Rep. Gohmert: White House knew Obamacare would fail
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a rush transcript from "Your World," October 27, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: My next guest says you can't blame Republicans for this. For one thing, not a single Republican voted for it. For another, Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert said that Republicans were arguing math when they were cooking this up, that you can't promise the sun, moon and the health care stars and not expect to have to pay more for that.
That is what is happening.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Congressman Gohmert, very good to have you.
REP. LOUIE GOHMERT, R-TEXAS: Always good to talk to you, Neil.
But the secret of all of this goes back to a video of Barack Obama saying, look, I want socialized medicine. Single payer is not a fair description, though, actually. It's socialized, government totally run health care. I want to get there. We can't get there in one step.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And so this was the step. And you had clues all along the way. They knew that this was going to cost a fortune, that things were going to skyrocket. And they anticipated some day they would get to this point and tell the American people, well, we gave the insurance companies a chance, and now the government just needs to take it over.
And they were even planning that. You know they were, because when the Web site didn't work, they rolled out their first plan, and that was blame the insurance companies.
(CROSSTALK)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CAVUTO: Wait a minute. I'm going to go ahead, congressman, and give them the benefit of the doubt on this.
GOHMERT: No, no, no, you can't do that.
(CROSSTALK)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CAVUTO: Hear me out on this. Hear me out.
That they were counting on more young people signing up, and that kind of prejudice sticks today.
GOHMERT: They knew this would fail.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CAVUTO: Hear me out, though, sir.
GOHMERT: OK.
CAVUTO: That by arguing for more young people signing up and then expressing shock that more didn't, look how they reframed the argument today.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOHMERT: Oh, yes.
CAVUTO: I want you to react to this, Josh Earnest at the White House saying that there's a better opportunity for young Americans who are opting to pay a penalty than sign up for a high-premium insurance plan.
I want you to listen to this.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The penalty that is imposed for people who don't sign up for health care is quite significant. This year, it's about $700 -- about $700.
And I think our argument is pretty simple, which is, why would you pay $700 to Uncle Sam when you don't need to?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAVUTO: Now, normally, they're all for people paying money to Uncle Sam.
But leaving that aside, that the flip side of this, make lemonade out of the lemons you're dealt, by trying to say, you might as well sign up for this thing, high premiums and all, because it sure beats paying a penalty to the government.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But a lot of young people, Congressman, as you're aware of, surely realize they're going to be paying much more than that $700 just for the pleasure of having this.
GOHMERT: That's exactly right. You're exactly right, Neil.
And, in fact, I have talked to a lot of young people who are shocked to find out, gee, they're going to pay -- I have been hearing about $800 and
$900 in penalties and making $30,000 or less. And then they look, even with a subsidy that the government is paying them, some have told me they were going to be paying around $1,400, $1,500 a year. And that was with $5,000, $6,000, $7,000, $8,000 deductible.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They don't have that money, and what these bright young people are shocked to find out is, gee, if I pay $1,500 for the year, I don't have $6,000. I will never pay the deductible.
CAVUTO: That's exactly right. So they're rolling the dice. And you and I know, when you're young, you feel indestructible. And God bless them.
(CROSSTALK)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOHMERT: They're being shocked. Yes.
CAVUTO: They don't want it.
Congressman, thank you very, very much, Louie Gohmert.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOHMERT: It's not worth it to them.
Content and Programming Copyright 2016 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2016 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.