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NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes.
00:04Joining me now is Congressman Ami Barra.
00:06Congressman, thank you so much for joining me.
00:08Thanks for having me on.
00:10You must have had a busy week, so I want to dive right into it.
00:14Earlier this month, the chair of the NRCC told Republicans reportedly
00:19to stop holding town halls.
00:21Based on your comments this week, it seems like you want to capitalize
00:24on this moment. You floated the ideas of Democrats going to town halls
00:28You floated the ideas of Democrats going into these red spaces,
00:31talking to constituents in these red districts.
00:34Can you tell us more about your idea?
00:37Yes, I think it's incredibly important.
00:39If Republican members aren't going to explain what Donald Trump,
00:42Elon Musk are doing to the services that they depend on,
00:46I think it's an obligation for us to go into some of these districts,
00:50certainly in a targeted way, and explain to them,
00:54if they cut Medicaid 25%, what that's going to mean to their access to healthcare.
00:59If they shut down the Department of Education,
01:02what that's going to mean to their public schools.
01:05Again, it is hard to win re-election if you're not talking to your voters
01:09or your constituents, but we also have to present a case
01:13and make sure they understand what's happening to the federal government.
01:16You want to go in in a targeted way.
01:19What does that way look like? What's the strategy here?
01:22At the end of the day, the best way for us to put Democratic ideas forward
01:27and from our end, protect the country from some of these really dangerous cuts
01:31that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are perpetrating,
01:35we have to figure out what are those districts that we can win.
01:39We know the 20 most vulnerable Republican districts.
01:43We're going to have candidates that eventually are running against those Republicans,
01:47but in the meantime, there's nothing that prevents us from going into those districts,
01:51talking about how much these rural communities depend on Medicaid,
01:56their hospitals need Medicaid funding to stay afloat,
01:59and then put pressure on those Republicans to say,
02:02hey, wait a minute, if you vote for this reconciliation package,
02:06you're going to take healthcare away from your very constituents.
02:10Are you sure that's the vote that you want to take?
02:13I'm not sure if you saw this, but Congressman Chuck Edwards from North Carolina,
02:17he defied the order, the reported order of not holding town halls.
02:22He held one this week. He was faced with booze.
02:26He was faced with anger, constituents, protesters all around.
02:29What do you make of that?
02:31You know, I've heard about what happened to Congressman Edwards' town hall.
02:35I haven't seen the clip yet.
02:37I think that's his constituents responding to the concern
02:41about what they're seeing coming out of the Trump administration.
02:45That's very organic.
02:47We saw it happen to Democrats in 2010 around the Affordable Care Act vote
02:52when we lost a lot of Democratic seats
02:56because Democrats then became afraid to have town halls.
02:59I think you've got to show up,
03:01you've got to let your constituents express their opinions,
03:04and then you've got to explain the votes that you're taking.
03:07I know that Politico had an article with some of the Republicans
03:12with an over-average number of constituents who rely on Medicaid.
03:16Is that something you would be targeting as well?
03:19And what are those conversations with Republicans looking like,
03:22especially those ones that have a large swath of constituents
03:26who rely on these types of entitlements?
03:29So as we're talking to Republican colleagues saying,
03:33look, be very careful about this vote on Medicaid,
03:36I think they're getting nervous about that vote,
03:39which is why you saw on the reconciliation package
03:42the framework of their budget deal.
03:45They're trying to say, well, Medicaid's not in there.
03:48The truth is, and the reality is,
03:50there's no way for them to get $880 billion
03:53out of the energy and commerce portion of that bill without cutting Medicaid.
03:57So we have a few weeks to make the case
04:01and tell these Republican members
04:04why it would be dangerous to their own constituents,
04:07to their own rural hospitals, and get them to change their vote.
04:10I feel really lucky in the past couple of weeks.
04:13I've talked to a number of Republicans, a number of Democrats in the House.
04:17Republicans have all told me,
04:19and I've heard President Donald Trump say it himself,
04:21we aren't touching Medicaid, we aren't touching Medicare,
04:24and we aren't touching Social Security.
04:27Democrats, on the other hand, have said that's a lie.
