conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> standing by for the start of this adjoint today's conference with president trump and german chancellor angela merkel just a couple of minutes away and while we wait we will take you to this morning's washington journal and discussion on terrorism and a trade. >> we want to welcome republican congressman scott perry representing new york, pennsylvania and the center part of the state. good morning and thank you for being with us. guest: nice tie. >> happy st. patrick's day. we want to talk about the budget, but let's look at healthcare. house speaker paul ryan telling senior republicans he will not change the main pillars of his plan to repeal

them partially replace obamacare even as republicans search for tweaks that can break their logjam over the legislation. with a stay true cult of republicans coming out against the bill the speakers sending the message he will not drop any of its four main pillars and refundable tax credits, health savings account, phaseout of medicaid expansion and ban on insurers denying coverage over pre-existing conditions. your reaction? guest: he is the leader in the house, the speaker of the house and this is a major piece of legislation that affects every single american's life and i think he has to have some point say i have to draw a line somewhere. i think that most republicans, most americans understand you have to stand for something and so he is laying out parameters of where he has flexibility and where he feels he doesn't. host: how will you vote on the bill? guest: right now i have serious considerations and concerns about the bill, but i am

certainly happy that we have been having discussions. i want to see some changes. the big issue for me is the cost for citizens that i represent them for all americans. we are not driving down the cost of healthcare. i think fundamentally we are not getting to the core of the problem. ..

while all these other things sound really great, we're not getting to that court. that's what most americans want, the peace of mind to know they can go to the doctor and afforded and be well. we are not dealing with these coreissues, we're talking around the periphery, then we missed the mark . i think the callaway has a tendency to get caught up. this is the bill, there's authorship and so on and so forth and sometimes we might miss the mark. my job is to represent my constituents were a little off-center right now and respect the job the speaker is doing, i wouldn't want the job, it's really tough and we applaud him for doing it but we have a job as well and that's to tell the speaker to make some adjustments there >> let me ask you about the senate because overnight senator susan collins: the portland maine newspaper that she has concerns about the budget plan. you heard from dean heller over the weekend, he will likely lineup against the pay rallied to recover with ted

cruz and mike lee all opposed to the plan. my question is, will there be a vote in the house if it looks like it would fail in the senate? >> sometimes people use that, and i hate to use that term, but as an excuse for not doing something in the house. that's not how this system was designed. the house should do its work, the senate should do its work and with all due respect, if the senate says they're going to do something or not do something, if we predicated everything, every action upon that, i don't know if anything would get out of the block. we must do our work and in my opinion, it must be the best product we can put together and sent to the senate. the senate has every opportunity to modify the bill once we send it to them so instead of trying to predetermine the outcome and write it so that senators will vote for it, send over your product, what you believe in and let them do their business. that seems reasonable and fair to meo maybe susan collins or senator heller, senator collins or senator heller like it in its present

form but there's nothing requiring them to vote for it in its present form. >> let's talk about the presidents budget, a skinny budget it's the first blueprint and outlines will come out in the spring and summer. over $1 trillion defense, $64 billion in additional spending with more money for veterans affairs and homeland security. 54 billion in cuts for any number of domestic programs, veterans affairs adding a six percent increase and big cuts for the epa, state department and foreign aid. >> the president is laying out his priorities. he talked about these things on the campaign trail, won the election and now he's putting that into action and submitting his budget but for all the people that are excited, when i say excited, exercise concern.

i would also say this. i can't remember the last time the presidents budget was ever enacted. i don't have any idea when that occurred. though it's somewhat aspirational. it gives a direction, it provides information on what the chief executive officer's mindset is but it's the congresses job. we know where he wants to go but it's our job to come up with a spending package and lay those things out. >> this is your third term in congress? >> it start my third term. >> as congress ever passed a budget on time since you been in the house? >> valentine, >> by october 1. >> that seems to be a shifting ... we haven't been to the point where there's going to be a shut down, right? one time with the cr and so forth in my time here but that seems to be a shifting, when you say on time, you know. it always seems to be a moving target is my point. even the presidents budget, this current one was a little bit delayed but people get in deference, it's his first term and in my four terms or

