and the need for health care that drove what I do today.
05:28And I spent my career treating patients and fixing broken systems solving problems and I can tell you thanks to the Democrats failed policy which they now admit our health care system went from ill to the ICU.
05:44For 15 years the Unaffordable Care Act also known as Obamacare has done the opposite of what it promised. President Obama promised to lower premiums by $2,500 and to bend the cost curve down. Has that happened? No. Not in the past 15 years and it won't happen if we just continue to pass subsidies on to profitable health insurance companies.
06:08It doesn't even include out of pocket cost. It's not sustainable and it's not working. Republicans want to lower health care costs for everyone. Not just a select few and not just to continue to subsidize profitable insurance companies.
06:24Our plan. Our plan. The lower health care premiums for all Americans act as a Republican solution to this crisis. It doesn't throw more taxpayer dollars at insurance companies. It puts patients and doctors in the driver's seat. Our bill lowers premiums by 11% by funding cost sharing reductions the right way. Not just through COVID era bailouts that benefited only big insurers. That's up to 1,871
06:54We're delivering real PBM reform to stop middlemen from inflating drug prices. Even in my own state, my PBM transparency bill that passed in 2019 when I was a state senator. One of our counties reported that they saved $80,000 last year through the transparency alone.
07:16We want to give small businesses the ability and the power to negotiate better deals. That alone will save taxpayers $2 billion but most importantly save small businesses. We're expanding association health plans by allowing small businesses and self-employed workers to team up to expand choices which result in premiums going down by as much as 30% even those small businesses that are in the exchanges.
07:42As we're strengthening choice arrangements so more small businesses can afford to offer coverage and more workers can choose a plan that fits their lives and their budgets. This is a plan for working Americans, not for profitable insurance companies. It's about lowering costs, increasing access and restoring sanity to our health care system. Most importantly, it is a plan that lowers health care costs for everyone and puts patients and their doctors in the driver's seat. Thank you and I look forward to getting this bill
08:12across the finish line and to the American people across the finish line and to the American people.
08:19Like our conference chair, I want to start by offering my condolences to the families of the victims of several tragic events over the weekend. The shooting at Brown University that took the lives of two promising young students. The vicious ISIS attack on our service members in Syria that claimed three American lives. And finally, the horrific anti-Semitic terrorist attack in Australia and the
08:42that killed 15 innocent people at a Hanukkah celebration. Our hearts are heavy as we grieve the evil that was put on display this past weekend and we continue to pray for the full recovery of those injured and for the comfort of the families whose lives are now forever changed. Now, turning our attention to the House Republican agenda.
09:12It is a major war to be held on display and we are the U.S.
09:14On a duty to take the national status of our work in the working families tax cut act passed by the House Republicans and signed into law by President Trump achieved historic America first victories, such as no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, tax relief for seniors, and increased child tax credit and Trump's savings accounts for newborn children.
09:35children. 2026 is gearing up to be the year of deeper pocketbooks and lower costs for the
09:42American people. Thanks to this landmark legislation, tax refunds could increase by
09:48$1,000 per taxpayer next year. That's more money in your pocket for you to invest, save, and grow.
09:58Waitresses, law enforcement officers, and parents will have more of their hard-earned dollars to put
10:04food on the table and to support their families. Not only did our bill deliver the largest tax cut
10:09for middle-class Americans, it also addressed rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in programs like
10:16Medicaid and SNAP. As we have all witnessed with the fraud scandals coming out of our state of
10:22Minnesota, these programs have long been ripe for fraud. But House Republicans and Donald Trump
10:28implemented common-sense reforms to strengthen the system to benefit the people who need it
10:34the most, not fraudsters who sent millions to terrorists abroad. Which brings me to addressing
10:41the failure of my governor, Tim Walz. We anxiously await Tim Walz's response to House Oversight
10:50Committee Chairman Jamie Comer regarding what he knew about the $1 billion in fraud. Walz has had
10:57seven years to address and stop the fraud. It wasn't until President Trump made this a national
11:04issue that Walz started to pretend that he cares about his constituents' tax dollars supporting
11:11a terrorist group in Somalia. Accountability is coming, Governor. Our dishonest, failed governor
11:18must and will answer for his complete incompetence. With that, I'll turn it over to our leader,
11:25Steve Scalise.
