Head-spinning faints and fights
in Washington this week, and
the Republican House speaker cut
short the legislative session as
some congressional members demanded
votes on releasing the Jeffrey
Epstein files.
Our next guest was among those who
got an early recess, Wisconsin
First District Republican U.S.
Representative Brian Stahl joins us,
and thanks very much for being here.
Thanks for having me on.
So first off, what is your reaction
to Tony Evers not running for
a third term?
I think what you're going to see is
a large number of Democrats get in
the race and run to the left.
But what we have to do is get our
state back on track, not measuring
things like education by just how
much money we're spending, but on
how well we're doing, whether or not
students are being taught how
to learn, not what to know.
Whether or not we're getting the
spending in Wisconsin under
control and money back
to hard paying taxpayers,
I think you're gonna have a robust
debate I think at the end of the
day. We have a great opportunity to
have a conservative governor once
again.
Do you have a favored candidate at
this point?
No, I'm not running. I'm going to be
running for reelection to the House
of Representatives.
We'll watch the Republican field
play out, but I think we have a
large number of great strong
candidates who will, and one of them
will ultimately be successful.
So this week's House session was cut
short, as we said, by the
speaker, attributed to what the Wall
Street Journal called, quote, furor
over disclosures from the Epstein
investigation.
What's your reaction to the
distraction that the whole Jeffrey
Epstein file is causing?
The broader media landscape loves
to talk about Epstein.
They don't want to talk about the
president's success at securing the
border, about the positive impacts
of the tax package that was just
passed.
I think it's a lot to do about
nothing. I think I lean on the side.
More disclosure is always a good
thing. The sunlight is the best
disinfectant.
I think actually we should just move
forward with this.
Disclose what's legally permissible.
It's obviously under a court seal.
It's not under the direct control of
Congress. And then get really back
and try to draw the attention of the
media who loves to be distracted by
this. Back to the most important
issues of the day.
Now, a new Marquette Law School
national poll shows that 41%
of respondents support the
reconciliation bill that President
Trump signed into law, while 59%
oppose it, of course, with sharp
partisan divides.
Why did you vote in favor?
Let me look at the underlying
provisions inside the bill.
Let's talk about what we got done.
Almost every single thing is net
popular once the American people
understand what's in the bill,
this is about doubling down and
making sure that the border is
secure.
Wildly popular, the president's
moves to do that and then building
to make sure that's permanent, a
good thing. Investing in the
military at a period of time of
dangerous global instability,
making sure the 2017 tax
cuts are permanent to build on the
economic growth that we saw leading
into the pandemic, and
then doubling down on that, in
particular, for seniors, those
working over time are those
who are earning tips.
And then finally.
Getting spending under control.
And this is where the demagoguery
has been probably the most
challenging.
Putting in place work requirements
for able-bodied, childless adults
is an 80-20 issue in the state
of Wisconsin as indicated by
the not so long ago referendum.
That's what this bill does.
It actually secures the program for
those it was designed for,
permanently disabled adults,
children, pregnant women.
And it simply says if you're an
able-body, childless adult
of working age, we're
asking you to be looking for work,
volunteering or working a
minimum of 20 hours a week.
And so the provisions of the bill,
as the American people learn more
and more about them, I think will
only become more popular because
they're common sense reforms to get
this country back on track.
On this program last week,
Milwaukee Democratic Congresswoman
Gwen Moore reiterated
her position that there's quote,
truly no bottom to this bill,
now laws, cruelty,
saying it will result in 276,000
people in Wisconsin not receiving
healthcare.
What's your response to her?
Yeah, that's kind of the dangerous
demagoguery that I think really
tries to scare people.
And it's unfortunate at a period of
time where we're trying to get spending
under control in Washington.
Again.
Let's review the bill.
In the state of Wisconsin,
there are roughly about 130,000
able-bodied, childless adults on
Wisconsin's Medicaid badger care
program.
Little over half of those
individuals are already working a
minimum of 20 hours a week.
There's about 63,000
individuals out of the 1.2 million
individuals on Medicaid.
