Transcript

GOP Reps Get RIPPED APART under CROSS-EXAM at Hearing

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 21 min · 3,811 words · 63 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "GOP Reps Get RIPPED APART under CROSS-EXAM at Hearing", an episode of MeidasTouch published December 18, 2025 (21 min, about 3,811 words). It mentions 31 people, works and ideas, including Republican Party (United States), Joe Neguse, Somali people / Somali community, Tim Walberg, Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

What this episode is about

During a rules committee hearing, Democratic representatives, led by Congress member Joe Nagus, aggressively cross-examine Republican members regarding their refusal to allow a vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, highlighting the GOP's push for outdated healthcare proposals. The exchange exposes the contrast between the comprehensive healthcare benefits available to Congress members and the inadequate options being proposed for the American public, particularly in the context of reproductive rights and essential health coverage.

Key takeaways

  • Democrats expose MAGA's rush: Propose outdated healthcare plans at midnight, ignoring ACA needs.
  • Nagging question: Congress gets premium insurance, why can't Americans have the same?
  • MAGA's midnight strategy: Shower Acts and outdated health concepts, but ACA subsidies? No hearings.
  • MAGA logic 101: Healthcare hearings? No. Home appliance debates? Absolutely.
  • AHPs vs. ACA: When optional becomes essential, thanks to Congress's selective memory.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Association health plans (AHPs), Essential health benefits, Maternity coverage, Unions
  2. – 10:00: Don't Mess with My Home Appliances Act, National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
  3. – 15:00: Migrant Insider, OlliPop, Sepsis, Tom Emmer

Notable quotes from "GOP Reps Get RIPPED APART under CROSS-EXAM at Hearing"

  • Republicans are saying is let's get rid of the Affordable Care Act in total and maybe we can do some association health plans AHPs which actually lack a lot of the Affordable Care Act mandated essential benefits like maternity coverage and.
    about Association health plans (AHPs) · at
  • I suspect that your plan covers the essential health benefits under the ACA.
    about Essential health benefits · at
  • Shower Act. That's a bill that you all took up last week. There another one here. Don't mess with my home appliances act. Interesting title. Do you remember that bill?
    about Don't Mess with My Home Appliances Act · at
  • Marjorie was given this vote this week to buy her vote on the National Defense Authorization Act. Everybody knows it.
    about National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) · at
  • Sugar. Now, there's a new kind of soda that actually tastes like the classics and is good for you. Ollipop combines the familiar soda flavor with a functional ingredient blend…
    about OlliPop · at
  • Do you think it is right that a woman should have to go into sepsis and almost die, become infertile before her doctors will treat her? I obviously don't think that's what's going to happen, but also don't think the public wants to pay for.
    about Sepsis · at
  • By the way, you have MAGA Republican Tom Emmer from Minnesota. watch him run away from our friend and our partner Pablo Monriquez from Migrant Insider who was asked trying to drill down like didn't.
    about Tom Emmer · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

Concepts & topics

Places & events

Sponsors

Full transcript with timestamps

This is how it's done. Democrats going on the offense in the rules committee hearing led by Democrats like Congress member Nagus. In the rules committee, you get to cross-examine the other side who appears before the rules committee to try to justify their actions, justify their amendments. and Democrats expose these MAGA Republicans who are refusing to allow a vote to take place on the House floor today for the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Instead, Maga Mike Johnson and the Republicans trying to push through the rules committee last night and push onto the House floor today some hodgepodge bill of like old outdated rejected Republican healthc care concepts that deal with like banning women from reproductive care at a federal level. I mean, while the American people are saying, "Can you extend our Affordable Care Act subsidies, please, cuz we're about to lose healthcare?" MAGA

Republicans are like, "Oh, do you mean you want us to further ban abortion now in blue states that um allow women to have reproductive rights?" So, let let me just show you what went down here. One of the things that the MAGA Republicans are saying is let's get rid of the Affordable Care Act in total and maybe we can do some association health plans AHPs which actually lack a lot of the Affordable Care Act mandated essential benefits like maternity coverage and other key coverages that are required under the Affordable Care Act. A lot of ones that actually save people's lives.

And so you have Democratic Congress member Joe Nagus. He's cross-examining the MAGA Republican Congress member Wahlberg here. And Wahberg here is trying to act like these AHPS are the best. So Noose is like, "Oh, which plan are you on? Which plan are you on? Oh, you've got the best health care as a member of Congress, but you think the American people shouldn't get the same health care that you get as a Congress member? Watch as Democratic Congress member Nagus like breaks this MAGAR Republican. This is great crossexam by Congress member Nagus and he always does an incredible job on the rules committee here. Watch this. You

It sounds like you're a big fan of these AHPs. I certainly am. Are you It's an option. It's an option. I'm not. I don't have to be on this, but I want to talk.

