>> i'm monica malpass. on "inside story," how is pennsylvania holding up given its economic challenges and the political climate? let's get the inside story from congressman bob brady. ♪♪ good morning and welcome to "inside story." i'm monica malpass here with congressman bob brady from the 1st congressional district. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> nine terms later, and you certainly know the playing field, but washington's different these days. both houses of congress no longer held by -- either -- democrats. they're republican-controlled, and, of course, a new republican president. that's got to be a tricky environment given that president trump's trying to repeal a number of things, including obamacare. how's the climate? >> well, the climate is sad. you know, we're not getting nothing done. we're just -- they're just bringing up bills that were passed by us when president obama was president, and all they're doing is repealing and repealing and

repealing. they actually tried to do that when the president was president, and they didn't have the veto that they have now -- didn't have the power they had now. they tried to repeal obamacare 50-some times. >> right. >> you know, and naturally it wasn't gonna pass the senate and naturally, the president wasn't gonna sign it, but they kept doing it over and over again. you know, it cost $25,000 to $26,000 an hour to keep that house open? >> mm. >> so they're fiscal conservatives, but yet they spend millions and millions of dollars on nothing. >> is that disheartening to have spent the bulk of your career in washington now and to see so much that you've worked on apparently about to get undone? >> yes, it is, and they want to repeal obamacare. now, there are some issues on obamacare that could use some fixing. there's no question about that. we passed it, and we knew it wasn't perfect. but to mess with the preexisting condition is wrong, to mess with the 26-year-olds on their mother and father's healthcare is wrong, you know. but there are some things that we could agree to, but we haven't seen them yet. all they keep talking about is

you know, to get rid of it, but nobody's showed us anything that would replace it. >> right. >> or even close to it yet. >> and what about some other hot topics that are also gonna be out there? immigration's tricky, sanctuary cities -- philadelphia is one. those could have a huge economic impact on our area. >> well, as you know, our mayor is for the sanctuary cities, and i applaud him for that, and he's standing tough for that. i just hope -- i don't think that there's gonna be much punishment for that. i mean, it probably goes through the state, but that's his belief, and as far as the -- as far as mr. trump's plan -- now he has a new plan out there now that, i think if you get a speeding ticket, maybe even a parking ticket, they can yank you and they can deport you. >> yes. >> i mean, you can be driving your kid to school, park your car, have a parking ticket, get on the list, and then, you know, what happens to the kid that's at school? what happens to your children when they take you out and bring you back and they want to deport you? there's got to be some kind of pathway. people need to have a pathway, be knowing that there's some kind of way that they can become citizens. when he sent those people back

and he deported some people and held some other detainees, two or three of them were interpreters... >> mm. >> ...and they were outed, and if they went back to iraq, i'm sure that there'd be some penalty for them to pay. you know, and they had all the visas, everything in order. that's w we should be trying to figure something out better than that. >> given the republican sweep in november, what are doing to, you know, shore up their troops and to come up with new blood, maybe get somebody on the ticket in a couple of years for the next presidential election, but certainly even to try to retake congress in a couple years in the midterms -- any likelihood of that? >> we're trying to do that. we have our meeting this weekend with a new democratic national chairman a few good people are running, and with the agenda is to bring back some seats in the house of representatives and bring back some seats in the senate. this way we can have some kind of say, you know, that things don't just get thrown, pushed -- the american people, i don't think, want to see all three branches, all three houses, the senate and the president, on the same party. i think they want some checks and balances. we don't have that right now

and i think that, i mean the way it's happening now, and it's only 30 days, you know, but right now, i don't think our president's doing too good. >> let's talk about philadelphia politics. we've got some issues of our own, including with our current district attorney who's facing some challenges that may end up in court. certainly, he's trying to undo some gifts that were given tolare on his tax return that have become problematic. what can you say about seth williams? >> i think he made some major mistakes. he's done some good things, but unfortunately when you do some bad things, they overshadow some good things that you've done. i think he had bad advice, or most important, probably had no advice, probably didn't bounce anything off anybody -- "can i do this?" "should i do that?" and maybe didn't think he was doing something wrong, but he was doing things wrong, and it's a wrong thing, and it's a shame to see a career that he had that a lot of people had a lot of potential, a lot of faith in him, just to be shut down completely, and it will be shut down completely. >> and who will be the next d.a.? we have a number of candidates hoping -- five of them so far, others could be in the offing. >> we have five quality

