00:00You know, on the meeting from last night, on the finance desk, you left kind of frustrated about the budget.
00:11Yeah, well, I've got a lot of concerns. I'm just surprised.
00:15What's your concern, though?
00:16Well, I'm surprised that the Senate has decided to completely depart from the House framework
00:23when it comes to Medicaid and the provider taxes.
00:26I'm also surprised that they decided to extend the Green New Deal tax subsidies.
00:30They decided to weaken and roll back a bunch of the President's tax cuts, the Populist tax cuts.
00:35And then on the rural hospitals, I mean, this is not at all – I've talked to our leadership constantly about this,
00:43and I was told we've got a fix on the provider tax issue, we're going to help rural hospitals.
00:48There's nothing in here for rural hospitals.
00:50In fact, what they're doing is lowering the provider tax to make it even worse.
00:54So it's like we're defunding rural hospitals in order to pay for extension to the Green New Deal.
01:00Like, I just – I don't get it at all.
01:02So there's no way you could support something like this?
01:04It needs a lot of work on it, I'll just say.
01:05It needs work.
01:06Do you think you're going to talk to anyone on finance to kind of help them understand, like, your perspective on the provider tax?
01:11I'm being very vocal about my concerns, yeah.
01:13But what is the impact on rural hospitals if this were to become law?
01:17Well, what they tell me is that we'd be looking at closures.
01:19I mean, listen, half of the hospitals in my state are rural, so I mean, that's a huge number.
01:25We've already lost a bunch of rural hospitals.
01:27And what leadership told me over and over is we're working on a fix for rural hospitals.
01:30I don't see anything in there to that effect.
01:32Nothing.
01:33It's very different than what the House negotiated with the President.
01:36It's different from what the President negotiated.
01:38I just – I can't figure out why in the world we would so radically depart from the President's own framework.
01:43It's bizarre to me.
01:44Are there any other – you said yesterday that you would like to hear what President Trump has to say about this.
01:50Are you planning to speak with him about this?
01:51I'm sure I will.
01:52Yeah, I'm sure I will.
01:53Any time to?
01:54Well, I'm sure I will.
01:55I'll let you know.
01:56Are there any other senators who feel kind of the same way, that they feel very surprised about what they saw in the bill?
02:02Yes.
02:03I don't want to – well, I'm not going to speak for them, but I'll just say that I've had a number of conversations since yesterday evening with people who were really, really shocked.
02:11We often hear that benefits would not be cut, Medicaid benefits would not be cut.
02:15Do you think that this amounts to a benefit cut?
02:17Well, I don't think it's a benefit cut, Mono, but if you can't go to the hospital, I mean, it doesn't do you a whole lot good, right?
02:23I mean, listen, I'm from a rural area.
02:25I grew up in a town of 4,000 people.
02:27My little town was the county seat, so the hospital was there.
02:30I often joke that I was, you know, a frequent contributor to that hospital's business.
02:35I was there a lot as a kid with all kinds of injuries.
02:38But in all seriousness, like, if you close hospitals in my town, 4,000 people, that's a lot of jobs.
02:44That's a killer for that town.
02:45And then what people – the nearest hospital is, like, 40 miles away.
02:48I mean, we can't do that.
02:50So we've got to keep rural hospitals.
02:52Why would we defund rural hospitals to pay for Chinese solar panels?
02:58Like, I just don't get it.
03:00I just – I can't tell you how surprised I am by this and completely baffled by it.
03:04It's not at all – at all what we were told would be in this bill.
03:08I just –
03:09Can this be done by July 4th?
03:11I don't know.
03:12I hope the Senate leadership is sharpening their pencils and ready to work all night because this needs a lot of work.
03:17You can support it, though.
03:21Let me just say it needs a lot of work.
03:24Now, the bright spot is RECA, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
03:28That will expand healthcare access for hundreds of thousands of people around the country, beginning in the state of Missouri.
03:33This will be a generational achievement for Missouri if we're able to get this bill passed.
03:37It's in the bill.
03:38So I'm delighted about that.
03:39But we've got to have hospitals open that people can go to.
03:41I know you've been an advocate of expanding RECA for a while.
03:44Does that – are you calculating that in your decision?
03:48Would you support it at all because of –
03:50I can't imagine supporting the bill without RECA.
03:53Let's put it that way.
03:54So I'm glad that it's in there.