40 years here previously, none of them were on time and none of them balance and that didn't seem to make much sense either so we've all got to take a breath here and do our work. >> conversation with ngressman scott perry, a member of the health freedom caucus, he serves on homeland security, foreign affairs and transportation, graduate of penn state university, study that the army war college and is a national guard veteran. we go to wayne from middletownpennsylvania, morning withcongressman terry . >> caller: good morning . >> guest: >> caller: my biggest thing is you know, i voted for you. listen, i do my voting, right? but i'm going to tell you one thing. the stuff that's going through their right now, it's ridiculous. paul ryan, i have no use for him. i'm not going to cost. he is no good. i'm going to tellyou , listen to me for a second.

you want to get rid of this problem with medicare, medicaid, all this stuff, you know what you do? one thing for all, bernie sanders had it right and get these insurance companies out. where are they going to go? everybody's wondering what they are going to do, who cares? this pharmaceutical stuff, you go to canada, i go up there you get this stuff for a nickel and you pay 100 or something dollars for a pill. that's baloney . >> host: we got to move on. >> guest: he makes some good points and we are concerned that drug companies spend a lot of money bringing things the market and that's partially do to the restrictions that they have a deal with provided by the federal government. at the same time, we are not foolish. you can see in other countries the same drug cost markedly less over there than they do here and we think, this is america. why are we producing it and why must we pay so much in

these other countries pay so little? so he makes a goodoint. i would also let wayne know, i appreciate his vote, that's a great little place but i'm not a fan of the single-payer system and i'm concerned about being headed toward a single-payer system.it reduces options for people at the end of the day and i think it ends up costing more than we think it ever will and it's not as good a healthcare. we should have the best care healthcare system in the world and when i look at a place like malaysia that has a good healthcare system and it does it at a seventh of the cost of what america does, this is america. we should be able to do better and i don't want insurance companies determining my healthcare. i want myself and my doctor, insurance companies play a role in the private market. they should be the ones determining our healthcare. we and our doctors should see

one healthcare will be among the topics, are just a brief head of the freedom caucus mark meadows will be with us. you can watch at 10 am eastern, we will go to pat joining us on the republican line. congressman perry of pennsylvania, good morning . >> caller: good morning mister perry. three quick questions. out of the things mentioned that are in this bill, pre-existing conditions was the only one that most of us were behind 100 percent. second question, when you talk about the tax credits, is this the ability to deduct your medical expenses if you itemize on your income taxes? that would mean my tax credits. >> guest: i'm sorry, go ahead. >> caller: my third question is, mister price and ryan talk about the mandates being gone but in the same breath, they say your fines and fees will be subject to insurance companies rather tn the government. so that would seem to say

that only, the mandates are still there. those are my three questions, thank you. >> guest: yes ma'am. so if you talk about the press pre-existing conditions, those would be handled by the states in a place called the patient and states the ability fund. i got to refer to the bill because that keeps changing but the ability fund into the states, i think it's $50 billion for the first year and $10 billion thereafter where the states that up their high risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions.that's number one, so we want to maintain and make sure people with pre-existing conditions can maintain coverage and have health care coverage and the peace of mind.

the tax credits that are called refundable tax credits which are different than what you are talking about, some people will be able to take them off as a deduction but other people based on their income will get a check from the federal government to purchase their healthcare. then the mandates, i know that's confusing and that's one of my concerns, what's called guaranteed issue which means every insurance company must ensure anybody that comes to their door whether they have a pre-existing condition, whatever their malady may be or no malady at all. that remains as well as the essential benefits package that the aca placed into every health insurance policy that you buy. so i liken it to homeowners insurance, just to make it simple. the government is not only going to mandate that you buy homeowners insurance but it's going to mandate that you buy both insurance and car insurance or motorcycle insurance as well, even if you don't own nose. those are the essential benefits. one of the issues i have is those essential benefits remain in place so how are we driving the cost of healthcare down when we are making people buy things that