11:30Thank you, Webb. My prayers go out to all those killed in so many different horrible, horrible
11:38tragedies. I mean, here in America, Brown University, you look at our two army soldiers that were killed,
11:46you know, the anti-Semitic attacks on the other side of the globe. Just remind you, during this Christmas
11:52season, this Hanukkah season, it's a special time. It's a time we celebrate, but it's also
11:57a time where evil still lurks here and all around the globe. And we just pray. Pray for those who have
12:05been murdered, harmed, injured. We pray for those who have evil in their hearts that God can touch them
12:13and hopefully remove that evil so that they don't go harm innocent people.
12:20This week here in the House, as we finish our work for the year, we're taking up some very important
12:26bills and start with the SPEED Act. We've heard complaints from members all across the country that know that just
12:36trying to build things in America, road projects, bridges, pipelines to move energy, anything you're
12:45trying to do, more and more laws are getting in the way. NEPA is a heavily abused law that delays a lot of
12:53the projects that ought to be built. Bruce Westerman and his committee have done incredible work to bring a
12:59bipartisan bill that starts to address the abuses here in NEPA so that we can actually build things in
13:06America again. You know, you think about the cost savings that would come if it only takes two years
13:12instead of ten years to build a major project. And we all know what's happening all across America, why so
13:19many projects are shelved in many cases or take so long to be built because of the abuses of some of these
13:26laws, like NEPA, Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, all of these laws are being
13:33heavily abused. So this is a really important first step getting the SPEED Act passed to get real
13:39meaningful permitting reform. And then, of course, Dr. Miller-Meeks talked about her bill, which is such an
13:46important step to lower costs in health care for all Americans, 100% of Americans. While Democrats only
13:55care about bailing out insurance companies and focusing on less than 10% of Americans that are in the
14:02Unaffordable Care Act, we're focused on lowering premiums for all Americans. And that's what you're going to see on
14:09the floor this week. You know, you think about association health plans, which have been proven to give people
14:15more options to lower costs. The Choice Act, which, you know, while everybody complains, they say, why when I watch TV
14:22commercials, I see this gecko lizard, and I see the emu, and I see all these other animals out there selling
14:28health, they're selling car insurance, they're selling homeowners insurance. Why aren't they selling health
14:34insurance? Well, that's because the laws at the federal level prohibit the ability for people to have
14:41choices to get people trying to offer them lower cost products for health insurance. Imagine if, for
14:49example, with Choice Act, where you can run through a health savings account, the ability where if you get
14:55your health insurance through your employer, if you're able to go find a better plan, if somebody could
15:00compete for your business and offer you a lower deductible plan with lower co-payments for your
15:05families, right now you can't go buy that product. We create those options with the bill that we're
15:13bringing to the floor tomorrow, the PBM reform that Dr. Miller-Meeks talked about, where you can actually
15:19have lower prescription drug costs, again, for 100% of Americans. This is something that our three
15:27committees of jurisdiction have been working on for a long time. And yet, while Democrats only want to bail out
15:33insurance companies while premiums go up, we're focused on having lower premium options, lower cost
15:43options for 100% of Americans. So, another busy week where we're going to be focusing on helping families
15:49that are struggling under the weight of all the damage that President Biden did. President Trump is
15:57working to lower costs. President Trump wants to see these bills on his desk. And we're going to work to
16:01deliver here in the House. And if I don't see you between now and then, I wish you all a Merry Christmas,
16:07Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays.
16:11Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
16:13I rarely get to raise the podium, but I'm going to take the opportunity this morning. Thank you, ladies.
16:19Good morning, everybody. Thank you to Dr. Miller-Meeks for joining us on what is our last leadership press conference of the year.
16:27And I just want to say to all of you, Press Corps, thanks for being here each week and covering all of this.
16:33It's been a hugely historic year in so many ways and a hugely consequential Congress, and you've had a lot to cover.
16:43So, we do, as everybody said, wish you Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and hope you get some well-deserved rest over the short holiday.
