this is a very bad idea. and the thing to do i think people should be calling the white house, calling their congressmen and saying go the other direction. tell the democrats -- the republicans you want to lower the age of medicare to 55 and make it optional at age 55. that's the direction we should be going. >> but if the numbers don't add up, and if you're going to spend twice as much money on health care, why would they even consider it? why was it even considered in 2011 for that matter? >> well, because i think that president obama is not nearly as progressive or liberal as a lot of people think. he surrounded himself with people from wall street. but also we have unfortunately had the liberal and progressives in the country reacting to what the right-wing republicans want instead of promoting their own agenda. >> sure. >> as long as you're reacting, you're playing defensive ball, you're going to lose the game here. the reality is that it will save us a lot of money if we get universal health care. in fact, if we got universal health care with no out-of-pocket expenses and ran it the way the french do, it's the functional equivalent of almost eliminating the income