they don't need? those are some of the things that drove the cost of healthcare up in the last 3 to 6 years so so those are some of theissues i remain concerned with about this bill . >>host: three terms in the house of representatives in harrisburg, michael in macon georgia , democrats line,good morning . >> caller: good morning gentlemen, how are y'all doing this morning?>> guest: deer from you. >> caller: listen, i'll be 60 years old april 13. i've had insurance from the day i was born. i'm now on the affordable care. this saved my life before the insurance wasgoing up , up . whenever i was able to get a heart attack and had two stents in, the doctor told my family i was a walking dead man. i would have never had that happen if it hadn't been for the affordable care. one of my points is, the lawmakers in washington, all of them, they have never had

to physically work in their lives like most of the american people. you don't get out and do backbreaking jobs. people that are my age get existing conditions because they have to physically work. you all don't understand what it is to wear out your body. you don't wear out your body with a pen and a telephone at your ear. we, this bill that's in here will push this granddaddy over the cliff because i won't be able to afford it. i've got a small business, i've never, ever lived without a job. i had a job all my life and i work for myself. right now i'm working for myself and i don't make that much money and i won't be able to afford the plan under trunk care. >>.

>> guest: thank you michael and that's the concern that many people have. i would also tell you this, that since the affordable care has come into place, instead of premiums going down $2500 they gonep over an average of $4600 and the doctor will have increased about 60 percent, so for a lot of families even though they had insurance, it might cost a family of four, it might cost them $24,000 between premiums and deductibles before they are accessing their insurance and while i certainly appreciate your circumstance, probably more than you know as a business owner for many years myself, doing backbreaking work in the ditch, i was a mechanical contractor. sometimes on a backhoe or down in the sewers or something like that, you're absolutely right. you do wear out your body and it's a problem when as a

business owner, i was providing insurance for my employees but i couldn't afford it for myself. michael, we agree with you. we're trying to get to affordability and prior to the aca, affordability was the issue. it was too expensive. if we kicked off their policies for pre-existing conditions, they couldn't keep their children on the policies if they chose to. those were problems that probably could have been fixed then without so much people in the coverage industry but we did what we did and we are where we are but the problem is even if we love the aca and i will tell you, i'm not the biggest fan for a lot of reasons, it is collapsing. one third of the country only has one choice. then you have the cost of it. even if we love it, it's not going to continue because it's unsustainable. we've got to find some compromise, some solution regarding healthcare coverage is going to work. i appreciate where you are but we want everybody to have the things you had including insurance and coverage and

the peace of mind to know they can go tothe doctor. now that's fading away with a fading aca. >> host: i want to getyour reaction to what speaker ryan said yesterday but first we hear from russia, chicago, republican line . >> guest: good morning . >> caller: i get you loud and clear. i want to demand that congress not vote for the ryan bill because it's similar to the current medicare system that we have now. >> guest: i will tell you, one of my concerns rush odd is that medicare, it's a program that all of us who have worked a paycheck have paid into and it's a program that my mother currently gets her healthcare on, she's on medicare. it is going bankrupt . and that's a system it's unsustainable as well. the last thing we want to do, i think, is create anything like that. another program that is unsustainable financially so i, like rashad have can serious considerations about

the bill but i want to work with the leadership, with republicans and democrats to find some resolution to this thing that fixes our health care problem or access to healthcare, the cost of healthcare. right now, in my view, this bill doesn't do that and that's my biggest concern. >> host: let me ask you about the budget and share with you the wall street journal with regard to medicaid, medicare and social security. the larger lesson is how difficult the spending choices will be if politicians refuse to reform entitlements and the gobble up ever more federal dollars, mister trump is in helping by taking medicare and social security off the reform table . >> guest: i would agree with that and i would say with all due respect, where have they been the last eight yes? i've been in congress for four years, starting my fifth. for l four years i started every town hall with a briefing on debt and deficit and the drivers which are the middle and major entitlement programs .

