Senator Marshall: This is a Political Shutdown to Appease the Far Left
Senator Marshall Joins CNN to Talk Schumer Shutdown
Washington – On Friday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Brianna Keilar on CNN’s News Central to discuss day three of the Schumer Shutdown and its effects on rural America.
Click HERE or on the image above to listen to Senator Marshall’s full interview.
On the broken ACA subsidy system:
“Yeah, I think that people need to understand these were COVID-era subsidies, and the challenge before them is there’s a lot of fraud. It’s grown from 50 to $150 billion a year. Probably a third of that is fraud, waste, and abuse. And as you described, what’s going on there with the premiums? They need to realize that, regardless of what happens here, the insurance premiums are going up 20% I want to lock in on the real problem here, take care of the fraud, and then have legislation help bring the cost of health care down. That’s what we need to be focused on. And we can work on that between now and the end of the year as well. But this needs to be an argument separate from keeping the government open right now. I’m happy to work on these, but people need to realize there’s a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse in them right now.”
On the rising cost of health care:
“Yeah, look, the premiums are going to go up, and they’re going to go up because of the ACA. The ACA has caused overregulation. It’s led to the consolidation of the industry. So, people need to realize all we’re doing is increasing the subsidy on these ACA bills. But we do have bills that we will go through Congress this month, in the next two months, that make a price tags bill. Could you imagine walking into a restaurant without knowing the cost of your meal? We want to do that the same way with health care. We want to expand HAS’s. We want to clip the wings of the pharmacy benefit managers. We want to go after a MAHA, making America healthy again, all those things would help, but you’re right. It’s going to take years for that to unwind. So, if we can figure out a way to take care of the waste, fraud, and abuse, and make sure that we’re helping those who really need the help with these subsidies, I’m willing to have that discussion, but not as a hostage to keeping the government open.”
On Democrats and Chuck Schumer owning the shutdown:
“Oh, I think that’s a very false scenario right there. I think everybody realizes this is a Schumer shutdown, that this is a politically driven shutdown, driven by AOC and the squad and the liberal Marxist portion of the Democrat party. I think that’s truly, truly what’s going on here. That’s because none of their arguments makes sense. Why they’re trying to shut it down? It just doesn’t make any sense to anybody. So, I would just discount that poll altogether. And that’s not what I’m hearing from back home.”
“I don’t think you can take a snapshot like that. What I’m hearing back home is that people think that this is a Schumer shutdown. This is a political shutdown that AOC has hijacked the party, and this is the direction that they want to go, that they’ve taken this prisoner, these COVID subsidies. Regardless of if these COVID subsidies go away, the federal government is still going to be paying at least 80% of that premium. Maybe the government is paying 90% of it right now. So, if some people are going to go from $0 to maybe $3 a week, what they’ll have to contribute to it. But do we need to be paying huge amounts of subsidies to people making $200,000 a year? Is that the right way to spend this money? And again, I go back to the waste, fraud, and abuse in this; maybe a third of the money is fraudulent.”
On the potential for USDA jobs to be cut due to the shutdown:
“So, what’s interesting, I talked to a lot of the USDA folks back home who were doing their jobs. They’re caught up there in a great spot right now. We’re still at way higher than pre covid levels for the number of jobs in the federal government, including USDA. Think about this when Joe Biden started.”
“We’re still higher than pre covid levels for these ag jobs that you’re talking about. We went from 2.8 million federal jobs to 3 million federal jobs under Joe Biden. We’re at about 2.9 right now. We had plenty of people in the federal government doing their jobs before COVID. Everybody that I know, we’re caught up on a work, we’re getting work done at record times. There’s new technology. We don’t need all these extra people. We need people to move from the federal government into the real workforce, where they’re being productive and adding to the GDP. So no, I’m not worried at all. We probably still have to slim down this federal government some.”
“Under Joe Biden, those jobs grew by 20 to 30% probably 30% in this conservation group that you’re talking about. It became too bloated in on the offices back in Kansas. So, I look at the jobs being done. Farmers, everything that they need is getting done right now, so they’re staying caught up. And yes, government, people need to come to the office. They need to work more efficiently. They need to embrace technology, all those types of things. We don’t need people sitting around just trading emails. So, I’m very happy with where we are, and we think we’re probably still a little bit fat in all the federal agencies.”
“I can remember the first terraces my grandfather built for soil erosion. I’m telling you, we have plenty of NRCS officers back home. The job’s getting done. The farmers are being taken care of. And actually, both the Ag departments out there have told me that in record amounts of time, they’re ahead of schedule this year and getting all their work done. So, we’re in a great place. I think you’re deflecting from the real issue here, that this is a political shutdown to appease Chuck Schumer’s left. This is a Schumer shutdown. These are all smoke screens that you’re talking about.”
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Contact: Payton Fuller
