As a major snowstorm was gathering last Monday, which would hit the northeast in the following days, Lanny Davis came back on The Drive with Steve Jaxon to give his perspective on these “interesting times” in Washington.
Lanny Davis
Steve Jaxon:
Joining us right now, our dear friend and Drive Hall of Famer, lawyer, author, commentator, strategist, crisis manager, former Clinton White House advisor and our good friend, Lanny Davis. Mondays with Lanny, how are you, sir?
Lanny Davis:
Hello Steve. I’m assuming in California, Bay Area, you’re preparing for the snowstorm that we are on the east coast, since you have equal opportunity snow days in the Bay Area. Am I right?
SJ:
Yeah, we have days where they close the schools because it’s too nice. So today, it’s about 78 degrees, and totally sunny.
LD:
You all can be forgiven because you vote right in presidential elections.
SJ:
So I guess this storm is going to be “bigly,” it’s going to be “yuge.”
LD:
It’s going to be the only thing that Donald Trump can’t tweet about and as soon as he tweets it he can say, “I didn’t mean it.”
SJ:
Yeah, he didn’t mean “wiretapping” when he said “wiretapping.”
LD:
Now he didn’t mean Barack Obama when he said, “Sick guy.” He actually meant the administration, not Barack Obama, even though he said, “sick guy.” So you refer to the administration as a “guy.” Here’s the deal. He thinks that everybody doesn’t care that he lies. And there are people who told me, “I don’t care that he lies as long as he’s sticking it to, you know, the establishment. But you have to ask people if they don’t care whether somebody is lying to them, whether anybody lies to them. I mean, this is the President of the United States and they don’t care. But we’re not going to get used to this. He’s trying to get us used to him being a liar and he’s the President of the United States. We’re just not going to let him make us get used to it.
SJ:
Well, we talked to one of our Congressmen, Mike Thompson, at the beginning of the show today and we were talking about the Congressional Budget Office, which again, I remind everyone, is non-partisan. Even though they say there’s going to be over 300 billion saved off the deficit, some 24 million Americans could lose their health buy 2026 and like 10 million next year.
LD:
First of all, the Congressional Budget Office was appointed under Republican House and Senate leadership. And they are touting this savings and the deficit, which is at the expense of people being uninsured. You can always save money by throwing people out on the street or not having insurance, and that’s where they get their savings from. 24 million people will ultimately lose their insurance, in both Medicaid and the exchange marketplace. And going back to Donald Trump being a liar, they’ve been playing all day long these clips about saying, “repeal Obamacare, everyone is going to have insurance.” Now, is anyone out there saying, well, that’s a lie, we all know that? But we’re accustomed to his lying so what’s the big deal there?”
SJ:
Well, yeah, because he’s been saying for a while now that under his plan, everyone would be insured. Now they’re saying 24 million won’t be.
LD:
Let me mention something about the entire hypocracy of Paul Ryan and the 88 or the 188, I forget how many times, a bill was sent to President Obama’s desk repealing Obamacare. What ever happened to those bills? Why haven’t they just repealed Obamacare? Does anyone remember that’s what they did I don’t know how many countless times? Did they not mean it? They were ready to repeal it and now what they’ve done to, quote, “replace” it, is by putting in a system that favors wealthy people because it’s tax credits, doesn’t take into account the cost of medical care, that allows people who are elderly to be charged five times what people who are younger (pay). So the whole system is skewed in favor of the wealthy, and throwing people out who have insurance.
It isn’t going to pass. It’s going to be Obama who reminds the Republicans, I hope will start to speak up, to ask, whatever happened to your repeal bills?
SJ:
Yeah, I mean, after running them through all those hundreds of times or whatever the hell it was, it is a little odd, isn’t it?
LD:
Look, hypocracy and not delivering may be OK in a partisan environment because both sides accuse the other of that. What will be interesting to me politically is all the people in the rural areas and the red states, who supported Trump, are really paying the most penalty in this particular so-called health care bill. And the studies that have been done find the biggest loss of insurance under Obamacare is coming from mostly rural areas and of course red state areas. Now that’s going to be where suddenly the fun-poking at the establishment and accepting a President who lies and they don’t mind it, suddenly, I’ve seen some interviews with people who are Trump voters who are saying, wait a minute, this is not what I expected, to lose my insurance. So it’s going to be interesting to see what happens in Trump country when they really start to recognize what Trump stands for, to take away their insurance.
SJ:
So, are you at the office or are you stuck at home, has it started snowing yet?
LD:
Home early. I was supposed to go up to New York tomorrow but it’s about 85 degrees right now outside and sunny, beautiful, much nicer temperature, so I thought I’d get home and play an early tennis game.
SJ:
(laughs) Only on the east coast does it snow when it’s 85.
LD:
Steve, you remind me of my mother, may her soul rest in peace, she used to call me from Miami and it didn’t matter if it was in the middle of December or the middle of August. She’d say, “Jeez, it’s beautiful here. What’s the weather up there?” And if it was the middle of August, I’d say, “Jeez, Mom, it’s hailing, snowing, it’s just a blizzard snowstorm.” And she’d say, “You should be in Florida.” So good luck in the San Francisco Bay Area, you guys, at least you vote right.
SJ:
Bless you, my friend. Stay safe and warm and we’ll talk to you very soon.
LD:
Thank you.
SJ:
All right, take care, Lanny Davis.
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