>> host: that doesn't include the somewhere between 200 trillion in unfunded liabilities and we can deal with the discretionary budget as much as we want to. these things are going to eclipse everything. there will be no money left for defense or any other federal program if we don't deal with these, so i'm glad they finally acknowledged that this is a problem. i do say, where have you been the last eight years? it didn't just show up. it's been going on a long time. republicans and democrats need to knowledge to fix it. >> host: here's more with speaker ryan yesterday of course he's unorthodox and constructive in many ways quite in healthcare, what ways might be a hindrance? >> what i said is he is making it easier and better for us to pass healthcare. the president, his involvement and engagement, is listening and negotiating skills are bringing people together so we can pass a bill. we have a bill that we can pass and get consensus on and make good on our promises.

>> he might bring up something about wiretapping, all that is unorthodox. >> sure it's unorthodox. here's what i see the president, did you see him yesterday in detroit, in tennessee? the president had a connection with individuals in this country. no offense, but he goes around the media and connect with people individually. this is a power that we haven't seen since ronald reagan. what this president is showing is that he knows how to correct connect directly with people. that helps us bridge gaps in congress and get republicans unified so we can deliver on our promisesnd that extremely helpful. >> speed. >> host: question from mark halpern, your reaction. >> guest: the president does have a big role to play when he goes out in the town.

you hear from people from those places that have engaged with the president directly or through his messaging, whether it's in the paper or by tweets and it helps form their opinion about what we are doing here and then we hear from them. you should be for it because it's this, who against it because of that. that helps us be better representatives and then we take those concerns and issues , coupled with our own to the speaker or to the rest of leadership and say this is where we think there are points of consensus or points of concern, then the speaker will let us know, our leadership will let us know. that's great for your side, so to speak but there's people on the other side that say this. how do we put these two things together? this is a messy, sausage making process but this is the process you have to go through to find the sweet spot. to think that something this large would be hammered out and easily passed inside a week, this is a big deal that had taken decades to get to the point where they pass the aca and we've seen some of the problems with that and it's not going to be a quick

flip of the switch to remedy that. we have to be willing to understand and accept that and work through it. >> host: your congressional district went for donald trump. you worry with the bigger question about the federal budget, the cuts will hurt the people who supported him in 2016. >> guest: they take that into account, i take that into account as well. the president's budget is aspirational. i have a town hall meeting coming up this week so i will hear from constituents but it's also my job to explain to them what they see, what i see and make sense of it because a lot of times, there's misinformation, different people have heard different opinions and they base their opinions on things that might not necessarily be true it's my job to dispel those things and find out, based on that information because i'm your representative, what would you do if you were in my shoes? that's what i'm trying to find out. and i got to look at the entire district.

each meeting is going to be markedly different from the next person that comes in so you got to put that all together and say where's the best place for this and have i done a good job at explaining this. sometimes stuff is hard to articulate. >> host: this program is great live on c-span radio, we're talking with congressman scott perry about the health care plan and budget proposal by donald trump. kathy on theindependent line, good morning . >> guest: good morning kathy . >> caller: thank you for taking my call.senator collins and senator kathy proposed a bill, i want c-span all the time, thank you very much. d where the aca worked, they would leave it for the proposed visa but it doesn't work, on speaker ryan still would go in, wouldn't that be a good idea to ease into something that is going to affect so many people's lives? so that you could tweak it, that's the whole purpose.

we are sorry that republicans didn't work change things, just repeal, repeal, repeal. there are great minds on both sides ofthe aisle and you could have fixed it . the other thing, i really watched last saturday morning i think on c-span. we are talking about money and yet this proposal gives 157 million back to the drug companies, to the insurance companies and to the richest americans who don't need tax breaks. why did you do that? why can't you keep the money and put it on the deficit? put it on a program so we don't lose dbs for the kids? i'm curious how you keep saying you're going to help us and you're against entitlements, they have to be fixed.

