Transcripts For WPVI Inside Story 20170226 : vimarsana.com

Repealing. They actually tried to do that when the president was president , and they didnt have the veto that they have now didnt have the power they had now. They tried to repeal obamacare 50some times. Right. You know, and naturally it wasnt gonna pass the senate and naturally, the president wasnt gonna sign it, but they kept doing it over and over again. You know, it cost 25,000 to 26,000 an hour to keep that house open . Mm. So theyre fiscal conservatives, but yet they spend millions and millions of dollars on nothing. Is that disheartening to have spent the bulk of your career in washington now and to see so much that youve worked on apparently about to get undone . Yes, it is, and they want to repeal obamacare. Now, there are some issues on obamacare that could use some fixing. Theres no question about that. We passed it, and we knew it wasnt perfect. But to mess with the preexisting condition is wrong, to mess with the 26yearolds on their mother and fathers healthcare is wrong, you know. But there are some things that we could agree to, but we havent seen them yet. All they keep talking about is you know, to get rid of it, but nobodys showed us anything that would replace it. Right. Or even close to it yet. And what about some other hot topics that are also gonna be out there . Immigrations tricky, sanctuary cities philadelphia is one. Those could have a huge Economic Impact on our area. Well, as you know, our mayor is for the sanctuary cities, and i applaud him for that, and hes standing tough for that. I just hope i dont think that theres gonna be much punishment for that. I mean, it probably goes through the state, but thats his belief, and as far as the as far as mr. Trumps plan now he has a new plan out there now that, i think if you get a speeding ticket, maybe even a parking ticket, they can yank you and they can deport you. Yes. I mean, you can be driving your kid to school, park your car, have a parking ticket, get on the list, and then, you know, what happens to the kid thats at school . What happens to your children when they take you out and bring you back and they want to deport you . Theres got to be some kind of pathway. People need to have a pathway, be knowing that theres some kind of way that they can become citizens. When he sent those people back and he deported some people and held some other detainees, two or three of them were interpreters. Mm. And they were outed, and if they went back to iraq, im sure that thered be some penalty for them to pay. You know, and they had all the visas, everything in order. Thats w we should be trying to figure something out better than that. Given the republican sweep in november, what are doing to, you know, shore up their troops and to come up with new blood, maybe get somebody on the ticket in a couple of years for the next president ial election, but certainly even to try to Retake Congress in a couple years in the midterms any likelihood of that . Were trying to do that. We have our meeting this weekend with a new Democratic National chairman a few good people are running, and with the agenda is to bring back some seats in the house of representatives and bring back some seats in the senate. This way we can have some kind of say, you know, that things dont just get thrown, pushed the american people, i dont think, want to see all three branches, all three houses, the senate and the president , on the same party. I think they want some checks and balances. We dont have that right now and i think that, i mean the way its happening now, and its only 30 days, you know, but right now, i dont think our president s doing too good. Lets talk about philadelphia politics. Weve got some issues of our own, including with our current District Attorney whos facing some challenges that may end up in court. Certainly, hes trying to undo some gifts that were given tolare on his tax return that have become problematic. What can you say about Seth Williams . I think he made some major mistakes. Hes done some good things, but unfortunately when you do some bad things, they overshadow some good things that youve done. I think he had bad advice, or most important, probably had no advice, probably didnt bounce anything off anybody can i do this . Should i do that . And maybe didnt think he was doing something wrong, but he was doing things wrong, and its a wrong thing, and its a shame to see a career that he had that a lot of people had a lot of potential, a lot of faith in him, just to be shut down completely, and it will be shut down completely. And who will be the next d. A. . We have a number of candidates hoping five of them so far, others could be in the offing. We have five quality candidates, you know, and when that happens, its pretty hard to distinguish between one. Well at least get together and get a lot of input from some of our city officials, and we probably wont come up with one clearchoice candidate, so itll probably be an open primary. Let people make their choices, and then well get together and reform, regroup back up for the general election and get another District Attorney thats a democrat. And we have five, as you said, we have five good candidates and maybe more to come, but i dont think so. And statewide, do you think tom wolf, our governor, is vulnerable at this point have changed . Im worried about that. Im worried about that. I met with him. Hes doing some things to be able to change that. Hes getting more involved politically. He was a nonpolitician, becoming a politician quickly, cause you cant stay a nonpolitician in the political world. And i hope that the and were gonna be supporting him, you know, along with were still talking about bob casey senator bob casey. I cant imagine senator bob casey losing. He does a great job. Hes a great senator doing what he needs to do, and well loved, well liked by the people in pennsylvania, and i believe that he would get reelected without any problem. All right. Congressman bob brady, thank you so much for stopping by. We appreciate your insight. