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Brian talks with Congressman Warren Davidson · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: It's seven six here at fifty five krc DE talk station.
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  Speaker 1: I'm very happy Friday you head into the Christmas week
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  Speaker 1: next week, and welcome back to the fifty five Cassee
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  Speaker 1: Morning Show. Love you coming on the program, and I
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  Speaker 1: know my listeners love hearing from your Congressman Warren Davidson.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome back, my friend. Always a pleasure, and Merry Christmas
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  Speaker 1: to you and your family, sir.
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  Speaker 2: Merry Christmas, Brian. It's always an honor, Thank.
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  Speaker 1: You, Thank you, and let's dive on into it real quick.
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  Speaker 1: Here I saw the Senate. I don't know if they
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  Speaker 1: actually passed it, but they were pushing towards a mini
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  Speaker 1: bus deal to fund the most of the government, about
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  Speaker 1: eighty to ninety percent of the government combining in this
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  Speaker 1: mini bus like an omnibus, but not completely on steroids
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  Speaker 1: like most of them. Department's offense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, Justice, Interior, Transportation,
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  Speaker 1: and Housing and urban Development. So rather than multiple appropriation
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  Speaker 1: bills approved individually, this lumps them all into one, so
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  Speaker 1: there only remains a couple of departments that they have
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  Speaker 1: to address. Sounds like it will keep the government running.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, there's no threat of government shut down
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  Speaker 1: if this goes through, although there will be a couple
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  Speaker 1: of bills left. Is that something that sounds appealing to you?
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  Speaker 1: Are you familiar with what's going on in the Senate
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  Speaker 1: and are you think you'd be on with this if
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  Speaker 1: it gets handed over to the House for approval.
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  Speaker 2: Well, they're bundling five bills together, and inherently that just
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  Speaker 2: means that they're burying something that Democrats want in labor,
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  Speaker 2: health and Human Services for example, to get things that
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  Speaker 2: Republicans want in defense for example. So that's the transportation
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  Speaker 2: and HUD. You know, why do those things go together.
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  Speaker 2: There's no magic formula, It's just these are the deals
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  Speaker 2: that are able to get cut often. And from what
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  Speaker 2: I understand, they were close to a deal in the Senate,
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  Speaker 2: and that's where it's a little vexing because they got
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  Speaker 2: to have six and apparently the Democrats withhold their support
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  Speaker 2: for the final package, so the Senate left town without
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  Speaker 2: passing it, which is, you know, the House hasn't passed
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  Speaker 2: some of these things because you know, we don't have
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  Speaker 2: the votes in the Senate. So they're really going to
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  Speaker 2: be the driver for what the deal that can get cut.
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  Speaker 2: Republicans would probably want something more aggressive than could pass
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  Speaker 2: the Senate, but lately I don't know. I mean, we
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  Speaker 2: got Republicans. The Speaker kept us out of session when
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  Speaker 2: the Democrats shut the government down last time to prevent
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  Speaker 2: the surrender caucus from running over and cutting deals with Democrats.
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  Speaker 2: And nevertheless, here at the end of the session, we
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  Speaker 2: had four Republicans try to run over and form a
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  Speaker 2: new surrender caucus. And you know, I found no Republicans
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  Speaker 2: that said let's save Obamacare, but apparently four of them
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  Speaker 2: wanted to save Obamacare here at the end. Thankfully it
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  Speaker 2: didn't work well.
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  Speaker 1: Perfect pivot over to the healthcare debate that continues to
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  Speaker 1: go on. The surrender coocause, of course, of those folks
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  Speaker 1: who are willing to extend these unbelievably expensive subsidies the
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  Speaker 1: actual cost of Obamacare, which is lustrative of the fact that, well,
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  Speaker 1: it's an epic failure. Congressman David, I think you can
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  Speaker 1: probably agree on that one. But where are we in
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  Speaker 1: so far as something to advance. I know, House Republicans
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  Speaker 1: passed a bill the other day which I know the
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  Speaker 1: CBO said, with lower Americans health care costs by about
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  Speaker 1: eleven percent, but it didn't extend any subsidies, so I
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  Speaker 1: expect that the Democrats are all against that, which leaves
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  Speaker 1: us kind of where Congressman.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's a good summary. Wednesday, the House
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  Speaker 2: passed the healthcare bill. I mean we've I looked it up.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you've had over two hundred hearings since twenty seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: But the jurisdiction split up amongst multiple committees, so there's
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  Speaker 2: not like a single unified Republican plan. There are dozens
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  Speaker 2: of plans.