candidates, you know, and when that happens, it's pretty hard to distinguish between one. we'll at least get together and get a lot of input from some of our city officials, and we probably won't come up with one clear-choice candidate, so it'll probably be an open primary. let people make their choices, and then we'll get together and reform, regroup back up for the general election and get another district attorney that's a democrat. and we have five, as you said, we have five good candidates and maybe more to come, but i don't think so. >> and statewide, do you think tom wolf, our governor, is vulnerable at this point have changed? >> i'm worried about that. i'm worried about that. i met with him. he's doing some things to be able to change that. he's getting more involved politically. he was a non-politician, becoming a politician quickly, 'cause you can't stay a non-politician in the political world. and i hope that the -- and we're gonna be supporting him, you know, along with -- we're still talking about bob casey -- senator bob casey. i can't imagine senator bob casey losing. he does a great job. he's a great senator doing what he needs to do, and well

loved, well liked by the people in pennsylvania, and i believe that he would get reelected without any problem. >> all right. congressman bob brady, thank you so much for stopping by. we appreciate your insight. >> thank you for having me. >> absolutely. "inside story" continues with our insiders panelists right after this.

is p but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. explore temple's impact. visit temple.edu/impact. >> welcome back to "inside story." time to meet our panelists now nonprofi good to see you again, sirica.val digiorgio, thete chairma >> that's a terrific honor.l. >> nelson diaz, att to see you as well >> gooformer judgecyto have you with us as ight, let's react to what congressman brady said about it being a sort of depressing time to be in congress, as well as that he has some hope some parts of obamacare and other areas that may be repealed can be saved. what's your reaction?

>> well, i think it's clear that there is division along party lines in washington, but i think there are challenges within the republican party, because they are not clearly aligned. there's some ideological differences there. they have a white house that many of them were not for. got to figure out how to deal with. and you have a white house -- when you are running for an executive of create your own fa though, the qfigured ho 30-days-plus now? are you happy with it?>> in some ways, yes. i think it's in some wtanding cabinet. i think, you know, the fact that flynn and the labor se picks didn't work out may be a good thing in the long run because their replacements seem they're gonna be top-notch. in some ways, the messaging isn't as good. he needs to get on message which is creating jobs and keeping america safe. he needs to stay on that message. so, in some ways i'm very happy, in other ways i can see room for improvement. >> and do you also feel like, as congressma philadelphia's on the uptick though, even though we have some other challenges that a being presented politically? >> well, let's keep in mind th the congressman's also the chairman of the party in the

city. so he has a much broader perspective than just being a legislator. as to what's going to happen in philadelphia, it very much depends on getting our own fiscal house in order, but also what is happening in harrisburg and in washington. the more clarity you can get there, the better your chances of being able to plan intelligently at home. >> did it surprise you he said wolf was vulnerable, given that? >> oh, no, not at all, because -- i mean, there is something to the notion was off -- governor wolf was off to a very bad start because of this first budget, and now it's hard to see what his agenda is because, again, he is dealing in a situation where both houses are being run by the opposition. so this is gonna be a very difficult climb for him in terms of re-election. >> are there parallels to an outsider? our tom wolf coming into office, being swept in on a, you know, kick-the-bums-out campaign type thing to the trump

white house, someone non-political being swept ineresting parallel to you at all, nelson? >> well, let me go first on brady. he represents the poorest district in the country, and they can't even get a candidate for the 197th district in terms of latino community, and so there is real issues in terms of how you represent that community. and that's on the congressional side. and, like was said, he's obviously looking at the city wide. but as it related to the governor's race, i think the governor had such great, great advertisement back then that didn't allow anybody to get in the game. and at this point, the question is whether he will sort of fashion that again, and he's had his real problems with the legislature, both on the democratic and the republican side in terms of getting budgets through. so, i think he's gonna have a tough time in terms of re-election, but he's got all the money in the world. so the question is whether anybody can come up with enough capital to be able to sort of beat him on the democratic

primary. >> let's talk about a couple of other quick items before we move locally, and that is immigration, which does strike philadelphia at its core. we are a sanctuary city, as we talked about. but he is talking about revamping the deportation rules, and part of it means that now our mayor, who was gonna have municipal ids issued to people who are immigrants so they at least have, you know, ability to get a driver's license or have some photo id of themselves. that plan has been put on hold because it could make them vulnerable if you have to turn those records over to federal investigators as new york is been required to do. now you're actually handing people the addresses and names of illegal immigrants. what was your reaction? >> well, let's be clear -- no one is talking about the wholesale deportation of undocumented aliens -- illegal immigrants, whatever term we're using. and, you know, there's a compelling case that crime -- associated with unchecked immigration is crime, is drug trafficking -- we know that -- human trafficking, and a bunch

of other social problems. so, it seems reasonable to say that a city should cooperate with the united states government in prosecuting illegal aliens who are committing crime. you know, mayor kenney's not allowing that to happen, so you got a situation where people who come over the border illegally have more rights than american citizens in terms of duemmitting crimes. we're not talking about a family who's been here for a lot of years with a dreamer child. we're talking about criminals, and i don't know why mayor kenney would want to put philadelphians at risk you know, there are right now thousands of illegal aliens in prisons for committing murder. that's thousands of murders happening on american soil. so i don't get why we can't have that conversation first, about how to keep americans safe and how to stop all the negative effects that come along with illegal immigration, including sex trafficking and drug trafficking. >> let's move to the franklin & marshall poll which had a number of telling points. people polled post election now with a new administration in washington had some very

