Scalise Highlights Republicans’ Work on Affordability, Health Care

Yesterday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Ruthless Podcast to discuss President Trump and House Republicans’ aggressive agenda to lower prices for hardworking Americans through historic tax cuts, bringing investment into America, unleashing American energy, and permitting reform. Leader Scalise also previewed House Committees’ work on health care legislation to lower premiums and provide families with more options.
 
Highlights from Leader Scalise’s interview:

On President Trump’s historic leadership:

“They hate [President Trump] so much, and they hate his success. That's, I think, what they're jealous of, that he's been so successful. When Joe Biden, the autopen, Joe Biden didn't even know what he was doing because there was an autopen doing so much of it. But this guy doesn't sleep. He'll call me at seven in the morning on a Sunday. You hear from him at 11 o'clock at night. President Trump has been the funnest guy to work with. But I'll tell you, he's engaged... he understands what's going on in all of the different areas.

“He is our best salesman. He's our best closer because he cares about getting this country back on track, and he knows the details, too. He can get in the weeds with you if you want, but he also loves the country, and you see that passion every day. It's sad that people hate him for that. The fact that he's getting done what he said. He ran on very specific things: I mean, I'm going to secure the border. No tax on tips. It's all done. All done in his first three months. If somebody hates him for that, what do they hate America? I mean, this guy is delivering for America on the things that he was elected by 77 million people to do.”

On House Republicans' efforts to lower prices: 

“We're working to deliver for the American people. I mean, obviously, we've done some big things already. There's more we want to do. I know the buzzword today is affordability, but it's really, do you have more money in your pocket today? Do you feel better about how things are going in the country today than a year ago and three, four years ago when Joe Biden was there? That's ultimately the question next year. I sure know what I feel because I see what we're doing, and I've already seen how it's making an impact.

“We've seen tens of billions of dollars per state come in in new investment. Per state. You're talking about hundreds of billions, if not over a trillion dollars in new manufacturing plants being announced in America since Donald Trump took office, and this Congress came in and set better rules of the game. We set better tax policy, by the way. Not giving new tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, saying nobody's taxes will go up.

“No tax on tips. Average pay, by the way, $32,000 a year. Elon Musk is not working for tips. But the single mom may be working two shifts at the diner, that is going to be $1,500 more in her pocket by the end of this year. It's retroactive to January, but a lot of people won't really see it until they file their returns in April of next year. They're going to get a lot of money back, by the way. No tax on overtime. Who's that? Again, not millionaires and billionaires... Every Democrat, by the way, voted to raise your taxes 30%. There's a real contrast going into next year: What America do we want versus Democrats?

“We're bringing a permitting reform bill. By the way, we've worked really hard to make it bipartisan, but you're going to see in the next few weeks a bipartisan permitting reform bill. That will not only allow us to build more things in America, but it'll allow us to lower costs. Why does it cost so much money for things? If you want to build a road, a bridge, a pipeline from Pennsylvania, where they can actually frack and produce oil and natural gas, into New York, where they don't allow it, so you have to bring it in on a tanker from a foreign country. How nuts is that policy? But imagine if you could have permitting reform, and then all of a sudden, you can not only build things, but build them in two years instead of 10 years because people aren't abusing the Endangered Species Act, and there's some mouse nobody's ever heard of.

“How about we actually allow people to build stuff and care about the endangered American worker and bring them back? I think more people would rather bring them back. We're working on bills to do all of those things. That lowers costs. It brings more jobs to America, but it also lowers costs.”

On House Republicans’ health care agenda: 

“There's some real exciting things coming. But for anybody that really went through the scars of Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, they named it, by the way. Anybody want to make the argument that it's affordable? That's one of the big lies; it's like the Inflation Reduction Act. The Democrats love naming things the opposite of what they are. Inflation Reduction Act jacked up inflation. Democrats did the Affordable Care Act. What happened? 80% premium increases on families since that bill became law. No Republican voted for it because we knew, number one, it would jack up costs for families, higher health care costs. It also destroyed the doctor-patient relationship. We have more doctors in Congress now because a lot of them had to leave the practice of medicine because it didn't work. What we want to do is not spend hundreds of billions of dollars to insurance companies, by the way, which is the Democrats' plan. They want to prop up insurance companies, mask the high cost of the Unaffordable Care Act, and by the way, you still will pay higher premiums. We want to lower premiums and give families options.

“We're bringing a number of bills to the floor in the next few weeks... I was meeting with the Doctors Caucus. I met with every different group, along with the three chairmen of the committees of Jurisdiction. Energy and Commerce has been working on a lot of really big things. Ways and Means Committee, the Education and Workforce Committee. They've all been working on different pieces to do things like association health plans... There's no competition in health insurance. Really no transparency either. Imagine bringing those elements in. Even look at the Obamacare tax credits that everybody talks about, not the ones that are expiring. How about the ones that still exist? You're trapped, only looking at an Affordable Care Act plan that you cannot afford. How about if you made that flexible and said, hey, we're going to roll that into a health savings account, and then you can go shop it around and buy a better plan. You want to stay in Obamacare? That's your choice. I think a lot of people would love to get out of it, but they're trapped right now. Imagine if you said that money, taxpayer money, can now be flexible to go anywhere, and everybody's going to compete for your business and want you to move to a lower cost plan for you and your family, maybe a lower deductible. How about we allow those things to happen? We've got bills to do that.

“Other things on lowering prescription drug costs. We're going to be bringing bills to the floor in the next few weeks to do exactly that. We've been putting that together for a few weeks. Again, doing a lot of things, walking and chewing gum. A lot of committees are working on all of these issues. You're going to see these votes. I love to see where Democrats are going to be on those votes, by the way. Lowering health care costs and giving families options. Is that what they're going to vote for? Are they going to just vote to bail out the big insurance companies and continue to trap you on a plan you don't like?”

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