White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short Responds To Jimmy Kimmel, Chris Christie & Rand Paul’s Objections To The Graham-Cassidy Healthcare Bill

Marc Short, White House Director of Legislative Affairs, joined Brian Kilmeade and responded to criticism from Senator Rand Paul, Governor Chris Christie and Jimmy Kimmel on the Graham-Cassidy healthcare reform bill.

Listen here:

Marc Short responds to Rand Paul’s opposition to Graham-Cassidy

(Short) We hope that Senator Rand Paul will come around to support it. I think that the issues that Senator Rand Paul raises,that we concur with him on Brian but the reality is Senator Rand Paul was elected in 2010 in part on Obamacare repeal. He’s had seven years to find colleagues to help support a plan that he might put forward and he hasn’t been able to do that, he has no other support for any legislative effort on this that he’s put forward so the reality is that right now we have Graham-Cassidy or we have Obamacare and right now in order to get the majority of senators we believe an approach that sends the federal dollars down to the states as our framers always intended and better decisions in a federal approach to push it out of Washington. we’ve learned that the utopian vision of Obama that Washington D.C. bureaucrats can make health care decisions for Americans across the country has failed and failed miserably and so these decisions are best left to the states that are closer to their constituents and their residents and we think that this is the best opportunity we have right now to once and for all kill Obamacare.

Marc Short responds to Jimmy Kimmel’s opposition to Graham-Cassidy

(Short) I think that we have respect for Jimmy Kimmel and send sympathy for the health care plight that his child has had but at the end of the day what would be most cruel is leaving the law that stands. What’s happening right now is insurers are fleeing the markets in fourteen hundred counties across the united states roughly half of our country there’s only one insurer left which means there is no choice we’ve had premiums skyrocket in states like Alaska two hundred percent the last year, Arizona one hundred and ninety percent of the last couple of years it is getting out of control and what’s been missing in this debate so far that nobody is covering is the taxes were part of legislation democrats delayed until 2018. Next year American families, anybody who owns a health care plan is going to get hit with another 2 to 3% tax just on owning a health care plan. This thing is crumbling and it’s falling apart and the coolest thing we could do would be to leave it as it is. Graham-Cassidy, what is misreported so far is Graham-Cassidy protects preexisting conditions, it does not change that element, it’s something the president said he would do on the campaign trail he is continuing to protect and insure coverage for those with preexisting conditions.

(Kilmeade) Does he cut $243 billion dollars down the line out of this program?

(Short) the reality is that this program will save actually our estimates are about four hundred and thirty five billion dollars because Medicaid is unsustainable. When people compare the current trajectory versus Graham-Cassidy it’s a fairy tale. The current trajectory is not going to be there. it is collapsing states cannot afford the gap that they’re going to have when they expanded Medicaid is that they promise the federal government will fill it in that’s not possible we do not have the resources to do that. so the options are to have it totally collapsed or moved forward the process and assist them that orderly gives his decisions back down to the state and doesn’t hold harmless those states that chose not to expand Medicaid.

Marc Short responding to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie saying he opposes Graham-Cassidy because the bill will cut 4 billion dollars in Medicaid funding New Jersey

(Kilmeade) Does he have valid points and is he one of the states is getting less right?

(Short) No. Governor Christy does not have valid points, he should study the bill better and then be better informed on this topic. The reality is it currently Brian, roughly thirty percent of all federal dollars under Obamacare goes to California New York where states are nearly equally populous such as Texas and Florida accounts combined less than ten percent. How is that equitable? Right now the current system is choosing winners and losers based upon the states that expanded Medicaid. We believe those dollars should be handed out based upon the population of the state. so that is a far better system and we talk about alleged four billion gap, that is a gap that the states that expanded created because at the end of the day they were believing that the federal government would come in and bail them out and give more taxpayer dollars from across the country to put into their states and that’s not viable so this is four billion dollar number again is a fairy tale doesn’t exist.