03:56It's a hugely significant moment for survivors of nuclear radiation, not just in Missouri,
04:00but really across the country – Tennessee, Alaska, Kentucky, Utah, Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico, Idaho.
04:07I can go down the list.
04:08I mean, there's a lot of people who are affected by this.
04:10And this will significantly expand access to healthcare for these folks.
04:15So that's great.
04:16That's a big, big win.
04:17But we've got to have hospitals open, rural hospitals open, so people can go get care in all of those states,
04:22I just mentioned, beginning with my own.
04:24Can you give a message to Fayette, Missouri?
04:28Well, listen, I mean, I just think that – I trust the President on this.
04:32I think the President's fairly clear Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.
04:34I mean, Iran ought to – they ought to have taken the off-ramp that the President's offered them.
04:38And I understand it's still offering them.
04:40So, you know, if they don't do that, I mean, they're not going to get a nuclear weapon.
04:43That's the bottom line here.
04:44It's just not going to happen.
04:46So they ought to embrace that reality.
04:48And they can either peacefully give up their nuclear program, or it looks to me like it's
04:53going to be bombed to smithereens.
04:54So it's one or the other –
04:55Senator Kaine's war powers resolution?
04:57Is it on this?
04:58On Iran?
04:59Yes, Senator Kaine's war powers resolution saying that the President can't make any offensive
05:02strikes against Iran.
05:03No.
05:04No.
05:05But there's very little danger, though.
05:06This President – remember, the Democrats and many Republican hawks have criticized this
05:11President over and over for being too slow to embrace foreign conflicts.
05:16So I'm not worried about that with Donald Trump.
05:18But I do think that he's –
05:19On the – Senator, I remember –
05:20Yeah.
05:21Are lawmakers concerned more about the security following in the wake of this Minnesota shooting?
05:30Do you think more security needs to be allocated to lawmakers?
05:32I was not at the briefing this morning, so I can't speak to that.
05:35I'm sure people are concerned.
05:36Senator Blumenthal blamed what he calls MAGA rhetoric for intensifying the violence, political
05:44violence we're seeing in this country.
05:46What do you say to that kind of criticism?
05:48Well, listen, I'd just be real careful about – the President of the United States
05:52was – has been shot at twice in the last year by – egged on by the most unbelievable
05:59rhetoric, calling him a fascist, calling him a threat to democracy, calling for him
06:03to be taken out.
06:05So I think let's just – we could work together to turn down the temperature here.
06:09I mean, you look at what's happened just in the L.A. riots, and you look at this violence
06:12that's been going on, and you look at what my Democrat colleagues have been saying
06:15about that – I mean, calling the President a dictator.
06:17I mean, that's the stuff that got him shot.
06:20Now you've got nuts shooting other people.
06:22I mean, let's just – I think we can all – listen, you don't have to agree with
06:24your political opponents.
06:25You can criticize them strongly.
06:27Nobody is tougher in hearings than I am.
06:30That's all fine.
06:31But I think we need to get out of the business of calling our political opponents fascists
06:34and anarchists and, you know, terrible people.
06:37It's like, listen, let's just – we can disagree with each other without implying that the
06:41other person ought to have violence affected on them.
06:43So I think we've got to get to that point.
06:44Senator, do you feel safe?
06:46And also, do you think that members of Congress should have 24-7 security?
06:50Is that even possible?
06:51Oh, my gosh.
06:52I don't know the answer to that.
06:53I defer to the experts.
06:55You know, we've got some great cops all around who work hard to keep members safe.
06:59I mean, listen, I feel – I don't pay attention to that stuff.
07:02I just don't.
07:03I just do my job.
07:04But, you know, I defer to Capitol Hill police and law enforcement, FBI, those guys.
07:08They know what they're doing.
07:09Senator, on the Bicycle cover up here in tomorrow, what do you want to learn that you've
07:13already learned already?
07:14Who's in charge?
07:15Well, who's like, who's running the auto pen?
07:16You know, I mean, really, like, who was running that thing?
07:19We need to know.
07:20And it wasn't the president.
07:22So are the pardons that he signed, for instance, or the clemencies for drug dealers, murderers,
07:27are those legitimate?
07:28I don't know.
07:29I mean, I – this is uncharted territory.
07:31We've never seen anything like this before.
07:32But we need to get some answers to who is actually running the country, because it sure
07:36as heck wants to jump by.
07:37All right.
07:38Thank you, guys.
07:40What would you say to people in the Bay atmosphere?
