- A "First Look" tonight at a new tone from President Donald
Trump in his address to Congress.
We'll speak with Second District Congressman Democrat Mark Pocan
later in tonight's program.
Joining us now is Republican U.S. Representative
Glenn Grothman of the Wisconsin's Sixth District.
He joins us now. Thanks for being here.
- Glad to be on "Here and Now."
- Now obviously we saw a different kind of Donald Trump
in his address to Congress.
Did you like it? - Yeah.
To be honest I talked to Donald Trump several times
during the campaign.
This is the Donald Trump I was more familiar with.
Obviously, there's "The Apprentice" Donald Trump
and he's transitioning from the star of "The Apprentice"
to President of the United States.
I think this is the Donald Trump we'll see
pretty much from here on out.
- On this news item, what is your reaction to the recusal of
Attorney General Sessions who will not participate now in any
investigations into Russia's interference in the presidential
campaign?
- It seems as though they caught Claire McCaskill critical
of this in a little bit of a fib here.
It's really not something that affects me one way or the other
I hear Congress talking about.
We're looking at replacement for Obamacare.
We're preparing for a new budget that is probably going to have
to be rolled out sometime in the next two months as well as
focusing on overhaul of the internal revenue code.
- I want to get to some of those things.
But are you concerned about meetings on the part of Trump
officials with the Russian ambassador and the larger issue
of Russian influence?
- Well, I think it is something
I guess we'll see how it plays out.
Right now I'm not overly concerned.
I don't really see how it affected the elections.
I'm following where the investigation goes and think it
will be dwarfed by these more substantive issues.
- As to policy points, the president as you know spoke to
repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
You've seen the draft replacement bill which includes
these tax credits to help purchase plans based on age.
I understand you have some concerns about that.
What are they?
- Well, the major concern is this.
Right now we are spending too much on health insurance in this
country.
I think the area that's doing the best job of holding down
costs is medium to large companies and it seems to me in
the initial plan there are a lot of incentives for employers to
give up their employee-sponsored healthcare.
In other word, if you look at the -- let's say you have a
husband and wife and maybe three kids.
You can easily wind up with a $13,000 or $14,000 subsidy to
get rid of -- $13,000 subsidy if you have your own healthcare.
Given the size of the subsidy, why wouldn't an employer drop
the subsidy?
So we have to get rid of the incentive for employers to drop
employee healthcare.
- So if people are trying to get their own plans under any
kind of new draft, can you assure low-income people and
those with pre-existing conditions they'll be able to
afford these plans in the absence of Obamacare?
- Well, we're going to probably have some high-risk insurance
and incentivize states to do that just like the state of
Wisconsin used to have.
Obviously where there's a market you are going to have insurance
companies spring up and provide healthcare.
Plus you have Medicaid as well, which as always, takes care of a
lot of low-income people which is going to continue in effect.
- But if the taxes supporting Obamacare are scaled back or
eliminated how are the promises to provide lower costs
and better access met?
- We feel that the new budget that will be introduced,
together with the reconciliation bill, we won't be able to pass
it unless it's revenue neutral.
So the plan that will be presented will be revenue
neutral.
- But back to Medicaid, in Wisconsin, which did not take
the expanded Medicaid, people just above the poverty line were
then kind of encouraged into the marketplace plans.
Under the new kind of draft that would replace Obamacare, what
happens to that group of people?
- They are going to get a tax subsidy and that tax subsidy
should be enough to buy some sort of health insurance plan.
We also anticipate giving Medicaid back to the states and
some of them will be picked up, I assume, by the state of
Wisconsin.
We're aware that the state did not expand Medicaid.
An adjustment will be made in the amount of money the state of
Wisconsin gets to take care of that problem.
- On to another issue.
Do you agree that undocumented immigrants are causing, quote,
lawless chaos in America and that we must build the wall?
- I think we should build a wall.
I mean, there's a problem out there
and a lot of people seem to be confused
as to whether we have to enforce our immigration laws.
Obviously many immigrants who come here are not breaking the
law but I think probably disproportionately some are.
It's hard to get hard figures on this.
I've talked to people who work at the Oxford Federal Prison.
They feel they see immigrants breaking the law and common
sense will tell you if you have to pick between immigrants who
are patiently waiting to come in this country legally and pick
between people who are breaking the law to come here, you're not
getting the type of people that are predisposed to obey the law.
I think we ought to go back to a system in which we are keeping
track of who is coming here, vet them insofar as we can vet them
and take those people.
There are 196 countries in the world.
It is not harsh to say that not everybody can live here.
- I want to ask you about immigration in terms of the
kinds of immigrants that work on Wisconsin dairy farms.
Farmers have talked about some kind of a special visa program
that would allow for them to be documented and work these farms.
Is that something that you're working on in Washington?
- I think there will have to be some visa system because right
now we know that under past presidents, we have solved the
need for labor in this country by allowing people to come here
illegally and anticipating people who come here illegally.
In the past and farms other than dairy farms have relied on
temporary visas.
We are aware something along those lines is going to have to
be done and I would say I am in favor of building the law.
- You are in favor of building the wall you just said?
- Correct.
- I want to ask you one other thing and sorry this interview
is kind of jumping around.
President Trump says he will not cut Medicare or Social Security.
What's your position on that?
- I think that's good.
I think for the first four years
there are plenty of other things to focus on.
- So you take no position on that?
- No, if he doesn't want it done in the first four years
it's not doing to be in the first four years.
And I do think to a certain extent, as some illegals are
removed from the country, I think that will take some
pressure off all of our healthcare programs.
- Okay, Congressman Grothman, we leave it there.
Thanks very much for joining us.
- Glad to be on the show as always.