Rep. Andy Barr on today's inflation news, obamacare wrasslin' match, Trump speech, more

The to-do list. Indeed, to put the squeeze on certain things. There are a lot of people that are concerned about these conglomerates that are buying up homes and squeezing the housing market. A lot of people are fearful there's going to be another housing crisis. Is it okay that Chinese companies, Chinese related companies, are buying groups of residences? No, we are the world's most competitive capital market. We believe in cross-border capital flows. That's what capitalist countries do. But in the case of China, they engage in predatory foreign investment. That's why we have the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which screens inbound investment that threatens our national security. One thing that I'll say is that, you know, in dealing with affordability housing affordability is a big deal we passed a bipartisan housing bill out of the financial services committee uh this week we even we even got uh maxine waters uh to vote for our uh our republican bill uh to lower uh lower housing we've got a lot of good ideas uh to lower uh the cost of housing you know in kentucky and in real states manufactured housing that's That's something I've really focused on. It's a great affordable housing option for both urban and rural places. And I passed a legislation that would eliminate a regulation that would make it harder for lenders to finance manufactured housing. We're also working on updating the definition of manufactured housing to allow the removal of the temporary chassis. You don't need the chassis. You don't need the chassis. It's just an extra cost. So that lowers... But here's one that I'm really excited about. I'm sponsoring a bill that will incentivize shared appreciation mortgages. This is a really good idea. There's some innovative companies that are doing this where they crowd fund investment investors. So you have co-investors come in to help you buy a home. So if you're a new first-time home buyer, your down payment is smaller, your monthly payment is smaller. You build equity. albeit at a slower rate, but you have co-investors who realize the upside of the appreciation of that mortgage with you. And so there's a ton of capital out there that can co-invest with homebuyers. And once you build up enough equity, you can buy out the co-investor so that you have a full 100% ownership of that home. That is a very innovative idea that doesn't involve more taxpayer funding. It doesn't involve, you know, zoning and planning laws, but those are some ideas that we're promoting. Appreciate that, Congressman. We're speaking to Andy Barr, Kentucky's 6th District Representative. Today, of course, the Trump administration moved to end gender-related care for minors. And some headlines are saying, well, this threatens hospitals that offer it. What is your takeaway from what they're doing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.., and so forth when they were talking about? gender assignments on children and well i mean you know yeah i mean that children you know children you know children who are not you know adults yet

who are experiencing dysphoria or other issues, they are not in a place where adults should be coercing them or pressuring them to have irreversible surgeries or damaging hormone therapies that would advance some political transgender ideology or agenda. The bottom line is these are children, they're minors, they're not adults. And the exploitation, I really believe it's exploitation of our children to advance this radical transgender ideology is unhealthy, and it's a mental health crisis in our country, and it shouldn't happen. So I applaud the administration, and we certainly, and I'm working very hard with the Trump administration right now, to protect our girls from biological men invading their private spaces and keep... biological men out of girls sports is personal to me because my daughters are athletes and I want to protect the privacy of our children and they shouldn't be forced to compete. People say this is really not an issue. It is an issue. Last year, Terry, there were 600 cases of biological men stealing the championships or the awards or athletic victories from female athletes. So this is actually a real problem. I understood. Okay. As far as the health care bill, the wrestling match that's still going on, what do you foresee happening since this looks like it's going to trip into 2026? I'm talking about the Obama Affordable Care Act extension. Yeah, what we found out is that the Affordable Care Act is totally unaffordable. The premiums in the exchanges have increased since the passage of the law. In 2010, premiums in the exchanges have increased 60% higher than premiums in employer-sponsored plans. So Obamacare is broken. And what we've also found out is, according to the government accountability office, which did a study and basically a covert operation where they submitted fictitious applications, we found out that 100% of the fake applicants were approved for subsidies in 2024. 18 out of 20 fake identities remained enrolled and subsidized in 2025. And monthly subsidies paid to health insurers on behalf of these fake identities exceeded $12,300 a month. There were $66,000. 66,000 social security numbers in 2024 at more than a year's worth of subsidized coverage, meaning multiple social security numbers were being reused across different policies. Bottom line is there is rampant fraud in Obamacare, and we would be derelict in our duty to honor the taxpayers if we just simply continue to subsidize all of this fraud. So the answer is not to subsidize a broken system. The answer is to give... patients, more competition and choice, give patients, not the insurance companies, but patients the tax credit so that they can shop for their own insurance that fits their needs and force real competition. That competition and choice is what will lower the cost of health care. All right, Congressman, I'm out of time. I appreciate yours this afternoon. Thanks so much.