WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.200
Good morning, good morning, good
morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.

2
00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:07.719
It's time now for our visit with
Senator James Lankfort and a senator A

3
00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:12.279
good morning to you today, very
good morning to you as well. What's

4
00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:15.759
going on in Washington, DC?
It just seems like there's a lot a

5
00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:19.519
lot of things going on in a
lot of different directions. Kind of spill

6
00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:24.440
it out here for us. It
is actually what I jokingly say that people

7
00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:27.960
Congress can do three things at once, We cannot do fifty things at once.

8
00:00:28.359 --> 00:00:31.079
When you get to fifty things at
once, people start locking up and

9
00:00:31.079 --> 00:00:33.759
saying, I just don't know which
way to be able to work. My

10
00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:37.200
focus is trying to be able to
push people towards saying, focus on what's

11
00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:39.759
in front of you. Let's get
that checked off. Then we've got another

12
00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:42.799
one right behind it. But then
we've got a lot that's actually going on.

13
00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:47.920
Next Friday is the end of the
fiscal time, which means we have

14
00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:50.679
a threat of a government shutdown,
which means we're working through how to be

15
00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:53.719
able to keep the government open as
well as try to get us on a

16
00:00:53.759 --> 00:01:00.159
new trajectory to start reducing or spending
and improving our debt and deficit. It's

17
00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:03.880
all happening right now. There's a
lot of work happening on Israel and what

18
00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:06.079
are we going to do to be
able to stand with our ally Israel.

19
00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:08.840
There's a lot of work happening right
now on border security, and that's a

20
00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.079
main focus that I'm working on,
actually a ranking member on the committee that

21
00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:15.920
handles border security. This in there, I've worked on lots and I'm working

22
00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:19.239
through trying to be able to get
the administration to say, if we're focusing

23
00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:23.799
on other nations and their national security, we need to be focusing on our

24
00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:26.840
nation and our national security at the
same time, and trying to get significant

25
00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:32.840
policy changes to improve the situation at
the border dramatically, so that in a

26
00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:36.359
million other things. There's just a
lot that's happening right now. Let's kind

27
00:01:36.359 --> 00:01:38.959
of digest this down a little bit. You see the clock is ticking once

28
00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.719
again. Nothing new in Washington,
DC. But you've been working so hard

29
00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:48.920
with different pieces of legislation to make
sure that these government shutdowns never happen again.

30
00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:52.319
It is actually so about five years
ago I was sort of working through

31
00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:55.680
in a bipartisan away because in the
Senate you've got to resolve things in a

32
00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:59.280
bipartisan a way. That is the
requirement of the Senate to try to find

33
00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:02.760
a way that I can get Republicans
and Democrats both on boards in government shutdowns,

34
00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:07.560
but keep the debate going. We
can't ignore the problem, but we

35
00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:10.879
shouldn't have. For instance, right
now, members of the military that wouldn't

36
00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:15.159
be paid that they're literally deployed to
the Middle East, making themselves ready and

37
00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:19.919
available for the country at that moment
if they needed, but their families are

38
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.360
back home trying to pay the bills
and raise kids and everything else. So

39
00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:27.840
at this moment, next week,
it could be that we've got members of

40
00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:31.560
the military deployed that are sitting on
an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean contacting their

41
00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:35.080
family and saying, hey, if
there's a government shutdown, let's talk about

42
00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:38.520
how to be able to pay the
mortgage and pay the rent, and you

43
00:02:38.599 --> 00:02:42.159
know, all of those things that
should not be We've got to find a

44
00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:45.400
way to be able to fight about
our debt and deficit without saying we're going

45
00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:47.479
to hold the paychecks of all the
federal workers and all the members of the

46
00:02:47.479 --> 00:02:51.400
military at the same time. So
I know there's some folks that just think

47
00:02:51.479 --> 00:02:54.280
running into a shutdown is a glorious
experience. It's not if you're a member

48
00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:58.479
of the military and you're deployed.
It's not if you're on the border patrol

49
00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:01.719
and you're not getting paid work in
overtime hours. It's not if you're trying

50
00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:06.759
to get a permit from some federal
agency so you can do construction or work

51
00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:08.159
on a mine or whatever it may
be, and you can't get that.

