get back at reforming healthcare and get back at reforming entitlements and take on welfare reform. another big entitlement program. julie: speaker ryan promising entitlement reform in the new year. it might be easier said than done as it looks to run into stiff obstacles from members of his own party in the senate like majority leader mitch mcconnell. joining me now is congresswoman marsha blackburn. great to see you again two days in a row. what a treat. why is paul ryan so adamant about this? this is where so much of the increase in federal spending is because basically it s on autopilot. so absolutely members of the house want to address the healthcare issues, medicaid and, of course, i think there is a lot of support for sending medicaid back to the states. in tennessee when i talked to our state elected officials, they say send it to us. we ll do a better job. and then also as speaker ryan mentioned the welfare benefit.
clearly democrats didn t want healthcare to be touched. how do you get democrats to agree to reshape medicare and medicaid? you work on things. one item at a time. and you fix issues and problems one at a time. the house has done a good job of that. we ve passed well over 400 bills. the senate has taken up about 100 of those bills and i think 70 have made it to the president s desk. to our good friends in the senate, just pick up the pace, work with us on this, and let s drill down on these issues. now is not the time to tweak around the edges. now is the time to make certain that we are focused on fairness for taxpayers, we are focused on fairness in delivery of these benefits in these programs to make certain that those who truly need the benefits are going to get the benefits. and i think it s the compassionate thing for us to do and it will be a heavy lift.
administration is considering rewriting some healthcare rules that would basically make it easier to buy plans without all of the obamacare mandates. but last week the president was suggesting working with democrats on a bipartisan issue. blake berman of the fox business network is live at the white house. what is the administration looking to do here? you have a re writing of the rules that the trump administration is looking into. it will lower costs with healthcare plans because the obamacare mandates that are wrapped up into the affordable care act law won t be associated with those plans. this is expected to take shape next month here at the white house by an executive order. cutting into and around the edges of obamacare is the new course of action for republicans after they failed earlier this year to repeal and replace the healthcare law. and the president continues to tout the recent repeal of the individual mandate that is in the tax bill.
and the states are going to do a better job of those services delivering those services than having it done by a bureaucrat in washington, d.c. so i think there is a little bit of wiggle room there. and yes, we can make some progress. and also one of the things that we hear from the american people every single day, fight waste, fraud and abuse in government. because hard working taxpayers are sending their dollars to washington and state capitals and city halls and what do they want? they want the money to be spent where it is supposed to be spent and not wasted. julie: paul ryan wants to reshape medicaid and welfare programs. he doesn t have his own party to back him up for the most part. is it a battle worth fighting with house and senate republicans? and is this a battle that democrats are going to want to revisit? when it came to healthcare,
situation. always take the cold weather gear with you when you are out in the cold weather. the key about frostbite as it sets in you don t know it. the part that gets frostbitten has long been numb by the time it starts to freeze up. rick: mike, go inside. good job. got it. rick: thanks, pal. julie: isis may be losing its grip in syria and iraq but the attack in kabul today shows it is hardly out of business. rick: plus the white house reportedly mulling acting alone to write new rules on healthcare but the president is talking about working with democrats. can he do both? a closer look straight ahead. president trump: we have essentially repealed obamacare and we ll come up with something that will be much better. whether it s block grants or whether it s taking what we have and doing something terrific.