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  Speaker 1: So what the.
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  Speaker 2: Speaker cobbled together over the last couple of weeks was
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  Speaker 2: a collection of things that have overwhelming support by Republicans
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  Speaker 2: and Democrats normally would support some of these things, but
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  Speaker 2: you know, they're trying to steer towards SING and they're
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  Speaker 2: focused all on the more free stuff for more people
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  Speaker 2: approach of it doesn't lower the cost. It's a shifts
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  Speaker 2: who's paying, and in fact it raises it. It causes more inflation.
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  Speaker 2: And look, you think about Owomacare, this isn't even subsidies.
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  Speaker 2: The covid era subsidies aren't even subsidies for traditional Obamacare.
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  Speaker 2: They're like bonus subsidies. Generally aimed at the higher end
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  Speaker 2: of the income bracket. You know, so it isn't working.
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  Speaker 2: So if you look at it, well, since twenty twenty one,
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  Speaker 2: these things have been getting paid out as your insurance
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  Speaker 2: been massively better than ever before. It hasn't. You've been
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  Speaker 2: getting double digit increases. You still got the same big
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  Speaker 2: out of pocket maxes. You still have sometimes claim denied
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  Speaker 2: or sometimes oh what are you talking about it? Out
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  Speaker 2: of network. I was in the same building all day,
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  Speaker 2: and you get all those same things that people are
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  Speaker 2: frustrated about. And Democrats are counting on this sleight of
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  Speaker 2: hand to try to blame Republicans for everything that you
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  Speaker 2: don't like about your health care. And the reality is
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  Speaker 2: the Babign Plan was, well, let's talk about the broader market,
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  Speaker 2: not just the government subsidy side of it, and deal
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  Speaker 2: with some things that will make health care more affordable.
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  Speaker 2: It's not everything we need to do on healthcare. I'm
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  Speaker 2: sure we're going to keep talking about it all year,
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  Speaker 2: but it's a start, and frankly, it puts Republicans ahead
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  Speaker 2: of where we were in twenty seventeen when we couldn't
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  Speaker 2: get consensus.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I guess one thing that really just irks me
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  Speaker 1: to know and want to pull my hair out every
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  Speaker 1: time I read it. When the supplements or the subsidies
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  Speaker 1: are talked about and rejected by Republicans, they democrats scream,
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  Speaker 1: you're not doing anything to lower the cost of health care.
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  Speaker 1: Well masking it is. All those subsidies do, is you
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  Speaker 1: point it out. It increases the cost of health care.
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  Speaker 1: There's no incentive to reduce the cost. We need a
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  Speaker 1: more market flexible approach to this, something that'll create competition.
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  Speaker 1: But aside from that as a concept, why not don't
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  Speaker 1: we all agree that PBMs are no longer a necessary expenditure,
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  Speaker 1: that they are driving the cost of pharmaceuticals up, that
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  Speaker 1: they benefit no one but the hospitals and the PBM managers.
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  Speaker 1: Why why don't we just all collectively agree we're gonna
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  Speaker 1: do one thing where you we're gonna all join and
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  Speaker 1: unite to reject the use of pharmacy benefit managers and
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  Speaker 1: then we can all move forward with other elements of
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  Speaker 1: healthcare and deal with those later.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we can't get that across the finish line, which
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  Speaker 2: is maddening it is. And so last year this time
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  Speaker 2: this time last year, we had a bill there was
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  Speaker 2: a major reform of the pharmacy benefit management program. It
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  Speaker 2: got rid of stupid things like gag orders, where the
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  Speaker 2: pharmacists isn't supposed to tell you, hey, if you just
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  Speaker 2: do it this way, it costs you like ten bucks
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  Speaker 2: instead of you know, one hundred bucks, or you know,
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  Speaker 2: all those kinds of things that are just you know,
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  Speaker 2: offensive that they're even in practice. So we did on
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  Speaker 2: the bill Wednesday deal with pricing for pharmaceuticals, but we
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  Speaker 2: didn't do the broader pharmacy benefit management plan. So and look,
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  Speaker 2: Buddy Carter is an actual pharmacy is from Georgia. He's
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  Speaker 2: a member of the House right now, and he's tried
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  Speaker 2: to do this forever. He's like, this is how these
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  Speaker 2: PBMs are wrecking the pharmacy practice, and in particular they're
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  Speaker 2: wrecking independent pharmacists. So you can deal with the major
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  Speaker 2: mail order outlets in a different way, but they're really
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  Speaker 2: trying to consolidate the industry, which you know, let's the
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  Speaker 2: pharmacy benefit managers control a handful of big guys versus
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  Speaker 2: having to deal with a ton of independent pharmacists around
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  Speaker 2: the country. It's bad for everybody, and I think broadly
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  Speaker 2: people agree but that's the kind of frustrating thing that
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  Speaker 2: goes on in DC. You're like, well, we're trying to
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  Speaker 2: make the speaker put it on the floor, but he's like, well,
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  Speaker 2: we got these other members ten or fifteen that won't
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  Speaker 2: vote for it, so it's going to fail.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, well, okay here in the minute, we got here
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  Speaker 1: in the segment, Congressman Davidson. Since everyone sees these, well,
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  Speaker 1: the vast majority except for a handful, I just want
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  Speaker 1: to know what the handful of folks who want to
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  Speaker 1: protect the PBMs have. What is their stake in the game.