04:30I was speaking with your colleague, Congressman John Larson, yesterday,
04:33and he said that's a lie, they are going after these things.
04:36What do you think? What do you say?
04:38Well, if they're going to stick to this budget framework that they put out there,
04:43they are going to have to go after Medicaid.
04:46And again, if they don't, great, then they don't have anything to worry about.
04:50If they don't touch Medicare, great, they don't have anything to worry about.
04:54Elon Musk has said the exact opposite, though, when it comes to Social Security.
04:58He's called Social Security a Ponzi scheme.
05:01Social Security is a system that you pay in
05:04throughout your whole working life so that you can have some security
05:07at the end of your retirement.
05:09So it is a system that millions of Americans rely on
05:14and count on to stay out of poverty.
05:16If Elon Musk is calling it a Ponzi scheme,
05:19I think Donald Trump listens to Elon Musk.
05:22I know that you said earlier in this conversation
05:25you want to host these town halls and talk about the Department of Education as well.
05:29Earlier this week, we saw over 1,300 staffers at the Department of Education fired.
05:35And according to multiple reports,
05:37President Donald Trump has contemplated signing an executive order
05:41dismantling the entire department.
05:43What's your reaction to that news?
05:45You know, I think it's going to be disastrous to every school district in this country.
05:50That means Democratic districts and Republican districts.
05:53We're obviously going to do what we can to preserve vital services
05:58that our kids depend on, school lunch programs.
06:00For many kids, that's the only hot meal they get every day.
06:04You know, special programs for children with disabilities, etc.
06:08That's going to impact Republican districts.
06:11And, you know, many of these Republican voters
06:14are going to have to hold their members of Congress accountable.
06:17We're not going to let them, you know, if they do follow through with this,
06:20it's going to hurt their kids as much as it's going to hurt Democratic kids.
06:24I know Republicans have said we're not doing anything
06:28that's like would totally dismantle or totally change education in this country.
06:33Instead, we want to give the power back to the states when it comes to education.
06:37What do you make of that argument?
06:39So I'm fine with power and control of schools.
06:44That's why you have school boards.
06:46That's why you have, you know, parent teacher associations, things like that.
06:51That's fine.
06:52But for programs like school lunch programs,
06:55for programs that go to local farmers
06:58and try to provide fresher fruits and vegetables,
07:01make America healthy again,
07:03programs that service students with disabilities,
07:07a lot of that comes from federal funding.
07:09If you cut that funding, you cut those programs.
07:12I was speaking with your colleague, Congressman Tim Burchett, yesterday,
07:16and we were talking about the Department of Education,
07:19and he told me, quote,
07:20people are going to be astounded and shocked the amount of waste, abuse,
07:24and fraud that's at the Department of Education.
07:27Is that true in your opinion?
07:29What does that look like?
07:30Sure.
07:31If there's waste, if there's programs that are not effective or efficient,
07:35great.
07:36Let's work on that together.
07:38Again, how I would do that is I would actually go to the cabinet members,
07:42come to Congress, and let's do it with a scalpel in a specific way,
07:47not just haphazardly lay off individuals without knowing what the bad impact
07:53is going to be.
07:54Congressman, we haven't seen test scores bounce back since COVID.
07:59And if you look at the national test score average in this country,
08:02it's shocking to see.
08:04What do you think by dismantling the Department of Education,
08:07what is that going to do to education in this country?
08:10Yeah, I think it's going to make it harder.
08:13I totally agree that we're getting something wrong with education.
08:17If Donald Trump came out and said,
08:19we're going to do something that radically improves our literacy rates in
08:23America, we're going to try to get every five-year-old being able to read in
08:27America, great.
08:28Let's work on that.
08:29Let's figure out how we get back to better literacy rates,
08:33better math scores, better education.
08:36I'm not against that.
08:38And there are lots of things that I think Republicans and myself and
08:42Democrats would find in common.
08:44I think we should do more vocational and technical education, woodshop,
08:48metal shop, auto shop.
08:49Things that I had when I was a kid, probably less testing,
08:53not more testing and teach kids how to put their cell phones down and get out
08:57there and play.
