congressman, good to see you. thanks for joining us. >> brian, good to be with you and your listeners. >> happy easter to you. likewise. let us sort of start with the tone in washington. so much news over the last several days about the strike in syria a week ago, the dropping of a bomb in eastern afghanistan, sabre-rattling on both sides with respect to north korea -- certainly the united states and north korea involved in that -- china and russia. sir, are we headed toward an inevitable military showdown of some kind on a large scale? >> well, you raised the point that we really moved away from local issues, national issues, to the international stage quite quickly with the syrian use of the chemical weapons. so we begin with the question of putin's responsibility and role in that. maybe not directly responsible, but how's he gonna act with respect to assad? you have iran working in partnership with russia with regard to that, and then the question simultaneously with china and north korea. so, these are all very, very serious times in which the role that china will pay -- will play in controlling north korea is equally as important as what's going on in syria. >> everything you've described certainly could also be described as a powder keg. all of these conflicts are coming to a head right now, and they can be solved either militarily or diplomatically. is this white house capable of doing the latter? >> yeah, i suspect so, but you're gonna have some combination. you had a red line, once again, with the use of the chemical weapons. i think it was a proportional response. but the real long-term solution is going to be some kind of a situation of power sharing in the syrian region, in which assad -- if he's retained at all -- is isolated, and a much better role for the kurds with probably some opportunity for them to, you know, control their own destiny. that is the long run, but you've got to create some ability to control isis's role. so i think the focus has been on the long run here to work on isis and to isolate assad. >> you talked -- you called it a proportional strike, the strike in syria. let me ask, though, where you stand on it on a larger scale, because a lot of republicans, quite frankly, say, "look, we recognize the need for it in this case, but we're opposed to the idea of a longer intervention, because, hey, we voted for donald trump, who sold himself as an isolationist militarily. >> well, we have to look at two separate questions. once again, the focus is on isis and ought to be on isis. and then the second focus is trying to contain syria. and then you need to appreciate putin's interest in syria, which is a footprint for him the region, which he didn't have before. it's also access to ports. so, somehow utilizing relationship putin in which he's got some kind of an interest in tamping down the syrian part while the continuing collaboration goes on on taking out isis. >> mm-hmm. let's bring it back domestically. healthcare, we saw how the last debate unfolded. what comes next? we've heard the president talk about possibly withholding payments due under obamacare. that could effectively force the law to collapse. he says he wants to do that to bring democrats to the table. is that, a, an effective negotiating strategy, and are the politics there to move the ball forward on this? >> yeah, well, look. in the long run, there are really two big things you have to accomplish here. one, in order for these markets to work, you have to get younger people to participate. and then on the upper end, we've got a small percentage of people that at use most of the services. so the costs are associated with 5%, and that's natural. people don't choose to get sick. but somehow, you've got to compel more younger people to participate and you've got to figure out a way to -- to include and guarantee people coverage, but find some way to control the costs associated with the catastrophic cases. so, the short-term question about whether or not they're going to allow the obamacare exchanges to just implode -- i mean, they're already in very, very bad shape -- my sense is that there will be some accommodation to get them through this period so the insurers know what may be happening. but looking for a longer term solution has got to be where everybody goes. >> a heavy lift, no matter what, and also a phrase that could be applied to the discussion on tax policy. given where the house freedom caucus stands, where democrats stand, is tax policy something that can realistically be achieved this year? >> yeah, i think so. but i think it's a different dynamic, because what you -- you have common agreement that we need to be able to compete globally in the first place. and simplification of the code is also something that could have dramatic impact here. we need to kick-start this economy, and i think we can, because the green shoots are there. there's also a real opportunity to couple this in some way with what many people on both sides of the aisle are interested in, which is infrastructure. so i think the pieces are there. the question is how comprehensive you can make it be. and, once again, these are complex issues, so they're big lifts. >> finally, congressman, what are you