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  Speaker 1: What is their argument that they're valuable and not just
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  Speaker 1: a cost enhancing thing.
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  Speaker 2: Well, this is exactly what my point is, Brian. You
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  Speaker 2: got to put it on the floor so then the
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  Speaker 2: people know, hey, here's the people that agree with the
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  Speaker 2: pharmacy benefit managers. Ask them why they think this is
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  Speaker 2: a good idea. It's indefensible generally, And then that's the
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  Speaker 2: biggest frustration. Overall. There's so much work that goes into
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  Speaker 2: making sure we don't vote, and it's like, no, you
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  Speaker 2: did all this work to get elected. You get a
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  Speaker 2: voting card vote, and look, I get it. Sometimes you
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  Speaker 2: get these tough votes where it's like, look, you don't
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  Speaker 2: get to write an essay. It's yes or no, so
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  Speaker 2: so it's frustrating. Sometimes you're like, well there's a little
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  Speaker 2: nuance here, Well, then explain it and price. When you're
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  Speaker 2: defending something like pharmacy benefit managers, people are going to
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  Speaker 2: pay attention because they're like, yeah, please explain.
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  Speaker 1: How about this as a concept stand alone bill? Get
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  Speaker 1: rid of pharmacy benevot managers is the bottom line of
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  Speaker 1: what the bill says, doesn't include any other provisions or
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  Speaker 1: anything else related to any other moment of aspect of healthcare.
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  Speaker 1: Queue the bill up and then discharge position and force
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  Speaker 1: everybody to come out and say out loud while they're
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  Speaker 1: for or just go ahead and get rid of them.
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  Speaker 2: Possible, Well, the discharge position might be a lane to try.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know that effort's been tried. But that's the
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  Speaker 2: single subject bills. This is the thing. Everyone talks about
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  Speaker 2: it and just like the appropriations, you can't get a
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  Speaker 2: single subject bill on appropriations because they got to do
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the cobbling of the deal making together. It's the way
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  Speaker 2: the sausage is made right and that you know, you
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  Speaker 2: could respect it if it was working right, but it isn't,
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  Speaker 2: and I think a lot of people want the transparency.
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  Speaker 2: So maybe the discharge on the pharmacy that benefit managers
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  Speaker 2: is the path that seems to be the only way
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  Speaker 2: to get certain things to the floor.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you can feel free to advance that idea and
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  Speaker 1: you can take credit for it to Congressman Davidson. Respect
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  Speaker 1: tell a speaker to give you a call. There you go.
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  Speaker 1: I'd love to talk with that guy. I wonder what's
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: going through his head. Answer a lot of questions for me. Anyway, more, Davidson,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: we'll talk Epstein files. Today's the day. I guess plus
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: inflation came in lower than expected by a little bit,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: which is obviously a positive thing. Let's continue in a
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: moment after I mentioned calling electric power up your holiday
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: sale that's going on to the end of the month,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and I twenty one to five KARSI Talk Station Friday
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  Speaker 1: with Congressman Warren Davidson. Moving over. I guess today's the day.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: According to the Epstein Act you had the files have
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: to be released in searchable form. A lot of people
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: saying that's not going to happen for a variety of reasons,
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  Speaker 1: where where are we on that one, Congressman Davidson, Yeah, I.