52
00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:13.560
It's not a glorious experience. It's
a problem, and it's a significant problem

53
00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:16.120
that you can't fix. Only Congress
can fix. So my answer to this

54
00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:22.199
has been we've got to actually hold
American people harmless, hold federal workers and

55
00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:24.919
members in the military are unless,
but force members of Congress to stay in

56
00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:30.400
session seven days a week, no
travel. We're all here working on just

57
00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:35.639
appropriations that locks us into only those
type of bills, and we're here seven

58
00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:38.800
days a week until we get it
resolved. I mean, the simplest thing.

59
00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:42.039
If you don't finish your class work, you've got to stay after school

60
00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:44.639
to be able to finish it.
That's all it is. But the focus

61
00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:47.159
is we got to get the pressure
off members of the military and their families

62
00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:53.400
and actually put the pressure on members
of Congress. Another thing that's been getting

63
00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:58.319
a lot of people's attention too is
our southern border, and you've been watching

64
00:03:58.360 --> 00:04:02.000
that like a hawk that we've been
hearing a variety of different numbers of people

65
00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:08.319
on terrorists watch lists that have been
coming over and seemingly it's like, whatever,

66
00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:12.680
that can't be, No, it
should not be. We've had about

67
00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:16.279
one hundred and fifty that have actually
been arrested that are caught on the terror

68
00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:19.959
watch list. They were not released
in the country. But we've had seventy

69
00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:26.439
thousand, seventy thousand in the last
two years that are coming from areas where

70
00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:30.120
there's known terrorism, but they weren't
on our terror watch list, but we

71
00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:33.480
had no criminal history on them.
We just didn't know they were released into

72
00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:38.600
the country. And the challenge is
if one percent of those folks, one

73
00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:44.120
percent of those folks actually had terroritized
knowing that they come from terror areas we

74
00:04:44.199 --> 00:04:46.920
just don't have any background on.
That's seven hundred terrorists that are in our

75
00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:50.720
country. It's just an enormous number
that this administration seems to be very flippant

76
00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:55.480
saying everything's gone fine. So far, so it must not be a problem

77
00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:00.279
ignoring DUIs that have happened in our
country, people not legally presenting, boring

78
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:02.800
all the criminal issues that have occurred, ignoring all the drug issues that have

79
00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:06.319
occurred. Now, the folks that
are coming across, not all of them

80
00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:10.839
or even most of them, are
involved in criminal activity, but they did

81
00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:15.000
have a crossing that was not legal. They were working with cartels in a

82
00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.399
criminal organization to actually get across the
border. And now they're indebted to cartels

83
00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:21.399
while they're in the country, so
they're either paying up or working for the

84
00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:26.480
cartels once they're actually here. That
is a huge problem for us as a

85
00:05:26.519 --> 00:05:30.079
country. So I've been just bringing
not only facts and figures to people.

86
00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:31.680
But here's how you solve it.
We have to change the way we do

87
00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:35.000
asylum. We have to change the
way that we do our screening. We're

88
00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:40.199
not trying to be unkind or unfair
to any individual that's coming across. We're

89
00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:44.959
just doing something crazy called enforcing the
law of the United States. That doesn't

90
00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.079
seem to be a radical concept to
me, but for whatever reason, my

91
00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:53.959
Democrat colleagues are squeamish about enforcing the
law because their base is all about allowing

92
00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:58.680
as many people that want to come
into the country to come. My focus

93
00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:01.279
has been I don't mind legal immigration. I just have a huge problem with

94
00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:08.560
illegal immigration, unchecked immigration, unvetted
immigration. That's a whole different issue than

95
00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:12.120
allowing legal workers to be able to
come in or people that want to be

96
00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:15.319
able to come and be an American
to go through the legal process. So

97
00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:19.439
I'm actively in negotiation with multiple Democrats
to sit down and figure out how do

98
00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:25.120
we actually solve this and to move
them off of I'm squeamish about solving the

99
00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:28.639
border issue. To actually solving the
border issue. Again, it's the Senate.

100
00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:30.240
I've got to have sixty votes to
be able to move it, so

101
00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:33.279
I means they've got to work with
both parties. I can't impose this,

102
00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:38.480
but I do have a real solution
that I've set in front of my Democrat

103
00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:41.720
colleagues and saying this would solve the
problem. Let's work together, and we're

104
00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:46.800
talking serious. We're talking to you
as Senator James Lankfort and Senator you've been

105
00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:53.360
working on something that effect virtually every
family, and that is prescription drug costs.

