Senator Baldwin is on a statewide swing denouncing Republicans for blocking attempts to extend
Affordable Care Act-enhanced subsidies.
For the GOP, put this shutdown vote in the wind column.
For his reaction, we turn to Republican U.S. Representative Scott Fitzgerald of the
state's 5th congressional district.
And thanks very much for being here.
Good to be with you.
Thank you.
So what is your reaction to the successful vote to end the shutdown?
I mean, I go back to September when I voted on the continuing resolution and actually left
for the airport.
The time the jet hit the ground, back in Wisconsin, the Senate had already voted it down.
That was a message to me that we were on a different track than what we had seen before
with previous continuing resolutions.
But the thing that was confusing to me is that the Democrats picked one of the most
difficult and comprehensive issues to kind of hang their head on.
And that is health care.
So we all know everyone in D.C. knows that the health care markets, that the programs,
and that those individual policies are a complete mess right now.
And this is going to take a long, long time to kind of straighten out.
But you know, like you said, Senator Baldwin's out there kind of using it as a wedge issue
right now.
But you're not going to get anything done with blaming one part of the other.
We need to come together on that, but it can't be done in the environment created by shutting
down the government.
So it was a huge mistake.
I did predict publicly and almost three or four days after that that there's only one
way this is going to end and it's going to be for the U.S. Senate to capitulate and cave
in.
And ultimately that's what they had to do.
Do you support a vote in the House on the enhanced ACA tax credits as is promised in
the Senate?
I don't know that we're going to get there.
I think with the two seat majority and with Speaker Johnson already sending a message
that we don't have the support for that.
I certainly couldn't support it right now the way it's been framed up.
It's just more money to the health insurance companies.
I think we need to continue to look at health savings accounts just this week Wall Street
Journal editorialized on something that goes back to 2017 where individuals have control
over their own health accounts.
I think that's another pathway we could take.
But the idea that we're just going to keep throwing money at a COVID era fix that was
dreamed up at the last second makes absolutely no sense to me.
And I couldn't support it right now.
What is your message to your constituents in your district who may see their ACA premiums
more than double when these enhanced credits expire?
Yeah, I think the first thing I do is disagree with the premise that they're going to double.
There's a couple of independent think tanks that have done some analysis since the whole
shutdown.
And there are some instances where you could see a significant increase.
But there's others where it will be far less and as a result of that I think again something
we don't have a handle on Congress doesn't have a handle on and for us to somehow dream
up some new policy without doing the legwork makes no sense to me at this point.
So again I mean I take issue with what Senator Baldwin has been saying and continues to say
because I think it's misleading that there's a simple fix to this and it's simply to put
more tax money in.
Would you like to see a wholesale alternative to the ACA apart from kind of direct cash
payments for health savings accounts a wholesale alternative to it and if so what would that
look like?
It has to start with portability.
I mean this isn't something that's new this has been around for a long time.
The idea that individuals go from insurance company to insurance company to insurance
company every time they change jobs or every time they get a new HSA I joke about it because
there's a lot of young adults who have switched careers maybe two or three times early on
in their careers and each one has a different health plan.
So what you end up with are these accounts that have been created but yet they never
grow and they're never sizable enough to have an impact.
I mean that's first and foremost and that goes back to 2017 again where there were some reformers
put in place that no one's really tapped into because they haven't had to because
the government keeps throwing money at these subsidies and it's just unsustainable at this
point.
So you were describing how the issues that Democrats were kind of hanging their hat
on was this very complicated healthcare product.
The continuing resolution runs through January.
Are we going to be right back here to these same kind of shutdown talks at that point?
You know so let me back up a little bit and make a point on that which is it's another
reason many of us were kind of perplexed by the idea that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats
in the Senate couldn't come up with a handshake agreement behind closed doors to just say
listen we'll go out there we'll vote for the CR we won't shut down the government because
guess what we got to do it all again and at that point we were looking at at November
21st so there was a backstop there and and here we go again there's another backstop
so I'm not sure why they thought that that shutting down the government was a good idea
and I think if if they attempt that again if they go back there again in January there
would be some huge political fallout for them so I think I think right now their best option
is to try and sit down and craft something with Senator Thune that can make it out of
the Senate and then the speaker would see if he could pull the votes together I mean he's
he's pulled a few rabbits out of his head along the way here I'm not sure what that
would look like and I can't even commit to supporting it but that might be the best option
if if we find ourselves back in this same position again we'll see what that looks like
then Congressman Scott Fitzgerald thanks very much thank you so much good to be with you
thank you sir thank you good to see you again yeah you too well not in person but yeah well
try and get over to this studio that would be great that would be great thank you again
so much very good thank you
you