Transcript - Remarks: Donald Trump Meets With Republican Study Commission - March 17, 2017

Steve Scalise

00:00:00 - 00:00:18 (18 sec)

[in progress] to talk about healthcare and the improvements that are being made. The President has worked and said, bring us your best ideas. And there are members of the Republican Study Committee who have brought those good ideas and worked in a very diligent way to ultimately get to a "yes" on this bill with changes that the President has asked us to make that we're going to make in the bill.

Steve Scalise

00:00:18 - 00:00:23 (5 sec)

And with that, I want to lead it off to the Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Mark Walker.

Mark Walker

00:00:23 - 00:00:37 (14 sec)

Thank you. We're excited about today because it's historic knowing that we're getting a couple of very important things to the steering committee members -- work requirements through the country, and also something what we call "block grants," which allows the states to be empowered.

Mark Walker

00:00:37 - 00:00:56 (19 sec)

We believe they should be able to hold the reins when it comes to managing their population. We also think this would provide more coverage for the indigent, for those sick, and for those disabled. So we're excited about it today, and that's why we've come today to celebrate the American Health Care Act and moving forward with a "yes."

Donald Trump

00:00:56 - 00:01:11 (15 sec)

I just want to say that these are folks that were either a no or a maybe and we had a nice meeting, and we've been talking all during the night. This didn't just happen over the last 20 minutes, this has been going all night long. And we are doing some incredible things.

Donald Trump

00:01:11 - 00:01:34 (23 sec)

I want everyone to know, I'm 100 percent behind this. I want everybody to know that the press has not been speaking properly about how great this is going to be. They have not been giving it a fair press. The press is -- as you know, in many cases, I call it the fake news. It's fake news. This is gonna be great for people. I watch, I say, "That's not the bill we're passing."

Donald Trump

00:01:34 - 00:02:01 (27 sec)

And I also want everyone to know that all of these noes or potential noes are all yeses. Every single person sitting in this room is now a yes and we made certain changes and very frankly little, although the block grant is very important because I want the states to get the money and to run their program if they want to run it because they can do it better than the federal government. They're better equipped than the federal government is.

Donald Trump

00:02:01 - 00:02:30 (29 sec)

I also want people to know that Obamacare is dead. It's a dead health care plan. It's not even a health care plan, frankly, and I watched the architect of the plan yesterday -- I watched the old clip where they said the American people are stupid to have voted for it. I watched Bill Clinton saying, "This is craziest thing I've ever seen." And only because everyone know it's on its last dying feet, the fake news is trying to say good things about it, OK? Fake media.

Donald Trump

00:02:30 - 00:02:55 (25 sec)

And there is no good news about Obamacare. Obamacare is dead, and unless we gave it massive subsidies in a year from now or six months from now, it's not even gonna be here. So when the say, "Oh, more people are on the plan," there are not gonna be any people on the plan. I was in Tennessee -- I was just telling the folks -- and half of the state has no insurance company and the other half is gonna lose the insurance company. The people don't know what to do. It's a disaster. Obamacare is dead.

Donald Trump

00:02:55 - 00:03:09 (14 sec)

Nothing to do with these people, nothing to do with me. It's on respirator and it's just about ready to implode. Now, we could wait for six months or a year and let it happen. It's not the right thing to do for the people.

Donald Trump

00:03:09 - 00:03:38 (29 sec)

This is a great plan. This is going to be fantastic. You're gonna have bidding at the one level by insurance companies. And remember this -- remember this. Those lines are gonna come out. You're gonna have bidding by insurance companies like you've never seen before. Plans are gonna come out like nobody's ever seen before, plans that nobody's even thought of now are gonna be devised by insurance companies to take care of people. And we're going to take care of people at all levels.

Donald Trump

00:03:38 - 00:03:50 (12 sec)

So I just wanted to let the world know I am 100 percent in favor. These folks, and they are tough and they love their constituents and they love this country, these folks were noes -- mostly noes...

Unidentified Speaker

00:03:50 - 00:03:52 (2 sec)

Yes, that's correct.

Donald Trump

00:03:52 - 00:04:08 (16 sec)

... yesterday, and now, every single one is yes. And I just want to thank you. We're gonna have a health care plan that's going to be second to none, it's going to be great and the people will see that.

Donald Trump

00:04:08 - 00:04:40 (32 sec)

By the way, it will take a little while because before it all kicks in and welds together, it takes a little while. With Obamacare, it got worse and worse. Premiums went up 116 percent, they went up 58 percent. The governor of Minnesota said the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, is no longer affordable. That's what he said. The Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable and he's a guy that -- he's a good Democrat. He wanted Obamacare. He said it's no longer affordable.

Donald Trump

00:04:40 - 00:04:49 (9 sec)

Obamacare is not an alternative, it's not there. It's dead. It's dead. So I just want to say thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Donald Trump

00:04:49 - 00:05:09 (20 sec)

One hundred percent of the noes are yeses and some of them were strong noes. Some were just noes and we had a couple that were mixed. But I just want to thank you folks and we're gonna have a great, great health care plan. Thank you very much.