Thursday. Watch live coverage of the debate on cspan starting at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. West virginia senator joe manchin held a town hall meeting. Topics included the Affordable Care act, nomination of gorsuch the Supreme Court, the coal Mining Industry and the epa. This was held in morgantown, West Virginia. [applause] thank you. Thank you very much. I want to thank elizabeth for doing a great job. Elizabeth is a product of farmington, West Virginia. [applause] her dad in law family to go with me and we all cried together so i know them very well. Im very proud of what shes doing and being the ball the way she is. To all the organizers, i think then that this is unbelievable god bless you all. I asked how many to expect and she said about 300. We have 600 i think then thats unbelievable. Thank you all. To make a machine, i think then. Two other speakers, i appreciate so much and it makes a difference. I appreciate you all being here. I want to thank the public officials. My good friend, judge trudeau is here and i dont know if theres any others, but i thank them for being here. Sometimes it is a tough one. Anyway, i want to introduce myself to him. My staff will be here and we do case work on anything you need help with comment we are facilitators. We will make sure we can get that help you need for any agency and State Government or federal government. By state directories right here. Kim berry. Where is ken . Raise your hand. Right back there. She is one of our top caseworkers. Maria stone street. Maria is on this site back here. Theyll be around. And then where is brian . T. J. Is from a d. C. Office. I want to thank all of them. Let me just say a couple things here that will open in a do anything you want to talk about his grave. Im sure you have a lot of concerns on other issues, too. Everything is on the table. The Affordable Care act is the biggest challenge we face right now in america. Its one of the largest social agendas that we have. Social policy changes are that there had been ready for this next year had the care and social security, its right up there. Social security didnt get it right in 1935. Took a while and medicare didnt get it right either and it will take a while to get this right. Theres not a person in the room here that doesnt believe we can fix it. We need to fix it, but you dont throw the baby out with the bathwater. You dont repeal it. The politics can you all hear me . Im starting to lose weight so ill do the best i can. The politics are so bad. I met with President Trump four weeks ago. I sent mr. President , let me tell you whats happening. My republican colleague, your colleague on the republican side are taking it down if primrose path. They made a political promise for the last six, seven years. I came to the senate after senator byrd, when senator byrd passed away june 2010. I miss him more than you miss him. He was something. Anyway, 60 times they voted to repeal them. Not one time did i see someone may hear some in a little bit better. Joe, heres something that would fix it. Not one time. Im the person they usually go to. They will find someone to work with and say okay, that makes sense. Lets try to make it better. Im thinking okay, now all of a sudden thats been their mantra. Think about this. Theyve had success. In 2010 would just about got wiped out. We started losing all of our house and senate seats by 2014. We lost both the house and the senate so they think its a roll now. They think they are on a roll and i think the people must want this for us to repeal this because weve been working on it. Im saying wait a minute. Now theyve got to put up or shut up. Mr. President , they are telling you that we are going to basically repeal it immediately, but not change anything for two years. I think you understand theyre trying to get through 2018 political election . Thats all theyre trying to do. They know how devastating this will be. They think they can push out all the losses people are going to happen the way health care will be taken away in 2018 after the election. I said they are going to repeal day one every single tax that pays for this thing. You are going to be 475 billion upside down in two years. You are going to bust your budget cap 475 billion they havent even explain that to you yet. Thats just not right. Please dont go down it. I think we mightve sewed him up a little bit because then he came right back and says we are going to repeal and replace the same day. Maybe theres a miracle i dont know about, but it does initially were that way. If youre going to do it, do it now. Not to put it off. Police were called and not im not. The only thing im saying, i would ask all of you, there is no reason on earth that we cant get down, democrats and republicans look at the repair needed in the private market. We can fix that. [applause] if we all agree, if we all agree, democrats and republicans agree that preexisting condition is inhumane not to allow a person to buy insurance thats affordable, even though theyve had in horrific Health Care Problem that republicans tell me they agree with that. They agree that basically we shouldnt have a cap in a cap basically says im sorry, you just use all the money that we could ever afford to spend i need to keep you alive or keep you healthy. We all agree that is inhumane. If we agree on that, we agreed a yearold should stay on. We agree that senior citizenship though our Medicare Part d hold. We all agree on that. If we agree on that, why do you want to throw it out . Why do you want to repeal it and start over . So i said and here is where the problem is. If you make about 75,000 or greater of your salary and youre in the air, private market, you pay higher premiums. You pay higher deductibles and you say wait a minute, im almost not getting money and insurance. Im a novice when it got to pay thousands more until i get to start using my insurance. Thats the privatesector market that we can fix. You have to get the product in the market match that. No ones ever worked on that. I have a funny 26 show the speed 4600 for the product we have of the market now as soon as they leave their parents. They will pay the fine but not the 4600 because its too costly for them. Those are things to work on. Weve gotten to my friends, the United Mine Workers have been getting screwed royally. Let me tell you. [applause] and i want to tell you what has happened so you know the whole story because youre probably only hearing parof it. We are fighting right now for Health Care Benefits and retirees and our penchant good right now we are on a fourmonth extension. This started in 1946. Don luis basically was going to pull the umw out because my grand parents, they got nothing. They had no retirement, no health care, nothing. He said we built this country. We thought and 12 wars. Its so important for us to have the energy that we had that basically they said okay, the group enact basically said from that day forward there would be a certain amount of money taken out of every hole that was mined that would go towards the pension and retirement. It wasnt taxpayer dollars. As part of the work they perform. That goes on. Everything is final. In the 1980s, the bankruptcy laws come into play and allow companies to walk away from obligation and stick us for what they should pay. That happened. 