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  Speaker 2: Mean that's the law. It passed, I mean overwhelmingly, and
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  Speaker 2: now the administration's got to comply with it. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: we'll see see what they publish. You know, we'll see
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  Speaker 2: whether it's a clean thing. But yeah, here's my frustration,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: and this is why I thought, like, well, the this
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: charge petition is interesting, but the real issue is when
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: is somebody going to jail and they're not going to
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: jail until Pam Bondi brings some charges or US attorneys
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: around the country bring charges, and it's like, where's the investigations?
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: We know these girls didn't traffic themselves because Jelane Maxwell's
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: in jail for trafficking. She trafficked them to somebody, So
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: where are the prosecutions? And I think that's where people
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  Speaker 2: are rightly livid. Yeah, you know, even some of President
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Trump's biggest fans, you know, and you know Trump didn't
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: take it well. I mean he kind of unloaded on
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Thomas Masky and Marjorie Taylor Green.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I don't know, it's largely over there.
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  Speaker 2: Their pressure on Epstein and it's like, look, we love you,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: but what's going on? Here.
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  Speaker 1: I share the same concern and disbelief. I mean, he
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: did campaign on releasing the Epstein files. Democrats wouldn't release
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: them when Joe Biden was in office, and then they
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: turned into the biggest supporters of releasing them as soon
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: as Donald Trump selected And after saying he wants some released,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: he then does a one eighty and then he says, no,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: we don't need to release them. There's no there there.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's the most confusing element of the presidency
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: thus far as far as I'm concerned. Congressom Massey, I
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: just don't get it. It's never been adequately explained to me.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean I think that's part of where
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  Speaker 2: the disclosure will, okay, help us understand. I mean, so,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Dan Bongino's leaving. I don't know if this
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: is the only reason, but you know, he was very
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: intent on this before he went to the FBI. He
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: becomes the number two at the FBI. You think this
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  Speaker 2: is certainly one of the things that's going to change.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, this is the thing I'm just thinking about.
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  Speaker 2: You know, Frederick Douglass, you know, iconic Republican former slave
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: earned his freedom. A lot of really good thinking in
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: some of his writings, But one of the points is
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: power con sees nothing without a demand. Here, you know,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Massey led the discharged position, made the demand, and the
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: concession has been made. We'll see whether it's made public today.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: But the real question is what are the layers behind
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: this that are still holding it back? Yeah, how are
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: we going to get the FBI, for example, to be
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: held accountable for anything? So look, I'm hoping twenty twenty
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: six in the new year, is the year of accountability.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that would be nice, I mean, most notably considering
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: all the details now that have come out about these
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the warrant that was issued on Donald Trump and the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: storming of his residence in mar A Lago with guns
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: blazing or guns out and sirens and FBI officers coordinated
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: effort with CNN to be there on the scene. Apparently
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: they didn't even have probable cause to issue the warrant
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: in the first place. Congressman, Yeah, you.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Keep scanning these abuses of the FBI, and look, we
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: have certain tools in place you want to be able
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: to stop terrorists and bad guys, but everything that we
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: use to design against enemies of our country, these guys
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: were weaponizing against Donald Trump. And so again, Pam BONDI,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: when is somebody going to jail? People are really livid
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: about this, and I don't I don't think it is
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: resonating enough, but you would think of all people, Dan
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Bongino totally gets it. You know, a lot of this
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: reason is podcast surged. Was this exact kind of issue
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: where we're here's the accountability and he gets in a
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: position to do it, and you're like, well, who do
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: we need to send to reform the FBI, And maybe
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: the answer is it can't be reformed. We're just gonna
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: you know, the government brought the FBI into the world,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: the government should be able to take it out. The
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: result need to be done. We need law enforcement, but
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: they're not working. They're not responding, they're not steering. And
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: it's the same kind of thing usaid we tried to
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: steer it, they wouldn't steer. We just get rid of it.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Congressman Warren Davidson, it is a pleasure to have you on.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your willingness to come up on the show,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: up on the morning show and talk to my listeners
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: and me on a regular basis. I'll look forward to
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: County your twenty twenty six and continuing this and I'll
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: behalf again of my listeners, Joe Stracker myself, to you
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: and your entire family, we wish you the merriest of
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Christmas is, happy holidays, safe travels if you're moving about,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and look forward to hitting the ground running next year.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Sir Yeah.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Likewise, God bless you and all your listeners.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Brian, Merry Christmas, Thank you. Congressman Davidson. Seven twenty six
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Alex Treantapil ahead of that aut