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PAUL: We continue to follow two big breaking stories this morning. First of all, secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke, is stepping down at the end of the year, and a Texas judge ruled the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, potentially endangering the health care of millions of Americans.
Right now with us, Democratic Congressman Lou Correa from California. Thank you so much, Congressman, for being with us. We certainly appreciate it. I wanted to first and foremost get your reaction to the news about Secretary Zinke, this, of course, coming after health and human services secretary has gone and Scott Pruitt of the EPA has also left under questionable circumstances. Your reaction to this news now?
REP. LOU CORREA, (D) CALIFORNIA: And you also have General Kelly that is about to resign, or has resigned. And to me it's very troublesome when you have an administration that doesn't seem to be able to hold on to good people. General Kelly, a 40-year general, marine, whose son made the ultimate sacrifice to this country, I can't think of a more committed individual to this country than General Kelly, yet we are losing him as well. This is not good. It's not good for the country to have this kind of instability in our federal government.
PAUL: How do you see Democrats bringing some sort of stability to the House?
CORREA: Well, all of us have to work together. We need to bring back the Ronald Reagan, the Tip O'Neill. Nancy Pelosi has said she's willing to work with whoever wants to work with her to make sure that we do what is best for the country. And I think that's the attitude we have to have, which is everybody come together to do what is best for America and for Americans.
PAUL: Since you mentioned Nancy Pelosi, I want to ask you about the Affordable Care Act and the ruling that was brought about by this Texas judge late last night. Nancy Pelosi tweeted "While the district court's absurd ruling will be immediately appealed, Republicans are fully responsible for this cruel decision." The judge basically invalidating the entire Obamacare act. What are Democrats prepared to do about this?
CORREA: We have to do everything we can to make sure Americans are covered with health care, that their preconditions are taken care of when it comes to health care. We need to make sure we fight for the Affordable Care Act. I am a Californian, and California was the first state in the country to apply the Affordable Care Act, and it's working well in California. I think it's important to move forward, not backwards when it comes to health care. Americans want good health care, and we as Democrats and my Republican colleagues need to join us and say we need to make sure Americans are covered with good, solid health care.
PAUL: Going out of the 2016 election, there were some Democrats who admitted there are issues with ACA, there are issues that do need to be fixed. What remedies do you see that need to be worked on?
CORREA: Absolutely. Remember, Medicare took about 60, 70 years to get where it got. The Affordable Care Act has had about six, seven years. There's a lot of tweaking. We need to bring down the costs. We need to make sure it's affordable for everybody, make sure small businesses can afford it. A lot of challenges for the Affordable Care Act. But you know what, it's a great start. Preexisting conditions, very important to a lot of us, a lot of good things in the ACA. Let's move forward.
PAUL: All right, I wanted to ask you about something that you had tweeted out a couple days ago. This, of course, in regards to the death of that seven-year-old girl at the border earlier this week, Jakelin is her name. And you tweeted, "The Department of Homeland Security leadership must be held responsible for their failure to properly care for migrants in their custody and their inability to lead the hardworking officers under their command."
She got to the border, as we understand it. As soon as Border Patrol agents realized that she was ill, they got her medical help. When they realized her illness was beyond anything that they could care for at that site, they airlifted her to a hospital. What exactly do you think the Border Patrol did wrong?
[10:20:05] CORREA: Well, let me start with the big picture, which is today we have a humanitarian crisis, we have a refugee crisis, and Homeland Security, border patrol is not prepared to address this issue. Think about it. In Mexico thousands of refugees, OK, this is an Americas crisis and we're not addressing this. We are talking about a border wall, instead of sending health care folks into Mexico, making sure the border patrol can take care of these individuals as they approach America.
We're used to thinking about refugees as something that happens in Europe and the Middle East. This is happening in our own backyard, and we have to address it. Central America, Mexico -- go ahead. PAUL: I'm sorry, you said the Department of Homeland Security
leadership needs to be held responsible. Who specifically?
CORREA: Well, I want to make sure they understand that the message, the mission that they give those hardworking men and women at the border is one that addresses the specific issue. The issue isn't a border wall, the issue isn't terrorists. Terrorists, there's more suspected terrorists caught at the Canadian border than the Mexico border. Let's deal with the facts. And that's what I am saying -- leadership has to say these are the problems and move on. When Secretary Kelly was head of Homeland, we would have frank discussions in front of the public, and he would say, Lou, the issue is we have to stabilize Central America, Mexico. We have to address our insatiable appetite for drugs, and get down to business.
PAUL: Do you think that's possible?
CORREA: It's not a matter of being possible. We have to do it. It's for our own national interests that we take care of the issues and the problems that are before us. Let's get away from political rhetoric. The American public wants answers, they want solutions, and that's what we have to do, give them solutions.
PAUL: Congressman Lou Correa, we appreciate you taking time for us today. Thank you, sir.
CORREA: Thank you very much.
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