Chairman Aguilar on NBC's Meet the Press NOW

Joining me now is California Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar. He's also the Democratic Congress uh Cong Caucus Chairman, excuse me, Congressman, thank you so much for joining us here on Meet the Press. Now, I want to start on healthcare. We heard some swing state Republicans uh earlier today say they're not ruling out joining Leader Jeff discharge petition on a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Have you spoken to some of those members? I haven't spoken to some of those members, but that wouldn't surprise me. Their own leadership uh won't engage uh on their bill. Uh Democrats have made uh priority of this. We have said loud and clear, we want to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We want to ensure that uh 20 million people don't lose their healthc care coverage. That's exactly what Speaker Johnson has teed up. uh and he has uh pushed back time and time again on members of his own party uh who want to work with Democrats uh to solve this issue. Uh this is these premium tax increases will raise the the cost of health care uh for millions of people. It's untenable. Democrats have stood opposed to this all year while Republicans went forward and gave more tax breaks to billionaires. And Congressman Leader Jeff signaled that he would review the bipartisan bills on healthcare put on the table earlier this month. Have you reviewed them? And are you willing to vote for either? >> I've reviewed them. Uh I've talked to the Democratic leads on on each of those bills. Uh what leader Jeff has said is that we will engage and have conversations with Republicans um who are, you know, well-meaning and put their constituents first. Uh now we want to see uh if they're willing to push back against their own leadership uh who time and time again uh have given them the stiff arm. Uh this is an incredibly unfortunate place to be, but Democrats continue to prioritize helping people and ensuring that these premiums don't increase. Uh that is our focus. Uh we come here to Congress to try to help people and we're willing to work with reasonable Republicans uh if they're willing to engage with us, but they need to prove that they are willing to stand up to their own leadership. Uh and so we're waiting to see if that if that happens. >> Is a short extension better than no extension? Do you risk uh letting the perfect be the enemy of the good here? >> Well, we don't want that to happen, Gabe. And honestly, we, you know, we want to ensure that people don't have these premium tax increases. We heard time and time again that Republicans were going to deal with this next month, next month. In November, they said, "We're going to deal with this in December." Now, they're saying, "We're going to talk about this next year." Um, Democrats are fed up with this. We're fed up with the speaker continuing to allow the the people to have pain and have their premiums increased by $1,000. uh 100% 200% uh increases that people are facing. This is happening in real time and the speaker of the house has allowed this. Um what he should allow is a vote on this three-year clean extension uh so we can have more conversations about this. But uh unfortunately the speaker has set this up where we we don't have that opportunity right now. So we're asking for Republicans to work with us. >> Isn't the three-year extension just dead on arrival in the Senate? >> Well, it had bipartisan support. It had four Republicans supporting it. So, I wouldn't call that dead on arrival. It had the most votes of of the measures voted on in in the Senate, over 50 votes. I know the threshold there is is 60. Um, but uh, you know, let's pass it here and then let's let the Senate, you know, work its will and see what we can do. >> Well, Congressman, earlier today, Speaker Johnson said Democrats do not want a solution on healthcare. Uh, he says that they want an issue in the midterms. What's your response to the speaker on that point? Yeah, it's just in it's false and it's laughable. But that's exactly what you know what he has to say uh right now because he has let this slip through. Um and he doesn't want to solve this healthcare crisis that he created. Uh keep in mind, Gabe, Republicans have known this the entire year. They went forward with their big ugly law that they got signed by the president in July. Leading up to that, they knew that these tax credits were expiring in December and they chose not to address it. they chose to prioritize giving tax cuts for billionaires um while we have this affordability crisis and people are asking what about my costs? What about my healthcare? Uh that's what we heard all throughout uh the fall and speaker Johnson chose to do nothing. So of course he's going to say Democrats are playing politics because he has no solution. The Republican party has never put forward a health care plan for our country. Uh Democrats have a plan. It's called strengthening Medicare, strengthening Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act tax premiums. That's our plan. >> And Congressman, I want to get your take on a recent deciders uh focus group um where 14 voters who cast their ballots for President Trump in 2024, but voted for governors elect Spanberger and Cheryl in their respective states. They described the Democratic party as quote elitist, outofouch, ineffective, weak, and unfocused. That's from folks who ultimately voted Democratic this year. So, how does the Democratic party shake that perception? Well, we talk about the affordability crisis. We talk about issues that that people care about. Um, we spend less time uh focused on issues uh that people don't care about. And right now, uh, those, uh, two gubanatorial candidates, those new new governors who will be sworn in in just a few weeks, both, by the way, who were House members and leaders here, um, made the affordability crisis the uh, front and center issue. They talked about issues that people care about. Um, and that's what House Democrats plan to do. We want to talk about issues that that unite our country. We want to talk about issues that lower the costs that people face. healthcare, housing, prescription drugs. Those are things that the American public wants us to focus on. Uh not the shenanigans and not the distractions that Donald Trump is uh continues to to be occupied by. >> Congressman Pete Agalar of California. Congressman, thank you so much for your