hearing from constituents? we talked about the town hall meetings unfolding across the country. "blunt" is one word to describe the way some people are discussing issues with their lawmakers. what are you hearing from them, and does it concern you as democrats now line up to run against you the next time, that perhaps democrats have a level of energy not seen before? >> well, they're always gonna be out there. and i spend a lot of time dealing with the broad consensus of my constituency, and i hear concern. i mean, they're people who are concerned about their healthcare, they're worried about getting sick and what would happen to them. they're frustrated because their incomes, the harder they work, haven't dramatically expanded. and people are looking for -- they're looking for help. they're not looking for the entire solution to come out of washington. so, you know, i think that what they want to know is you're listening to them and that we focus on important local issues. i spent yesterday dealing with the nurse family partnership. it sends nurses into homes of expectant mothers. it has a dramatic impact, but we're looking at the opioid crisis affecting mothers who are on opioids. so there's local issues that we can focus on, too, and i hear a lot of concern about those. >> all right. a lot to be done and certainly a lot left in this conversation. we certainly thank you for having part of it here this morning. >> brian, always great to be with you. thank you so much. >> likewise. thank you. and our panel joins us here on "inside story" when we come right back. >> "inside story" is presented by temple university. remarkable change isn't easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. explore temple's impact. visit temple.edu/impact. ♪ >> welcome back once again to "inside story" on the easter sunday morning. hope you're doing well with your family and friends today. we are joined now by our panel, who's here to talk about the news that kept us talking this week, and quite a bit of that. so allow me to introduce them -- or reintroduce them, as the case may be. nelson diaz -- he's a former judge. dom giordano is a radio talk show host. donna gentile o'donnell is a nonprofit executive. and sam katz -- he's a documentarian. all, thank you for being with us on this sunday morning. >> morning. >> good morning. >> let's first react to that conversation just now with congressman meehan. should he and other republicans start to feel some sort of worry? we have seen these town hall meetings. there's a lot of energy, that certainly the liberal base is more energized than we've seen in a generation. i think that's probably fair to say. we also saw that race play out in kansas last week where the heavily favored republican came within, you know, the skin of his teeth, frankly, plus or minus six points, in winning that race. is pat meehan in danger? >> i don't think. i don't think he's in danger. >> yeah. >> but i think to the larger question about whether republicans should be concerned, i don't think it's the liberal base that's the problem. i think it's the healthcare constituency that's the problem, which crosses over conservative and liberal. i think people feel -- you know, the obamacare initiative, when it was first put together, we didn't know anything about it. what was the major line? "you'll find out about the bill after we pass it and you read it." that obamacare constituency captured the message here. they were able to talk about defending people from the loss of benefits and coverage. republican message was repeal and replace. well, with what? with what? and i think, to this day, people are still confused about what was going to replace it. and ultimately, that's why i think it collapsed. >> when people talk about the obamacare or you say the aca, yeah, we want to get rid of obamacare, but we don't want to get rid of aca because of the benefit for the 26-year-old in terms of the family, the fact that they have pre-existing benefits as a result of that. and there are a number of issues that sort of they like within the aca, but they don't like when we talk about obamacare. >> it was fascinating about the evolution of popularity for this thing that was once so popular. but, sam, you talked about the base, and certainly the democrats are upset. we are seeing increasingly a segment of the republican population that voted for donald trump becoming upset by what they view as flip-flopping. >> right. [ chuckles ] >> and they certainly peg a lot of that blame on republicans like pat meehan, who we saw. >> well, pat meehan is not in trouble. pat meehan will win overwhelmingly. he controls his district. there's nobody out there. the democrats have nobody to run against him. two, the mistake was they had seven and a half years to have this ready. if you, at the other side -- this was like the tea party the last time around, brian -- and get the ball rolling that way, republicans were cowering. and then this internal struggle right now, which i think the freedom caucus is winning, not the moderates, of whatever comes out of this. that's the struggle that was going on. and i think republicans did run on repeal and replace, and they've gone off that now because of the initial