-Republicans are once again
making a mad dash
to rush through a bill
that would repeal Obamacare
and drastically overhaul
health care in this country.
And once again,
very few Republicans
can actually defend their bill
or explain what it does.
For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-There's nothing
Donald Trump is better at
than making big, empty promises
even though he has no idea
how to achieve them.
The latest example of this
strategy came yesterday
when Trump met with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas
at the United Nations
and said he'd like to achieve
Middle East peace.
Although he seemed to have
no real clue how to do it,
as you can tell
from his nonchalant tone.
-Israel is working very hard
toward the same goal.
And I must tell you,
Saudi Arabia and many
of the different nations
are working also hard.
So, we'll see
if we can put it together.
Who knows?
Stranger things have happened.
[ Laughter ]
-He talks
about Middle East peace
the way people talk
about getting back together
with their ex.
Hey, stranger things
have happened, right?
But he's right.
Not only have
stranger things happened,
stranger things
are constantly happening.
I think we might all be trapped
in an episode
of "Stranger Things."
We're a week away
from Trump saying
[As Trump] we're gonna pass
health care,
achieve Middle East peace,
and bring Barb back
from the Upside Down.
We can get it done.
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Normal voice ] Even when
it comes to basic details,
Trump is, of course,
often confused.
Just take his address yesterday
at a luncheon
with African leaders
where he tried to praise
several African countries
for their efforts
on health care,
but seemed to make up a country
on the spot.
-In Guinea and Nigeria,
you fought a horrifying
Ebola outbreak.
Nambia's health system
is increasingly self-sufficient.
-Of course, the problem is
Nambia is not a country
that actually exists.
I'm pretty sure Trump pulled
that right out of his Djibouti.
Trump is single handedly keeping
Google's "did you mean" feature
in business.
[ Laughter ]
That's right.
Trump thinks there's a country
called Nambia, which, of course,
is right next to Nigeristan
and Kenya-Believe-This-
[Bleep ]-Guy.
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Now, the "who knows" approach
is basically the same approach
Trump has used on health care.
During the campaign,
he claimed repeatedly
that he would provide
great health care
at a much lower cost
that would cover everybody
and that it would be very easy
to pass.
Well, shockingly,
it turns out Trump had no idea
how to accomplish any of that.
In fact, during a recent meeting
where a bipartisan group
of lawmakers
tried to pitch him
on a compromise bill
to shore up Obamacare,
all Trump cared about
was the name.
According to Politico...
A Democratic lawmaker
responded...
Hell, you can call it Nambia!
[ Laughter ]
No one else is using it.
Now...
[ Applause ]
Democrats and Republicans
actually were getting close
to a bipartisan solution
that would have fixed
some of the problems
with Obamacare
while keeping the bill
largely in place.
But GOP leaders decided
to blow all of that up
in favor of yet again another
last-ditch effort
to repeal and replace Obamacare.
-A health care hail Mary --
The president
pushing Republicans
to not let
this Obamacare repeal fail.
-This is
the Graham-Cassidy bill.
This, really, for all intents
and purposes,
is the final hail Mary
here for Republicans
on health care.
-Republicans pushing ahead
with a hail Mary plan.
-This hail Mary option.
-They're referring to it
as a hail Mary, essentially.
-There is the last-ditch,
furious hail Mary effort.
-Of course,
if this thing passes,
a hail Mary might be the only
health care option
some people can afford.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
does this mole
look weird to you?
But that's right.
They're throwing
another hail Mary.
Except Republicans
aren't exactly
Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers.
They're more like Jay Cutler.
-He's gonna launch it.
And that was way out of bounds.
Incomplete.
[ Laughter ]
-Now, the main sponsors
of this new bill
are Senators Bill Cassidy
and Lindsey Graham.
And they are trying
to rush it through for a vote
as early as next week.
Now, as you may recall,
Republicans complained
repeatedly
about the process Democrats used
to pass Obamacare
in 2009 and 2010
even though it was
a far more open process
than they're using now.
But they didn't just complain
about the process.
They even complained about
the length of the bill itself.
In fact, back in 2009,
Senator Mitch McConnell thought
the page length of the Obamacare
bill was so damning
that during one floor speech,
he kept repeating it
over and over.
-We have now had less than
48 hours
to look through
this 2,074-page bill.
This massive, 2,074-page bill.
Buried in this 2,074-page bill.
This monstrous, 2,074-page bill.
On what is buried
in this 2,074-page bill.
In this 2,074-page bill.
Were we to pass
this 2,074-page bill.
This 2,074-page bill.
What else do we know
about this 2,074-page bill?
-Well, there's one thing
we definitely know.
[ Laughter ]
But here's the thing.
It's supposed to be long.
This isn't book club.
You're reorganizing one-sixth
of the American economy.
Details are good.
Just take
Obamacare's protections
for people with preexisting
conditions as an example.
