Sen. James Lankford On The Health Care Vote, White House Upheaval
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Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma talks to NPR's Robert Siegel about why he's disappointed that the health care vote failed. His state has only one insurer available to Oklahomans on the exchange, and premiums have increased an average of 76 percent.
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Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma discusses why he's disappointed that the health care vote failed and on the announcement that Reince Priebus is out as White House chief of staff.
Transcript
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, voted for that so-called skinny repeal. And he joins us now.
Welcome to the program once again, senator.
JAMES LANKFORD: Glad to be with you again.
SIEGEL: I have to ask you first about the news this evening. General John Kelly is replacing Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff. Considering that some people faulted the White House for not articulating a better message on health care, are you encouraged by that personnel change? Are you worried about it? How would you describe your reaction?
LANKFORD: Well, we'll see how that all works out. General Kelly's a terrific leader, and he was a very, very good leader for the Department of Homeland Security. I hate to be able to lose him in that spot, obviously. Now we need to be able to get a confirmation for a new person. But he's an extremely capable leader and was very strong in what he was doing when he led Southcom.
SIEGEL: Yeah, but...
LANKFORD: So we'll see how he leads in the White House as well.
SIEGEL: Was the White House in need of a new chief of staff?
LANKFORD: You know, I think Reince was actually doing a decent job in this.
So one of the key things that the White House lacked was good relationship people working across the Capitol. The vice president was really owning that position to be able to work with all members of the House and the Senate and leadership and his staff. And Reince Priebus was all - obviously, assisting that as well, from his relationships. So there'll be one last person that'll have relationships with Capitol Hill. And when you're moving legislation, it's important to have that back-and-forth dialogue.
SIEGEL: All right, let's talk about health care. John McCain voted against that skinny repeal. And he's taken issue with the lack of hearings and the one-party, closed-door negotiations that led up to that point. Do you share his concerns about the procedure that went into the health care bill?
LANKFORD: Well, there were concerns about the procedures that were beyond that even. There could have been other hearings to be able to talk about the issues. There could have been greater insight into the process and greater transparency in the process. The difficulty is once we get to this stage, we are where we are in trying to be able to resolve a moment to be able to get to greater transparency into the process - helps in a conference. So my desire was to be able to get us to a conference, be able to work out all the details that we need to be able to work out with the House and the Senate combined, and to be able to get a good product.
The concern is when we have a bipartisan product often Democrats have reached out and said, we're glad to be able to join you in health care, but the fare to be able to have that conversation is you have to keep the individual mandate. You have to keep the employer mandate. And Washington, D.C., has to keep control of health care decisions, not the states. And those were critical aspects that we feel has really dramatically raised the price of health care.
SIEGEL: Ultimately, Senator McCain and two other Republican colleagues of yours - Susan Collins and Senator Murkowski of Alaska - broke ranks and voted no. President Trump tweeted that 48 Democrats and three Republicans - meaning those three - let the American people down. Do you agree with that?
LANKFORD: Well, I'd say when I sat on the floor last night as we were finalizing the vote, all I could think about was the people at home in my state in Oklahoma that have contacted me over the last several months talking about their insurance rates skyrocketing. Their ability to be able to get access to doctors was decreasing. We're down to one insurance company. That one insurance company has hinted that they may leave as well and leave no option in my state or in parts of the state. We're in a really dramatic moment right now for health care. And people are really worried about what's going to happen not because of the Republican plan, but because of what Obamacare is doing right now.
And while some people see and say there are some new people that do have coverage for the first time - and we're grateful for that, and our plan was going to maintain those individuals - the individuals that are trying to find insurance that they can actually afford - it's very difficult to do. And it's about to be even harder.
SIEGEL: One observation that we've heard here today and elsewhere is that unlike in, say, 2010 or 2012, Americans now generally assume that people should have health insurance and that the government should help make it affordable. Do you think that that change in public attitudes has taken place nationwide and changed this debate?
LANKFORD: You know, I'm not sure it has 100 percent. Obviously, that's been around since the 1960s with the expansion of Medicaid to allow greater access for individuals that are in poverty, for those moms and children that are exposed to the disabled, for the elderly to have that. So that's something that's been growing for a very long time. That's not new here. There has been some expansion, obviously, in Medicaid over the last couple of years. But there has been a desire for Americans to see the safety net protected. But it's also - I hear quite a bit from people who say individuals that can work should work and should be able to pay their own way without having their neighbor pay for their care.
SIEGEL: I'm going to try to squeeze in one other question. Back to two administration personnel issues - if Senator Sessions, Attorney General Sessions, goes the same way as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, would you have the same reaction? Or would it be very different?
LANKFORD: Well, I'd be very disappointed, actually. Again, Jeff Sessions is in the process of unfolding all the work that he has to do. They're lining up U.S. attorneys around the country. He has been a leader that is just really getting his bearings under him. And that is the difficulty that you have. As these individuals get into spots, there is no advanced training...
SIEGEL: Yep.
LANKFORD: ...You can do. These positions are all on-the-job.
SIEGEL: Senator Lankford, James Lankford of Oklahoma, thanks for talking with us. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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