106
00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:57.480
And you know, whether you're a
parent and you've got a child that

107
00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:01.959
maybe has a special need where they
might to need insulin or something, or

108
00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:06.600
perhaps if you're a senior, st
isen't like me, or it seems like,

109
00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:15.199
well pick one, let's go to
the medicine cabinet. Yeah, it's

110
00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:18.720
it's a really big issue. It's
not just costs, it's also availability.

111
00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:23.680
People will hear that they've got a
friend that has access to a certain drug,

112
00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:25.439
and they'll say, well, I
don't have access to that. How

113
00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:29.319
come I can't get access to that. It's less expensive on your plan than

114
00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:31.040
it is on my plan. I
can't even get it on my plan.

115
00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:35.879
So we're working through I had a
hearing yesterday that was a culmination of literally

116
00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:40.800
years of work of working on the
issue of prescription drugs. So yesterday we're

117
00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:46.240
dealing with mental health issues, telehealth
issues, rural hospitals, and making sure

118
00:07:46.279 --> 00:07:49.680
that they can be stabilized in the
way they do reimbursements for rural hospitals.

119
00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:55.279
I've been working on all those,
but also this issue of what's called pharmacy

120
00:07:55.319 --> 00:08:00.199
benefit managers. They're the behind the
scenes group behind all these independent pharmacies that

121
00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:03.959
are out there that are literally choking
off the funds to independent pharmacies. Your

122
00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:09.879
pharmacist is not the one that's setting
those prices. That is actually a pharmacy

123
00:08:09.879 --> 00:08:13.920
benefit manager that's behind the scene and
insurance companies. We're working to make sure

124
00:08:13.959 --> 00:08:18.800
that that pharmacist can actually sell you
cheaper drugs on it and to be able

125
00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:22.800
to get access to those on different
formularies. And that's been an enormous battle

126
00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:26.199
with drug companies and all the behind
the scenes groups to be able to get

127
00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:31.120
to yesterday and a bill that I've
had that we actually what's called marked up

128
00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:33.320
in a committee, went through the
process, and then we're still trying to

129
00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:35.279
be able to finalize that out,
get it to the floor, and get

130
00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:41.120
it done. But this is a
really significant change in the way we do

131
00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:46.919
drugs, opening up more opportunities for
independent pharmacies across rural America and even urban

132
00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:50.960
America, for independent pharmacies to be
out there, and then also greater availability

133
00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:56.000
in a cheaper price for drugs.
And this is just increasing competition. This

134
00:08:56.120 --> 00:09:00.639
is not a bunch of government mandates
to control the price. If you increase

135
00:09:00.679 --> 00:09:05.440
competition in America, an opportunity more
drugs will come in there of a lower

136
00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:09.559
price and we'll drive down the price. We've already seen that, and the

137
00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:11.519
big companies are cutting it off.
We're just going to block how they're cutting

138
00:09:11.559 --> 00:09:16.559
it off. And as Senator Lank
gret afl Clomans want to talk to you,

139
00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:20.759
they got a question our comment.
How do they reach you? You

140
00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:24.159
know there are a bunch of folks
reach out all the time, and so

141
00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:26.240
glad to be able to have that
kind of conversation with myself and my staff

142
00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:30.399
to be able to talk to the
issues and go to Langford dot Senate,

143
00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:35.000
dot gov, that's gov Langford,
dot cent and dot gov. On that

144
00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:37.639
website. It's got my phone number, it has email addresses, it has

145
00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:41.840
a sign up for our e newsletter. It even as a physical address.

146
00:09:41.879 --> 00:09:45.720
If you still own a stamp and
want to be able to send something to

147
00:09:45.799 --> 00:09:48.840
us, you can do that.
We can also go on the social media

148
00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:52.799
platforms at Senator Langford all the social
media. I would just encourage you.

149
00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:56.159
Don't believe everything you read on social
media, but you're glad to be able

150
00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.519
to check out and you'll be able
to see what we're working on right now.

151
00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:01.240
Senator thank you for very much.
As always, you bet good.

152
00:10:01.320 --> 00:10:03.039
It is what you gain