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Published March 20, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "Your World," January 13, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Now, ahead of the big vote today, the president-elect tweeting: "Unaffordable care act will soon be history."
Texas Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert with us right now.
Congressman, was this about what you expected the vote to be? Not a single Democratic vote here.
REP. LOUIE GOHMERT, R-TEXAS: Yes, and that is because it was just a vote on the vehicle that will allow us to repeal Obamacare.
And, of course, the Democrats can be in unity that we can vote against the vehicle that will allow you to repeal it. I didn't like the numbers in this budget. And as I made clear to Paul and to Kevin McCarthy and to Steve Scalise, look, I'm not agreeing with these numbers. I'm voting for the vehicle, and you guys better not come back two years from now, oh, well, you were already in agreement on these numbers.
No, I'm not. This is the vehicle. So, we agreed, not a big surprise. Where the Democrats are going to have problems, Neil, is when we actually start voting to do good things for the American people regarding the damage done by Obamacare.
Now, I know people -- and Chad, he is the best news guy up here on the Hill, but everybody keeps talking about a replacement. And the fact is, if you eliminate Obamacare's mandates, and then you give freedom for entrepreneurs to come in and start coming up with great insurance policies, making sure we have got results, making sure that people can have an insurance policy with a better than $6,000 or $8,000 deductible, massive co-pays, massive premiums, and what we -- what I have been assured of even today multiple times is, by the end of the year, you're going to be able to buy new policies that have what you want in it and not what some bureaucrat under...
CAVUTO: Well, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. But you're saying that the replacement measure will already be available by the end of the year?
GOHMERT: Well, it's not strictly, here is the new government program, because I know you know, Neil, this administration kept saying, look at all the people we have added to insurance.
No, you added a slew of people to Medicaid as fewer and fewer doctors were taking it. We want to create the insurance vehicle that will allow people to have real insurance, not just Medicaid, and make it affordable, and to really put incentives out there for HSAs.
Now, some people are not where I am. I want you to have pre-tax money you can put in unlimited amounts in HSAs and never goes anywhere else. Those things, we can debate about.
CAVUTO: I got you.
You're talking about health savings accounts. You're an expert in all of this, but you're talking about that.
But let me ask you, though, Congressman, because the rap against this approach -- and I understand there are only so many vehicles you guys can use to repeal this thing.
GOHMERT: Right.
CAVUTO: And it started with Rand Paul, who was worried that it is going to increase the definite short term, increase the debt long-term, that there's got to be a better way out there. But it does not appear that there is.
GOHMERT: Well, the trouble -- and I think the world of Rand, but the trouble with this budget is that it isn't a good budget.
And one of the concerns I have with what we're going to do following this vehicle that we have now created is to leave some of these taxes and fees in place, so that we run up hundreds of billions of dollars in reserve funds.
And there are Republicans and Democrats that would like to keep some of that massive taxes that were created by Obamacare. And some of us just want the money going right back to the consumer so they can spend it on better insurance policies.
So, we're going to have debates on that. But one thing that I'm assured of, and that is, by next January, a year from right now, you will have a lot more choices you can make on the kinds of insurance you can get, form fit it to what you need to what will best work for you.
And so 80-year-olds won't have to buy supplemental insurance that does include maternity care.
CAVUTO: All right, well, that's a big commitment. Congressman, we will see a year from now.
GOHMERT: It's not be as big as you might think, Neil.
CAVUTO: OK. All right. We will see.
Louie Gohmert, thank you very, very much. Good seeing you.
GOHMERT: Thank you, Neil. Thank you.
END
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