CNN "State of the Union with Candy Crowley" - Transcript: The Future Caucus

Interview

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CROWLEY: Joining me now Republican Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Thank you both so much. From the millennial caucus. So first can we describe millennials as 80s and 90s born? Is that how you --

SCHOCK: Late 70's, 80's and 90's.

CROWLEY: Take some 70's --

GABBARD: Depends who you ask.

(LAUGHTER)

CROWLEY: OK. So younger than the current power structure, let's say, in most of it in D.C. and your purpose is to take on millennial issues?

SCHOCK: It's real to change the focus in Washington, D.C., from the here and now three months, six months battles that we seem to too often get involved in. And really focus on what are the longer term challenges that we need to tackle? When I got elected to Congress five years ago, I was one of four under the age of 40 of the 435. In January of this year, we had 40 members of Congress under the age of 40, 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats. And it was from that that Tulsi and I formed a friendship when she got elected to Congress and recognized that a lot of the younger members are much less I had ideologically strident. They are much more ambitious by nature because they got here at a young age and they're much more impatient about solving America's problems.

CROWLEY: Even as your numbers were getting bigger, what we're really seeing in the total picture is much more partisanship, much more bickering.

GABBARD: Really what we have found just from getting to know each other was a commonality from a generational perspective on how we can get results. Recognizing that the partisanship is at its highest now. Members who have been here for 20, 30, 40 years saying this has never been as bad before as it is now. And seeing between as we talk to each other, what can we do about this? We're not willing to sit around and wait for another 20 or 30 years to be in a position of seniority and to actually be able to deal with it. But to find out how do we kind of create the pressure points both from within as well as engaging people from industry and the private sector and the community and students and so on and so forth to be able to start to try to move forward on issues that are more long ranging in their impact than the way things have been done.

CROWLEY: Why do you bring to the table anything different than what we've seen now?

SCHOCK: Here's why. Because right now our leadership on both sides of the aisle, both chambers, are a bit challenged at being leaders. Because they're so concerned about their ideological basis. Both Democrat and Republican leaders right now are worried about being right flanked and left flanked out by their respective basis. So they're afraid to be what the title says which is a leader. I believe that if Tulsi and I can bring together 20, 30, 40 members of Congress behind an initiative, it provides the cover to allow a John Boehner, a Nancy Pelosi, a Harry Reid to actually become leaders, to be able to stick their necks out and embrace it.

CROWLEY: Well in large part, leaders become leaders because they have the most people in their party elected. So that's what drives this. You cannot be in the leadership position unless your party has the most people in the Senate or in the House.

GABBARD: The politics are always going to be there. I mean that's a fact and the reality of the system that we have as well as the fact that we have different ideologies and our parties represent the diversity across the country. But we're trying to accomplish is to grow -- provide a platform and to grow a community of people who are building a relationship based on trust, based on respect and understanding. We may have different approaches on how to tackle some of these very challenging issues that we haven't dealt with yet as a country and building those relationships and putting these things forward so that others can gather around them.

CROWLEY: Let me ask you about millennials in general. Why is it that you think we are seeing signs that younger people, for instance, are not signing up for the Affordable Care Act which could doom it?

GABBARD: We've heard people talk about the young invincibles. And I think it's just a matter of where people are in their lives to say OK, you know I'm healthy now. And maybe I don't need as much of a health care plan as other people. But I think when you look across the board at some of the challenges that we have, that deal with the Affordable Care Act but also deal with a whole slew of other issues and how people are disengaged with the process now, it comes from a lack of trust and a very, very clear cynicism and frustration with government as a whole.

SCHOCK: With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, there's a provision called community rating which means that no longer are young people paying for their liability to the system. They're paying for their liability of the system plus a portion of their father or grandfather's cost to the system which means that by virtue of the ACA young people's health insurance are now disproportioning more expensive than they were before. So if you think about a young people didn't want to buy insurance before, because they don't think they needed it, now it's more expensive than it was before. And the penalty of noncompliance is very, very inexpensive, $100. So, you know, no matter the sales pitch, no matter what rock star you get involved, it's going to be hard to convince young people to part with more and more of their money.

CROWLEY: I imagine if I had this discussion with Harry Reid and John Boehner when they were in their 20s, 30s that they would have said the same thing.

SCHOCK: You're not looking at the next John Boehner or Harry Reid.

(LAUGHTER)

Let me say this though. The deal that was struck between Paul Ryan and Patty Murray could never have been trotted out by John Boehner or Harry Reid if first those two budget chairman had not agreed and the budget conferees not agreed. What I mean by that had there not already been a coalition, a group of people already embracing that field, if John Boehner would have done that on his own or Harry Reid would have done that on their own, it never would have passed. And it requires sometimes the rank and file or folks further down the leadership ladder to bring forward thoughtful ideas and build the momentum before we ultimately get the leaders to embrace it and change to happen.

CROWLEY: Congressman Aaron Shock, Tulsi Gabbard, of the Congressional Future Caucus. Thank you both so much.

GABBARD: Thank you very much.

SCHOCK: Happy New Year.

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