Name: Trump tours Ford plant in Detroit
Uploaded: 2026-01-16T15:59:32.974Z
Duration: 8 min 5 s
Description: Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York joins to discuss affordability, jobs, healthcare, and more.

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York joins to discuss affordability, jobs, healthcare, and more.

Detroit

Congressman Mike Lawler of New York discussed several key policy areas in a recent interview, including the impact of new tax cuts, efforts to reduce regulatory burdens, and plans for healthcare reform. He highlighted the Working Families Tax Cut Act, which he says will provide significant relief to New Yorkers, and outlined Republican strategies to address rising healthcare costs through both immediate and long-term reforms.

Lawler also provided updates on government appropriations bills, emphasizing the need to avoid another shutdown and calling for bipartisan negotiations. On foreign policy, he credited recent U.S. and Israeli actions for supporting Iranian protests and expressed hope for the success of the Iranian people, noting the impact of ongoing U.S. sanctions on Iran's economy.

Trump tours Ford plant in Detroit

Joining us now to discuss affordability, jobs, healthcare, and so much more, we're joined today by Congressman Mike Lawler from the great state, the Empire State, New York. He's a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Financial Services Committee. Welcome, Congressman. Thanks for having me, John. You got it. So starting with the economy, what are your thoughts on President Trump's renewed focus on manufacturing and affordability? Well, this obviously is the number one issue facing the country, the cost of living. You know, as New Yorkers, we certainly understand the challenges in New York. We have the highest cost of living anywhere in the country, the highest tax burden, the worst regulatory climate. So the president is trying to tackle this at a national level. We passed the largest tax cut in American history last year with the Working Families Tax Cut Act. That will take effect immediately. And so when people go to file their taxes this year, they're going to see a massive tax cut. The average New Yorker, for instance, is going to see a $4,000 tax cut in measure because we lifted the cap on salt, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, et cetera. So when you look at what we're doing, the focus is on tax relief, regulatory relief. The agencies and departments are cutting regs across the board, especially when it comes to manufacturing, infrastructure, energy, the objective to be able to build. We want to build in America. We want jobs created in America. We want goods created in America. And what the president has been doing with the tariffs is focus on renegotiating these trade agreements so that we are actually benefiting here in America. We are building again in this country and manufacturing. And that foreign governments are not preventing American goods from coming into their countries or putting price controls in place on American goods. And that is something that is vitally important when we look at the overall cost of living. And thanks again for raising the salt cap for all New Yorkers. Greatly appreciated. Definitely. Congressman, another issue front and center in voters' minds is health care. This week, several Senate Republicans, though, joined with Democrats to extend Obamacare subsidies, hoping to keep the controversial program in place. While there may be short-term arguments for this, what is the GOP's plan to fix health care? I think our viewers want to hear this, rather than just continuing programs like Obamacare. Well, we can all agree Obamacare has failed to address the issue of health care costs in America. Premiums have skyrocketed 96 percent since Obamacare took effect, while insurance company profits have risen by 2,000 percent. So we want to tackle the challenges within our health care system. But you can't replace something with nothing. And so my approach has been two-pronged. Number one, in the immediate, deal with the short-term extension of the enhanced premium tax credit, but enact reforms. And so when we signed the discharge petition and voted on that last week in the House, the objective was to give the Senate a vehicle that they could use to actually negotiate a bipartisan compromise that includes reforms like income limits, insurance reforms, elimination of zero premium plans, and expansion of HSAs, which is what the president wants, so that we can actually give people the money as opposed to insurance companies the money. Secondarily, there's got to be a larger focus on how we actually address the problems in the system. For instance, in my opinion, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna and all the other insurance companies should not be owning providers. They should not be owning PBMs. So we need real PBM reform in this country. We need to actually break up the monopolies here a bit and prevent them from actually engaging in a system where they not only are controlling the reimbursement rates, but they're controlling the providers. And that creates real problems with competition. We have to expand access in the market, which means you have to allow people to purchase across state lines. Some states only have one, two, three insurance providers in their state. So competition is limited, which helps drive price up. We want to expand access for small businesses. We passed an associated health plans bill just a few weeks ago. Every Democrat voted against it. Every Republican voted for it because we want small businesses to be able to pool together and purchase plans at a cheaper rate. The CBO scored that and said it would reduce health insurance premiums by 11 percent. So there's a lot that we can and should do, and there's a lot of bills that are sitting in the House ready to go, and we need to advance them forward. Now we don't want to expand government, but we do want government to remain open. So I have to ask you this question. What is the latest on the reconciliation bill, and do you expect Democrats to threaten another government shutdown if they don't get their way? Well, right now we're in the middle of voting on a number of appropriations bills. Last week we passed three of them through the House. This week we're seeking to pass two of them, which would put us at eight bills passed total in out of 12, which means we have four left to pass after this week. So we are getting there. My hope is that we can get it done next week, the remaining four bills, so that we are well in advance of the January 30th deadline. We cannot have another government shutdown. The Democrats plunged us into a 43-day record shutdown. It wreaked havoc on the American people. We can't allow that to happen again. Everybody needs to be at the table and negotiate in good faith to get to an appropriations agreement. Lastly, Congressman, with your role on the Foreign Affairs Committee, I wanted to get your thoughts on the protests in Iran, and what should the role of the United States be? Well, look, you know, President Trump's decision to strike Iran's nuclear facilities last summer, coupled with Bibi Netanyahu and the IDF taking out Iran's air defenses and their senior military leadership, really set the stage for the Iranian people to rise up and to fight to reclaim their country after 45 years of tyranny and oppression. And my hope is that the Iranian people are successful in this effort. We want to be supportive. And obviously, we are enacting crippling sanctions on the regime, which is making the economy in Iran very difficult for them. They offered to pay protesters $7 a month to go home. That's not going to work. And they obviously don't have the resources to have a flourishing economy. And the Iranian people are in the best position they've ever been to take control of their government again. As the president pointed out, you know, if the Ayatollah is engaged in mass killings of the Iranian people, then all options must be on the table and we should consider some type of action. But the fact is, I'm hopeful that the Iranian people will have the courage and the fortitude to see this through, the perseverance in the face of evil to really seize control of their freedom and their country. Definitely. Well, Congressman Mike Lawler, thank you for joining us this morning. Appreciate your time. Thank you.

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