207, two away, we had the crash and we really go upside down. We said fine, weve got to pay for the abandoned mine land money which comes from america. We are not using any of the money thats basically used for reclamation. We pay for the miners, pension and retirement fund. We have a great though weve been working on for three years and Mitch Mcconnell has killed us every time. We cannot get that bill on the floor. Reduced everything we can to hold it up and i said right now ive got a trade agent that they want real bad. He asked to have 60 votes on hold right now. Hes going to stay on hold until we get this protection bill. [applause] we are going to get that done. We are going to get the health care done it without a fight pension. You have been so kind to me over the years. Ive been around a long time in many different positions. Made a lot of mistakes. Ive never made a mistake trying to hurt my state or hurt anybody in my state. Ive always learned from every mistake ive made. I was trying to do something and sometimes when you do something it doesnt work out. Youve got to fix it. So for the first time in my lifetime 80 of the adults that are working age in West Virginia. It tears me apart. We have the best workers in the world and never insist you get West Virginia, youve got a great worker. Look at her Good Days Work for a good day today. Theres too few of them in three things keep you out of the work force feedback is still set, et cetera youre convicted. If any conviction on you or youve got a lack of skills that are the one thats killing us. This addiction, and theres no one of us in the room right now for your honest with ourselves that doesnt know somebody in our immediate family, extended family or close friend that hasnt been this addicted to a fella said drugs. If we dont step forward to fight this, god help us all. I go to schools and tell your children, theres not another country that can take us on. There is not another country that can match up with their military. Nowhere in the world. They know it. Theres not another economy that comes close to our economy. We are 20 trillion gdp. Chen is around 10, 10. 5 and drops off the hill after that. They know they cant, but guess what. They are not going to. They will fall from within. They dont think well have a sober enough workforce to remain a superpower into the 2050s. They just figure you cant do it. They can keep that the superpower of the world. So heres the problem with god. Addiction. Ive got a bill called lifeboat, if you dont do anything, help me on this bill. This bill makes every pharmaceutical manufacturer pay 1 penny per belgrade per milligram of opiates they produce. One penny. Let me tell you what bad guys. The 1 penny goes to Treatment Centers around the country. West virginia will have one in every community. The 1 penny will produce . 522 billion a year. I cant get one of my republican friends to sign off. I said this is a lifesaving thing. This doesnt have any home. Opiate addiction and overdose for Prescription Drug is killing democrats, liberals, conservatives. It really doesnt care that the lent killer. We try to fix it ourselves. At we are saying this will give me the money to fund it. The Affordable Care act right now for the first time for people with mental disorders, Mental Health, people that are addicted are getting help now and we are paying for it. Well take that away immediately. We are back to square one. I get a person with addiction. I go talk to people that have been addicted. Their lives have been ruined. They are thankful they are still apply because theyve overdose many times. So map as recovery house out in huntington. Huntington, West Virginia is ground zero. They are fighting it. They are doing it. They have an excellent really a group of excellent thought to in their communities and their their university has gone together two of the school of excellence, basically treating from conception to birth in a child all the way through. We catch them at the tail end after theyve been addicted. We get a baby from an addicted mother. They go home to an addictive lifestyle. They end up repeating the same thing. So its an allinclusive thing. The other one is they wont stay in treatnt because they cant get rid of their conviction. Theyve got a felony on their hand. We have a bill called last chance it will open everything up. This one bill i need help on this one, too. If its not a Violent Crime or crime that you committed, if it is mostly large, youll have a for grand larceny. If you go through a oneyear recovery, one year as a mentor, you mentor other people. After two years, your sponsors can go to the sentencing judge and basically the arresting officers to go to court, to ask for forgiveness and his punishment so you can get back in the workforce. Those are the things that can be done. With that being said, will talk about anything and everything. This is my fourth one in two days and i guarantee you anything and everything does come up and i am happy about that. There is a huge line over on this wall. If you have any question, please go and stand next to the wall. 90 seconds you get to ll your story or ask a question. The senator will have a little bit longer, not much longer to answer questions as much as he can. What time does the foreign and . And if you guys need anything, we are here. Hi, senator. Hello. Can you guys hear me . Thank you for coming today. I am from burke county here in West Virginia and i am standing here today i am standing here today on behalf of my best friend alex who committed suicide last weekend. I would appreciate if you could let me finish my entire question. Thank you. Senator manchin, why the curse on your position by keeping the aca in fact, i have not heard you speak about the silent killer of West Virginians. Every 12 minutes, someone in our country commits suicide and never 30 seconds, someone attempts to take their own life. This is a Public Health crisis that is affecting your constituents, our neighbors, especially the poorest among us. Macau county, reports county has a history of rate of suicide in West Virginia and West Virginias population has a 50 higher rate of suicide that could tear to her countrys average. That is not a coincidence. Poverty is a death sentence. What i heard you say on thursdays town hall in arston is even though your second top donor is your daughters pharmaceutical company, we are to believe that you are not beholden to and do not work in her favor. You even admitted that while West Virginians are dying