Leaders in congress, are to pretend didnt happen. Is that just Mitch Mcconnells nature . What has to happen for something to get done . Tell me what you saw when you watched the Press Conference today. Reporter well, Mitch Mcconnell knows when youre the leader, a party in the senate, youll take shots. Thats part of the job, a guy who takes incoming fire and allows your caucus to get things done. The two men appearing sidebyside today was politically smart or at least acknowledgement of political reality. Their goals in most cases are the same and desperately need each other to get any of them done. On tax reform, they cannot have the same problems they had on health care. If theyre sniping back and forth at each other day after day its gawk to be that much more difficult to get done. You heard some of that today. The president praising Mitch Mcconnell. Saying hes the guy to get it done on all of these issues and put a bunch of additional issues on Mitch Mcconnells plate now
this is a trump program. What we always wanted where does this go from here . Joined by a frequent guest of the show, a Senior Editor at large at breitbart. Joel good to see pup thank you for being with us again. I want to play for you what the president said at the Press Conference about steve bannon, and changing his mind. Lets listen together. Well have a very good relationship, as you know, with steve bannon. Steves been a friend of mine a long time. I like steve a lot. Steve is doing what steve thinks is the right thing. Some of the people he may be looking at ill see if we talk him out of that. Joel what do you make of what the president said . Im going to try and talk him out of that . Well, i think he knows hes going to have a hard time doing so. I think that trump wants Steve Bannons program to succeed. I think he wants to see republicans elected to the senate in 2018 who are going to support his agenda. At the same time, thats still a long way off, and he has to work with Mitch Mcconnell. Do something and then fails. In the british parliamentary system. You resign. Reporter you resign. If its a budgetary matter. Reporter right. Mitch mcconnell said he would pass obamacare. Didnt do it. The countrys Fate Doesnt Rest On The Pennell Political Career of Mitch Mcconnell, and i think this is principle ive applied in other cases as well. Said john boehner should resign when the house, his own caucus rejected his plan. When you lose in that setting and cant unify your party behind you you need to let somebody else lead that appeared. Steve bannon is coming at this situation as a nonpolitician. Hes not an elected official. But what hes doing isnt so unusual in the sense that there are campaigns to provide alternative leadership for parties that fail to deliver on their promises to their voters. What do you make of What Mcconnell said standing next to trump when he said, we have to nominate people who can win. Who can win, because so that
the republicans actually maintain their majorities in both houses . Reporter well, Mitch Mcconnell pointed out a number of examples. Yeah but but in some cases the incumbents unseated by the tea party in 2010 and 2012 couldnt win either. Look at Richard Lugar in indiana, basically didnt live there anymore. Many other examples as well where the public in general, not just Republican Voters said weve had enough of these incumbent politicians. Jo think its up to Mitch Mcconnell to decide who can win and who cant. I dont think the Senate Leadership have done a very good job. Krist would have been the nominee instead of marco rubio in florida. You can find many they picked losers. I think steves task is to find candidates who can win as well, but candidates who will stick to the program not just trumps program but really the broader conservative movements program. The promises made to voters since 2010. What does that look like . I get the frustration with establishments. The democrats have a similar issue they faced in the primaries leading up to the election. What does it look like . What does success look like to bannon to breitbart, if these Establishment Candidates go away . What are we looking at a year from now heading into is a Midterm Election with a number of new candidates both at the congressional level at the senate level . Reporter heres the irony. You have have one of the most establishment figures around, lindsey graham, saying essentially the same at steve bannon. When it comes down to practical details what Mitch Mcconnell has to do to keep his job is deliver on his promises. What steve bannon wants is to replace, do nothing senators with senators who will help the Republican Party keep its promises. All focused on results. If the Republican Party can deliver on promises made for six to eight years things stay relatively stable. If the Party Establishment fails