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Inside story continues with our insiders panelists right after this. Is p but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Welcome back to inside story. Time to meet our panelists now nonprofi good to see you again, sirica. Val digiorgio, thete chairma thats a terrific honor. L. Nelson diaz, att to see you as well gooformer judgecyto have you with us as ight, lets react to what congressman brady said about it being a sort of depressing time to be in congress, as well as that he has some hope some parts of obamacare and other areas that may be repealed can be saved. Whats your reaction . Well, i think its clear that there is division along party lines in washington, but i think there are challenges within the republican party, because they are not clearly aligned. Theres some ideological differences there. They have a white house that many of them were not for. Got to figure out how to deal with. And you have a white house when you are running for an executive of create your own fa though, the qfigured ho 30daysplus now . Are you happy with it . In some ways, yes. I think its in some wtanding cabinet. I think, you know, the fact that flynn and the labor se picks didnt work out may be a good thing in the long run because their replacements seem theyre gonna be topnotch. In some ways, the messaging isnt as good. He needs to get on message which is creating jobs and keeping america safe. He needs to stay on that message. So, in some ways im very happy, in other ways i can see room for improvement. And do you also feel like, as congressma philadelphias on the uptick though, even though we have some other challenges that a being presented politically . Well, lets keep in mind th the congressmans also the chairman of the party in the city. So he has a much broader perspective than just being a legislator. As to whats going to happen in philadelphia, it very much depends on getting our own fiscal house in order, but also what is happening in harrisburg and in washington. The more clarity you can get there, the better your chances of being able to plan intelligently at home. Did it surprise you he said wolf was vulnerable, given that . Oh, no, not at all, because i mean, there is something to the notion was off Governor Wolf was off to a very bad start because of this first budget, and now its hard to see what his agenda is because, again, he is dealing in a situation where both houses are being run by the opposition. So this is gonna be a very difficult climb for him in terms of reelection. Are there parallels to an outsider . Our tom wolf coming into office, being swept in on a, you know, kickthebumsout Campaign Type thing to the trump white house, someone nonpolitical being swept ineresting parallel to you at all, nelson . Well, let me go first on brady. He represents the poorest district in the country, and they cant even get a candidate for the 197th district in terms of latino community, and so there is real issues in terms of how you represent that community. And thats on the congressional side. And, like was said, hes obviously looking at the city wide. But as it related to the governors race, i think the governor had such great, great advertisement back then that didnt allow anybody to get in the game. And at this point, the question is whether he will sort of fashion that again, and hes had his real problems with the legislature, both on the democratic and the republican side in terms of getting budgets through. So, i think hes gonna have a tough time in terms of reelection, but hes got all the money in the world. So the question is whether anybody can come up with enough capital to be able to sort of beat him on the democratic primary. Lets talk about a couple of other quick items before we move locally, and that is immigration, which does strike philadelphia at its core. We are a sanctuary city, as we talked about. But he is talking about revamping the deportation rules, and part of it means that now our mayor, who was gonna have municipal ids issued to people who are immigrants so they at least have, you know, ability to get a drivers license or have some photo id of themselves. That plan has been put on hold because it could make them vulnerable if you have to turn those records over to federal investigators as new york is been required to do. Now youre actually handing people the addresses and names of illegal immigrants. What was your reaction . Well, lets be clear no one is talking about the wholesale deportation of undocumented aliens illegal immigrants, whatever term were using. And, you know, theres a compelling case that Crime Associated with unchecked immigration is crime, is Drug Trafficking we know that Human Trafficking, and a bunch of other social problems. So, it seems reasonable to say that a city should cooperate with the United States government in prosecuting illegal aliens who are committing crime. You know, mayor kenneys not allowing that to happen, so you got a situation where people who come over the border illegally have more rights than american citizens in terms of duemmitting crimes. Were not talking about a family whos been here for a lot of years with a dreamer child. Were talking about criminals, and i dont know why mayor kenney would want to put philadelphians at risk you know, there are right now thousands of illegal aliens in prisons for committing murder. Thats thousands of murders happening on american soil. So i dont get why we cant have that conversation first, about how to keep americans safe and how to stop all the negative effects that come along with illegal immigration, including sex trafficking and Drug Trafficking. Lets move to the Franklin Marshall poll which had a number