08:59Congressman,
09:00I feel really lucky in my role that I get to talk to people like you,
09:03members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and something that's been a
09:07trend in my conversations with Democrats is they seem really united right now.
09:12Democrats in the house, they are angry with doge.
09:15They don't like what they're seeing.
09:16They think Elon Musk is recklessly cutting jobs, cutting departments.
09:20They're vigorously calling out all of you voted against the CR,
09:25the continuing resolution.
09:26Do you wish that you saw this same unity that you're seeing in the house,
09:30in the Senate,
09:31especially when you hear the Senate minority leader saying he's going to
09:34support that.
09:35You know,
09:36I think Chuck Schumer is going to take a bad vote.
09:39You know,
09:40this is not a bipartisan budget deal.
09:43This is a budget deal that Republicans put together.
09:46It's a budget deal that they never asked us to weigh in on and negotiate.
09:51So Chuck Schumer is caving to this.
09:53If they wanted to pass this budget deal on their own, fine.
09:57Now it's become a bipartisan budget deal.
09:59And,
10:00you know,
10:01you can see the tweet that Donald Trump put out there thanking Chuck Schumer.
10:06I think it's a mistake on his end.
10:08Congressman,
10:09Congress is out next week.
10:11You're going back to your district.
10:13What I know that Democrats are at a disadvantage right now.
10:16You don't have a majority in the house or Senate,
10:19the,
10:20the president's Republican.
10:22So what are you going to tell them when they say,
10:24Hey,
10:25I'm nervous about Medicare,
10:26Medicaid.
10:27Hey,
10:28I rely on my social security checks.
10:29What are you telling them?
10:30I'm,
10:31I'm nervous about those things too.
10:32So what I'm going to tell them first is next week,
10:35I'm going to meet with our hospitals,
10:37our doctors,
10:38the folks that help administrate Medicaid and say,
10:41okay,
10:42if these cuts come,
10:43are we ready for them?
10:44What are we going to do?
10:45How are we going to work together?
10:46Same thing with our county office of education.
10:48If these cuts go through at the,
10:51the DOE,
10:52how is that going to impact our ability to educate our kids in my district in
10:56Sacramento County?
10:58Second,
10:59I am going to explain to them the best strategy is we just have to get three
11:03Republicans to vote against cuts to Medicaid and we can save these programs.
11:08Again,
11:09I'm not suggesting we shouldn't try to make these programs better and more
11:12efficient.
11:13If there is fraud address that fraud.
11:15I'm saying a lot,
11:16millions of Americans rely on Medicaid as their only source to get healthcare.
11:21We ought to protect this program.
11:25And that's what every Democrat who I've talked to have said,
11:28Hey,
11:29if there's fraud,
11:30I'm the first one I want to find it.
11:31I want it out of there.
11:32Do you think you're going to find three Republicans to get on board with you?
11:37It's up.
11:38So it's up to putting pressure on them from their constituents.
11:41They expect me to oppose the Medicaid cuts,
11:44but if the folks that they represent that they work for are speaking loudly
11:49to them,
11:50if the doctors in their districts are saying,
11:52Hey,
11:53don't do this.
11:54If the hospital administrators are saying,
11:57if you pass this budget,
11:59it's going to close our hospital and we're gonna have to lay off thousands of
12:03folks that rely on you as their Congressman.
12:06I think you can get three folks to say,
12:08Hey,
12:09wait a minute.
12:10We don't want to do this.
12:11And Congressman,
12:12before I let you go,
12:13I think it's a really important point because the Republicans,
12:15once again,
12:16are saying we aren't cutting Medicare.
12:18We aren't cutting Medicaid.
12:19That is just a talking point.
12:21That's a democratic talking point.
12:23You're saying that is not true.
12:24The writing is on the wall.
12:25So what is the response to that?
12:28Well,
12:29let's see that budget votes going to come up.
12:31And if they kept Medicaid and they've said they weren't going to cut
12:34Medicaid,
12:35shame on us.
12:36If we don't hold them accountable,
12:37Congressman,
12:38I appreciate the conversation today.
12:40Thank you so much for joining me.
12:41You're welcome back anytime.
12:42Great.
12:44Thanks for having me on.
12:45Be well.
12:55Bye.