DPCC Co-Chair Matt Cartwright: Shutting Down Government Is Not a Negotiating Tool
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Matt Cartwright, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared America's Newsroom on FOX News to discuss the federal government shutdown created by the President. Cartwright also discussed how Democrats are fighting for the people to lower health care costs. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video
"Well, Medicare For All and free college are two completely different programs. I have not got on free college but Medicare For All I have been on. Let me tell you why. It started with the business community. I was a business owner for 25 years and you go past 2000 up to 2010 and we saw the health care premium rates going up 20 and 30 and one year 40 percent and you have to look to your employees, you look at them in the eye and say ‘I can't give you a raise next year because I had to keep covering your healthcare.' And so it was the business community that came to me, Bill - a man name Richard Master. A very successful businessman in Eastern Pennsylvania and he was experiencing the same thing and frustrated by it. And he looked to Medicare and saw that 3 percent administrative fee that they charged and he looked into it and you know he produced a movie, it was a documentary based on the experience of Canada and some other countries..."
"It's all about the expense, Bill. What you have to do is engage in a fair comparison. You say well, if it's $3.5 trillion a year but then you have to compare that to all of the health care premiums that every single person and company pays in the United States every year and you find out that's more than $3.5 trillion. That's why businessmen like Richard Master are interested in this, because they're interested in saving money in addition to making the health care system work better in this country."
"I'm for some sensible compromise. I was very heartened to see that the President moved away from a wall from sea to shining sea. You heard him say that after we opened up the government again."
"There has got to be a middle ground there somewhere…The first rule is don't ever shut the government down as a standard negotiating tool. That hurts nobody but American citizens and it makes our country weaker. It makes us less safe – who know when the air traffic controllers aren't coming in."
"There's got to be a sensible middle ground someplace. But to me beefing up technology at the ports of entry has to be the biggest expenditure. Because what we're doing is investing in legacy technology - upgrading software to fit old scanning machines. Any time you hear that legacy technology we're wasting our money. You know that's happening."