STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's hear a Republican view of all this. Congressman Mike Lawler represents a good part of upstate New York, suburbs of New York City. Congressman, welcome back.
MIKE LAWLER: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: Glad you're with us. Do you assume this is going to pass the House today?
LAWLER: It will, and there'll even be a few Democrats to vote for it, so it will be bipartisan. But this is, you know, 42 days overdue. It never should've happened. Chuck Schumer chose to shut the government down for his own political purpose, trying to appease a far-left radical base that wants him and Senate Democrats to fight back against President Trump. At the end of the day, that's what this was always about. It was not about health care. It was not about any specific policy issue. It was about, quote-unquote, "fighting back against Trump." And...
INSKEEP: I think there's been a lot of analysis to that effect that this was part of the Democrats' calculus. They felt they needed to fight. But there was this substantive issue on the table having to do with Obamacare subsidies. And assuming this passes today in the House, you move on, the Senate is going to at least vote on extending subsidies for Obamacare. House Speaker Mike Johnson is not guaranteed a vote in the House, though. Do you believe the House should vote on those subsidies?
LAWLER: I do. I've been a co-lead on a bill since the beginning of September to extend the ACA subsidies by one year. Remember, these were put in place during COVID to help ease the pressure on families in the middle of a health pandemic. These subsidies go directly to the insurance companies. And so the question really is, is the federal government paying 78% of the premium or 88% of the premium? That's what the fight is over right now. I'm supportive of extending it by a year, but it really requires a larger discussion, which is, how do we actually make health care affordable? Because if you look at premiums since Obamacare took effect, 96% increase in the private insurance market since Obamacare took effect, and 114 to 125% increase in the Obamacare market since it took effect in 2010. That is unsustainable. It is not affordable, and it is something that we have to address long-term. So there's the short-term issue of the subsidy.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
LAWLER: There's the longer term issue of how we actually reduce health care costs in America.
INSKEEP: I guess we should note this is a Republican argument here. Obamacare was about extending health care to more people, but it was also supposed to be about bending the curve, as they said, bringing down costs over time. I think you're saying that part of it didn't work.
LAWLER: No question. And again, I think this is incumbent on all of us - Republicans and Democrats - to work together to address this. Everybody should be able to acknowledge that health care is not affordable. And if it's not affordable, that means that what was done did not work. And so the question is, how do we fix it? How do we actually make progress on improving upon the current situation? I'm not advocating for repeal and replace. I'm saying, let's look at this. Let's fix it. This is a problem for the American people.
INSKEEP: I want to ask about another issue, Congressman, because you live in suburban New York, and I - I'm thinking about that area. And you must have a lot of constituents who might like to live in New York City, but they could never afford to live there. And New York City has now elected a mayor who says, I'm going to hold down the rent. I'm going to hold down costs and expenses, and that seems to have been a big factor in elections across the country last Tuesday. And President Trump is talking about it now, saying that maybe people should have 50-year mortgages so they can have a slightly lower mortgage payment. What do you make of all that, and what do you think that people should be focused on?
LAWLER: Look, affordability is the No. 1 issue. It always has been. As James Carville famously said, it's the economy, stupid. If people cannot afford where they live, if they cannot afford to put food on the table, then other issues result. And so, to me, that has to be the focus. I believe housing is a major crisis in this country. We're about 8 million units underbuilt nationwide. It's basic supply and demand. Health care costs obviously are a major challenge. Grocery bills are coming down but still a challenge. And so the question is, how do we tackle this issue? You look at New York City and the irony of Zohran Mamdani claiming there's an affordability crisis, Democrats have controlled New York City for well over a decade. They've controlled New York State for well over two decades now, and you look at the challenges facing the state and the city. They've increased, for instance, state spending by $100 billion in 10 years. That creates the challenge of unaffordability. And so the question is, how do you deal with these issues...
INSKEEP: I want to focus - yeah. Yeah. In a few seconds, I just want to focus on the housing part of this. I can accept the argument that rent control hasn't worked very well for decades in New York. I'm not sure this 50-year mortgage really helps people's mortgage payments that much, but you talked about supply. Is there something you can do to increase the housing supply?
LAWLER: No question. I've introduced a bill to revitalize America's housing market. It's 208 pages, 39 provisions. The objective is to actually lessen the regulatory burden on housing, construction and financing, making sure that we are opening up our capital markets to contractors and investors. There's key components to ease up, for instance, regulations on manufactured housing. In the most recent tax bill, we increased the low-income housing tax credit, which will help build a million units of housing over the next decade. I have a bill...
INSKEEP: OK. We'll keep following that. I'm afraid we got to stop it there, but Congressman Mike Lawler of New York, thanks so much. It's a pleasure talking with you.
LAWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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