16:50Since Congress reopened, following the end of the Democrat shutdown, the longest in American history, Republicans have passed, since we came back, 41 pieces of legislation.
17:00And, of course, as you've heard this morning, we're set to pass even more.
17:03Chief among them is the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act.
17:07It is aptly and appropriately named because that's exactly what it's going to do, as everybody has explained this morning.
17:14If you recall, Democrats shut the government down and kept it closed for 43 days so that Chuck Schumer could get political cover from the grassroots of his party.
17:25Remember that he had voted for the same CR just several months earlier in March.
17:30When the same vehicle came forward, he suddenly changed his tune, and that is because he caught a lot of political backlash for it.
17:36So, he decided instead to shut the government down and fight.
17:41Well, everybody saw how obvious and how dangerous that gambit was.
17:45And so, the Democrats tried to spin their selfish political decision to claim the whole thing was always about, quote, fighting for healthcare affordability.
17:54But that claim never made any sense because it ignores the very simple facts of the situation.
18:01It is the Democrats' Unaffordable Care Act that broke America's healthcare system, as has been recounted this morning.
18:07And it's the Democrats who have refused every good faith Republican effort to fix it along the way.
18:13Now, this is 15 years into this saga that the American people have been drug through because the Democrats decided 15 years ago to break the system.
18:21They insisted when they passed the Unaffordable Care Act that it would reduce premiums, it would provide more choice and higher quality and all of that.
18:28And none of that ever happened.
18:31In fact, quite the opposite effect is what we have seen.
18:34All this was foreseeable, and that's why Republicans didn't support it.
18:37Premiums have skyrocketed.
18:38The quality of care has plummeted in so many places and in so many cases around the country.
18:43And fraud is absolutely rampant in the system.
18:47And it is costing everyone dearly.
18:49Yes, there is a healthcare affordability problem in America.
18:52It's a very serious problem for almost every family.
18:57But it is an indisputable fact that the Democrats caused that problem and Republicans are the ones having to clean it up.
19:07For 15 long years, Americans have now faced skyrocketing premiums, fewer quality choices, inefficient care, and widespread fraud, waste, and abuse.
19:17Benchmark premiums on the Obamacare marketplace for every plan, listen to this, they've increased 80% overall since 2014.
19:26And they're continuing to rise.
19:28The Unaffordable Care Act marketplace has resulted in lower quality plan offerings and less consumer choices to date.
19:35Fraud is absolutely rampant.
19:38Paragon Health is one of the analyst groups.
19:40And they estimate there's over 6.4 million people who are improperly enrolled in the Obamacare exchanges.
19:48And a recent GAO study, the Government Accountability Office, found some staggering facts.
19:54It proved what we all know intuitively about the fraud that's involved in this program.
19:58They found that Obamacare's subsidy system lacks even the most basic guardrails to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse.
20:05And I think that study is something that you should all dig into.
20:08It should be on the front page of every newspaper because it is shocking and alarming.
20:12Over the last two years, for example, the investigators at the GAO, Government Accountability Office, they did a little experiment.
20:19In 24 different cases, they applied for Obamacare subsidies.
20:26They did it fraudulently by intent.
20:29So 24 applications with no Social Security data attached, none of the information that's necessary to actually apply, no citizenship proof attached,
20:40and none of the income documents and all the things that are supposed to be applied and included in an application.
20:49Now, guess what? Out of the 24, 23 of them were approved.
20:53And they've been paid tens of thousands of dollars, some of them as recently as September of this year,
20:58the GAO tracking all of this fraud, wondering, hoping if anybody will ever pay any attention to it and stop it.
21:04That's not the only thing they found.
21:06The report also found that in 2023, 29,000 Social Security numbers were used by multiple persons.
21:13In 2024, 68,000 Social Security numbers used by multiple people to bilk the system, to defraud the system, and to take dollars to themselves.
21:23You had, in one case, there was over 120 individuals using one, the same Social Security number, to get these benefits.
21:32And it was never stopped.
21:33The GAO also found that more than 94 million last year alone was sent to insurers on behalf of people who were already deceased.
21:43It's a serious, serious problem in the system.