What do you mean you don't have to be? I have insurance otherwise. What kind of insurance?

A good insurance. Not an That's not the question. What about the small businesses? What about the employers?

Wait a minute, Mr. Chairman. The question is, do you want to give the same opportunities to small businesses and employers?

I think that the people should have you give to the large corporations. I think they should have the same insurance you have.

Absolutely. I agree with you. I suspect that your plan covers the essential health benefits under the ACA. Am I wrong?

I would assume it does. Not Not maternity. Why can't they get that? Not maternity cuz frankly I'm too old. Well, I I I appreciate that, but why can't your constituents get the same?

They can give them the opportunity for these for these choices. Absolutely. It's not required.

You don't do you don't think Well, are you saying Ford Motor Company doesn't give it?

I'm saying, don't you think unions give it? There are variety of plans. Of course. And it's no longer a legal requirement.

Why would in the competition of the marketplace small businesses not want to give their employees the same opportunity? I

I think that Madam Chair, I only And then N goose says, "I've got more receipts for you, Wahberg." Okay, so first off, why are you rushing everything with MAGA? They rush through at like midnight, right? They go, "This is supposed to be an issue that impacts Americans more than anything. Americans health care. Americans need their Affordable Care Act subsidies." And right now you're pushing through something again. Once again, just like the disastrous budget bill that the American people can't see. You're holding no hearings about it publicly.

Again, what do we see in the middle of the night? The MAGA Republicans try to push these things through, force votes, and screw over the American people. And Democratic Congress member Nagus is like, "You've done like all of these bills about like the shower act and shower pressure and these things. You don't think we should have gone through a process when it comes to ripping away health care from tens of millions of Americans? Watch Nagus right here. Play this clip.

I noted I wrote this down in your opening. You said, "I hope I think I quoted this right. I hope we can work across the aisle on this issue. How many legislative hearings has this bill received in your committee?" Well, so you're talking about the parts of the bill, the cost sharing reductions. We had legislative hearing.

I'm talking about the bill that we're talking about today. I'm talking about the bill that you're testifying on.

This has not had legislative hearing. The specific bill, but we've had everything in the bill has been through.

Has it had a markup? We did markup on cost sharing reductions and we did markup on on

the bill that we're sitting here that you know, you you're here to testify on this bill.

This specific bill did not have a markup. Did not have a markup, right? You all had a markup last week in your full committee.

This bill wasn't one of them. I looked at the list uh saving homeowners from overregulation with exceptional exceptional rinsing. That's called the Shower Act. You're familiar with that bill?

I'm familiar with Shower Act. That's a bill that you all took up last week. There another one here. Don't mess with my home appliances act. Interesting title. Do you remember that bill?

Yeah. People want to be able to buy the appliance of their choice on what's mandated by the government.

Don't mess with my home appliances act. Plenty of time to take up that bill last week. Plenty of time to take up the shower act.

We have plenty of time to take up this bill today. Well, this bill didn't get a markup in your committee, Mr. Chairman.

Before us today, you had 15 before the rules committee, not before the energy. I'm saying we have time to bring it up today.

Well, why don't you have a markup if that's the case? If you scheduled one, we're going to get a vote. You're going to get to vote yesterday.

I'm not asking about a vote, Mr. Chairman. Come on. You know what? We got the cost share reductions going to lower premiums by 11% scored by

CBO. I hear you. So, we're going to have a chance to vote. We're going to talk about the CBO

CBM reform is in the bill. We're going to have a chance to vote on that on the floor.

I hear you. I think you could imagine the dismay of folks that I represent in Colorado. I suspect in Kentucky, too, who say, "Wait a minute. You've got this really powerful energy and commerce committee. Boy, members of Congress, at least those that I know, they fight really hard to get on this committee. You schedule a markup last week. You've got 15 bills. Six of those 15 bills are on home appliances, the shower act, and you can't be bothered to include your health care plan that you've been spending a year.

We have been working on this bill. Uh we have been working on this bill. We marked it up in May before it came to sections of this bill.

You mentioned working in a bipartisan. We've done PBM reform in a bipartisan way.