yet you turned around and gave all that money. the other little piece, performance pay. the ceos can have unlimited tax breaks. that, to me, when i heard it was really a slap in the face to people like me. >>. >> host: kathy, thank you from mansfield massachusetts. >> guest: kathy makes excellent point and you get caught in this rhetoric of we are going to repeal the aca and that includes all the going to repeal it, that means lock stock and barrel in my mind including the taxes which kathy has pointed out, some are objectionable. how come ceos are able to keep all this money? meanwhile, premiums are going up for people that are hard-working and at the bottom and i agree that the optics and generally

speaking, the policy is at least questionable in that regard. we've got to be intellectually honest when we say we are repealing the aca and leaving the essential benefits mandate on the guaranteed issue mandate that is part of the aca and we are not repealing aca. if we can leave those things in, why can't we deal with these tax issues or like you said, the taxability of nonprofitinsurance companies , ceos who seem to make a pretty good living. meanwhile, there are people that can't afford healthcare. that remains i think a problem at least of optics and it's not strictly reality and i think that's part of this discussion . >>. >> host: from portland press herald in maine, senator collins in an interview yesterday send the house bill quote, doesn'tcome close . amy edwards park florida, republican line, good morning . >> guest: good morning amy. >> caller: good morning congressman. i couldn't help, my ears couldn't help but perk up when you mentioned malaysia and the health care in malaysia. you mentioned that it was a seven but the cost of

healthcare here and i lived in malaysia for about 10 years. i lived in southeast asia for about 18 years. and you are right, healthcare is very low there.but the reason why it's so low is because they don't have insurance, health insurance isn't as entrenched there. a lot of people don't have health insurance. i gave birth to two sons, one in 95 and one and 96. it cost me $600 to have my baby in the hospital. they kept me for about, they wanted to keep me five days but it cost me $600 and that wasn't even a co-pay, that was the total cost to have a baby in a hospital. and you know, even now when i go back i still have a small home there.

the costs are coming up. and it's because insurance is increasing. i usually get a physical when i go there because the healthcare is great. >> host: only because we are short on time, we will give our guest a chance to respond. >> guest: you're much more of an expert than i am looking cursorily at other models trying to figure out what the best we can do, i understand malaysia has helped savings accounts that most of their citizens have an catastrophic insurance policies so the normal things that you go to the doctor for our paid for out of the health savings account and if you get some debilitating disease, that's where your insurance kicks in which keeps the cost of insurance low and it keeps people involved in the healthcare market so you can have a baby for $600 as opposed to $10,000 or more if there are complications. it's good to look around and

see what other programs ar out there to inform us about what we can be doing here so you are probably more of the expert than i am quite go back to the web in the house because cnn is reporting this morning there are 21 house republicans or opposing the current healthcare bill. that means so far, no democrats supporting it, what's going to happen? >> guest: were going to go through the weekend, there's going to be a lot of phone calls made. what are you looking for very specifically, and then the leadership will take a look at that and say if we put this year, though that lose votes over there? trying to find the sweet spot and people like me are interested in that conversation. we want to improve healthcare, we want to improve the cost of healthcare and access to health care and the options. at least for me, i'm concerned is still do that so i'm interested in things that would get to that point and

if we can do that and maintain some of the other folks that have concerns, we find the sweet spot and best success. >> host: who's talking to you? >> guest: i've been talking to the speaker, the whips and other members that have concerns. there are members on the other side of the conference or moderate members that have concerns about the medicaid portion. and there are colleagues, they have citizens they are concerned about as well so you are trying to find out what their issues are and is that issue really important to you, how can you be there to support them as well because at the end of the day, we don't have any choice. the aca is failing financially. we have to do something, we understand that so how can we do this ? >> host: scott perry, thanks forstopping by, please come back again . >> guest: happy st. patrick's day. >> host: to you as well quite alive picture from the white house where president trump is holding a joint news conference this afternoon with german chancellor on