Indiana’s Senator Mike Braun joined me this AM:

Audio:

04-10hhs-braun

Transcript:

HH: I begin the second hour of today’s show with Senator Mike Braun of the great state of Indiana. He was on the show a lot during the campaign. He won. He is back in D.C. Senator Braun, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show. I don’t think I’ve talked to you since you won. Congratulations.

MB: Well, thank you. It’s good to be back on.

HH: I don’t know if you’re mad at me now that you’re actually dealing with that group of people and with those rules. Are you mad that you ran?

MB: No, I’ll tell you what. When I decided to declare back in August of ’17, I was going to make it a joyful experience running and being here. It’s an honor. The Hoosiers decided to put me into office, and Hugh, it’s about what I figured in terms of being gummed up and a little dysfunctional. But I was prepared for it, and going to make the best of it.

HH: I want to talk to you about three things. You’ve been assigned to a number of great committees. One of them is the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which is one of the workhorse committees. And I want to come back to both health care and pensions. But first, to ask you about judges, the rule changed. You supported the rule change. Now, we need some nominees confirmed. We’ve only had 8 this year. Do you expect the pace to pick up significantly?

MB: It has already picked up significantly. It’ll be, I think, every day since we’ve reduced on lower level cabinet positions and district judges from 30 to 2 hours. Disappointing that the first two years of President Trump’s administration, 128 cloture votes. It averaged 8 for Clinton, Bush and Obama in their first two years. That is a graphic example of what’s wrong with the place.

HH: Now I’m glad to hear that, and I hope you guys stay there over the weekends and start doing it. Let’s turn to pension reform. Now Rob Portman is on Finance. He was on with me last week. And I understand that Finance has the lead on IRA and 401K reform. But you’ll have a bite at that apple, too, because of pensions talking to it. I am a big believer that we ought to let senior citizens use their 401K and IRA assets to pay off their mortgages, provided that that money is taxed when the estate is dispensed with, disposed of. What do you think about that, because the tax bill really did add a burden to people who have held onto their homes for a long time? And we’re making seniors make a choice between keeping their home and paying their taxes.

MB: Well, when it comes to pensions in general, whether they’re at the government level or, you know, they’re falling apart across the private sector, grossly underfunded, Hugh, when I got here, out of principle and the fact that you contribute 4 1/2%, I had a simple request. I had to give up great insurance at my company. I believe in a 401K plan. They’re sustainable. They work. I asked the simple question can I opt out of the federal pension. And it was like it created a complete meltdown.

HH: (laughing)

MB: It took them two to three days to tell me no. I initiated some legislation to where any individual should be able to. And I’ve also got a bill out there to get rid of pensions completely. Why should we as senators and congressmen have that benefit? It’s just another lure to stay camped out here longer than what’s needed. It’ll probably be mostly for discussion, although that’s the kind of thing, reform measures, I’m going to be interested in, because the institution needs some sprucing up.

HH: I am very pleased to hear that. I hope you will turn your attention to letting seniors use their assets in ways that do not cause taxable events. Now let’s talk about health care. Attorney General Barr was on the Hill yesterday, and he was asked about the federal government’s decision to argue that it is not severable, the mandate rescission means that all of Obamacare is unconstitutional. I happen to agree with that position. My friend, Jonathan Adler, does not. There’s a debate. But Barr has taken his position. If Obamacare falls when it gets to the Supreme Court and the 5th Circuit, we don’t have a plan, do we, Senator Braun?

