News is breaking in D.C. by the second. Listen as Larry is joined by Rep. Jim Jordan to discuss the top news stories coming of Washington, the fight against Obamacare and the Oversight Committee.
Larry began the interview by asking Congressman Jordan about Rep. Elijah Cummings’ claim that Republican lawmakers are not conducting oversight of President Trump & his appointments:
Larry O’Connor: The Republicans and your Chairman Jason Chaffetz abrogated your responsibility in investigating the Trump administration according to Congressman Cummings?
Rep. Jim Jordan: No. Look, let’s get the facts. I’m all in favor of that. But you start primarily with the Intelligence Committee, Intel committee to get the facts and if the preliminary facts indicate that we should have an investigation, we should do it. But let’s get the facts out first and find out. Right now, just in the press, we’re learning in sort of the normal way all Americans learn things in the press. So let’s see what we learn there. Let’s see what the Intelligence Committee can get. And then if the Oversight Committee, which I’m apart of, needs to do some further investigation, I’m sure it will happen because that’s our job.
Rep. Jordan also shared his thoughts regarding D.C.’s Death with Dignity Act:
O’Connor: One thing your committee did do yesterday was strike down D.C.’s ‘Death with Dignity’ Act. I’m interested in getting your reaction on that, as to what the thought process was. I mean, frankly, I am against all of these ‘Right to Die’ Acts and the government sanctioning people, killing themselves and doctors getting involved. However, as a states’ rights conservative kind of guy, I know that D.C. isn’t a state, but listen if the people of D.C. overwhelming wanted this, who are you, a Congressman from Ohio, to tell the people of D.C. they can’t have it?
Rep. Jordan: Because of the way the system works is Congress has oversight over what the District of Columbia does and if we see something this egregious and wrong and we think it’s wrong, we have an obligation to disapprove that. There is a resolution brought forward by Congressman Wenstrup, in fact I should say Dr. Wenstrup, that did just that. Unfortunately, the vote we took last night is basically meaningless because right now our leadership is not going to bring the vote up on The House floor. So we took a vote out of committee and right now we’re not going to get to The House floor. I wish we would because the timeline to actually take action expires, that time period ends on this Friday. And if we don’t bring it up before this Friday, we’re done and it doesn’t happen. So it was largely a vote that doesn’t have a whole lot of meaning last night. I mean, I’m glad we took it, but I wish that the Chairman and the leadership would allow it to come to The Floor.
It’s [The Death with Dignity Act] not only just wrong and just bad policy and just philosophically and morally, in my opinion, wrong, the way this thing is structured, there is a lack of oversight for doctors who do this. The idea that anybody can be a witness, it doesn’t have to be someone who’s related to the person who’s going to be seeking this, it is so poorly written in my judgment, that by itself should be the reason why Congress would disapprove it.
During the interview, Rep. Jordan also updated listeners about the repeal of Obamacare:
O’Connor: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is now in place. He’s your former colleague. He has some great ideas about appeal and replace, reform whatever those buzz words are right now. Where does this stand? How quickly is this going to move now?
Rep. Jordan: Not quick enough, but let’s hope it starts moving a little quicker. This is what we sequenced as the very first thing we were going to do and when we think about the promises we made to voters in the last election so let’s get after it. We took a position as the House Freedom Caucus, as the Conservative Caucus here in Congress, we took a position last night to say at a minimum, let’s just pass the 2015 Repeal Bill and at the same time pass a separate bill on replacement. But let’s pass what we did in 2015 because right now we’re hearing that it sounds like from a lot of folks in this town that we’re going to do something less than that. They are talking about keeping the taxes in place, not defunding Planned Parenthood, they’re talking about Cassidy-Collins Bill which is basically if you like Obamacare, you get to keep Obamacare. There is all this talk about what they want to do, which is something less than what we put on President Obama’s desk. So we’re actually going to try to put something less on President Trump’s desk than we put on President Obama’s desk? I just don’t see that. [inaudible]
O’Connor: You say other people in this town, are you talking about at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue or are you talking about on the other side of your building?
Rep. Jordan: Largely on the other side of our building. The Cassidy- Collins Bill is bad. There’s some members here on Capitol Hill who don’t want to keep the Planned Parenthood defund language in there. There is talk about keeping taxes in there. There is talk about repairing it as if there was anything worth repairing in this legislation. This thing has been a complete disaster.
CALL: 202-432-WMAL (9625) | 888-630-WMAL (9625)