Have you worked with Mr. Palone on this bill? We we we not on this specific bill, but we've worked we've worked on bipartisan PBM reform. Well, I I the reason why I say that uh Mr. Guthrie is because I actually agreed with the premise, you know, that line in your testimony about working in good faith uh on, you know, with respect to this particular issue across party lines. And it's just it's pretty clear to me that that's not embedded in this bill. But in any event, let's

then you have Congress member, Democratic Congress member McGovern, and he's like, "Okay, so what you're saying is that you all have concepts of plans." Concepts of plans. Here, play this clip. So, if by concept of a plan, uh, you meant screwing millions of people over, including the millions who voted for Republicans in the last election, I think you've accomplished a goal. And it's not just that this is a lousy healthcare bill. Um, the latest CBO score, I don't know if you've seen it, just came out. Um, and this bill would kick 100,000 more people off their healthcare than if you did nothing. So, by passing this bill, even more people are going to lose their health insurance. And frankly, the MAGA Republicans had nothing good to say in response. You have MAGA Republican Chip Roy saying that basically the Republicans are just offering a bunch of garbage this week. He admits it. He admits it. MAGA Republican Chip Roy

says, "Yeah, we're offering milk toast garbage." His exact words here, play this clip. And now we're sitting here and we're listening to nonsense about healthcare where my colleagues on other side of the aisle sit here saying, "Well, you guys aren't doing anything about the massive expensive cost of healthare." Why do you think it's expensive? Because you literally cut a deal with insurance companies to run health care. You think that's going to run wild? Yeah. That's why they have 2,000% profit increases and the American people can't afford to go to the doctor of their choice while we enrich insurance companies. And yet Republicans will complain about it and then they'll offer milktoast garbage like we're offering this week and then go home at Christmas and say, "Look at what we're doing.

We're campaigning on reducing healthcare." Well, congrat friginations. At some point, people will look at this body and say, "Maybe we should get rid of all 435 members of the House and all 100 members of the Senate and start over because Congress is literally failing the American people." I yield back. And then there's all this infighting. Chip Roy goes after Marjorie Taylor Green. Everyone's going after each other. Just watch what Chip Roy says here. Play this clip. That's the case. Marjorie was given this vote this week to buy her vote on the National Defense Authorization Act. Everybody knows it.

It happened right there on the floor of the House. The majority leader said, "Marjorie, would you like to have uh your bill brought up to the floor?" And guess what? Got a yes vote on the rule for the National Defense Authorization Act. And that's the kind of that keeps happening around this institution all the time, including on our side of the aisle. And I'm sick of it. And I'm sick of what happened in the judiciary committee when we should have done it there. We should have addressed it in the judiciary committee. The people who are supposed to be vanguards of the Constitution.

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rights in blue states where women are still able to have reproductive rights. And when Democratic Congresswoman Fernandez is cross-examining the Republican witness because again Republican congressman they have to testify at the rules committee and she gives her own experience. She goes, "This was my life story. Let me explain to you what happened to me." The Republican congressman's like, "Yeah, we don't think that happens to women. Wait, wait. I'm not worried about that happening to women. It's what they That's their position. Here, play this clip.

Do you think it is right that a woman should have to go into sepsis and almost die, become infertile before her doctors will treat her? I obviously don't think that's what's going to happen, but also don't think the public wants to pay for abortions.

Well, you know, that's the interesting thing is that right now the federal government does not pay for abortion care. What will happen though is that access to health care for women is key. And I see that the back door in which Republicans are intending to restrict access to abortion care in states like New Mexico where it is legal. I need to tell you in New Mexico I almost died in pregnancy and I was the woman who was on the operating table bleeding to death. Bleeding to death. I got to make every decision with regards to what care I wanted. And my doctors did not have to worry about whether it would be paid for by my health insurance plan or whether they would go to jail because of decisions I needed to make based on my own choices.

And right now what you have done in this bill is a backdoor way of restricting women's access to health insurance to pay for reproductive health even in private insurance plans.

By the way, you have MAGA Republican Tom Emmer from Minnesota. watch him run away from our friend and our partner uh Pablo Monriquez from Migrant Insider who was asked trying to drill down like didn't you serve back before Donald Trump told you that you have to now hate the Somalian community? Weren't you on the Somalian caucus? You are you are a congress member in Minnesota with a large Somalian population and you used to pretend to care about the Somalian population. You were on the Somalian caucus and now you now you're saying that Somalian people are garbage. That's what Donald Trump says that Somalian people all of them are garbage and you're okay with that being a congress member from Minnesota. Shame on you.

Watch as our Pablo Monriquez catches up with him play this clip. Mr. Do you do you agree with uh President Trump that say 5,000 Somali residents of your district in St. Cloud are garbage? I think what President Trump has done is raised an issue that is uh something that we've been trying to raise for almost three years and Prince refused to cover things that are right in front of us.

No, BUT I'M ASKING YOU DONALD TRUMP. HOLD ON. Donald Trump Donald Trump said that the Somali are garbage. That's what I'm asking you about.

