Speaker ryan hey, archer. Thats awesome. Are you ready, archer . What sticker . I havent had those in a long time. Good morning, everybody. First, i want to welcome all our special guests today. I think its great to see you here and its great you see the work your parents do but dont tell them this but theyre actually kind of good at their jobs. One of those your daughters . Reporter yeah. Speaker ryan you had one here last year with us. Reporter this is the first time, abbys first time. Speaker ryan ok. I digress. Later today the president will sign an executive order to improve accountability at the v. A. Under the Obama Administration not nearly enough was done to hold bureaucrats accountable for failing veterans at our veterans affairs. Despite promises to clean things up, only a smattering of people were moved out of their jobs. Only a smattering of people were held accountable. Last month, the house passed the v. A. Accountability act, to make it easier to bring the kind of steady leadership that v. A. Medical centers so desperately need. And last week, the president signed legislation to reduce outofpocket costs for veterans and to promote better access to care. These are all very positive steps to deliver the kind of fundamental reform that is needed at the v. A. This adds to what has already been a very incredibly active first 100 days. Under the president s leadership, we have cut red tape at record levels, cutting red tape saves families dollars, it saves businesses jobs. In fact, we have saved families and businesses more than 67 billion just already. Yesterday, the administration put out its principles for a pro growth tax reform. Thats the next step toward overhauling our tax code and we continue to make Real Progress in our work to repeal and replace obamacare. As you saw, we posted an amendment to the American Health care act yesterday. This amendment was the result of constructive conversations among our members that focused on how we can do more ho lower costs for everyone. What this amendment does is give states more flexible the to reduce premiums and increased choices, and it does this while maintaining and preserving protections for people with preexisting conditions. This is the important point. Those protections remain on the books even as we add new ones. The goal here is to give states greater flexibility if they want it to lower premiums. Weve not yet made any decisions on a vote, but this is more progress and we will continue our progress and our work to repeal and replace obamacare. Now, i am sure some of you have concerns. Are there young people that actually have any questions . I am sure there are people that have questions. Are there any young people that have questions . [laughter] all right. Anybody else have any questions . Reporter how close are you on health care and what are your reassurances to moderates who may have liked the original plan . Speaker ryan something tells me you will be the first to know when that happens. I would argue this is a bill that a moderate would more likely want to support. Some people were concerned about e. H. B. s, essential Health Benefits. The state would have to find a waiver for essential Health Benefits. If anything this puts more federal protections in on preexisting conditions. Every state is a little different. In wisconsin we had a high risk pool that worked really well and i think we should be given the flexibility to tailor our markets there works for us in wisconsin because wisconsin the Health Care System is different than, say, the new york Health Care System or the vermont Health Care System. That just makes sense. Even if a state gets a waiver there are multiple layers of protections like continuous coverage. If you have a health care problem, you cant be rated for Higher Health care costs. If you switch to another plan you keep your coverage conch, the same protections apply even if your state gets a waiver. We believe is to have federal and state support for people who thatick, support so everybody doesnt have to bear the costs in the insurance pools. 1 of the people in the individual market drive 23 of the cost. So if we directly support that catastrophic coverage, sort of reinsurance on top of insurance, then youre lowering everyone elses prices. You are making it easier for people to afford Quality Health insurance and youre guaranteeing that that person who has Catastrophic Health care cost, that person who has a preexisting condition or gets really sick gets the coverage they need. We think its a really good step in the right direction. Were having very productive conversations with our members. We feel like we are on the right track and we will announce when we have a vote when were going to go. Reporter is there pressure to vote by the president . Speaker ryan we want to go when were ready to go. This has been a very organic bottomup process. It takes time to do that. Were doing big things. I talked about 200 days because i thought the kind of agenda that were attempting to put together here, overhauling health care, overhauling the tax system, rebuilding our military, securing the border, those take more than just a few months. They take a long time. At least a year. And so thats why were working on the path to get it right and not constrain it to some artificial deadline. Nancy. Reporter mr. Speaker, high risk pools dont have the greatest track record. In wisconsin your high risk pool was great for the people who were on it but it was still unaffordable for a lot of other people, wasnt it . Speaker ryan no. It was pretty actually darn good but this will add federal funding to it. So think of high risk pools. There were states that had high risk pools, that had reinsurance mechanisms or risk sharing like the main plan. None of them had any federal funding to it. None of them had any federal resources. This takes that idea and adds federal resources to it to make sure it works even better. And h. H. S. Will coordinate with those states to make sure they have good mechanisms in place. So we have seen states. Wyoming had a good one. Utah had a good one. Washington state had a good one. Maine had a good one. We had a good one. They work. Now we will be adding federal funding to it theyll work even better and lower prices even more. Reporter can you assure people with preexisting conditions that they wont be worse off under your plan . Speaker ryan people will be better off under this plan. Thats our goal here. The problem with obamacare, people get one choice at best in a third of all the counties in america. Five states you got one plan to choose from. Thats not very good to have just a monopoly giving you health insurance. Our job here is to make sure that people get more choices and by getting more choices you can get better Quality Health insurance and lower prices and we preserve those protections for people with preexisting conditions. Thats the goal of this bill. Thats what this bill achieves. And we think its going to be a big improvement on the status quo which is collapsing before us. Reporter thank you, mr. Speaker. Steny hoyer and democrats say that they will speaker ryan uhoh. [laughter] i was repeating what she was saying. Not what you said. Reporter democrats are saying they will withhold votes for a funding bill. Speaker ryan yeah. She said to me about that. Reporter a vote this week on