21:47It's why the costs are so high.
21:48And this is the system that Democrats in Congress want to extend without any reform.
21:54We just can't have that.
21:55The Washington Post summarized all this best in one simple sentence.
21:59They said, quote, the real problem is that the Affordable Care Act was never actually affordable.
22:05That's the problem.
22:06America's health care system should be the envy of the world.
22:09Instead, it's the most expensive in the world, and the American people are not getting any healthier because of all this madness.
22:15A new Gallup poll released yesterday found that 70 percent of Americans have a negative outlook on our health care system for all the obvious reasons.
22:22All Americans deserve a health care system that puts patients first, one that meets their needs with more access, more choice, and more affordable quality care.
22:31And House Republicans have offered legislation to begin fixing what is broken and to restore integrity to our nation's health care system.
22:40And it's so long overdue.
22:43The lower health care premiums for all Americans, which will be on the floor tomorrow, is the first big step in that regard.
22:50As has been noted by Dr. Miller-Meeks and the other leaders here, it offers common sense solutions to lower premium costs for everybody, all Americans.
22:59It expands access to quality care, provides every American with more options and flexibility to choose covers that works for them, and it brings greater transparency to America's health care system.
23:08And here's how.
23:10The bill has five key reforms.
23:11I'll just reiterate some of this real quickly.
23:13It reduces premium costs through cost-sharing reduction payments.
23:16It brings pharmacy benefit manager transparency and removes the hidden costs of prescription drugs.
23:22It allows small business owners and independent workers to form association health plans.
23:27It provides more choice for employees to customize their health care plans, and it protects small businesses from costly regulatory overreach.
23:34According to the latest CBO projection, Republicans' cost-sharing reduction payments, just that provision alone would reduce premiums by at least 11 percent and will save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, about $30 billion.
23:50Contrast this with the Democrats' proposal.
23:52Now, what is their proposal?
23:53The Democrats' subsidy proposal would only lower premiums for a small subset of people.
24:00Now, think of this.
24:01Just 7 percent of Americans would benefit.
24:04When they passed the COVID-era enhanced subsidy, enhanced premium tax credit, okay, it would only affect and only did affect 7 percent of the American people.
24:16If it was extended today, if their gambit was done and without any reforms and they expanded it for three years, which is what they tried to do in the Senate and they failed last week, and what they would try to do in the House if allowed, that would only reduce, for the 7 percent of Americans, it would only reduce their costs by 5.7 percent.
24:36Okay?
24:37This is not some solution to the problem.
24:40It's just adding more money, further subsidizing a broken system, and the subsidies go to insurance companies.
24:45They're not trying to solve the cost problem.
24:49They're trying to hide that.
24:51And it's not the way to fix it.
24:53It would also, by the way, cost taxpayers, if the subsidy was extended, would cost American taxpayers $350 billion over the next 10 years.
25:01Again, the proposal doesn't lower health care costs in any way.
25:05It only hides the true cost of the failed law.
25:08And I'll remind you, CSR payments are not a new idea.
25:11In fact, in 2017, the thing that we're going to put on the floor tomorrow, a big part of that, 196 House Democrats, many of them still in Congress, wrote a letter in support of that very idea.
25:22Exactly what the Republican bill this week will accomplish.
25:25Now, they won't tell you that this week.
25:27I'm certain they're all going to vote against it.
25:29Why? As was said here many times this morning, they do not want a solution.
25:32Democrats do not want a solution.
25:34They want an issue in the upcoming election.
25:37And they think that the media will go along with this and that people will buy it.
25:41That, oh, their heroic effort to extend this COVID era subsidy that they themselves created and that they themselves put the expiration date on at the end of this year,
25:50they're going to try to convince you that that's all health care wrapped into that.
25:53Remember, it only affects 7% of Americans and it would only reduce their costs by less than 6%.
25:58Democrats also had a chance to support our provision in the Working Families Tax Cup and the big, beautiful bill.
26:05But House Democrats voted against it and the Senate Democrats stripped it out.
26:08That cost-sharing reduction reduced everybody's premiums by almost 12%.
26:12And the Democrats fought to take it out.
