Maryland governor on economy, gas prices, and Medicare

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (CBS, KYMA) - Gov. Wes Moore (D-Md.) spoke with Ed O'Keefe for a pre-taped interview for Face the Nation.

During the interview with O'Keefe, Gov. Moore talked about the pinch of gas and energy prices, and what he's doing, as governor of Maryland, to address this.

"We are feeling it, and it is true that, you know, a governor does not control the fact that energy prices have spiked over the past year. You know, my, my mom's energy bill in March of last year was $140. It's now creeping close to $500. Governors don't have full control over that. Governors can't control the fact that gas prices have gone up now over $1 because we decided to enter into another war of choice, that governors cannot control the fact that we are continuing to watch homes become more difficult and more expensive. But the thing we can do as governors is we can make sure that even though I don't control the price of food, that I can make sure that we're not doing price manipulation, and that these big corporations aren't gouging our customers, as we're doing here in the state of Maryland. You know, that I can make sure that even though we are watching energy prices rise, that we can hold these data center companies accountable and also making sure we're giving a rebate and giving something back to the people of the state of Maryland, which we're doing here."

Gov. Wes Moore (D-Md.)

When asked if he agrees with President Donald Trump's theory that gas prices will go down once the war with Iran is over, Moore said, "No, I disagree, because I think the president still does not have a full articulation as to why gas prices are going up in the first place, or what's going to be necessary or required to be able to bring them down."

Later in the interview, O'Keefe and Moore talked about the future of Medicare and Medicaid.

According to O'Keefe, President Trump argues, because of the 50 states, the federal government shouldn't have to pay for daycare, Medicare and Medicaid because "we have to take care of one thing: Military protection."

This prompted O'Keefe to ask the governor if a state could pay for Medicare, Medicaid and daycare without federal assistance, to which Moore said:

"Many of the decisions that this White House is making, they are making with a clear understanding that no state has a budget to say, 'Okay, well, we'll just take on health care, or we'll just take on food insecurity.' We saw that happen last year when the President of the United States broke the law in order to cut SNAP. In fact, we sued them, and we won, and we beat him in court on this...He actually tried to appeal the fact, you know, threw a temper tantrum, because he felt- because the judges told him that actually, no, you need to pay for food assistance for people. And what we ended up doing is, in Maryland, I actually took $63 million out of our fiscal responsibility fund, which is a fund that is made up of capital gains taxes. And I said, 'Well, I'm not going to let the people of my state go hungry, because Washington is throwing...having a food fight.' And so we made sure that SNAP and SNAP benefits were not going to be cut for the people of Maryland. But it is a deeply unfair ask to ask states and or governors, because we do things that the federal government has never done, we actually balance our budgets. And it is an unfair ask to ask us to take on what should be a joint responsibility, because the federal government has decided to stop doing its job."

To watch O'Keefe's full interview with Moore, click here.