00:00Bacon also just announced he's not going to seek re-election, as House Republican leaders need to hang on to every seat to maintain their razor-thin majority in the midterms.
00:08Congressman, thanks for joining us.
00:10So, Senator Tillis says that White House advisors are simply not telling President the truth,
00:16that the effect of the Senate version of this bill is that it breaks the President's promise to not kick off Medicaid.
00:25Citizens who deserve, who are worthy of the program, who qualify for the program.
00:32The White House says Tillis is wrong.
00:34Who's telling the truth here?
00:38Well, I think Senator Tillis is telling the truth here.
00:40And that doesn't mean that some folks in the White House are intentionally mislabeling this.
00:46But the House version I thought was clean.
00:49I could defend it every day.
00:51Work requirements are very popular.
00:53Taking off ineligible or illegal people off the Medicaid rolls.
00:58People like that.
00:59It's a $500 billion savings.
01:02But the Senate has added more fees that will lower the money that goes to the states that apply Medicaid.
01:09And eventually will lower the fees that go to hospitals to a level of about Medicaid.
01:15That's the goal.
01:16But Medicaid pays a lot less than, or Medicare pays a lot less than Medicaid.
01:21And that's where they're trying to take it.
01:22So there will be a cost to the hospitals with this bill.
01:26And so I also would recommend to the Senate, by all means, improve the House bill.
01:33But I think on Medicaid, we got it very well.
01:35We worked two months inside the House to find the right compromise.
01:40And a compromise that we could defend every day.
01:43And so there's a lot of us on the House side that are worried about with the Senate bill.
01:47And I think we'll have a hard time passing with some of the provisions that the Senate's put in there.
01:52So I think Senator Tullis is speaking truth here.
01:54So would you have a, would you not vote yes if this bill, because obviously for anybody who doesn't remember Schoolhouse Rock from our childhoods, like this bill, because the Senate is changing the House bill, it's going to have to go back to the House for you guys to vote on it again.
02:11Would you vote no on this version?
02:15Well, there's talk with a bunch of folks on the House side that we will modify this portion back to the House instead of back to the Senate.
02:22That's the view of many of us.
02:24But there's, there's hundreds of amendments still to be voted on today.
02:28There are amendments on the floor to fix this.
02:31So I think a better course of action for me right now is I've been called senators.
02:36I've called the White House.
02:37I've talked to the Speaker and not just me, a bunch of us on the House side, encouraging the Senate to move this bill closer to the Senate, to the House side on Medicaid.
02:47By the way, I think there could be better improvements to the House bill on SNAP, the federal pensions that we worked on.
02:53And also, I feel like our energy stuff policy that we had in there was not where I really wanted it.
03:00I mean, I got some of what I wanted, but not all of it.
03:02So I think there's grounds for the Senate to put their, their fingerprints all over this.
03:07But the Medicaid thing, I, we worked hard to get it right.
03:10And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm worried about where we're going, but the Senate has time to fix it.
03:15So on your decision to not run for reelection, you said today that you think you could win your congressional district again,
03:21which for people who don't know, you represent a lot of the city of Omaha in Nebraska.
03:28You're one of only three House Republicans that won a seat that Kamala Harris also won.
03:36You've complained that divisions within your own party have made it difficult, however, for you to do your job.
03:42How, how, how have divisions in the GOP made it difficult for you to do your job?
03:47Well, it's much better when our party's unified and you can see it today when, you know, attacking Senator Tillis isn't helpful.
03:53And, but we, when you're trying, when you're in a district that's a third Republican, a third Democrat, a third independent,
03:59a unified base or unified your own team helps win those elections.
04:07And, but the reason I think I could, I feel like I could win this race if I decided to stay in,
04:12I've passed more legislation than any other member of Congress in the last two years.
04:16If you go back four years, I'm number two of 435, rated the most effective member of the House of legislation.
04:22So why, so why step down?
04:24So why, I mean, you're making a good case for running.
04:27Well, because it takes 14 hours a day, five days a week, and I work both Saturdays and many, many Sundays.
04:37And that's what it takes to win in this district, a district that went for Harris by five, it went for Biden by six.
04:42And I've been doing this for 10 years.
04:44And then I did 30 years in the Air Force before that.
04:46I want to come home at night, go into D.C. four days a week.
04:50And then coming back here, I look forward to doing more stuff with my wife, my wife of 41 years, Angie.
04:55And I have eight grandkids that live within 10 minutes of her house.
04:58So I still want to serve, but I'd like to be home more often.
05:02And I'd like to become maybe a better family man.
05:04All right.
05:05Republican Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska, retired Brigadier General.
