Transcription
opinion. You know, I hear the Democrats are going to be blamed and the Republicans are going to be blamed. I actually think the president would be blamed.
If there is a shutdown, and it's not going to be a horrible shutdown because, as you know, things will sort of keep >> Well, it's a partial shutdown, right? >> If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. >> He's the one that has to get people together. >> Well, there could be firings and that's their fault. And it could also be other things. I mean, we could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they'd be permanently cut. So, you could say a lot of people are saying Trump wanted this, that I wanted this closing, and I didn't want it.
>> It wouldn't be a Trump presidency without a shutdown costing billions of dollars. But if you look closely, there may be another reason for it. maybe having to do with the fact that this president has been photographed more with a convicted pedophile than with his own children.
>> And we are ready as Democrats to keep the government open and to save your healthcare. But where in the world are our Republican colleagues? There is more mentions of Donald Trump in the Epstein files than there are House Republicans here in Washington DC today. also is not lost on anyone that shutting the government down allows them not to swear in uh our new colleague uh Miss Graalva from Arizona who would be the 218th signature to discharge the Epstein files and to put a vote on that on the House floor. So, it's convenient for them to shut the government down and they're not interested in making government work for our constituents. Congressman Jamie Raskin pointing out the obvious, the very interesting detail that may help explain why Trump seems so unbothered by this shutdown. Perhaps it's very convenient for him. As it turns out, Mike Johnson was delaying swearing in the 218th signature on the Epstein Accountability Act, the discharge petition that would force the release of the Epstein files. This is Arizona Congresswoman Vieja, and she has committed to signing this petition. this petition as we know which was introduced by Republican Massie and has been slowly but surely collecting the amount of signatures needed and she would be the very last signature and then this Trump shutdown conveniently started delaying distracting yet again making us all even more concerned even more interested even more curious about what exactly are in those files and why Trump is trying so hard to make sure they're not released.
People, as you know, people who are here in the United States legally have never been eligible for the Obamacare subsidies, for Medicare, for Medicaid. Um, so what exactly are you saying that they're trying to do when you talk about giving free healthcare to them?
>> I'm so glad you asked. Okay, so when we passed the one big beautiful bill, the working families tax cut, we had Medicaid reforms in the bill. You and I talked about it on the air. What we did was to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse. There were a lot of people on the program who were enrolled in the program who were never eligible to be there. Medicaid is intended for eligible US citizens, not illegal aliens, not also US citizens who are able-bodied workers like young men. So, we we passed the law. This president signed it into law. Democrats voted against it, of course, and and it's been wildly successful. The CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, which is the neutral arbiter of all these things, uh, released a report a few weeks ago, earlier this month, and they said, "You know what? The bill has had its intended purpose. Premiums are coming down." Listen, because 2.3 million ineligible enrolles had been kicked off of Medicaid, which helps to save the program, prop it up and and $185 billion has been saved already in what you did was narrow the eligibility for certain people to get access to the the ACA subsidies.
what they want to do is undo the changes that that Republicans made in that. But basically, wouldn't that only affect people who do have legal status, people who are refugee seekers here in the United States, asylum seekers here?
>> Those are two totally different issues. Now, they they've created this as a new uh argument that they have as to why they should not keep the government open, but they're arguing a December policy debate uh for a September funding issue. The the subsidies that you're talking about don't expire until the end of December.
>> No, we're No, no, no. those the subsidies for just everyday Americans. That's one thing that obviously has been the main premise of their argument. But you're saying they want to give free health care to people who are in the United States illegally.
>> That is exactly what the effect will be.
>> But when I looked at it, there's a little nuance because it's they want to undo changes that y'all made narrowing who is eligible to get that. Those are people who are refugee seekers, asylum seekers. They're not technically people who are here illegally just cross the border.
>> No, this is exactly what will happen. And Maxine Waters admitted, I think accidentally today on the House steps, they want to give healthcare to everybody.
>> But Maxine Waters is not in charge. She's not the one. She didn't write this. She's one of the senior leaders in the House bill that Democrats and everybody should Google it and read their counterpart.
>> But you see my point, right? You're making this argument that they want to just give healthcare to everyone who's here illegally. This is not for people who cross the border and don't have paperwork. These are people who have temporary protected status. Right.
>> Absolutely. What will happen if that counter proposal was enacted is illegal aliens would be paid for. American taxpayers, hard-earned dollars would be paying for benefits for illegal aliens. Again, we're not doing that.
>> But it's against federal law for people who are here illegally to get >> Yes. And that's why our reforms are so important to enforce all that. What the important thing to remember is that the Democratic proposal that people who are here illegally should get >> because they don't have the level of specification that we had in our bill. It will unwind that and all those things that the CBO just
>> whether it be Mike Johnson or pretty much any other member of the GOP, they sure have gotten that talking point memo. They want to convince the American people that the reason why they are shutting down the government is because they want to make sure Medicaid money doesn't get in the hands of how they call them illegals. People who are not here legally. Well, as it turns out, people that are not here legally aren't entitled to Medicaid don't receive Medicaid. In his interview with Caitlyn from CNN, she makes it clear that it's against federal law to receive such money. Mike Johnson doesn't have an answer to that. He just keeps on talking about these talking points. I mean, the fact is that Democrats are trying to regain some of the money that the Republicans cut in that big awful bill to Medicaid. And as we know, states are already sending out notices to people who receive funding under Obamacare, Medicaid, notifying them that their premiums are going to be going up because of these cuts. And remember, the programs people are receiving money from don't always have the words Medicaid in them. They're in states across the country. They're raising their prices. People are losing their health care. Hospitals are going to be losing their funding. And this is what Democrats are trying to stop. And of course, it's a losing argument for Republicans to say that they want to cut people's healthcare. I mean, they this is why they never were able to repeal Obamacare before because it is very unpopular. So they have created this lie, this concoction that it's not Americans, citizens, MAGAs, Republicans, whatever that are getting their healthc care cut, but it's these others, people that should not be there. It's their continuation of othering others.
Well, it was interesting when she pointed out to Mike Johnson the fact that it is against federal law because as it turns out, we have laws and a whole department of justice that could handle people getting Medicaid illegally. If the Republicans truly thought that people by the millions were getting funding, healthc care funding from the government in a way that they were illegally able to get because it's against federal law for somebody to be here undocumented and get this kind of money. It's against federal law currently. We don't need to do anything about it. And we have Pam Bondi out there willing to prosecute just about anything, including Comey, which may be an indictment literally of a ham sandwich. We have somebody willing to go after and do just about anything. But suddenly in this case where there's millions of people committing fraud, we don't have any mechanism by the current department of justice to go after people and make sure this stops. Instead, we have to shut down the government. As a lawyer, I find that very strange that you can't just do what you do all the time. If somebody commits a crime or somebody commits any fraud in this country, we certainly know how to prosecute people or go after them civily. We know how to shut that down. That's like bread and butter for the Department of Justice. But somehow in this case, their hands are so tied, they're so incompetent, so unwilling to use the power of the Department of Justice that instead they decide that just about everyone should get hurt and shut down the government. That is the kind of nonsense that the Republicans are trying to convince the American people of. And that's why here at Midas Touch, we make sure to always tell the truth. That way we get the words out because truth matters. And with all the lies coming out of Mike Johnson and Trump and MAGA, is so important more than ever to rebut the lies with the truth.
>> New Midas merch. Head to store.midestouch.com today and get yourself the best pro-democracy gear and show your support. That's store.midestouch.com. [Music]