26:17This is something that we do, that we're going to do this week.
26:21The Lower Health Care Premiers for All Americans Act.
26:23It's going to accomplish exactly what the title says.
26:27If it becomes law, premiums will decrease, access will increase, and every American will have more options and flexibility to choose the coverage that works best for them.
26:36It's called the free market.
26:38And we're the ones that advance those ideas.
26:40More options and lower costs.
26:42That's what the American people demand and deserve.
26:44And it is only the Republican Party that is presenting any ideas to do that.
26:48The Democrats want to keep subsidizing a broken system.
26:51We're fighting for that and we will.
26:53I'll just close with this, 2025, as I said, was a marquee year, a landmark year.
26:58I want to remind you all there's something noticeably absent from our end-of-year duties here.
27:03Normally, or at least in the past before I became Speaker, we would all be here with so much angst and drama and everything about the dreaded end-of-year Christmas omnibus spending package.
27:15You have not been able to write about that for now the third year because we broke the fever.
27:20We both broke the Christmas omnibus fever and we're getting back to stewardship in regular order and we're very proud of that.
27:25The third consecutive year, we've avoided that terrible congressional Christmas tradition and we're getting everything working here again.
27:33Fixing the appropriations process has been a goal for me and this leadership team.
27:36It's been a goal for Chairman Cole at Appropriations and his leadership team.
27:40And we're well on the way to rebuilding that muscle memory.
27:43House Republicans have shown up every day and delivered real results for the American people and we're going to continue to do so.
27:49We are excited about the years ahead.
27:52We look back now on what we've done all this year.
27:54We obviously passed the Working Families Tax Cut, the big beautiful bill, the most significant piece of legislation that Congress has considered in my lifetime.
28:02Stephen Miller had a quote that summarized it pretty well.
28:05He said, quote, each and every one of the individual titles in that bill will be considered one of the greatest achievements in the history of the conservative movement.
28:12They are conservative policies but they benefit every American and everyone will be seen and feeling the effects of that in the first and second quarter of next year when all that becomes implemented.
28:23Here's, by way of reminder, real quick, legislation included the largest tax cut in American history, permanent extension of the reduced estate tax, Medicaid program reforms, expansion of SNAP work requirements, increased border enforcement and funding, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, increased standard deduction for seniors, tax-free savings accounts for every child born in America, business tax provisions to incentivize investment and innovation and broaden the pathway out of poverty for more people.
28:50Wages will be increasing and costs will be going down.
28:54Many of these landmark provisions are set for implementation in the first and second quarter, as I said, and all boats will begin to rise.
29:01Just last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson predicted $100 to $150 billion in new tax refunds between $1,000 and $2,000 per household.
29:11And most of the estimates say that the average American household will have their take-home pay increased by at least $10,000.
29:18These are real, tangible benefits that this bill is going to offer to tens of millions of American families, and we're excited about what's ahead.
29:25It's just one more example of the many positive and transformational outcomes that we're going to see going into the next year.
29:31So far, House Republicans have passed 413 bills this year.
29:35We've codified 68 of President Trump's America First executive orders.
29:39We've repealed 23 Biden-era-era maddening regulations under the Congressional Review Act resolutions.
29:46We clawed back billions in wasteful spending through rescissions and opened numerous investigations into President Biden's failed administration.
29:53And we look forward to continuing all that work when we return in 2026, and we go into an epic midterm election cycle.
30:02With that, I'll take a few questions.
30:04I'm going to go to Bill Malusian.
30:05What are you doing on the front row, man?
30:06I'm glad to see you.
30:07Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
30:08Ahead of Jack Smith's deposition tomorrow, there's a new report out this morning that DOJ is getting ready to hand over Congress a batch of emails, specifically to the House Judiciary Committee.
30:19And in those emails, they allege it says that the FBI warned the Biden DOJ that there wasn't probable cause to raid Mar-a-Lago.
30:28Are you aware of this?
30:29Are you expecting to get these emails later today?
30:32What's your response?
30:33I've heard as much as you just reported there, and I have not had an opportunity to review any of that yet.
30:38But it would verify and, I think, affirm much of what we understood from the very beginning.