daily from suicide and drug overdose, your daughter is one of those is grossly overpaid in the industry. If you truly dont work in the favor of your donors, why are you pushing so many opiate related bills. I urge you with medical marijuana in charleston say never wants to smoke marijuana for peace, love and whatever. For countless veterans, Cancer Patients and People Living with chronic pain, being denied a safe, natural alternative to the pharmaceuticals that have poisoned every inch is not a laughing matter. With the impending repeal of the aca, thousands of West Virginians losing access to Mental Health care and lacking access to medicinal therapies that do have Mental Health illnesses. So how do you project the numbers may change for your constituents who suffer from Mental Health issues and who considers suicide their only option and what have you done since your town hall in charleston to educate herself about the benefits of medical marijuana. [applause] first of all, my daughter as you know, she knows all people at that level and not that Health Care Level all over. We talk about that. I dont have control of that. It is so crazy. I dont even understand it. But that being said, im proud of what theyve done for morgantown. I know a lot of people that do and i hope they understand that because that could have been wiped out and it wasnt. Were you referring to opiates. If thats their product in early products product in early products come you better find another consultants are out of business. I was stopped opiates completely. People do need them. I understand that. So theres a balance. As far as marijuana, heres what we said. Theres Recreational Marijuana and anything i can tell you about these different trement centers in Addiction Centers where people have been a big day. Usually nine out of 10 will tell me how they got started under addiction. [booing] let me just say this. This is exactly the other three people the think thats true. Im trying to learn about it. Im telling you what i find out when i travel. They said they start with Recreational Marijuana. They said it turned into harder stuff. I know, i know. Im trying to learn. Ive learned since thursday of medical marijuana, theres a lot of good assets and attributes that it can help you if thats the case, were looking at that. Im talking to doctors and going back to washington, doing research in how they feel about the side effects. What can it do . Can you get off of it or is the same is basically going to Treatment Centers later . I dont know. We are going to find out. We are trying everything we can. What i know about Recreational Marijuana, i would not be in favor or support of legalizing Recreational Marijuana. That is just me. Its the same in all three other town halls. People feel the same about that. But that, i know they say colorado made a lot of money and this and that in prohibition didnt work, so ive heard the last three days ive heard a little bit of everything. Well take all that into consideration. Thats what this is all about to understand your concerns and learn more about it. I can only tell you what i know and it might not be enough to have the conversation you want, but im willing to learn. I am not an acceptable to the Recreational Marijuana, legalizing marijuana. Im more receptive to finding out medical marijuana, what role it can play and how it can help peopleh care. [applause] in the interest of time, one comment about asking questions. As we go through this process you have your question answered, if you could please take your seats. Please take your seat so we can cover the widest variety of topics between now and the ending time of 5 30. Senator manchin, thank you for being here. I miss jennifer wagner. I now live in morgantown. Thank you for your opposition to repealing the aca and your support for health care for americans. You heard about the Vital Services planned parenthood provides. Will you support funding for planned parenthood and womens reproductive rights and health . [cheers and applause] should not let me say first of all, we are all products of our environment. Ive watched my family, my grandmother, life is very precious. I was great in that is ingrained as being prolife is i could possibly be. With that being said, i go to congress. When i was governor, i try to basically balance this out the best i could because i know how emotional. Trust me, i have a lot of women in my life my daughters, my wife, mothers and all of them. I hear from all different types of view. I first went to congress in 2011 and the vote came up to defend planned parenthood. And me being prolife i said makes sense. They do all the abortions. And then i started learning more and i said there is the Hyde Amendment. They said that basically make sure that not 1 penny of federal dollars go towards paying for an abortion. So people against abortions basically cant pay my tax dollars were used against my will. So the Hyde Amendment protects them from being done. My friends on the prolife side said wait a minute, listen, im looking everywhere i can. If i can find 1 penny that goes from the funds of federal dollars that go into paid abortions, then i would vote against funding planned parenthood. But i couldnt, so i voted for funding planned parenthood. [applause] then, we saw the horrible accusations and ideas that came out and that was all being investigated. We had another vote and i voted against planned parenthood until that was cleared up. The understanding has been cleared out. There are charges against the people that made bad, the unwarranted documents. [applause] all i can tell you his face, if it comes out, if planned parenthood comes out and it comes up again and theres absolutely no connections whatsoever, everything that basically has been bad as proven false and nothing comes up between now and then, i will go to Fund Planned Parenthood again. [applause] senator, thank you for being here. Im elizabeth well, i grew up in fairchild and i want to thank you for support for wanting to keep the aca. My husband and i would not be able to afford Health Insurance were it not for the marketplace insurance plans and subsidies provided. Its a small home repair and remodeling companies. I work for a young locally based nonprofit and thanks for the aca. You are all on the market. The marketplace. I know right where you are. Sit thank you for fighting for that. Anyone with a Health Care Getting a pair not working. They are working. Theyre getting assistance in subsidies similar prices. So its not free. S thank you for that. My question is about another issue coming up that has a direct impact on health care. In the hobby lobbys door, Supreme Court nominee coming out gorsuch sign onto an opinion allowing forprofit employers to refuse to comply with the birthcontrol benefits in the Affordable Care at. Senator, given that you have stated she would not vote to reduce any coverage afforded to women under the