of telling points. People polled post election now with a new administration in washington had some very important things to say and much of it not very encouraging. So, were gonna show you that 66 polled believe the u. S. Is now on the wrong track. Lets react to that quickly, ed. It was a divided election, one of the closest in americanstory. Does that number surprise you, that its now 66 and not closer to 51 , 52 . No, and i think it goes well beyond polit theres a very important piece by a demographer named Nicholas Eberstadt in this months commentary magazine in which he said that the american working class has been devastated since the year 2000. I mean, here we are. The second decade of the century and people have not seen wage growth. To nelsons point about the poorest district in the country being in this city, its not just poverty in terms of economics, its also health. You get a 20year disparity in life cycle or in life span within two miles depending on which district you live in. Deal with. Ec or the here is reflecting political difference. I think its just deep concern americans who have greatomic uncerta uncertainty around how their healthcare is going to be administered and how much itsost. Right. Those issues that are well look at our next graphic believe that President Trump is doing a goodxcellentso, george, do you think that president , because of the first 30 ds a missteps inpositions, that kind of thing, has underwhelmed people and now theyre sorry they voted forly . I think people are tremendously confused. I mean, you hear the president and his folks, you know, state facts that are inaccurate and then walk back from and explain those. Then you ht thats contradicting the noes like Human Trafficking and drug trade migranerica well immigration discussion, and its bee deor moran 20 years wherepaigning to those constituencies and then governing away from them as President Trump has done. When you look at his cabinet theres nothing there the only way for success in america is not to have a lot of there are who sp those folks that are out there. And people are just frustrated. Lets take through a few more of the points from the poll, and then well let you react as well, nelson, as well as you val. Only one in four registered pennsylvanians believes that the Affordable Care act should be changed. 29 think it should be repealed entirely. So only about a quarter of them think it should absolutely be taken off the books. The second graphic two out of five registered voters in pennsylvania believe that Governor Wolfs doing an excellent or good job. So thats only 38 . And our final graphic 6 out of 10 pennsylvanians say they favor an increase in the minimum wage from 7. 25 an hour up to 12 an hour. So, nelson, react to any of those three points. Well, theres no question that the issues on a National Basis with regard to the Affordable Care act, with obamacare as its known, is that its not gonna be repealed. Even ryan speaker ryan indicated that this week that theyre gonna tinker around the tables in terms of things that work. No one wants to get rid of the preexisting issue. No one gets rid of the student thats living in your house till theyre 26. No one gets rid of a lot of opportunities that was put into obamacare. So i think that theyll tinker on the side, theyll get something which theyll call a repeal, but it wont be a repeal because youre not gonna let 400 Million People out on the streets without medical care. I think the other problem relating to the one third is the immigration issue, people d is an Economic Impact also. Theyre the ones that are working in hotels, theyre the ones changing your beds, theyre the ones picking fruits in the farms, and the farmers right now are having trouble just surviving. Now theyre not gonna have the Migrant Workers to be able to help them. Thats gonna have a great impact upon the farming industry in this country. Were you surprised at the poll results, that people are so negative and feeling dark about the current status of things . No, i was you know, we need some changes in the country. I mean, the state of healthcare is a problem. Right now look at obamacare. Were talking about 35 to 50 increases in this part of the world in premiums, less choice and now we only have one insurer in the region thats actually participating in healthcare exchanges. So even though a lot of people dont want to see it repealed, 68 want to see it fixed. And, yes, a lot of the components that are popular in obamacare are going to stay. Nelson hit on some of those. As far as immigration i mean, nelson also raised a very good point. Immigration is good for this country. I say as a husband of an immigrant, as a grandson of an immigrant, it is important. You know, in chester county, weve got the issue with Migrant Workers. You know, theyre the only ones working on the farms down in southern chester county. But it has to be legal, it has to be checked. Were a country and a country of laws, and you cant be a nation if you dont have borders and enforce those borders. No one is saying we shouldnt have illegal immigration, and no one is saying we should throw everybody out, but we should be able to vet whos coming into this country, we should be able to have checks on it, and we should have a secure border. Thats what the fight is really about. I see plenty of room for compromise, but each side wants to bludgeon each other over the head with the political issue. Weve got to come across the aisle and compromise with each other and get this situation fixed. Anybody want to react to a local town hall, at least in allentown, where senator pat toomey was invited but did not participate . He had done a number of phonecall town halls and said his staff had said that was what he available to do at that time. Other people read it as hes running, because he perhaps doesnt agree with what the president s doing, but he doesnt want to