mcconnell is out and many feel he should have resigned already. They get to into the midterms way record of accomplishments, they need to. What graham said about the Republican Party. Lets play it. If we dont cut taxes and we dont eventually repeal and replace obamacare, then were going to lose across the board in the house in 2018, and all of my colleagues running in primaries in 2018 are probably going to get beat. The end of Mitch Mcconnell as we know it. To your point, making the same point steve bannon is making, however, the problem. Started with lets cut taxes. There are a number of people, particularly the tea party republicans, the Freedom Caucus, who like the idea of cutting taxes. What they didnt know is that this was going to come with a potential deficit increase. The white house keeps saying Something Like dynamic scoring, stimulate the company and greater Economic Growth as a result and that stuff. In the end, fiscal conservatives, to them, a bit of an anathema. Reporter interesting, look at the record of the tea party and Freedom Caucus and
conservatives who have been elected over the last several years. When push came to shove they always voted yes. Always compromised, going all the way back to the Big Budget Debt Ceiling Fight of 2011 that ended in the budget control act. Conservatives, Tea Party Members voted for that. Now the problem in the Republican Party particularly in the senate are the moderates and maverick whose historically may have been a bridge between the two parties particularly when republican was in the minority but seem unwilling to govern as long as trump is the head of the Republican Party. These moderates need to be brout onboard or defeated at the next election if they cant play with the team, get with the program, there needs to be something done at the ballot box. Trump wants to see if he can do it before then and bannon wants to do it in the long run. You need an emphasis, thinking like trump is, on both the short term and long term. Got to work with the establishment to get things done now but in the long term see a turnover, republicans move in this direction. So with trump today talking about how great friends he is with everybody, basically, but
today talking about steve bannon, and how long theyve known each other and this stuff, vanity fair had a piece out with two interesting bannon quotes including talking about the fact that the president only has a 30 chance of making it to a full term. Bannon has told people he thinks donald trump has a 30 chance of making it the full term. What do you think of that . Reporter i dont know the context in in steve made the remark. Broader point, this presidency is fragile in that it has a narrow base of support. The base is loyal and that base has moved mountains. Its shocked pollsters and pundits over and over, but trump has to stay loyal to that base to stay in office and be effective in office. I think thats steves point. That the base that trump brought to the polls on november 8, 2016, has certain requirements. Wants him to succeed in fulfilling his pledges and if he goes looking for support among democrats hes not going to find
muf much, or the gop establishment. Got to stay faithful to the base. And isnt that fundamentally problematic . To acknowledge the fact the base is narrow. Not even half the electorate and that the president should continue to cater to that base rather than say, hey, i can there could be a much bigger base if i change my political positions . Reporter ill spill a secret about steve bannon. His model in terms of thinking about this is barack obama. The barack obama model of being reelected was to focus on his base, do things that pleased his base. Didnt do what bill clinton did, moving towards the center after moving in the midterms. Barack obama doubled down, went for what his base wanted and in doing that made sure they turned out and they turned out in states he needed them to. This is Bakely The Trump and bannon model. Focus on delivering to your base. Bring them out to the polls again, you can bring in enough other people to win where you need to. Thats the barack obama model. You might say maybe we shouldnt
have that, go back to bill clintonstyle politics where politician fighting for fundamental values. So theyre going to be trying to do whatever they can to bring their base of voters to the polls. Joel, good to talk to you. Thanks for being with us. Breitbart Senior Editor at large. New revelations in the unfolding Harvey Weinstein story. Nbc news learns the new York Police Department is investigating two credible allegations of Sexual Assault against the former Hollywood Mogul per a senior Law Enforcement official with direct knowledge of these matters. The allegations are different from those stemming from a 20year sorry, 2015 nypd investigation ultimately not prosecuted ostensibly due to a lack of evidence. More than 40 women accused him of harassment at this time. Any allegations of noncon sensetural sex are denied by mr. Weinstein we should share. And rick pitino from the University Of Louisville formerly fired today. Three weeks since the school was charged with bribery. 