salvo -- which was great, the people that packed the town halls. and i think what's also a mistake -- not to hold town halls. >> well, what i thought was most fascinating was when the president, after having to withdraw the healthcare bill that was supposed to replace obamacare, the aca, said healthcare is really complicated. and i was just astonished by that. i was like, "what -- what an awakening!" but i think, too, to sam's point on the subject of pat meehan and other moderate republicans, i disagree with dom on one point. i don't think the freedom caucus necessarily is ahead. i think moderates like charlie dent who are holding the middle part of that tuesday group, if the president decides he's gonna work with democrats, that's where he has to go. he's got to pick up those moderates with some democrats. there was a fascinating piece written by fareed zakaria talking about donald trump's opportunity in healthcare, and it includes working with democrats. >> but... >> not game over yet. [ laughs ] >> ...if you're looking into his strategy, certainly what he's putting out there right now, he's saying, "the way i'm gonna get democrats to do it is by accelerating the process by which obamacare implodes -- withholding payments and forcing the destruction of obamacare to force them to the table." it sounds to me like democrats aren't gonna go along with this. >> no, they won't. >> so where does this go? >> that will not work. well, what i think is happening is they're working with the freedom caucus now to try to get them onboard and they'll have enough votes. i don't think the moderates are gonna hold sway on this at all. i don't see that happening. >> yeah, i don't either. >> because the base voted on repeal and replace. >> yeah, i agree with you, dom, that the real issue, essentially, democrats are never gonna go with trump. you know, what happened in terms of the russians and what happened with the clinton election process, there is a lot of wounds there, and there's a lot of relationships that were broken with regard to the democrats and the republicans. and if you see the whole dnc movement, every day they're trying to figure out how they can attack the president. >> sam? >> if the freedom caucus prevails in the republican caucus in the house, the bill that comes out of that caucus is a death nail in the senate, because there are so many senate republicans who are up in two years who are gonna face this constituency, whatever you might categorize them as -- partisan democrats or alderpeople. but people -- healthcare is about me. it's not about some ethereal concept. and people who are -- particularly people who are getting older, this is a significant concern, because the cost of going into a hospital or going into a doctor's office and not having a significant portion of it reimbursed is desperate. >> baby boomers like sam. [ laughter ] >> i'm booming. [ laughter ] >> of course, healthcare policy is local, by virtue of what you just said -- it's me, it's everyone. but let's bring the discussion back to state politics. we saw a rather extraordinary moment this week. pennsylvania lieutenant governor mike stack apologizing, in essence, for the behavior of him and his wife in their treatment towards staff -- a bit of an awkward press conference, as they said. he said, "we could do better. we apologize if we hurt any feelings." but that comes as the inspector general is investigating this. he said, "i don't necessarily know if i have an anger problem. i have a human problem." so, where does this go from here? >> well, i'm, first of all, going to say governor wolf. i give him high praise for this because it's a guy in his own party and it's his strange bedfellow. that's how these things work. i'm very glad he did this. where it might go is it's focusing attention on what did this lieutenant governor do, how much are we paying the mansion they have, and then this behavior, by all accounts, it's completely out of bounds. i think it's a good thing. >> and in the apology, by the way, the lieutenant governor did not spell out the behavior in question, but that will likely come out as this investigation unfolds. >> it's bizarre in a little bit of a way. you know, tom wolf has been a marginally successful governor politically, and he basically has fired, it seems to me, a very powerful bullet at his running mate. and if he doesn't kill him -- pardon the expression -- to get him off the ticket, he's running with a guy who has become an issue over personal behavior. >> but the downside risk of that is if there is some impropriety and he doesn't do anything that he gets tarred with that brush. so this may be preemptive. >> maybe. >> i do think, though, that the press conference that the lieutenant governor held, the optics were the right optics. he immediately got on the case and said, "i apologize on behalf of me and wife." i thought it was a good idea for him to take the heat by himself. i hope that, if it's just bad behavior, incivility in tense moments, that they take necessary steps to make amends to the people that they've offended. if it's more than that, then we're having a different conversation. >> the other problem is he -- wolf's got to get at least the same percentage