RUSH: Let me try this again. I got… (interruption) No, Trump was right on the state lines business. I understand Trump was right. Let me try this again. It’s rare that I have to say things again because I make the complex understandable. But I may have had to hurry through this. Here’s Rubio making fun of Trump talking about getting rid of the lines in the health insurance market. “You gotta get rid of the lines around the state,” Trump said. “You gotta keep getting rid of the lines.”
And Rubio says, “What is this, ‘Get rid of the lines’?” and he starts making circles with his hands. “Lines? What is he talking about, ‘Get rid of the lines’?” And Trump says, “You gotta get rid of the lines. Everybody knows this! You gotta get rid of the lines.” So you get rid of the lines, it means the insurance companies can go sell their products in more than just one state and it expands competition and then it lowers prices. That’s true. But Rubio is making a joke about Trump’s continual usage of the word “lines.”
My point is, Trump has… This is what I think happened. I think this is the explanation for it. Not that Trump doesn’t understand market principles. Come on. Of course he does. But he’s got advisors. There’s no question. We know he’s got advisors. Their names are known and their jobs are known, and occasionally we know that Trump meets with them. And like before any debate, he has powwows with all of his advisors, and they might even rehearse.
They might pepper Trump with questions about things that have or have not come up, to give him familiarity with it so that he’s ready to go if the question does come up, and I’ll just guarantee you that when Trump has been advised about this aspect of Obamacare and the conservative belief that the insurance companies have an unfair deal here, that Obama’s greased their skids by limiting competition and demanding that customers (Americans) buy the product. And it’s true.
I mean, the insurance companies, there’s no way they’re not gonna support Obama. He’s just passed a law requiring citizens to buy their product — which is unconstitutional, until John Roberts got hold of it and changed all of that to a tax, which meant the government could do it. But at the end of the day, the federal government still requires every citizen, mandates that everybody buy insurance. The second aspect is insurance companies can only sell where they are licensed and regulated within single states.
People in New York, for example.
People in New York state, I believe, have four options, four plans to choose from because they cannot go out of state. They can’t go to Connecticut, they can’t go to Pennsylvania, they can’t go to New Jersey in a quest or in seeking a better deal because of the way the federal government has set it up to protect the insurance companies, to limit their competition, to give them a guaranteed market. I am convinced that the way this was explained to Trump was, “We need to allow insurance companies to cross state lines and do their business.”
That’s the way this issue is discussed, it’s the way it’s taught to people that don’t understand it. It’s the way it’s explained. State lines are just borders, and to cross the state line, just means that you are able to sell anywhere, and means you’re able to go anywhere and buy if you’re a customer. But because it’d been drilled into him I’m sure by his advisors, I’m sure the phrase “got to let people cross state lines to go out,” that’s what he remembers from the advice sessions, and that’s what he kept repeating.
Rubio starts making fun of that. Now, Trump on the substance of it all was dead right. It’s a closed market. It’s the government guaranteeing the insurance companies customers, and it’s price-fixing. When customers are limited in options to buy, then there’s no need to cut prices. So I’m not… I’m just trying to explain why the whole thing about lines was a deal, why Rubio was able to make fun of it, and why Trump continued to use the phrase, ’cause I’m convinced that’s how he learned what’s going on here.
My guess is that most people do not know the intricate details of how Obamacare works, including, I think, probably some people that are running for office or planning to run for office. It’s very few people that really know the intimate details of this monstrosity. It’s 2,000 pages. And there’s some highlights in this thing that everybody has to know if you’re gonna oppose it. They have to be taught, they have to be informed, and this is one of those key things. We have to allow customers to cross state lines to buy policies.
We have to allow insurance companies to sell across state lines.
That’s just the way it’s explained to people. And if you didn’t know it beforehand and that’s what it took to get you to remember it and understand it, that’s what you’re gonna use. So I’m just saying that’s how Trump learned about it, or that’s how he was informed. That’s how his advisors brought him up to speed on the whole thing.