16 seasons with the school. The universitys Athletic Director remains on paid leave. Up next, how President Trumps move to eliminate Cost Sharing Benefits for insurers might result . An unwelcome spike in your health care premiums. Is sparking innovation. You see it in the Southern Tier with companies that are developing powerful batteries that make everything from cell phones to rail cars more efficient. Which helps improve every aspect of advanced rail technology. All with support from a highlyeducated workforce and vocational job training. Across new york state, were building the new new york. To grow your business with us in new york state, visit esd. Ny. Gov. To grow your business with us in new york state, Eight Hundred dollars when wet switched our auto and home insurance. With liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey. Oh. Thats my robe. Is it . You could save Seven Hundred Eighty Two dollars when liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. Anyone who calls it a hobby doesnt understand. We know that a persons passion is what drives them. [ clapping ] and thats why every memorial we create is a true reflection of the individual. Only a Dignity Memorial Professional can celebrate a life like no other. Find out how at sanfranciscodignity. Com. The health care as you know is moving along. Knocked out the csrs, a subsidies to the Insurance Companies. Could almost go agency a payoff and its a disgrace and that money goes to the Insurance Companies. We want to take care of poor people. We want to take care of people that need help, with health care. That sounds really logical. That was President Trump this afternoon on his decision to end key obamacare subsidies called csrs over the weekend. And the president tweeted, Health Insurance stocks gone through the roof during the obama era. These costsharing reductions are government subsidies. Government takes money, reimburses Insurance Companies for the cost of providing discounted insurance to lowincome americans. Okay . So the Insurance Companies offer insurance at a discount to lowincome americans. They get less money and the government makes back that money. Ending the subsidiesubsidies, n mandate providing insurance, the companies have to recoup that lost revenue meaning increased premiums. Middle class families with insurance through the Affordable Care act likely hit the hardest. A family of four seeing premiums increase significantly despite what you might hear from politicians. A Kizer Famiaiser family founda anticipates the rates to rise an average of 19 diggs to the already baked in increases that were going to be there. I bring in a Senior Vice President for special initiatives at the Kaiser Familyfoundation and a Senior Adviser to the president of the foundation. Larry good to have you here. This is an interesting one, because the president is not wrong in everything he says about the Cost Sharing Reductions. They were, in fact, designed to ease the transition to allow the Insurance Companies to participate in these marketplaces by giving them something of a cushion. So on that hes not wrong, but where he says this is going to provide relief by doing this, there he is wrong. Yeah. I mean, you know, Insurance Companies have to provide this discounted insurance, lower deductibles to low income enrollees an the payments were reimbursing Insurance Company for the added cost of doing that. Werent a payoff or a bailout. Just reimbursement for costs that the Insurance Companies were incurring. Now, the result of it is, this is intended to be sabotage, its imperfect, because the Insurance Companies will still offer coverage, just charge higher
premiums to other people in the marketplaces and off the marketplaces to do it. So the president talks about this resulting in lower premiums. Thats not true, because there are no lower premiums generally speaking anywhere on the horizon unless youre in alaska. Generally speaking, a family, this family, middle class family that is expected to see a rise in premiums, what are their alternatives . Either pay the higher premium or switch to a lower tier of insurance . Right. This is as weve heard, everything with health care is complicated and this is certainly no exception. So people who, low income people getting subsidies are protected. Theyre protected by the Cost Sharing Reductions lower deductibles and premiums. Any hike in premiums low income people are covered. Middle income people, enrolled in whats known as a silver plan. A midlevel plan thshgs e could see premiums go up but have gold plans available, bronze plans available. So there may be disruption, but
ways they can avoid this premium increa increase. The important thing is optics of this. Well hear about really big premium increases as open enrollment starts in a couple weeks. The primary reason for the big premium increases is the termination of payments that the president did last week. Why is it, if the president , the executives determining payments, made to these Insurance Companies, for these Cost Sharing Reductions, why is it that the estimate is that this is going to increase the deficit over ten years . Yes. In fact, that gets trickier. So there are two kinds of subsidies here. One the lower duct bibles low income people get and other lower premiums low income people get and these premiums subsidies are tied to midlevel silver plans. Silver plans go up, subsidies to low income people go up as well. The federal government takes money out of one pocket, but
putting money in one pocket but taking it out of the other pocket. Larry, good to talk to you. Thanks for jumping in to clear up the very complex issues. The Vice President for special initiatives and Senior Adviser