important things to say and much of it not very encouraging. so, we're gonna show you that 66% polled believe the u.s. is now on the wrong track. let's react to that quickly, ed. it was a divided election, one of the closest in americanstory. does that number surprise you, that it's now 66% and not closer to 51%, 52%? >> no, and i think it goes well beyond polit there's a very important piece by a demographer named nicholas eberstadt in this month's commentary magazine in which he said that the american working class has been devastated since the year 2000. i mean, here we are. the second decade of the century and people have not seen wage growth. to nelson's point about the poorest district in the country being in this city, it's not just poverty in terms of economics, it's also health. you get a 20-year disparity in life cycle -- or in life span -- within two miles depending on which district you live in.

deal with.ec -- or the here -- is reflecting political difference. i think it's just deep concern americans who have greatomic uncerta uncertainty around how their healthcare is going to be administered and how much it'sost... >> right. >> ...those issues that are we'll look at our next graphic -- believe that president trump is doing a goodxcellentso, george, do you think that president, because of the first 30 ds a missteps inpositions, that kind of thing, has underwhelmed people and now they're sorry they voted forly? >> i think people are tremendously confused. i mean, you hear the president and his folks, you know, state facts that are inaccurate and then walk back from and explain those. then you ht that's contradicting the noes like human trafficking and drug trade migranerica well immigration discussion, and it's bee deor moran 20 years wherepaigning to those constituencies and then governing away from them as president trump has done. when you look at his cabinet there's nothing there --

the only way for success in america is not to have a lot of there are who sp those folks that are out there. and people are just frustrated. >> let's take through a few more of the points from the poll, and then we'll let you react as well, nelson, as well as you val. only one in four registered pennsylvanians believes that the affordable care act should be changed. 29% think it should be repealed entirely. so only about a quarter of them think it should absolutely be taken off the books. the second graphic -- two out of five registered voters in pennsylvania believe that governor wolf's doing an excellent or good job. so that's only 38%. and our final graphic -- 6 out of 10 pennsylvanians say they favor an increase in the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour up to $12 an hour. so, nelson, react to any of those three points. >> well, there's no question that the issues on a national basis with regard to the affordable care act, with obamacare as it's known, is that it's not gonna be repealed. even ryan -- speaker ryan -- indicated that this week that they're gonna tinker around the tables in terms of things that

work. no one wants to get rid of the preexisting issue. no one gets rid of the student that's living in your house till they're 26. no one gets rid of a lot of opportunities that was put into obamacare. so i think that they'll tinker on the side, they'll get something which they'll call a repeal, but it won't be a repeal because you're not gonna let 400 million people out on the streets without medical care. i think the other problem relating to the one third is -- the immigration issue, people d is an economic impact also. they're the ones that are working in hotels, they're the ones changing your beds, they're the ones picking fruits in the farms, and the farmers right now are having trouble just surviving. now they're not gonna have the migrant workers to be able to help them. that's gonna have a great impact upon the farming industry in this country. >> were you surprised at the poll results, that people are so negative and feeling dark about the current status of things? >> no, i was -- you know, we need some changes in the country. i mean, the state of healthcare is a problem. right now -- look at obamacare.

we're talking about 35% to 50% increases in this part of the world in premiums, less choice and now we only have one insurer in the region that's actually participating in healthcare exchanges. so even though a lot of people don't want to see it repealed, 68% want to see it fixed. and, yes, a lot of the components that are popular in obamacare are going to stay. nelson hit on some of those. as far as immigration -- i mean, nelson also raised a very good point. immigration is good for this country. i say as a husband of an immigrant, as a grandson of an immigrant, it is important. you know, in chester county, we've got the issue with migrant workers. you know, they're the only ones working on the farms down in southern chester county. but it has to be legal, it has to be checked. we're a country and a country of laws, and you can't be a nation if you don't have borders and enforce those borders. no one is saying we shouldn't have illegal immigration, and no one is saying we should throw everybody out, but we should be able to vet who's coming into this country, we should be able to have checks on it, and we

should have a secure border. that's what the fight is really about. i see plenty of room for compromise, but each side wants to bludgeon each other over the head with the political issue. we've got to come across the aisle and compromise with each other and get this situation fixed. >> anybody want to react to a local town hall, at least in allentown, where senator pat toomey was invited but did not participate? he had done a number of phone-call town halls and said -- his staff had said that was what he available to do at that time. other people read it as he's running, because he perhaps doesn't agree with what the president's doing, but he doesn't want to necessarily be in a room full of people. >> he just got elected. he's got six years to be able to fix his climate up, and i think every politician should face whether they agree or disagree with a group of constituents. >> he should have been there in person, you're saying? >> well, i think he should -- >> the republican challenge is -- it's been a challenge that's been almost generational. affordable care in america has been a political topic since before ronald reagan ran for president. no administration, other than