points that hillary got in philadelphia in order for him to win the election statewide. i mean, the real issue is what kind of turnout you gonna get. stack is a philadelphia-known commodity... >> mm-hmm. >> ...very close to the democratic party, very close to the party leadership, and i think that is something with fraction. it may hurt the governor and his reelection campaign. so i -- i really believe that there's got to be some kind of calmness in this thing, 'cause he can't just throw him out. >> well, this guy reputedly flashed the bird, i guess would be right way to characterize it, at his wife, at brendan boyle, and threw coca-cola all over him. so this might not be an isolated situation. >> thank you for censoring that. [ laughter ] it's appreciated. let's move on, guys. couple topics remaining and i certainly want to get to them. but this rebuild plan in philadelphia. a little bit complicated, but breaking it down for the viewers at home, this is mayor kenney's $500 million-plan to remake city parks, recreation centers, and libraries essentially by rehabbing them and leasing them back to nonprofits. but council president darrell clarke thrown a big flag on this. he thinks that it really could be a backdoor towards privatizing parks, public spaces, libraries, as mentioned. he wants the council more involved in the bidding process, the oversight process. is that a death nail for this otherwise ambitious plan? >> i think darrell has a point, and the point is that, particularly in many of the districts where you don't have strong occupants that can get the subleases and continue the operations and do the work that's necessary. i like the option that the library has used and the museum has used, which essentially is they have all created nonprofit organizations in which everything is still the city's property, still the city's organization, and the nonprofits essentially do the work and continue to improve whether it's the museum or the -- or the library. i think that this function is gonna be tough in terms of ownership because you're talking about long-term leases in order to qualify for the pay requirement. and once you have long-term leases, it's what happens in the pha, where you have private developers who really control the process. >> but there's an important other dimension to this on the subject of nonprofits taking these functions over. let's not forget that, right now, we have an ongoing investigation into the fund for philadelphia. and there have been a series of improprieties that have been alleged over a period of time. there have been some ethics issues that have been taken on by the ethics commission. and i think there is at least a chance that some of the large funders may take a step back from this project if they don't have confidence that what is being orchestrated is something they can get behind. they've gotten the confidence of the william penn foundation so far, but in the absence of continued confidence, there's a real risk that the nonprofit community, instead of taking a step forward, they'll take a step back. >> it does seem to be a huge door for potential corruption here. >> this strikes me as a very traditional philadelphia response to a very wonderful opportunity. [ laughter ] let's bring it in house so we can control who gets the jobs. >> yeah. that's right. >> and let's ignore the 21st century, which we want to resist at all costs entering. >> yeah. >> and let's just be like we always have been. >> dom, let me give you the first point on the next question, because we just have a couple minutes left. democratic national convention. in 2015, they said philadelphia would reap something in the ballpark of $350 million in economic impact. they revised that down the following year to $250 million. but guess what. we found out this week that the party in south philadelphia only brought -- i say "only," but relatively speaking -- $130 million in impact. similar phenomenon we saw play out with pope francis' visit. we are getting ready for the nfl draft. what does this say about philadelphia's ability to capitalize on these huge projects that any other city in america would love to have? >> well, i think it says a broader point. i don't believe any of those figures with any city under any circumstance. >> [ laughs ] >> i think some guy sits around, "i'm gonna say it's a trillion dollars in economic impact from all these people coming from the draft, and then prove it otherwise." and then some other guy says, "well, no, it wasn't." how in the world would they know? i just don't think you can quantify that. so i think it was a good thing and a success, but i think they get hyper and they bloviate over this. and each politician takes it up to another level. it's ridiculous! >> an international city's got to be able and available to do things like that. if we're gonna be an international city, we can't be nickel-and-diming this issue. we get the public an incredible national exposure, which is important to philadelphia. >> yeah, stop with the figures. just take the good stuff. >> this is really a wake-up call, because in 2026 -- 10 years from now -- when the united states celebrates its 250th anniversary, there is no city in america better-suited to