aca, do you also opposed mr. Stubbs explained the nomination . Thats a good question and its one that comes up all the time. Just a follow up real quick, can you commit to getting an error about the hobby love hobby lobby decision. Im going to meet with mr. Gorsuch. Yes the hearing next week. I will ask that question. I havent had a chance. Ive met him. I havent talked to him. Ill ask him. I was never so in various, especially if the u. S. Senator, but as an American City mayor when Merrick Garland came up for consideration and he was nominated. My colleagues on the republican side, some of them wouldnt even let them come in the office and sit down and talk to us. I just wasnt raised that way. We just werent raised that way in wt virginia. We talked to everybody. We might not agree, but we will talk to you. I understand for 12 months we went without a nominee. At that time, Mitch Mcconnell said its because basically back in 1990, joe biden said that we should be someones last year their turn. I think there is the last three or four months of the term back then that you shouldnt have a president whos going out of point someone for a lifetime appointment. That is the argument being made and that is what mitch was saying. They sat on Merrick Garland for a year. Now weve got everybody not im not tied. My friend here, the judge and i can tell you for democracy to work you got to have three branches of government, whether we like it or not. Weve got to have the executive branch. Ill speak about that. You have to have the legislative branch which im tired of in the Judicial Branch. A Judicial Branch does not work with members of the Supreme Court. Youve got to have nine. He just cant be on a tide because it throws everything back down. So here is what we have. Harry reid pulled the Nuclear Option so you know what the nuke leer option in 2015. Im the only democrat in the senate today that voted against what harry was doing. I said robert c. Byrd would be rolling over in his grave if he could come out go after you for doing it because it is wrong. The duty of the senate unlike any other political body, any other policy body in the world is so different because we have the rule of the minority. The minority has the 60vote for the majority has had a 60vote threshold. That gives minority input. George washington asked him why do you have bicameral the house and do anything wants to for the simple majority, 28 teen and washington said, the peoples member will be like sometimes its so hot you cant drink it in the senate is supposed to be like the sasser that catches the overflow of the hyped sequels so you can drink it. I was washington explanation back in 1789. Here is what we are dealing with. 51 votes in the senate. To tell you i think Mitch Mcconnell will say harry reid did it in 2015. Im going to blow the Nuclear Option for the Supreme Court and i am begging him not to. If you do, you destroyed the whole process we have because then ill do it with legislation. No input, knows a whatsoever. Believe me, what goes around comes around. I cant give you a definitive yet. My main concern is this. Can i keep the 60vote threshold and i will vote to support the 60vote threshold. I will not go down to the 51 but with everything i have in me. Neil gorsuch, you are replacing scalia, Justice Scalia is an extremely justice. Theres going to be another one. Hopefully not, but more than likely with the age and evything else th will catch up in there could be another one within this four year term. We are going to try to keep it intact and im asking the question i have no problem asking the question. Hayek, Diane Michele has from drama, West Virginia. My story is that i have a chronic condition, a preexisting condition that significantly impacts my functioning. I require weekly infusions that before insurance but caused 20,000 a month. That far exceeds what id make at the end of the week. I require this to function. Now i could be significantly impaired by changes to the aca, but im one of many in this state where such horrible Health Disparities among chronic illnesses. We are a product of our environment. So i want to know, how are you going to make sure that the unique nature of West Virginias Public Health is honored and understood in washington so that when changes come they arent going to totally negatively impact our state more devastatingly than a nerdy hasbeen. Well, thats e reason we are all here today friday the aca. You think our problems are bad now, they exasperate the problems we have right now. How do we get People Health care . Let me give you the Chips Program i went and got when i was your governor. I went to washington. I said give me a waiver. That may take care of my children and West Virginia differently than what youre doing. The Chips Program is basically the working poor. We are going to cover their kids. Let me tell you, if you come from a family that does not insurance, i guarantee youre not getting routine maintenance or preventive care. Youre basically using it when you have to indicate is taking to the hot little and ensure chips will pay for it. So i said, let me is the same amount of money you get my stadium money you give my state and that means that for k. To five and eight. When you start to kick coming to kindergarten. To a complete workout and follow them through, trying to keep them from getting sick. We were doing things like that. I said that they work with my welfare. People on medicaid. A healthy person on medicaid does not need the same type of care that a very sick person on medicaid needs. I only have so much money. Theres only so much of your tax money i could stand. So if you are a healthy person and you are on medicaid and welfare, i want you to go to your nutritional classes. I want you to exercise, once you learn how to cook gave you have to learn how to live the healthier lifestyle. They beat the living life with me on that. I cannot poor people that are so sick because all my money is used up in different areas. We tried to put common sense to it and we had to put common sense to our whole Health Care Provider should. Thats what we havent done. We are going to talk about that, too. Thats a big thing and we will. We will get to that. [applause] thank you, senator manchin. Many researchers find them. Im from fairmount. A lot of hometown people here. My question to you is what ive read about with the republicans changes to the aca. They want to basically replace it with tax credits. I am here on behalf of some of my friend in the dallas county. That county has the lowest life in the 90s they as one of the lowest per median, per capita incomes. How are they going to be able to afford Health Insurance if it relies on tax credits when they cant even make it . We know the aca, obamacare isnt workin everybody can ree with you on not im not. Let me just say this. It is working where it is intended to work in basically filled in the gap for 20 Million People