the obama administration, has put anything in place, and what people are beginning to realize as they want to dismantle obamacare and the affordable care act, and almost 40% of americans don't know the difference... >> mm-hmm. >> ...don't understand that the affordable care act is obamacare. >> [ laughs ] >> so there's a confusion about it. >> that's true. >> so, you're at this huge point of inflection with respect to healthcare and in how to fix it, and the notion that -- going back to free markets, you now see republican governors bipartisan mayors pushing back saying, "we have real problems." what's gonna happen with medicaid reform, and you're gonna see hospitals beginning to say -- you know, you haven't heard a hospital since the affordable care act was passed complaining about overuse of emergency rooms. >> right. >> that used to be the huge issue going to states to fund the use of -- that's gonna come back if you take away medicaid. >> sure. >> there's no quick fix, and they don't -- even the former john boehner this week said there's no way they're gonna do this, because republicans in the 25 years that he was there themselves could not come to an

agreement on how to fix healthcare. >> mm. all right, let's talk about local unions, meantime, and how many of them, in part, supported the presidency of donald trump and now some are wavering because they're not seeing so quickly the jobs being created in infrastructure. they're hoping those jobs come their way, but perhaps they're getting discouraged. what's your reaction? >> we're an all-time post-war low in terms of union membership nationwide. more and more, union membership is in the public sector, and that is the divide that is playing itself out politically. and in places where you have right-to-work laws -- for instance, wisconsin -- union membership declined by 100,000. and one of the big surprises in the last election was the number of urs who went against their leadership and voted for trump. the key will be economic performance. we can talk about trump all we want... >> mm-hmm. >> ...but if within the next two years we do not see significant

movement and improvement of the economy, then he'll be in trouble. >> all right. we're gonna take a break. inside stories coming your way right after this. ♪♪

when a man ain't got no ideas of his own, he'd ought to be kind of careful who he borrows them from.

>> "inside story" is presented by temple university. remarkable change isn't easy but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. explore temple's impact. visit temple.edu/impact. >> welcome back. time for inside stories, and let's start with val. >> one thing that's interesting is the organized attempt that's going on in the left to make it look like our republican congressmen and senators are unresponsive. we saw that this week when senator toomey was accused of not showing up at a town hall. well, they just said, "why don't you show up?" it was actually funded by seiu. "why don't you show up?" and it was a time he couldn't appear, and they said, "look, he's not showing up." and then he's being bombarded with telephone calls. every two-and-a-half seconds this week we had another call, sometimes from in the state, sometimes they're outside the state. you can't possibly respond to

all that. and it's not done with an intent to have dialogue on the issue. it's just an intent to harass and make the republicans look like they're not responsive. >> mm. nelson? >> the soda taxes, we see, has collected more than was expected in the first month. it's about $6 million. they expect about $92 million. the city council's concerned that they might not be able to collect the $92 million, because there's gouging going on. both the store owners are going outside the city to these cash-and-carries, buying the soda, and getting the tax, and not turning it in, and some other people who are selling to them are also not -- distributors are not turning in the tax. so there's an investigation going on regarding what those distributors are doing and how the tax is coming into the city. >> all right. ed? >> monica, a very sophisticated air force plane called the nuclear sniffer has been sent to norway because all throughout eastern europe, they are picking up increased level of radiological material in the air, and in all likelihood the russians are testing a new class

of nuclear weapons, probably in the arctic. >> mm! >> and all of that is just floating over to eastern europe. >> my goodness. george? >> steve bannon this week in talking to the conservative group in washington said that america has an economy that has to be protected and we're not responsible to protect the world economy. i think that if you talk toican companies who generate 30% to 40% of their revenue from outside of the country and see growth for them outside of the country, they're gonna be terribly concerned about america not being a part of the world economy. >> mm. all right. and that's "inside story" for this week. us. hope you have a terrific week ahead. thanks to all our insiders for your ideas. we hope to see you right back here next sunday morning. ♪♪ >> i'm nydia han allock with gray hall.

>> dozens of headstones at a jewish cemetary at philadelphia has been damage or destroyed reaction from loved ones as they wait to find out how this happened. new york times will debut a rare ad during tonight's oscars. it's drawing a from president donald trump. plus a man found dead inside an apartment and police are working to find out h pedestri do with it. >> those and more next on "action news."

good afternoon, it is sunday february 26, i'm nydia han along with gray hall. >> here's a look at the stories we're following on "action news," a disturbing discovery inside a jewish