be the principle host of that event. so, rather than bid on the nfl's draft or on the democratic convention, let's get ourselves organized to be the center of the celebration of the nation's 250th birthday and do it in a way that works for us so that we can maximize the benefits. >> said by a documentarian. [ laughter ] >> i don't think i can add anything to what sam just said on that. but i do think that, you know, the nfl draft and all the other major events do say something important about philadelphia being a destination city. and the more we can capitalize on branding ourselves as a place that you want to be, i think that has value. >> yeah, and we talk about economic impact in terms of hotel rooms and what you spend in restaurants. >> yeah, it's massive. >> but there's a larger message to the world, which is invaluable in some ways. >> you know, and the visitors that we get afterwards, you know, whether they come to the museums or they come to see what's happened afterwards, it's something that can't be quantified, but i'm telling you the hotel business is doing very well in philadelphia. >> people love being here. it's a great, great place to be. >> the inside stories of the week coming up after this. >> "inside story" is presented by temple university. remarkable change isn't easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. explore temple's impact. visit temple.edu/impact. >> back with final time with our inside stories. judge nelson diaz. >> there are two puerto rican legislatures, on in council and one in the state, who complained about air bridge, which is bringing puerto ricans in from the island to get healthcare, particularly drug and alcohol abuse care. i keep telling them they're american citizens. they country is economically in turmoil. they have the right to receive benefits in puerto rico. should send them. >> dom giordano. >> great new addition to downtown philadelphia museum of the american revolution. went there this week on a media pass. spectacular. a couple takeaways -- i would recommend people go. sacrifice: valley forge, telling the story of women, native americans, and others we don't usually see. and just a spectacular view of downtown philadelphia. well worth it. >> donna gentile o'donnell. >> a lot of conversation and publicity around what's going on underneath the conrail tracks associated with the folks who are addicted and living in squalor and injecting under the bridge. the city's been working on eliminating this problem. conrail had been playing ball for awhile, and then everything kind of stopped. and the inside story is that the reason is they won't build a military fence, which is breachable. that's what they need to do. the city can't do it because it's private property. if the president wants to build some walls and fences, start with this one. >> all right. sam katz. >> this is a city with the highest poverty rate and the lowest job production rate. paul levy and jerry sweeney have been pushing this constitutional amendment uphill. they've gotten it through the legislature on one occasion. they need to do another pass and then to the voters. and lo and behold, the chamber of commerce comes out against it. and what the sweeney-levy proposal will do is to create a tax structure that helps us create jobs. hopefully the chamber will revisit their position. >> all right. want to thank you all for coming in on this holiday weekend, spending some time with us. and certainly want to thank you at home as well. for all of us here at 6abc action news, i'm brian taff. if you believe, have a blessed sunday. for the rest of you, enjoy the rest of your weekend. >> happy easter. ♪ >> i'm nydia han along with gray hall. >> coming up on "action news," churches big and small area christians celebrate easter, the day the bible said jesus arrows from the dead. at the vatican pope francis asks people of all faith to remember those who are suffering. >> vice president mike pence begins a ten day trip to reassure asian allies by making a trip to south korea. congressman macarthur promised to protect our health care. but when right-wing politicians tried to pass a disastrous health care repeal bill that raises costs and cuts coverage, macarthur wouldn't oppose them. macarthur wouldn't protect us from a bill that raises premiums and causes 24 million to lose their insurance. wouldn't oppose a massive "age tax" on people over 50. but supported a 600 billion tax break for the wealthy. tell tom macarthur - stop trying to repeal our health care. >> good afternoon it is sunday, april 16. happy easter, i'm nydia han along with gray hall disproof here's some of the stories we're following on "action news" renewing an easter tradition, a south jersey community brings all denominations together to

Related Keywords

Puerto Rico , United States , Temple University , Pennsylvania , Iran , Afghanistan , Philadelphia , Washington , China , North Korea , Kansas , Syria , South Korea , Russia , Jersey , Americans , America , Puerto Ricans , Puerto Rican , Syrian Region , Syrian , Russians , American , Darrell Clarke , Pat Meehan , Nelson Diaz , Nydia Han , William Penn , Sam Katz , Donna Gentile , Jerry Sweeney , Brendan Boyle , Fareed Zakaria , Tom Macarthur ,