and never had a prayer, never had a chance. They wouldve never gotten out. Thats what you cant go back on. Its the private market. We can fix the private market, but no one wants to fix it because if he thinks they basically told all the people who voted for you we are going to repeal it. Wait a minute, you fixed it. Im sorry. Im going to hold you accountable. I wont vote for you because i told you wed repeal it. No rationale anymore about axing things. The only thing i can tell you is the tax credit is 575 the tax credit to the richest americans. They dont need it. Okay . [applause] but if we dont use that money that those tax credits would be giving to them, if we dont use it wisely to make sure we get people help care, quality of life, more productive life, we have not done our job either. Its the responsibility of everybody. Let me talk about singlepayer. Hes got a question of his au pair . I know you do. For that single payer. We might as well get right to that if you dont mind. My name is Leslie Corbin jay thank you or have encouraged because the others didnt. [applause] senator, are you aware of house bill h. R. H. R. 676 677 . It is a medicare for all bill in january in the house. No one knows about it. Thats a shame. Until it comes to the senate we usually dont. It covers comprehensive, everything we need and how to pay for it. Medicare for all. Who pays . A 5 increase for a tax increase sorry, a 5 tax increase on the richest 5 of the country. I actually run a copy of it with me. First of all, i want to learn more about it, too. Single pay, canada, denmark, sweden, u. K. , all single. [applause] i said the same question people asked me. How do they pay for it . All of these things we have to revamp our tax structure in america. Weve got 20 trillion in debt in no uncertain talking about 20 trillion of debt. This generation is going to pass it onto the kids and grandkids, which is criminal what we are doing. Here is what i did find out. Let me take sweden. I couldnt believe this one. Their taxable income from the first dollar you make, your first dollar to 47,000 is zero. That they have a local tax. So the govnment of sweden takes zero from dollar one to 47,000, but they are the minimum tax in their local areas of 28 to 34. Everyone pays on the first dollar they earn an income in sweden. If you make 47 to 67 , u. K. A federal tax to 28 local tax for 48 tax structure. That is not doable for us. Then you go down to the u. K. U. K. We dont know if their local tax desire, the zero to 5400 is 10 . Everyone pay something in the u. K. Everybody pays 10 no matter how poor he may be. 34,000 is 20 . 34161 is 30 and 161 and about his 45 . Thats the u. K. Canada 0 to 45 is 15. The first dollar in canada is 15 tax is. 45 to 90, 21 and it goes. So im willing to look at everything. Im truly am. I truly believe if you have a healthy person and if you go back and think the system we had before and again i will refer back to when i was governor because they had a lot of stuff cannot be. Basically all the hospitals to me and they said governor youve got to take care of all these people and they cant pay you. Weve got to pay. So i had to juggle money around paid hospitals to stay open because they are given all the free care. And then workers comp was 4 billion in debt. A 4 billion of added that because you know what happened . The person is working, trying everything they could. Didnt have insurance. The business they worked for by law had to have workers comp. If they caught her, they cripple back and hobble into work and claim a workers comp claim. Its the only thing they have. If you think thats a decent way to deliver that the republicans want to go back to, i sat on the frontline and watch that and we made some changes. It is unbelievable. That is what we fight against. Im into looking at anything and everything. This is our new tax structure, whatever we want to do, im fine. We are looking at it. This is that it aircraft shows how it pays for it. I dont know if you want to give it to me, let me tell you, any of these bills, i can write a bill and maybe theyve done and cbo score. Congressional budget office. That does what you say its going to do. We look at anything. [applause] sera, many of us a spirit and a resident of morgantown. Spin it good to have you. Thank you. I wanted to credit you for being here because your colleagues are invited and this is a decent conversation and they should be here as well. I wanted to talk about a previous asked a question and its a yes or no question that in 2012 the Supreme Court voted to uphold the aca. These are unelected judges. Although legislative things we do with him as their health care. And theres other decisions coming before the court on the fredericks case that would get the unique ability to fight for health care. I get ads on the internet and anything i watch from outside West Virginia because political money is completely unregulated. My question to you is that judge gorsuch doesnt make a commitment to these kinds of decisions that protect our health care and West Virginia, yes or no, will you commit to voting against them . I cant say yes or no today until i talk to them. You are saying if hes voting against that heres the thing. And im weighing in on this. Its as honest as i can be. E 60vote rule it destroyed more if we deprecate back and go down to 51. Lets say i vote against bill gorsuch and make it 59 both indicates that demand does. Okay the rules of the senate right now 60. Mcconnell, senator mcconnell, Mitch Mcconnell will bring it back up to vote on basically the Nuclear Option going to 51 votes. I am saying now if we hold it at 60, when you say the aca was upheld by a 54 decision, those with Justice Scalia. If you put gorsuch in this spot, and does that work . Weve got to make sure because ill tell you one thing. Right to work in prevailing ways, what our legislature in charleston has done is destroying basically the working person and i mean that. That is awful. [applause] so ill ask that question. You are asking me. They wont give us an answer to be honest with you, but id be happy to ask you. Id be hard pressed to vote for you. Thats for sure. [applause] okay, my name is dave for morgantown. As a former umw labor representatives, i left the industry in 96 because it saw the downfall of the industry coming and i took a different career path but we got through it. The miners protection act isnt bailing out the miners. It is bailing out Coal Companies. I want to know why we do not address the bankruptcy laws and make pensions and health care the first creditors paid in every bankruptcy. [applause] dave, youre exactly right. Basically with the onslaught of people coming on a train to the national right to work and what theyve done to prevailing wage, this is coming on a customer problems. We will get some traction and legislation. The republican legislature, but basically if we dont try, shame on all of us. Bankruptcy