30:45As you all know, I used to serve on the House Judiciary Committee before I was made Speaker in October of 23.
30:50And we spent a lot of time uncovering just the complete and total weaponization of the Department of Justice under the Biden administration.
30:58They used it to go after political enemies, and chief among them was, of course, Donald J. Trump.
31:04And they abused the system, and to me the great harm of it all was that they really eroded the people's faith in our system of justice itself.
31:13I mean, that's the most dangerous thing.
31:15If people don't believe that our justice system is actually equal justice under the law, that Lady Justice is actually still wearing the blindfold, that everybody gets the same treatment under the law, it's a really serious challenge for a constitutional republic.
31:30And so this is some shocking revelations to a lot of people.
31:34It's not to us.
31:35It's not to us.
31:36We knew.
31:37We understood that this was happening the whole time.
31:39The evidence, I think, and I expect, will verify all of that.
31:42And there's going to have to be appropriate accountability.
31:44I mean, accountability is key here.
31:46It's important.
31:47Because if you're going to restore the people's faith in the justice system, you have to show them that there are serious consequences for people like Jack Smith, who abuses that system.
31:56We have to ensure it doesn't happen again.
31:58And we'll see how all that unfolds.
32:00But it's going to be a very, very interesting, important development.
32:02Yes, ma'am.
32:03Second row.
32:04Yes.
32:05Thank you, Mr. Leader.
32:06This morning, Congressman Mike Lawler said that it was political malpractice to not allow a vote on an ACA subsidy decision this week.
32:13What's your reaction to that?
32:14And will Republicans suffer any political blowback for not allowing something like that to come to the law?
32:20Well, Mike Lawler is a very dear friend and close colleague of mine.
32:24Ironically, the weekend before last, I was in New York in his district on Long Island, and we were campaigning together ensuring that he gets reelected.
32:33Mike Lawler fights hard for New York, as every Republican in this conference does for their districts.
32:38The districts are different.
32:39They have different priorities and ideas.
32:41But we do have, there's about a dozen members in the conference that are in these swing districts who are fighting hard to make sure that they reduce costs for all of their constituents.
32:51And many of them did want to vote on this Obamacare, you know, COVID era subsidy the Democrats created.
32:58We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be.
33:03We worked on it all the way through the weekend, in fact.
33:05And in the end, there was not, an agreement wasn't made.
33:09Now, everybody was at the table in good faith, and I certainly appreciate the views and the opinions of every member of this conference.
33:15But I will tell you one thing they will all join in unity on is voting for this bill that we've been discussing this morning.
33:21Because, again, instead of just trying to assist 7% of Americans, this is for 100% of Americans, and we can handle that and do that together.
33:32I hope that Democrats will come along with us.
33:34If they're serious about solving the problem and bringing down calls to health care, they'll all fully support it as well.
33:40But I think you're going to see they're playing politics with this.
33:42Back row.
33:43Yes, ma'am.
33:44Last week, President Trump said that his legislative agenda is essentially done.
33:50So why should voters vote for Republicans in the midterms if there's nothing left to do legislatively?
33:57Well, I don't know which comment you're referring to and in what context.
34:00But I'll tell you, I talk to the president sometimes multiple times each day.
34:04He and I and his team and our teams work around the clock, literally.
34:09The president and I will talk sometimes at midnight and then again at, you know, 6 a.m.
34:13I mean, he, you know, this president doesn't sleep.
34:15He's working all the time.
34:17The agenda is aggressive.
34:18There is much more to do.
34:20I think what he's, sometimes when he's, I think he's taken out of context on comments like that, he's referring to what we accomplished with the working families tax bill, the big, beautiful bill.
34:29Because there's so much in that that a lot of people said, wow, you guys checked all the boxes.
34:34Well, we, we did to a certain extent, but there is so much more to do.
34:39And we're going to have a very aggressive legislative agenda coming right out of the gates in January.
34:43We're going to continue to work, for example, on health care to continue to bring costs down for the American people, to bring down the cost of living overall.
34:50You're going to see an aggressive affordability agenda, and we're going to see continued codification of the president's executive orders.