obamacare repeal, whats your reaction to that and can you pass a funding bill with just republican votes . Speaker ryan i would be shocked they would want to see a Government Shutdown, that the democrats would want to do that. Look, lets just take a step back. The reason this government funding bill is not ready is because democrats have been dragging their feet. Periodically they havent been showing up for negotiations. So the reason we need an extension in the first place is because democrats are dragging their feet. Even if we get an agreement, lets just say, in 10 minutes, we simply cant process the paperwork that long and we have a threeday rule. People need to be able to read the bill. So it inevitably under any scenario or circumstance requires a shortterm extension. Im confident we will be able to pass a shortterm extension. I would be kind of shocked the democrats would want to create a Government Shutdown because they have been dragging their feet. Yeah, casey. Reporter mr. Speaker, back to health care for a moment. With all the changes you have made, could this be an easy yes vote for the moderate members . Speaker ryan yeah. Tom macarthur is a leading moderate in congress. Its his amendment. Reporter it seems to frustrate his fellow moderates. Speaker ryan tom macarthur, who has an entire career in insurance, understanding the math and mechanics and science of insurance, has come up with an amendment that works very really. And it gets to where we all want to go. We want to bring down costs. We want to preserve protections for people with preexisting conditions and we want to respect the fact that states, you know, have different issues, Different Health care marketplaces and we want to give states the maximum reduction in policies and premiums so we can get the best possible Health Care System. What we have learned is a cookie cutter onesizefitsall Health Care System doesnt work for america. Its a diverse country. Different states have different rules and systems. We need to respect that. And thats what this macarthur amendment does. Hes one of the leading moderates. Hes a cochair of the tuesday group. Good shot archer, right . Hes one of the leading shot sorry it was a good shot. That was pretty cool. Hes one of the leading members of the tuesday group so i think this is a coalescing thing. Reporter are seats potentially at risk . Speaker ryan i think peoples seats are at risk if we dont do what we said we would do. We all campaigned on repealing and replacing this law that is collapsing. The American Health care system in the individual market is in peril right now. We have a moral obligation to prevent people from getting hurt, to stop damage from being continued, and we promised we would do this. If you violate your promise, if you commit hypocrisy in politics, thats the greater risk to a persons seat. You in the back. Reporter on cost sharing subsidies, you have said the administration should continue those payments. In fact, you sued the Obama Administration for that exact same thing. O. M. B. Is saying this is an issue that Congress Needs to deal with. You said you dont want to deal in the second bill, whats the future of these because it seems like the white house and House Republicans are in different pages on how that funding speaker ryan yeah. Were in litigation so i wont go into details on that only that its the difference between the separation of powers. So were in existing litigation and the white house, the administrations been making those payments while thats pending which is still pending. I think the white house has already made comments on this so ill leave it at that. Reporter so once the lawsuit ends speaker ryan i dont know what the outcome will be. Reporter the House Oversight committee speaker ryan ill go back to you next. Reporter the House Oversight committee released documents showing raising concerns about michael flynn. Im wondering, do you believe in his failure to disclose foreign payments, do you believe he may have broken the law, number one . Number two, are you concerned about the white houses vetting procedures and actually hiring to this position to begin with . Speaker ryan i dont know whether he did or did not. Thats why we have an investigation. This i see is part of our ongoing investigation. Over at hipsi as well. Well just find the answer to that question through an investigation. I am not going to prejudge a conclusion. Reporter on the miners benefit where do you stand . Should those benefits be extended to Health Benefits permanently . Speaker ryan oh, i wont get into reporter do you believe that Companies Like speaker ryan i believe these Health Benefits should be extended. I am not going to insert myself into ongoing negotiations that the appropriators are going about the length of that. Last question. Reporter the tax foundation, their estimates of tax reform and effective tax cuts, you guys cite them on the republican side very often. One of the assumptions is there is no crowdout effect from rising debt. And so im curious as to whether you in the past have said you believe a rising debt entitlement programs and spending will have a drag on Economic Growth. Is there an can you square that circle . Speaker ryan its all about Interest Rates, right, jonathan . I think under most models you assume a normalization of Interest Rates will occur. The question is do Interest Rates go above their normal rates or do they go higher because of debt and deficits . Crowding out investment . I do believe that we have to have fiscal discipline in addition to Economic Growth. You know me well. I think that means reforming our entitlement programs. I think passing this health care bill, which helps go at lowering the cost of health care, is extremely important if youre going to lower fiscal exposure. If youre going to help close the debt. One of the biggest drivers of our debt is the high cost of health care and inflation. We can have a patient Health Care System that is restored by reviving the individual market. Thats one of the greatest things we can do to bring down High Health Care costs and close the debt and the deficit. So i do believe you have to have comprehensive entitlement reforms along with progrowth legislation like tax reform to get the best of both worlds which is getting the debt under control, getting people back to work and getting faster Economic Growth that gives us better revenues. Last one. Ok. I got a its my turn to ask a question. How many junior reporters do we have here today, including photographers . [laughter] ok. Why dont we all get a photo, all right . [laughter] over here echo over here . [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up friday morning, Oklahoma Republican congressman and appropriations and budget member, tom cole on the new gop proposal to a to replace the Affordable Care act. And then Earl Blumenauer on his proposed legislation that would amend the process by which residents are removed from office. Be sure which president s are removed from office. Be sure to watch lessons in journal live at 7 a. M. On friday morning. The president of argentina made his First Official visit to the white house today. He had lunch with president trump. Cameras were allowed in at the end of their meeting. Because the leaders also took a few questions from reporters
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