DPCC Co-Chair Cartwright: The Trump Administration is Gutting the Affordable Care Act, Democrats are Fighting to Protect Health Care
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Matt Cartwright, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on Out Front with Erin Burnett on CNN to discuss Attorney General William Barr's decision to take legal action to take health care away from millions of Americans. While Democrats are fighting to lower health care costs, the Trump Administration continues its legal assault on Americans' health care. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video
"He is in an uncomfortable position, Bill Barr is. It was his first time testifying on Capitol Hill since the release of the Mueller report and his summary of that. There were a lot of unsatisfied members of Congress questioning him. I, myself, was questioning him about their decision to go after the health care law and even in that, I was left unsatisfied because I asked him, you know, did you talk that over with Mick Mulvaney? Did you talk it over with President Trump about your own feeling that that was a no-go? The position that we should invalidate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? He didn't want to answer that, and he didn't want to tell me whether he was invoking executive privilege in not telling me. So I demanded that he tell us, and that he tell us in writing."
"You're not talking to an expert in the kind of report that a special counsel generates, but my guess is that there will be significant redactions, because he outlined four different categories of information in the report that he wants to redact, including grand jury evidence. What I'm hoping is that he does keep it to a minimum. He has said that. Attorney General Barr has said he wants to keep it to a minimum. He knows, as the rest of America knows, that the more he blacks out, the more people will be screaming and asking further questions."
"When I said before people are going to be screaming about it, I didn't limit that to Democrats. We've got Democrats and Republicans. On the Appropriations Committee, we like to say, there are Democrats in Congress and Republicans in Congress and then there are appropriators. Congressman Graves is a Republican, but he is an appropriator, above all, and we like to do things together. And I know that's a shock to many people."