'You Have A Hostile Tone': Constituent Laces Into Ron Johnson During Teletownhall

At a teletownhall on Monday, a constituent lit in Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and accused him of vilifying single mothers.

Transcript

00:00fine what's your question yes where's the proof of the waste fraud and abuse that

00:07is the catch phrase and also the the abuse of people on medicaid who are allegedly able

00:14bodied and able to work where's the proof of all of that you guys always have you know plenty to

00:22say about that and those catch phrases just keep coming out but um if there is fraud particularly

00:30um why aren't people being prosecuted for that and why aren't we made aware of that and also um

00:38i don't appreciate your vilification of single mothers i'm a single mother and uh i do when

00:47just listen just listen please i i want to finish this because you you have a hostile tone in your

00:55in your voice about that about democrats i'm also a democrat by the way i i actually listen to both

01:02sides and i make my own decisions about whatever i'm um i was a teacher you you forever are talking

01:12about how how education is so poorly done and whatever which also vilifies teachers by the way

01:20the way you you um the way you express yourself like how about just coming up with solutions instead

01:29of blaming everybody else for what's going on so you can take that in however you want

01:38first of all melinda i don't ever recall vilifying single moms i have nothing but

01:43you know sympathy for you know how they struggle again i just don't agree with you know how you've

01:48typified my comments here uh in terms of waste fraud abuse i'm glad you asked me i've already

01:54laid out it but i'll do it again traditional medicaid designed for vulnerable mothers disabled

02:00children was set up for every dollar the state spends on a disabled child the federal government

02:06kicks in a dollar 33. again that system that seems to make sense the states can administer it

02:12not federal states do but they need significant skin in the game to control cost to control

02:17eligibility so it doesn't grow out of control okay obamacare's addition to it incentivized states

02:24to sign up single able-bodied working age able you know childless adults because for every dollar the

02:32state spends for that the federal government kicks in nine dollars now it's legalized fraud so what the

02:39states have done based on that incentives they've done things like provider taxes and provider fees that's

02:45not health care but the federal government then has to reimburse for provider fees provider taxes

02:52nine dollars for every ten spent okay nine to one match again that is causing medicaid costs to

02:59explode and we can't afford it plus the biden administration allowed providers to charge commercial

03:07rates for medicaid procedures which means we're paying two or three times

03:13medicare rates for medicaid procedures same procedure but if it's for a single adult as opposed to

03:20disabled child you can see well how that gets crowded out so again i think i explained that before

03:27i'm explaining it again i completely disagree with the way you say i

03:32vilify i don't you know i'm surely i'm not a fan of government because government i believe

03:37causes or exacerbates more problems than it solves and again it does so in health care

03:43third-party payer systems takes consumerism out of that takes the benefits of free market competition

03:48we'd be far more satisfied with health care if if people paid pretty much out of their pocket for most

03:55of health care and insurance was covered you know it's there to cover the catastrophic the things that

04:01insurance should be designed as opposed to setting up a system of third payer system just doesn't work

04:07it hasn't worked it's not working okay i think it's obvious but melinda thanks for being on the

04:12line appreciate the question

04:15that