courts have done, allowing everybody to walk. Theyve all been able to walk. I agree. I agree. Hi, senator manchin. I am part of westport, West Virginia. I wish senator cap but i was here as well. Recently explained on morning joe why you have been so supportive of mr. Trump lately. You stated that you think and for supporting West Virginia coal miners. He reported mr. Trump may be one of two Democratic Senators to approve scott pruitt for the head of the epa. [booing] you stood by mr. Trump when he sang the amendment, allowing Coal Companies to pollute our waters. Aside from that, what are you thinking mr. Trump for . Trump care hurts coal miners. What is trump doing for coal miners and what exactly do you support when you say you thank him for protecting coal miners in West Virginia . [applause] i dont think its any secret in this room i didnt vote for donald trump. I voted for Hillary Clinton. Now with that being said, he got a life to it. Hes our president. Someone asked it when i was running, what are you going to do if donald trump could select it. Im going to do the same thing as Hillary Clinton gets elected. I will do my job and everything i can to make him the best president because hes the president of the United States of america. I want my country to succeed, my state to succeed and ive got to work with him. I was the chief executive of the state. When i was governor i went to the state senate. I said i want to bring a team on board that i know and trust. You might not know him. He might not like him. If they pass three things, a background check is basically a Financial Disclosure in an ethics probe and they are, give them to me. I am going to be there for four years at iges satellite did. Let me put my team together. In deference to the executives ive always tried to put this team together. I always thought you come and go with the executive. They will be gone if he is gone. But that being said, theres a few i couldnt hope for a because i said if they did not discuss that, well talk Jeff Sessions first. I voted for Jeff Sessions and people are up [booing] i heard from a lot of my friends about that one. Let me just say this. We are part of our environment. If i knew a person i knew you. I would make my decision on what i knew about you versus what somebody said about you. Thats the way i was raised. I never saw one on the bigotry are raised. Well, they talked about senator burns family and i never saw any of that in senator byrd. If that happened 50 years ago, i dont know. I wasnt there then. Im just telling you exactly what i know. Im the only democrat who voted for Jeff Sessions. Now is that an fbi investigation of michael flynn. Fbi investigation. Jeff sessions as attorney general. There is no way Jeff Sessions should be having a reinvestigation. Step aside. Now when i say it, the only democrat that voted for them, they cant pay manchin is playing politics. They did vote for the guy. I said i voted for him, he let me down. I told Jeff Sessions is, if its prenhat you misled underwrote to the committee, ill ask for you to resign. I will do that. Thats all i can say. [applause] but that on scott pruitt, lets talk about scott pruitt recently passed three things and i know he comes from an extraction state. I understand, he understands. We will hold his feet to the fire. But i can assure you, you are going to get scott pruitt for someone like scott pruitt. He cannot come he is knowledgeable, whether we agree or not, but i want to talk about the buffer rule. The extreme rule of you are referring. The clean water act is still in place. The Clean Air Act still in place. Basically hold on. You can holler at me, too. I can take it. But heres the thing. What it did, it took all the authority away from the epa and the corps of engineers and basically came into this 400 regulations. I look at the duplicity and i can tell you theres got to be a balance between the economy and the environment. Theres got to be a balance somewhere. Thats what im looking for. [booing] ive got this feedback before and i understand. They are not going to pollute. They cant be pollute. Theyre in violation to be shut down. First of all, we want clean water and clean air and we are going to make sure we get it, but some of us will do it differently. Not by shutting everybody down. You just cant do it. [inaudible] that is wrong. Im not for that. I want the epa to do its job. We need to get to the next question. [applause] having said that, the Affordable Care, if the Affordable Care act is repealed as proposed we will inevitably have more sick kids. Couple this with the fact West Virginia public educatn is always struggled with enrollment and finances. Charter schools would take many quality teachers out of Public Schools. They would divert money from Public Schools to charter schools. This will be devastating for kids were already marginalized and 11 the cards stacked against them. H. R. 610 makes my heart hurt for our kids in West Virginia. Education is their hope of breaking the cycle of poverty. Our kids will be unhealthy and uneducated. What would you do to fight for health care for our kids and to fight for Public Education . Thats really at the crux of everything. When betsy devos came in, and im sure shes a very fine woman, i dont know her that well. I met her. I explained to her, i said, betsy, education in West Virginia is more than reading writing and arithmetic. It could be the place where the only get one and only nutritional meal. Its a place where they get their healthcare. Theyre so much more to Public Education. And he was at the thing. She passed the three teslas partial financial fbi background check and ethics probe but what it comes down to turn over the Public Education system thats made this a great country in the world, and persons never been in, involved in the process or the kids having been involved, i just didnt think of the knowledge at that level knowing a look education. Thats all. It wasnt, and a told her its not personal. I just thought there might be some of your better skills or had more experience in the public arena. I can tell you on that. We are fighting. Hea. Head start, when i was gover that we put more money toward Early Childhood education. And also with Energy Express because, i want to show one quick story with you. I always go, when i go to your schools, i was going to the captain first. I learned more in the cafeteria than anything else. That tells me everything. I was down in southern West Virginia. I went into the catheter in may. The cook was crying. She was getting ready to get off for a couple, three months. Why you crying . These kids are going to go hungry. I know theyre going to go hungry. I just wish would be here all year long to feed them. You heard me talk about your long education. Its for many reasons. The bottom line is we got to be looking at things differently. These kids come Energy Express an answer, they got nothing. We are going to