They're able-oddied, they're of
working age, they don't have young
children. We're simply asking them
to come to the table and have some
skin in the game, look for a job,
be in school, volunteer,
or work a minimum of 20 hours a
week. This is, I think, a common
sense reform.
The demagoguery that we get
by those on the
left is actually, I think, quite
disappointing. A period of time
where we're working to strengthen
the program.
For those it's truly designed for.
So the Congressional Budget
Office did estimate that
this law will
cut federal spending
on Medicaid and
CHIP benefits by $1
trillion, due in part,
the CBO says,
to at least $10.5 million
being eliminated from
the program.
But let's dive into those numbers,
right? Because the people are using
those numbers to try to scare people
in the state of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin's had work requirements
for many of our welfare programs, in
particular SNAP benefits, since the
1990s when Governor Tommy Thompson
put them in place.
In Medicaid, we don't have the exact
work requirements that the federal
government has, that
this law passes.
What this law does is simply say, if
you're an able-bodied, childless
adult, we want you to be looking for
work, going to school, volunteering,
or working 20 hours a week.
This is an 80-20 common sense
issue. And you say, if you
dig further into that, who's the CBO
examining?
I mean, the positive view that is
those people find themselves with
an opportunity to get
a job, to volunteer, that we
won't see folks losing their
health benefits. What we'll see is
people getting into a good or a
better paying job with the ultimate
goal of many of these able-bodied,
childless adults getting
into the workforce and receiving
their health care from their
employer, like many hardworking
families in the state Wisconsin do.
What about changes to the Affordable
Care Act that I understand
and, according to Congresswoman
Moore, will raise premiums
and also impose other restrictions,
potentially causing people to lose
that coverage?
You give me the details
on that.
I think what you're taking there is
national analysis on the state
of Wisconsin that doesn't apply.
Wisconsin didn't expand Medicaid.
And so some of the reforms that are
made in other states apply
differently. And so this is what's
really dangerous about the
demagoguery that some individuals
want to engage in.
They wanna take a national narrative
and apply it to Wisconsin.
Wisconsin, I think very
thoughtfully, did not expand
Medicaid further into
the able-bodied childless working
age population.
And so again, of the 1.2
million individuals in the state of
Wisconsin who currently are on
Medicaid.
Tony Evers of Plaint E noted
that there's about 163,000
of them that are of the
demographic that we should look at,
able-bodied, childless adults.
Well over half of those are already.
Already working 20 hours a week,
going to school, volunteering,
63,000 are not or are
not documenting it.
And so this is about making sure
that we're strengthening the program
for those that it's designed for.
No changes.
And in fact, in my opinion,
strengthening. Wisconsin, after the
passage of the state budget,
actually received about a billion
dollars a year more in
federal money. We got a whole debate
about that, but more money's coming
in.
And So the left is trying really
hard to demagogue on this issue.
As the facts got out, you saw a
quick pivot into Epstein, which
was the lead question of your
interview. So what we need to do
is to dive in, get the
information out to the American
people about how we're strengthening
the program.
And I think as the American People
learn more and more about this,
it's only going to be more popular.
Again, the work requirements in the
state of Wisconsin had a referendum,
80-20 popular.
As to the recent rescissions
package that's stripped
appropriation funding from
USAID and
the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, do you expect
and support additional rescissions
as a way to cut costs going forward?
Washington has a massive spending
palm. We're spending almost $2
trillion a year more than we're
taking in, and the debt is well over
$30 trillion.
I think we need to go through the
federal budget with a fine-tooth
comb to remove waste fraud abuse.
Look at programs that could find
either other sources of funding or
aren't necessary.
And so I think it's appropriate to
make sure that we're combing through
the Federal budget, looking for ways
to save taxpayer dollars.
And again, at a period of time where
every extra dollar we spend is
effectively a dollar borrowed from
China, I think it's absolutely
appropriate. To dig through the
federal budget and look for ways to
save funds for hard-working
families.
U.S.
Representative Brian Stiles.
Thanks very much.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much.
Have a wonderful weekend.
You too.