MB: We don’t, and I was happy a couple of weeks ago. President Trump visited our Senate conference lunch, and was exuberant about the Mueller Report having come out finally, and he ended up the luncheon by saying we’re going to lead on health care. I’ve been doing that for over ten years in my own business, and as we talked about on the campaign, devised a plan that’s held premiums flat for that period of time while covering preexisting conditions, no cap on coverage, and kids being able to remain on the plan. Hugh, even though in principle I never liked Obamacare, it should have been called the unaffordable care act. It was big government in cahoots with big health care. Doomed to fail. At this point in time, that ship has sailed. Most Hoosiers, most Americans, believe in those three principles. We’ve just got to figure out how we do it. We’ve got a bad rap, because we’re apologists for a broken industry that delivers a bad product. I was at a health care roundtable yesterday, spoke to a bunch of Hoosier physicians later in the day. I tell them you guys fix it. Let’s avoid legislation. Get yourself transparent and competitive so we don’t go down the road to Medicare for all. Democrats always own the issue, throw crazy stuff out there, and somehow manage to get part of it, you know, into policy. We’ve got to be prepared this time.

HH: And so how do we do that? I mean, who is working on being prepared? Who’s making the actual legislative proposal so that I think this could happen? People, scholars are always wrong. They were wrong about the Roberts opinion. They were wrong about what happened when Obamacare got up there. They’re wrong about severability. If they’re wrong, the scholars and the lawyers are wrong, and Attorney General Barr is right and I’m right, there isn’t going to be any Obamacare. And then, people are going to, we do need to protect people with preexisting conditions. We do need to protect people. Do we have a small team that’s, you know what you would do in your own business. You would assign your three smartest people to come up with something.

MB: Well, that’s what we did ten years ago, and we based it, we made it consumer-driven. We forced transparency and skin in the game. And it solved the issue. That’s why my employees haven’t paid more in nine years. Here, we’ve got too many people. First of all, on the other side, they think government’s the only solution. On our side, we’ve been too easy on the industry. You’ve got two individuals here now in Governor Rick Scott and myself, that he, you know, came from nowhere, built an ownership and leadership in a hospital chain, understands the issues. I’ve done it from the user end. You’ve got senators like Barrasso and Cassidy that you know, are doctors. But there’s enough new blood here to where I think we’re going to be more out there with a real plan. We weren’t ready, though, Hugh. Leader McConnell was correct to come out comprehensively now. But we’d better form it by 2020, or we’ll be left holding the bag again.

HH: Now let me tell you about one more issue. One of the sponsors of my program is Citizens For Truth In Drug Pricing, and they run the website, www.drugpricingtruth.com. You’re probably getting letters from Hoosiers via www.drugpricingtruth.com, because I and this sponsor agree that patent manipulation is driving up the cost of prescription drugs astronomically. And Big Pharma is going that. I’m a lawyer. I know how patent manipulation works. You just throw a bunch of patents together, and you say it’s something new. Can you guys fix this, and gals fix this, because patent manipulation is not what intellectual property protection was supposed to be about.

MB: So I’ve got three bills out there that kind of peck away at the problem. One would advance generics from made outside the country into this country by getting the FDA to loosen up the guidelines where it’s been proven to be a safe alternative. There’s another thing called citizens petitions, which has to do with branded drugs being delayed from becoming generics, your patent manipulations, where they tweak a drug to extend it…

HH: Yes.

MB: …for more protection. That’s got to go. And when I speak to the CEOs of the Pharma companies, I said what are you doing? You’re setting the stage for Medicare for all, because you don’t get it. You are the ones that have orchestrated a health care system that’s costing us 18% of the GDP. Get transparent, embrace competition, shrink yourselves a little bit by being leaner and more agile, lower costs. I think it’s finally starting to sink in, Hugh, because…

HH: Do they shudder when you say end patent manipulation? Do they just shudder and say I can’t do that, my shareholders will kill me, even though Americans are dying because of it?

MB: They are just like the hospitals and the other components of health care. They know they’ve got to do something. They are torn between the gravy train of the past and the reality of the present, that if they don’t get with it, they’re going to have one business partner, the federal government. That’s the simple message I tell them. In the meantime, guys like Governor Scott, Senator Scott and myself, we are going to start pecking away at it with common sense transparency promoting competition to force them into it if they don’t do it themselves.

HH: Senator Mike Braun, music to my ears. Thank you, Senator. Talk to you again soon. Good luck in all of your efforts, one of our leaders on health care reform. So glad that he’s taking that message right to the top of Big Pharma.

End of interview.