Let me finish. I'd love to answer your question, but apparently you want to have an argument with a yes or no. Maybe you can find someone else that you can have the argument with because I'm telling you, not all Somali are bad. 90% of the Somali or the crimes that have been charged are from the Somali community. And there's nothing wrong and nothing racist about calling out crime.

And let's just take a look at AOC also with Pablo Monriquez on the Hill. Here's what she says about Donald Trump's essentially his declaration of war via a social media post against Venezuela and saying that he's initiated a blockade against oil tankers going into Venezuela. Play this clip. Of course, we know that um that the drug crisis is is is, you know, has been um a large one here in the country. But to begin engaging in and making enemies of our allies in Latin America and threatening the lives of service members in this process, it's just reckless. And frankly, the intelligence has not been shared from this administration to Congress to authorize such activity.

If it's shared, it shows that these these legitimate targets, then what? I mean, is it something you can support down the road if they they show you evidence?

Congress, it's it it is the responsibility of Congress to declare and authorize military use of force. Congress has not authorized and had a vote on a military use of force. And so, the case needs to be made against what actors and there has to be again a case that's made. And I think the lack of one uh really speaks volumes and the fact that this administration has not even shared uh their case with the committees of jurisdiction, not with the intelligence committee, defense, etc. I think is a huge red flag for everyone.

Thank you. And here she is again saying that the American people are overwhelmingly against reckless intervention. Let's play it.

There could be moving into Colombia because they've just designated a Colombian drug cartel as being terrorist organizations. What are your thoughts? I mean, I think that overwhelmingly uh Americans are opposed to this reckless interventionism. We frankly on both sides of the aisle,

Democrat, Republican, independent, people are sick of these endless wars. And every time we wind down in one area, there seems to be an excuse to start hostilities in another. Uh

and here you have veteran Democratic Senator Ruben Ggo. He really lays out here what the Trump regime is doing and how it is that they are provoking this war against Venezuela and what their plan is.

So, what do you think the response of the American people will be to what they're hearing tonight from you?

Well, hopefully they're pissed off. Hopefully, they call the Republican senators and rep members of Congress say that I don't want to go to war. But there's a reason why they're doing what the way they're doing it. The reason they're slowly building up, saying, "We're going to go after these drug dealers first. Then they're going after tankers. Then they're going to close the airspace. Then they're hoping Venezuela reacts in some hostile way to defend their own sovereignty. Then we'll have to react. And then the president's going to come here and and ask everyone to rally around the flag. And that's how we find ourselves in war." What I'm telling you is they're setting it all up to happen. Be aware. Be aware what they're doing. They're slowly putting the pressure on Venezuela so they react. And so the American public gets used to us doing hostile acts. We went from putting uh sanctions to droning uh speedboats

and the American public hasn't reacted that bad. So what else are they going to continue doing until uh we finally find ourselves in war? But let's be clear, the goal of what they're doing right now is to get us into war. They're not going to be able to stop the drug trade. They're not effectively going to be have to go after narcos in this way. At the end of the day, all they want to do is fight is is get rid of Maduro. And if they can get rid of Maduro through peaceful manner, they will. It's not working right now. If they tr trigger a war to happen, they'll gladly do it.

That warning means more. And then you have another veteran, Democratic Senator Duckworth. Here's what she says. Play this clip.

Well, I heard a lot of chest thumping, but not a lot of answers to the questions that I still have. And I uh would have to agree with the discussion you're having right now, which is I think the president is trying to lead us into yet another forever war that Americans don't want. If this is justifiable, then come to Congress. We have the power to declare a war uh come to us and ask for an authorization for use of military force. The fact of the matter is they're not doing that. And if they truly were going to go after drug traffickers and the president would not have pardoned the former president of Honduras who trafficked over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. So what is exactly is he trying to do here?

There you have it folks. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. Be sure to add the Midas Touch podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast for new updates every single day.

Questions about this episode

What is "GOP Reps Get RIPPED APART under CROSS-EXAM at Hearing" about?

During a rules committee hearing, Democratic representatives, led by Congress member Joe Nagus, aggressively cross-examine Republican members regarding their refusal to allow a vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, highlighting the GOP's push for outdated healthcare proposals. The exchange exposes the contrast between the comprehensive healthcare benefits available to Congress members…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

31 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Republican Party (United States), Joe Neguse, Somali people / Somali community, Tim Walberg, Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Crisp Apple (OlliPop limited edition flavor). Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "GOP Reps Get RIPPED APART under CROSS-EXAM at Hearing"?

The episode runs 21 min; the transcript is about 3,811 words in 63 timestamped sections.

More from MeidasTouch

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.