fight for that. [applause] senator, a follow up regarding the issue but with another specif area of it. Im lisa hall. Within the h. R. 610, the School Vouchers bill, the every Student Succeeds act is at risk, and that act allows children with disabilities to receive access to the general education environment and accommodations on their assessments statewide. And so how can you ensure us that the every Student Succeeds act will still be available and viable for our children who have disabilities in our Education System . That was another reason also. A lot of people dont realize that the laws that we have guarantee that every child gets an opportunity for quality education, the matter what the disabilities or handicaps may be. We put that bill. Thats a moral responsibility that we have taken on. Some people dont understand that whatsoever and thats why the voucher systems and charter, im sure charter works in some areas. In a large metropolitan area, they got success, thats fine. We dont have it. Our tax structure is different from how we support our school system. You taking it all away and redirect that, you did that anymore dollars two. You redirected it. You will have a lot of kids that get left out that are not going to be so, i said i cant support that. I cannot support it because i know how fragile our education stem is. Weot to continue to be vigilant. Thats all you can be, speak out on that. [applause] thank you for being here. Karen watson, formerly from charleston and you know a dry fork is. My question does concern the epa proposed budget cuts of 31 . Im very troubled its going to devastate many of the programs, critical programs, chesapeake bay, great lakes, all the algae blooms that weve all seen, we all care about that. Not to mention West Virginia issues. Another area being cut is monitoring and enforcement. I worked for 32 years for the department of Environmental Protection under your administration as well as about for other governors spirit we never cut it either, did we . No. No we didnt cut it. But what i want to emphasize is, because in my role as an attorney for the agency i often had to deal with the epa and both enforcement issues and in getting the state Water Pollution control program. I helped to write the laws and the rules to make our West Virginia standds conform to the mimum federal standards. I can tell you from persol work for 32 years that had it not been for epa, and i know if you have that differences on what i would consider minor, in the scheme of things minor, you know speed is what youre about is very important. But what i am saying is without epa, West Virginias pigmentation of Environmental Program would have been fledglings at best. It wouldve been a race to the bottom with other states if we dont have a strong federal agency, this states environment will not speed is basically the way the system as always, you had the state had promised, correct . Because of the rules i helped write. At the indy got to the point. When i talk to her director at the time they didnt even have come West Virginia didnt have anything whatsoever. They said thats what they were telling me. Okay. Spirit that is not accurate. But bottom line, its critical that epa remaine remain strong i support epa. I just want them to do the job and allow the army corps of engineers to do its job. But i would say that the rhetoric that is going around about obama is a oncall, okay, that that fosters war oncall it took it away from the army corps and took it to the white house. I know that for a fact. We couldnt get a permit and whatsoever, couldnt do anything spirit i hope i want to make sure they do their job. Yes, center dimension, thank you for being here this evening. Im from fairmont West Virginia another one of your hometown folks. So my question actually regards your healthcare d that of the 534 other members of Congress Pick you all are [cheers and applause] spiff you all are covered, you might know where im going. Im fine because i just found out about what might healthcare is spirit well, my question is about, the Congressional Health care plan really is something difficult standard in the United States. No no no. The point is, is many of your constituents you believe that part of the problem is that many of the republican legislators do not really have any skin in the game. Would you come to the American Healthcare act reach the senate as it currently is support an amendment offered to remove that program altogether so that the 535 members of congress could be in the same boat at the 24 million americans who would lose their health care . Would you support that . [cheers and applause] lets make it very clear. This is a misnomer. This is what they call i dont know what. Anyway, my is right at 1000 a month. Month. Im on the exchange. So shes a veteran tricare, right . You will be onn exchange. Tj, where his . Are you on the exchange . Everyone, we on the exchange. Everybody thinks we get Free Health Care for life. That is a bunch of malarkey. Thats crazy. I dont know why this stuff get started. Anybody thinks we get a paycheck from life. My paycheck stops whenever i stop being a sender and my retirement is not apple paycheck. My retirement is 2 for the years i served it i dont know all this happened. Maybe was back in the 30 30s and 40s they did that but not anymore. Im paying 1000 a month, comes, comes out of my check, okay . Im on the exchange because thats what our checks are written from. Is anybody on the West Virginia exchange wax down here as far as our office . Everybody, Senate Employees on d. C. Change. If this thing changes it changes all of us, too. If we go down, you go down, we all go down. Thats the way it should be. Im from hazelton West Virginia. I just really want to hit on your voting record and ask why did you twice vote against the importation of the drugs from canada . I did not i voted for it spiff yes, i did spiff just recently i voted 707 and 769. We will check it out because i just voted. We just did it. We had a you voted preously agait. And lesnar was buried in the bill. If its fda approved, that means that the drugs are fda approved, if theyre just opening up the mark without fda approval i would be against it. If they are fda approved i am for it and i voted for it. We will find out. Give me those bills. Give them to me. Give me a copy of them. Were going to check and get back with him. If i messed up, im sorry but i didnt. Thats one thing bernie and i agree on. As you can tell im not from roger originally but ive lived in morgantown for 40 years and i am a citizen. Bless you. [applause] speed do you have dual citizen . Just one. You pick the right one. Spirit and i grew up under the British Health service. My grandmother didnt pay any taxes, she didnt have two pennies together. She spent weeks in hospitals for nothing. My father was treated effectively. My mother was still alive, can walk to the nearest clinic and pays nothing and