GLENN: Welcome to it. The Mercury Studios in Los Angeles, California. Hello, and welcome. I'm so glad that you've tuned in today. Now, there's a few things I want to talk to you about on the Senate. First of all, the CBO scoring came out. And it's not good news for the Republicans.
So let's look at what the CBO said. Now, remember, the CBO is always low. They've never come out and said, "Oh, my gosh. This is going to be so expensive." And it turns out that it's cheap. It is always low. I don't know how they do it, but they have a perfect record of underestimating the cost of everything.
So here's what they came out and said yesterday. Stu.
STU: You know, it's interesting, the big takeaway from pretty much everybody is 24 million people will be uninsured because of this plan. Rachel Maddow tweeted that 24 million people losing insurance is roughly equivalent to the population of 15 particular states. So this is a big deal. The only thing being reported from the CBO report.
PAT: It will also reduce the number of people on Medicaid by 15 million by 2026.
STU: Right. But that's part of the 24 million.
GLENN: And, again, it's not going to -- that's not going to happen. Because that's not being enacted until 2024, 2025. This is just not -- they'll never get there. They'll never get there.
STU: First of all, obviously, five Congresses from now, we cannot count on them to maintain these cuts to Medicaid. I mean -- and, again, you know, part of the cuts to Medicaid come with an offset of increased payments from the exchanges, which is what we typically refer to as Obamacare. So it really isn't -- it -- a lot of these are just partisan lies by people who want to defeat the bill or people that want to praise the bill.
So what is the 24 million number? The important part about that, that everybody needs to know, when you're talking to your friends today and they say, oh, 24 million people are going to lose insurance, the most important part about that is the vast majority of those people are going to lose insurance because they are not going to have someone come into their home and rip their insurance policy up and take it away, they are going to choose not to sign up. These are people who are forced into signing up now because of the fee. Signing up only because of the fee. And when the fee goes away, the Obamacare individual mandate fee, they will choose not to purchase insurance anymore. That is not the same as taking it from them.
GLENN: Right. I want to really make sure that everybody understands. The individual mandate happened because if you don't have the mandate and you understand the free market system, insurance isn't insurance. If I can go and buy insurance -- if I go to the doctor and he says, "You have cancer," and I say, "Crap, I don't have any insurance," don't worry, Son, I'm your Uncle Sam. Sign up today. And even though you've just been diagnosed with cancer and have let your insurance lapse and haven't had it maybe even in your entire life, the American people are here to bail you out.
Okay. All right. Well, that's not insurance. That's a guaranteed health program that everybody gets it.
Now, the problem with that is, you're still running a sham operation. And instead of saying, "We have a single-payer system that everybody just pays extra tax, and we all have insurance. And we don't ever have to worry about signing up," what we're doing is we're taking the free market and telling it, "You cannot make a profit. You cannot -- you must take all of these risks. And, by the way, it's not that they just have to take you. They cannot raise anyone's rate because they've let their insurance elapse (sic). That's what happens.
If you let your insurance lapse, they know you're not a safe bet. You haven't been paying in the pool. And this is the idea of, when we say, we're all in this together, it means that all of us, all of us have to pay something in.
So whether it's -- you know, it's the widow's mite. Whether it is $10 a month, but you've paid something in, you pay it in.
But what's happening is, all of the paperwork, all of the -- all of the teams of attorneys, all of the teams of people to make sure that paperwork is in, is sucking up all of the money that should be used for health insurance.
Now, let me tell you what's happened because of it. You are told that if you do this, you would get $2,500 decrease. You -- every family in America would save $2,500 at least in the first year alone. Instead, we have had a 140 percent increase in your premium. Why?
Well, that makes you hate -- now, think of this. Think of this as strategy. Who do you hate? I don't remember the people hating the government. I don't remember people hating the Democrats or the Republicans.
I hear them hating who? The insurance companies. The insurance companies are getting rich.
Okay. Well, gee. But they're being forced to do stuff. And a lot of them called this on themselves. So I don't have a lot of sympathy for them. But this system doesn't work. It is going to collapse.