34:56He's, he's up to about 200 of those.
34:59Probably about 150 of them are codifiable by Congress, and we're working steadily through that list.
35:05You're going to see us delivering for the American people while the effects of that giant piece of legislation that we did on July 4th, got signed on July 4th, comes into implementation.
35:15So much more, much more yet to do, and the president and I talk about that almost every day, and he's excited about it, and I am.
35:22Yes, sir.
35:23Front row.
35:24Yes.
35:25So there's a lot of Republicans who would still like to see health savings accounts set up as an alternative to the premium tax credit.
35:31I'm curious, why is that not in this bill?
35:35Is that something that's still on the table?
35:37Very much on the table.
35:38The president likes the policy as well.
35:40I see my doctor colleagues, Dr. Miller-Meeks is not in an agreement.
35:45The docs caucus is, the doctors caucus in the Republican conference works on these things, and I think we could get broad consensus on that.
35:53What we anticipate going into the first quarter of next year is possibly in a reconciliation package, or in regular order as standalone, ideas just like this.
36:04We have a long list of things that we know will reduce premiums, increase access, and quality of care.
36:10And again, we're the only party that's going to be bringing that forward.
36:13The Democrats have zero ideas, zero concepts, and zero legislative plans on anything they'll propose other than just subsidizing the broken system.
36:20So there's going to be a stark contrast between the two parties.
36:22That will be a big part of it, and I think you'll see a lot of that discussion going forward.
36:26Yes, ma'am, last one.
36:27Just to follow up on that.
36:28Here, at the end of the year here, people have already enrolled in their health care plans.
36:33You guys were out for two months, very shut down.
36:38Why has it taken until the end of the year to start addressing putting to the floor these health care bills, and what is your message to those who are going to see their premiums rise next year anyway?
36:49Because it seems unlikely that Congress is going to be able to get something together by then.
36:54The health care bill on the floor tomorrow is right on time.
36:57There's always a good time to reduce premiums for health care.
37:00And remember, the Republican Party, since the Unaffordable Care Act became law 15 years ago, we have been working steadily, producing ideas, trying to address this.
37:11We tried to repeal and replace it, as you all know, in our ultimately failed attempt back in the first Trump administration in the end of 2017.
37:20The famous John McCain comes down, tanked the effort.
37:23And since then, the roots of Obamacare, the Unaffordable Care Act, have gotten so deep in the system that it's no longer possible to just pull it out at the root and chop it off and start over.
37:33It's too deeply ingrained, and so now we have to take it step by step to reduce and repair, reduce cost and repair the system, and that's the ideas that we have.
37:42You're talking about the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
37:45The Democrats did that.
37:46Remember, when we reopened the government, we ended in the exact same place that we began.
37:52They didn't get a darn thing out of it, and we knew that they wouldn't, and that's how it would come out, and they did it for political purposes.
37:58When they took us off the field effectively for 43 days, as soon as we got back, let's remember, because history is being revised here every day, we got right back to the appropriations process, remember, which was so critically important, and all the other measures that we were pushing through.
38:13We got done on that steadily through the year, and then we turned the attention to health care, knowing it was coming at the end of the year on the subsidy and that new ideas would be presented.
38:23We didn't start this in October, November, or December.
38:26This is something the Republican Party's been working on for years.
38:29I've mentioned in here before, when I was chair of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of Republicans in Congress, we had 158 members back in 2019, and we produced a two-volume set on conservative common-sense solutions to fix health care.
38:42We've never been able to get the votes to fix it because the Democrats have been unwilling to go along, and you can go back and look at the record and show over and over all they want to do is continue to throw taxpayer dollars and subsidize the broken system.
38:57The reason the premiums were up 80% since the bill was passed by the Democrats 15 years ago is because they're further ingraining a broken system, so it's up to us to fix it.
39:11This is one piece, one part of that, and in the first quarter, January, February of next year, you're going to see much more activity of this.
39:18The American people's attention is on health care for the obvious reason.
39:21It is a very serious problem, but remember this, the Democrats broke it, Republicans are going to fix it.
39:26I wish you all a blessed holiday. Thanks so much.
Comments