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>> Fallout from federal
immigration enforcement in

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Minneapolis continues this
week with six federal

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prosecutors. They're
resigning over the

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assignment to investigate
the widow of the 37 year

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old mother shot and killed
by an Ice agent. And

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Thursday was the last day
of open enrollment for

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marketplace Affordable Care
Act plans, with early

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indications showing 1.4
million fewer enrollees

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than last year. But the
U.S. House last week voted

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to extend those credits,
with 17 Republicans joining,

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including Wisconsin third
Congressional

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Representative Derrick Van
Orden. To check where that

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measure goes in the Senate,
we turn to Wisconsin's U.S.

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senators, Democrat Tammy
Baldwin and Republican Ron

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Johnson, who joins us now.
Senator, thanks very much

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for being here.
>> Thanks for having me on.

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>> So what do you know
about any compromise to be

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had on the extension of
these ACA enhanced credits?

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>> Well, I appreciate you
reporting it accurately.

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We're talking about the
enhanced credits for the

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supposedly 24 million
people on the exchanges.

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More than 22 million will
still get the Obamacare

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subsidies, which were very
generous. The only people

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losing subsidies are people
making over 400% of the

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poverty line. That's about
1.6 million people. And I'm

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actually working with the
couple Democrat senators to

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address those individuals
because they are facing

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unbelievably high premiums
because of Obamacare. It is

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so destroyed. The
individual market. Some of

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these folks close to
retirement are facing

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premiums of 36, $38,000 a
year. So I'd like to help

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them. But again, I really
have there's no reason to

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extend the enhanced
temporary pandemic

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subsidies for people who
still will retain the

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Obamacare subsidies.
>> What kind of traction is

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that? Getting your proposal
to maintain credits for

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those at 400% above poverty?
>> Well, what I've been

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told is there are enough
Democrats who will

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co-sponsor that. But right
now, I think they're still

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holding out hope that they
can extend all the

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subsidies. I just believe
that's dead on arrival here

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in the Senate. We voted
that down multiple times

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during the shutdown. That's
that's just not going to

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happen.
>> Were you surprised by

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the 17 Republicans in the
House who voted to extend

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those enhanced credits?
>> No, I think the issue

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has been so misreported.
It's been so misrepresented

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that I think there are
people in very close

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districts were concerned
about that

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misrepresentation. They
constituents that, no, they

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want to help them handle
the extremely high premiums.

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But but remember, the
reason premiums are so high

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is because Obamacare is
just flawed. It's it's it's

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an awful structure. It
forced a very small

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percentage of the American
population. Those 24

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million people on the
individuals change to

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completely bear the cost of
covering people with

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preexisting conditions. So
that's the reason why

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premiums, since the
implementation of Obamacare

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have increased four times
rate inflation. So again,

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it's completely failed. And
the only thing the subsidy

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is doing right now is
they're masking that. It's

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certainly helping people.
ought to fix Obamacare. We

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repair the damage done and
transition to a system that

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would actually work like.
Well, the root cause of our

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health care financing
system is the third party

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payer system. Somebody else
is going to pay the the.

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Provider, the, you know,
the costs of, of the

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procedures and, and the
medical services. All we

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pay for is insurance. It's
way too high or we pay our

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taxes. So until you
actually reintroduce

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consumerism, where
consumers know what things

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cost and they're concerned
about what things cost.

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Right now, doctors don't
know. Nurses don't know,

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patients don't know. The
only people know are the

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bean counters. So that's a
completely flawed system.

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You've removed all the
benefits of a free market,

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competitive system out of
health care. So you don't

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have lower costs, you don't
have better quality, you

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don't have better service.
So again, return

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consumerism, free market
competition in there. Now

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providers aren't going to
incentive in our current

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health care system is to
increase prices because

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everybody is taking a
percentage cut off it.

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They'd rather take a
percent cut off something

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cost $10,000 rather than
five. So it's about

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consumerism. That's the
>> On immigration

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enforcement. Minneapolis
obviously continues to be a

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powder keg. How does the
president, invoking the

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Insurrection Act, bringing
in U.S. military help or

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hurt? What's going on there
in your mind?