Obamacare had lots of very
specific legal definitions
for what kinds of coverage
people with preexisting
conditions should get.
By comparison, the new GOP bill
has none of those details.
And I don't know if you've met
the guy who will be signing
this bill,
but I'm not sure we should go
by his definition of affordable.
[ Light laughter ]
So the bill takes money away
from vulnerable people
on Medicaid
and strips away protections
for people
with preexisting conditions.
Now, you might think,
"How could any senator
vote for such a monstrous bill?"
Well, the answer is, they either
don't know or don't care.
The website Vox interviewed
GOP senators
and asked them basic questions
about the bill,
and their answers were baffling.
Take, for example, this exchange
with Kansas Senator Pat Roberts.
[ Laughter ]
I love how he realized
halfway through
that his analogy made no sense
and he just hoped the reporter
had never seen the movie.
"You see, it's kind of like
'Forrest Gump.'
You probably haven't seen
that movie."
"No, I've seen it."
"Oh. Uh...
it's like 'Minions.'"
[ Laughter ]
And on top of everything else
this bill would do,
it would also...
Now, those cuts may seem savage
and cruel, but to be fair,
Republicans have always preached
fiscal responsibility
and the importance
of saving money.
And I'm sure
this next series of clips
about Trump's Health Secretary,
Tom Price,
won't prove that
they're all full of [bleep]
-Health and Human Services
Secretary Tom price
is taking a little bit of heat
after Politico found
he took five
private flights last week
for events in Maine,
New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.
The cost?
Tens of thousands of dollars.
-That included a flight
from Washington, D.C.,
to Philadelphia and back
on a 30-seat private charter
at a cost of -- and this
is really astounding --
$25,000.
-$25,000.
Do you know how short a flight
is from D.C. to Philadelphia?
If you tried to watch
"Thelma & Louise"
on that flight,
you wouldn't meet Louise!
Susan Sarandon is in it?
Not the part I saw.
[ Laughter ]
So, Tom Price thinks
Medicaid patients
should lose their health care,
but has no problem
spending tens of thousands
of dollars on private jets.
And he's not the only one.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin
also came under fire after he...
And before that...
And when he was asked about that
taxpayer-funded eclipse trip,
he tried to claim that he didn't
actually care about the eclipse
because he's from New York.
-When I got there, the staff
had actually intended
that we watch the eclipse
on the roof of Ft. Knox.
And, you know,
people in Kentucky
took this stuff very seriously.
Being a New Yorker
in California,
I was like, the eclipse --
We got there, I was like,
"Really, I don't have
any interest in watching
the eclipse."
-You think New Yorkers
don't care about the eclipse?
I can show you one New Yorker
who wanted to see the eclipse
so badly,
he almost burned his retinas.
[ Laughter ]
[ As Trump ]
No, I don't want the glasses.
I want to see the whole thing.
No glasses.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] So these guys
think millions of people
should have their health care
ripped away from them
while they spend thousands
on private jets
and eclipse trips
they don't even care about.
And now the question is,
can they get the votes
to pass this bill?
Republicans are pulling out
all the stops,
even forming unlikely alliances.
Lindsey Graham, for example,
said he's even been in contact
with his one-time nemesis,
Trump's former chief strategist,
Steve Bannon
and that Bannon
has been helping him
push the new repeal bill.
Graham said of Bannon...
Hey, Lindsay, when you're trying
to get a bill passed,
you're not supposed to admit
that the people
you're working with are evil.
[ As Graham ] Let's just say,
Cruella de Vil and I
have been working on something
that I believe
will be good for all Dalmatians.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] But there
is still some holdouts.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul
remains opposed to the bill
because he thinks it doesn't
actually go far enough
in repealing Obamacare.
So, to win over votes,
Trump has been tweeting.
Yesterday, he claimed...
And before that, he tweeted...
So, Trump managed to claim
three falsehoods in there.
Bill covers
preexisting conditions.
It doesn't.
Graham-Cassidy Bill is great.
It's not.
And Rand Paul
is a friend of mine.
He is?
-His visceral response
to attack people
on their appearance --
short, tall, fat, ugly.
My goodness.
That happened in junior high.
Are we not way above that?
Would we not all be worried
to have someone like that in
charge of the nuclear arsenal?
-Mr. Trump.
-I never attacked him
on his look.
And believe me, there's plenty
of subject matter right there.
[ Laughter ]
That I can tell you.
-Plenty of subject matter
right there.
Trump knows more
about Rand Paul's appearance
than he knows about
his own health care bill.
In fact, his Rand Paul burn book
is 2,074 pages.
[ Laughter and applause ]
So Republicans are racing
to jam through
a health care bill
that would destroy Medicaid
and strip coverage
for millions of people,
including those
with preexisting conditions.
Could Republicans really
be shameless enough
to pass this monstrous bill?
-Who knows?
Stranger things have happened.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
