Page 17 - Block Grants News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> bret: that's the question because the president seems, it is like once he gets tax reform, he wants to go on to block grants. the cassity-graham. >> whatever you think of the deal being outlined today, and i would think democrats ought to like it. there is a lot in it for them to like. it wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for donald trump. saying, batting down subsidies last friday. it's a strange thing to have a republican in the white house and republicans controlling both chambers of congress and we've gone from repeal and replace to essentially legalizing something the courts had...

They? >> they don't have them at the moment even though the president says that they do. they think there's a few things that they can accomplish the next three four months that can bring on board senator john mccain and rand paul and lisa murkowski. the president was talking about that earlier today. part of the problem with people like mccain and murkowski, is the process. they feel like there's hearings on capitol hill and this needs a bigger error. they plan on doing something along those lines. if the president plants to get rand paul on board, he has to drop talk about block grants to st...

Decision. if you were still governor, how will you handle the fallout from this decision by the president? >> well, i think when i was governor, along with so many other governors, what we asked was for congress to act. and we said act in a way that we can get block grants. act in a way we have more control over our money and we have more control over the decisions that need to be made for the citizens we represent. i think what you're seeing now is congress didn't act. and if congress didn't act, the president did what i think a lot of governors would want him to do which is make some decisio...

Obamacare that the republicans in the power today. >> by the way, you are rare breed in new york city and i say that with all respect. around the country legislatures and taken over by republicans. is there a role for the state and what would that be for states in major cities like new york to do with the issues for citizens? >> we can forgive before obamacare this country don't have health policy and the majority was made at the state level. there is a tremendous role in that is why the trumpet gop plan allows states through block grants to make decisions that they want for their stay. that's...

And we're going to take care of that also because i believe we have the votes to do block grants at a little bit later time, and we'll be able to do that. premiums have gone skyrocketing. but today, one third of all the counties in america have only a single insurer selling coverage on an exchange and next year, it looks like nearly half of all counties in our country, think of that, all of the counties, one half, will have only one insurer and many will have none, many will have absolutely created roadblocks for people to have any form of the insurance we're talking about. this is why in a fe...