United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) appeared on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria” to discuss issues related to healthcare subsidies, defense spending in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and growing military tensions involving China.
During the interview, Hagerty criticized the structure of Obamacare subsidies. He said, “Let’s not forget whose fault this is. The Democrats set this up. They’re the ones who passed Obamacare without a single Republican vote. They’re the ones that extended these massive subsidies during the pandemic for people who are making very high incomes, people who are making 500% of the national poverty level. What we’ve done, therefore, is pull people out of private healthcare plans. Basically, the Democrats have tried to destroy the private healthcare system, and they’ve created this massive collapsing Obamacare system that needs to be addressed. Their idea: let’s just extend it. What we found is massive fraud in this. Inflation beyond anything anyone imagined. Inflation of healthcare costs under Obamacare—4.3 times normal inflation in America since its inception.”
Hagerty outlined steps Republicans plan to take in response to these concerns: “We have a real problem here. What Republicans are going to do this week—and as soon as I get to Washington, heading up later this afternoon—we’re going to be sitting down, going through a number of options to try to deal with better means of addressing this massive inflation, and creating a system that works better for the American people. Meaning expanded health savings accounts, more transparency in pricing, and dealing with the massive fraud. The GAO [U.S. Government Accountability Office] just came out with a study last week. It was incredible how much fraud is in this program and how easy it is to rip off Obamacare. We’ve got to bring that to an end. We’ve got to be much more responsible. And as we look at these options in the coming week, I’m optimistic we’ll find a better solution. The question is, will Democrats work with us?”
He also mentioned potential collaboration between Senate and House Republicans on new healthcare legislation: “We’re hearing that may be coming, and I’m certain that we’re going to work closely together with Republicans on the House side to get something that we think is workable for both the House and the Senate.”
Turning attention toward national security matters and global threats addressed by the NDAA process, Hagerty stated: “This has been a very challenging environment. The National Defense Authorization bill moves through every year. A lot of things are added to this bill that aren’t directly related to the Department of Defense but are important for our national security. What I think we’re going to see here is it coming together. We’ve got greater security threats than we’ve ever seen before. President [Donald] Trump walked into a complete morass in January when he took over. Since then, he’s been dealing with problems all around the planet. What we’ve found is a massive redirection of resources in the Pentagon. We’ve got an incredible effort underway to try to rebuild our military capability, to get back to the force strength and to the lethality that we need to have as the leader of the free world.”
He added optimism about allied support: “I’m very optimistic that our European allies are stepping up. Japan is stepping up. South Korea is stepping up.” He cited increased threats from countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.
On U.S.-China relations and recent provocations by Beijing’s military forces near Taiwan and other regional hotspots, Hagerty commented: “We have to realize that there’s a multi-variable negotiation going on here… China has ramped up its provocations… We’ve seen it mount even further under Biden… What we’re dealing with now…is a very different situation where we’re navigating trade terms and military terms… President Trump is going to stand strong on both dimensions… So I’m optimistic we get to the right place… It’s not just a military situation; it’s not just an economic situation.”