gets courteous, prompt service. So its working well there, so socially since of course. My problem with obamacare and with anything that is being done here is only part of one of the issues, the otheis a vast medical industry in this country, including the Drug Companies of course but everybody is being paid to julie and cant afford this. Can you do anything about it . Heres the thing about it. Lets say Prescription Drugs, all these big pharmaceutical companies, we are the only country in a world that prices drugs the way we priced in. We allow the private sector to discount the negotiate discount. Thats crazy. The federal government should do that. Cms to do that. It shouldnt be the private sector. We have three companies, theres three companies that all they do, they are the middleman. Three companies. One company, express scripts as i understand is bigger than cocacola, and they can keep it together. Make anything. They just basically take the drug from here and get a discount from the manufacturer and put it over here. And the doctors, we are the greatest shoppers in the world. When i was governor we tried to put compare care. I wanted to put up, look up tonsillectomy, normal procedures where you can go shopping get the best price. We do nothing to try to get the lowest price of delivery for quality goods. But when we shop, we know how to shop for Everything Else but we dont want to shop for health care. They wont let us. The system is so convoluted. Im trying to change anywa it ai can. Anyway i can. [applause] speed but this will be our last question before we wrap up activity. Good afternoon, senator manchin. Thank you for being with us here today. I wrote a rather polite question on this card to anyone here who knows me knows i cant ask it this way. I am so passionate about the subject th on orhrough the cart away and eak to my hear id like to talk you about the way i feel abo drugs from a very personal perspective. My name is pamela, i live in morgantown but i live in clarksburg and serve all of harrison county. I left a long thirtyyear Healthcare Executive career to have a new career, and that is as a Child Protective Services worker for the state of West Virginia. [applause] in addition to that, and you may already know this, i am a 13 year foster parent, an adoptive parent for the state of West Virginia. The reason actually both of those things is because i have parented ten children in my home, and of them i have adopted eight. Of those ten children, nine of them came to my home from their families, and those families were all devastated by drugs. The other one child that i parented in my home was devastated by the impact of mental illness. As a cps worker most people know by conventional wisdom we have ridiculous caseloads. My ridiculous caseload which i love and am passionate for by the way is more than 90 of families better devastated by drugs. Yes, i am very concerned about the adults, the users that need treaent and th are dying here in unbelievable numbers in West Virginia every day. You know who im speaking for . I look like an adult might really a kid. I am speaking for the children who are absolutely devastated [applause] by what is happening with Substance Abuse and addiction. I absolutely employee to do everything in your power and to push hard against a very difficult political tide i know to protect medicaid benefits but particularly include treatment for Substance Abuse and Mental Health, and to please protect any of the funding or policy for those same very, very important issues. I hope you would do that. Please tell me how. Let me ask, make sure you understand. Come here, come here. You have nine children you put in foster care and youd i have parroted cant end of those ten ive adopted eight. [applause] well, thats putting your money where speed is but i am not appear to promote that for myself. Im here for the example of the way this issue impacts families and kids. Thank you. Its the toughest thing weve got going. I know theyre wrapping up, okay, let me just say this to you. I said im a product of our environment. I grew up between the tracks and the creek. I think of the privileged child. Why . I had unconditional love. Im proud of all of my family because i think basically i saw what they taught us. So i grew up, there was always rules, always rules. You had to work remember the saying no work, no eat what you had to work and you had help everybody. My grandmother would stop and say a prayer if she saw someone who is handicapped or diseased or whatever. I just watched that. So i sent my politics is i am fiscally responsible and socially compassionate. Im never going to make a decision that i ever think would hurt any person, not one human being. I might not make decisions the way you would want me to make them. I try. I try to listen to everybody. Im never going to do anything thats going to hurt you. If i make a mistake and mess up, tell me about it. Ill go back and fix it. If you cant change o your mind, you cant change anything. Ive had the greatest opportunity to representing the state because every time i get on Television Im so careful i want them to know ho good we ar. I know the connotation and i said in West Virginia we dont do it that way. We dont treat people that bad. We help people. We would do things. We will reach out and take care of our neighbors. Its just the way we were raised. Its gotten so toxic that if you dont agree with me, then you must be my enemy. Im sorry, youre not my enemy. If youre a republican youre not my enemy. President trump is not my enemy. West virginians voted for you. I didnt, they did basically they need help. Dont peal the Affordable Care act. Repair it. Just fix it. [applause] is all we are saying. Then we can fix the rest. The only thing i can tell you is, ill give you everything got. You know, my daughter, im proud of my daughter. She started out 21 years of age working for Little Company and the basement at the bottom of a trailer, worked there, has been a 25 years and worked her way to clear to the topic only in america i guess. I dont know. The salaries are out out of whack everywhere. Coaches, my goodness when i grew up coach could barely make it. Now the coaches, my goodness, the administrators can barely make it. The students can barely make it. You can pick any segment of society, its all out of whack. And i have a number for the white house if you want to write this down. The white house switchboard is 202 2561414. I really disputed we will leave this. You can find on cspan. Org to go to remarks by House Speaker paul ryan. Good morning i want to say we were honored this week to welcome the president of United States to her House Republican conference. I want to thank you for taking the time to come to the till to talk to our members and for steadfast leadership throughout this entire process. President trump was here to do what he does best, and that is to close the deal. He is all in and we