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>> Well, what you ought to
do is take a look at

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different states, those
cooperating with Ice as we

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try and administration
tries to clean up this

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enormous mess left behind
by Biden and Democrats, who

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opened up our borders
versus those states that

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are resisting where local
law enforcement actually

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holds illegal immigrants
that have committed crimes

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so that Ice can pick them
up peacefully at the jails.

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You're not seeing a problem.
Where you're seeing a

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problem is where you have
insurgents like Governor

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Walz and the mayor inciting
people to resist and

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obstruct justice. And that
led to the tragedy of that

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one woman's death.
>> Do you have concerns

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that Wisconsin will be
similarly embroiled?

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>> I would hope that
Wisconsin county sheriffs

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and local officials would
cooperate with Ice. I think

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generally they do. We don't
we do not have, you know,

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pockets of large illegal
immigration, immigrants in

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the state of Wisconsin. So
it's not as big an issue

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here as it is with the
Somali population and

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others in Minnesota and
some of these other big

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cities.
>> Do you feel like public

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benefits fraud in Minnesota
justifies the Trump

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administration to surge ice
there?

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>> That's not why they're
doing it. They're two

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totally separate issues.
>> And yet that has been

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something that the
president has spoken to.

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>> Well, again, you have a,
you know, large Somali

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population that now we are
seeing evidence of how much

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they are defrauding the
federal government on a

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host of government programs,
you know, flying $700

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million of cash out of the
Minneapolis airport. Again,

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there's some real problems
there, but that's separate

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from the illegal immigrants.
And quite honestly, the

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sanctuary cities, sanctuary
states like Minneapolis and

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Minnesota, where you don't
have local officials

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working with Ice to
peacefully turn over people

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they've detained, have
committed crimes. Other

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states that do it. You
don't have these problems.

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>> You stated this week
that you do not want to see

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immigration enforcement
action on farmers. Do you

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have any assurances on that?
>> Just that, you know, for

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example, President Trump
was not happy with the raid,

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I think the Hyundai plant.
So people here that are

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working, contributing, that
is not the people that Ice

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is, is primarily going
after right now. They're

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going after the criminals.
Now, if you're associating

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yourself with people who
have committed crimes, if

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you get caught up in those
enforcement actions, I mean,

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if you've come to this
country illegally, you've

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committed a crime as well.
But that's not who the

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Trump administration is
>> Do you support on the

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kind of world stage do you
support the

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administration's actions in
Venezuela, or threats

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against Iran, or even
looking at Greenland? Do

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you support that kind of
foreign policy.

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>> Is undeniably good, that
Maduro is no longer the

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illegitimate leader and
destroying Venezuela. Now,

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what comes next? I don't
know if the mullahs could

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be replaced by the Iranian
people. That would be a

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good thing for the world.
They are a menace.

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Greenland. From my
standpoint, I'm not worried

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about a military invasion
there. I think it's

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appropriate for President
Trump to understand and

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point out what a strategic
how strategically,

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strategically important
Greenland is. And I think

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there's probably more and
more intelligence coming

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out, exactly what Russia
and China may be doing

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there. And we need to make
sure that Greenland is

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protected for NATO and for
for America and for our own

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national security.
>> What do you think

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average Wisconsinites care
most about right now? Do

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you think it's the cost of
living?

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>> Sure. Always has been,
always will be. And it's

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difficult to, you know,
once you've devalued the

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dollar to the extent we
have over the over the

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decades, a dollar held in
1998 is only worth $0.51 as

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recently as 2019, that
dollar's worth $0.80. And

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so the 40 year high
inflation incurred during

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the Biden administration
that permanently devalued

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the dollar. So, you know,
those a lot of those prices,

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they're not going to go
back down. Now there are

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certain commodities like
energy gasoline you

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noticing because we
actually are encouraging

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drilling and energy
production. Gasoline prices

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are going down. You know, I
think a more rational

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approach to bird flu is is
probably bring down the

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price of eggs. So there are
certain things we can

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address. President Trump
right now is and I had a

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briefing in terms of what
he's doing to make sure

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that European countries or
other developed countries

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pay the same price we pay
for drugs. So they don't

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free, free, free load off
of our innovation. That

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will also help things, you
know, in terms of

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pharmaceutical pricing.
>> All right. Senator Ron