necessarily be in a room full of people. He just got elected. Hes got six years to be able to fix his climate up, and i think every politician should face whether they agree or disagree with a group of constituents. He should have been there in person, youre saying . Well, i think he should the republican challenge is its been a challenge thats been almost generational. Affordable care in america has been a political topic since before Ronald Reagan ran for president. No administration, other than the obama administration, has put anything in place, and what people are beginning to realize as they want to dismantle obamacare and the Affordable Care act, and almost 40 of americans dont know the difference. Mmhmm. Dont understand that the Affordable Care act is obamacare. [ laughs ] so theres a confusion about it. Thats true. So, youre at this huge point of inflection with respect to healthcare and in how to fix it, and the notion that going back to free markets, you now see republican governors bipartisan mayors pushing back saying, we have real problems. Whats gonna happen with medicaid reform, and youre gonna see hospitals beginning to say you know, you havent heard a hospital since the Affordable Care act was passed complaining about overuse of emergency rooms. Right. That used to be the huge issue going to states to fund the use of thats gonna come back if you take away medicaid. Sure. Theres no quick fix, and they dont even the former john boehner this week said theres no way theyre gonna do this, because republicans in the 25 years that he was there themselves could not come to an agreement on how to fix healthcare. Mm. All right, lets talk about local unions, meantime, and how many of them, in part, supported the presidency of donald trump and now some are wavering because theyre not seeing so quickly the jobs being created in infrastructure. Theyre hoping those jobs come their way, but perhaps theyre getting discouraged. Whats your reaction . Were an alltime postwar low in terms of Union Membership nationwide. More and more, Union Membership is in the public sector, and that is the divide that is playing itself out politically. And in places where you have righttowork laws for instance, wisconsin Union Membership declined by 100,000. And one of the big surprises in the last election was the number of urs who went against their leadership and voted for trump. The key will be economic performance. We can talk about trump all we want. Mmhmm. But if within the next two years we do not see Significant Movement and improvement of the economy, then hell be in trouble. All right. Were gonna take a break. Inside stories coming your way right after this. When a man aint got no ideas of his own, hed ought to be kind of careful who he borrows them from. Inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Welcome back. Time for inside stories, and lets start with val. One thing thats interesting is the organized attempt thats going on in the left to make it look like our republican congressmen and senators are unresponsive. We saw that this week when senator toomey was accused of not showing up at a town hall. Well, they just said, why dont you show up . It was actually funded by seiu. Why dont you show up . And it was a time he couldnt appear, and they said, look, hes not showing up. And then hes being bombarded with telephone calls. Every twoandahalf seconds this week we had another call, sometimes from in the state, sometimes theyre outside the state. You cant possibly respond to all that. And its not done with an intent to have dialogue on the issue. Its just an intent to harass and make the republicans look like theyre not responsive. Mm. Nelson . The soda taxes, we see, has collected more than was expected in the first month. Its about 6 million. They expect about 92 million. The City Councils concerned that they might not be able to collect the 92 million, because theres gouging going on. Both the store owners are going outside the city to these cashandcarries, buying the soda, and getting the tax, and not turning it in, and some other people who are selling to them are also not distributors are not turning in the tax. So theres an investigation going on regarding what those distributors are doing and how the tax is coming into the city. All right. Ed . Monica, a very sophisticated air force plane called the Nuclear Sniffer has been sent to norway because all throughout eastern europe, they are picking up increased level of radiological material in the air, and in all likelihood the russians are testing a new class of nuclear weapons, probably in the arctic. Mm and all of that is just floating over to eastern europe. My goodness. George . Steve bannon this week in talking to the conservative group in washington said that america has an economy that has to be protected and were not responsible to protect the world economy. I think that if you talk toican companies who generate 30 to 40 of their revenue from outside of the country and see growth for them outside of the country, theyre gonna be terribly concerned about america not being a part of the world economy. Mm. All right. And thats inside story for this week. Us. Hope you have a terrific week ahead. Thanks to all our insiders for your ideas. We hope to see you right back here next sunday morning. Im nydia han allock with gray hall. Dozens of headstones at a jewish cemetary at philadelphia has been damage or destroyed reaction from loved ones as they wait to find out how this happened. New york times will debut a rare ad during tonights oscars. Its drawing a from president donald trump. Plus a man found dead inside an apartment and police are working to find out h pedestri do with it. Those and more next on action news. Good afternoon, it is sunday february 26, im nydia han along with gray hall. Heres a look at the stories were following on action news, a disturbing discovery inside a jewish