Well, I hate the insurance companies. And nobody is saying, "Well, it was the federal government that put unreasonable rules in, this forced these companies to do this, and it increases their -- their cost of doing business. And so they're passing on all of that risk now, to those who are paying for insurance." It's exactly what we said would happen. It's happening now.
So here's what's -- here's what I think is -- is happening. And we have -- we have some sources on background. And I will tell you that what you're hearing in the left media is an absolute lie. And what you're hearing for the most part in the right is an absolute lie.
The -- the mainstream media wants to destroy Donald Trump and the Republicans. The right media wants to protect Donald Trump and the G.O.P. establishment. You're being asked to believe Mitch McConnell -- forget Donald Trump. You're being asked to believe Mitch McConnell over people like the guys that got in -- the Mike Lees. The Ted Cruzes. The Rand Pauls. The people who have stood by their principles and never wavered, those people are being blamed for this.
Now, let me tell you what has happened. You're going to hear -- and you're already hearing it from people like Hugh Hewitt, who I really like and respect. I like Hugh Hewitt. I don't have anything bad to say. But I know he's one of them that is on, currently beating the drum, which is the Mitch McConnell lie. And that lie is that the parliamentarian has said, "You cannot repeal Obamacare. You have to choose." And so the parliamentarian would not allow them to fully repeal Obamacare. There are two provisions that have to be repealed.
What they did is they repealed the mandate. But they didn't repeal that you -- that anybody with preexisting conditions or cancer and they find it today, they don't have a preexisting condition. See, when we hear preexisting conditions, we think of people like my daughter, who has had cerebral palsy her whole life and is struggling. And trying to get her on insurance is crazy.
What we're also talking about are those people who are irresponsible. Now, some can't afford it. Some are irresponsible, that are like, I'm not paying -- why would I pay for insurance, when I can just get it when I'm really, really sick? I'm young. And then I'm in a car accident. And I don't have car insurance. Because I don't need it. Nothing is going to happen to me. And all of a sudden, we're paying a million dollar bill.
That is the person that you need to concentrate on. Because that person is directly influencing your 140 percent increase.
So we're getting rid of the mandate that says to that 20-something, you have to have insurance. You have to have it.
We're getting rid of that. But we're not getting rid of the insurance company. You have to pay for that person who didn't have insurance. And that you cannot raise the rates if they've let their -- if you've let their -- if they've let their insurance policy lapse. Those are the two drivers that affect you. Those are -- those two things are the reason you've had 140 percent increase.
Without those two, insurance rates will go down, and you'll be able to afford your insurance again. With those two in and the mandate taken, your insurance rate is going to go up faster than it has under Obamacare.
To me, this is -- what they're doing is they're blaming the parliamentarian. I want you to understand, that is an absolute 100 percent, total lie. The leadership of the G.O.P., under Mitch McConnell, have lied to those senators who were part of the committee who were saying, "Look, we want to work this out. We want to work this out, but you have to get rid of those two things because that's the main driver." And the pain for America is the insurance cost. The premiums going up. If the premiums weren't going up, you wouldn't be having a problem with this. But the premiums are going up.
And so you have to reduce the premiums. They said, "Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay." And then never did anything about it.
And now they're running out the clock, and they're saying that the parliamentarian is the one who has stopped it.
But I want you to understand, the parliamentarian was never asked. The parliamentarian has ruled, you can take all of it or none of it. There is no reason to take half of it for parliamentarian rules. It's either all or none.
And the leadership and Mitch McConnell have lied to the members of Congress. Now, I don't know why. But it appears to me as though they're running out the clock. Because they want a progressive insurance program. They do want single-payer health care. They want control of this. And they don't mind squeezing you, to get universal health care. Because if they fix it now, it's going to be so painful by '18, they're going to have another plan to fix it. And this time, they're not going to have to worry about those constitutionalists like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and Mike Lee. They're not going to have to worry about those people, because they have long discredited.
Do not believe the parliamentarian lie. Because that's exactly what it is. I ask your -- I ask you to ask yourself: Do you believe Mitch McConnell, or do you believe Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and those who are around them?
Something is wrong here. And it is the usual suspects. Unfortunately, because we are so split and we are -- so many of us are feeling we need to protect the president because the press is lying, that we're not looking at the other hand, which is controlled by Mitch McConnell.
