Transcripts For FOXNEWSW The Journal Editorial Report 20160807

Seven or eight months ago as i recall. So far as i know, it had nothing to do with any kind of hostage swap or any other tit for tat. But donald trump warned that his opponent represents four more years of the same. We got our hostages back, and now we find out what we actually paid for the hostages, and it was in cash, which is terrible because that sets a terrible, terrible precedent. And its just sickening. And youll have four more years of obama if you elect Hillary Clinton. Joining the panel this week, wall street journal columnist and deputy editor, dan henninger, and columnist bret stevens. Maherian na Stacia Ogrady and bill mcgurn. So, bret, old news . Oh, no, its new and very interesting news because the Obama Administration never admitted back in january that they had sent 400 million in pallets of euros, swiss francs, to tehran in order to get those hostages released on the day they were released. This is fantastic reporting from our colleagues on the news side of the wall street journal. But they say that currency was simply to a technical matter, the foreign currency, because they couldnt use dollars in any transactions without violating the sanctions laws and that this was just part of this larger transaction. Whats the evidence, in fact, that it was ransom . Well, theres the incredible coincidence of timing. And weve had saeed abedini, who was one of the hostages, an american pastor who told fox news that he was sitting in the airport talking to an Iranian Intelligence officer, saying, why are we waiting to be released . And the answer from the intelligence agent was, were waiting for a plane to arrive. Presumably that plane was the plane with the pallets of cash. So the Obama Administration may deny until its blue in the face this was ransom, but thats not the way it looked to the iranian government. The iranian government did seem to believe, mary, that it was ransom because they have since taken three more hostages. And now are demanding even more money. Well, not only that, going back to that moment, the iranian government u. S. Officials admitted that the iranian government, even though they were separately negotiating the hostages to the iran nuclear deal, admitted that iran wanted some cash in exchange for the hostages. So they could show something tangible. You got to be able to put the money in the middle of the table and say we got it. Exactly. But theres also a pattern here. I mean if you go back to what happened between the Obama Administration and cuba, we had an american being held by the cubans, alan gross. The u. S. Wanted him back, and what happened . There was an exchange. Congress would not have allowed it, but president obama allowed four spies to be released. And in conjunction with that, he also opened more travel with the island, and we got alan gross back. So this is the president s pattern of going around congress to get done what he wants to do. And we dont know how the money was used. Cia director john brennan said the money theyre getting is being used for relatively benign things. Theyve also said before they know iran supports terrorism. The president s statement, we do not pay ransom for hostages is the obama version of, i did not have sex with that woman. I mean the iranians believe it was ransom. At least one hostage believes it was ransom. And his own department of justice seemed to believe that it looked and smelled a lot like ransom. They were warning about it. Although there isnt any sense that this is actually illegal, bret. Look, the money was basically money that was held over from a failed 1979 arms deal with the shah of iran. Mike mukasey pointed out in our pages the other day that, no, its not illegal, but it sets a dreadful precedent because the iranians have been in the business of taking hostages in exchange for money or political favors since the beginning of the Islamic Republic 38 years ago. Dan, despite the claims that the president made, i mean a lot of his defenders would say, look, whether or not it was ransom, get over it. This is something that if you wanted to get our people back, you had to do. Besides, if we didnt do it, the Iranian Nuclear deal wasnt going to happen. Therefore, this had to be done. It doesnt look pretty, but so what. Yeah, well i guess what were finding is not only is money fungible, but the facts are fungible as well. And as to the idea that we had to do this to get this invaluable nuclear deal with iran, one of the points which was to draw iran closer to the western sphere so we could have a relationship with iran. Well, how is that working, paul . Both the iranian and the Russian Press have been reporting recently that next week, Vladimir Putin and the iranian president are going to have a meeting in azerbaijan to discuss a military relationship. The Russian Ambassador in iran has been defending irans recent missile test as not a violation of the Nuclear Agreement and been touting the new military relationship between iran and russia. This is not the direction that that nuclear deal was supposed to take us in, but thats where were going. Briefly, bret, what about these next hostages, the new hostages . There are three of them. Theyve been taken since the deal. Yes. And theyre now demanding more money. Yes. In 2009, victims of iraniansponsored terrorism won a settlement to impound 2 billion worth of iranian money. The Supreme Leader is now saying that we want to get that money, and of course more hostages will be taken in the future inevitably. And they will not return unless we ante up. Exactly. You can expect the Obama Administration or likely the Clinton Administration to do it. All right. Thank you all. Still ahead, after a rocky weeks, allies are urging donald trump to get back on message. So can he . Our panel weighs in after the break. The campaign is doing really well. Its never been so well united. Well. Its never been so well united. Gary, gary, gary. I am proud of you, my man. Making simple, smart cash back choices. With quicksilver from capital one. Youre earning unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase, everywhere. Like on that new laptop. Quicksilver keeps things simple, gary. And smart, like you and i like that. I guess i am pretty smart. Dont let that go to your head, gary. Whats in your wallet . One of many pieces in my i havlife. Hma. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine. I talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. Oncedaily breo prevents asthma symptoms. 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Republican leaders urging donald trump to get back on track following a rocky week that included a fight with the muslim parents of a slain u. S. Soldier, not to mention members of his own party. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called trumps behavior selfdestructive and had this advice for the gop nominee. He has to take a deep breath. I think he has the potential to win the election. I think he has the potential to be a historical present. But to do that, he has got to grow into the side of the job and not get stuck where he has been, which frankly over the last week, i think has been very disheartening to most of his supporters. The controversies could be taking a toll with the latest fox news poll showing Hillary Clinton opening up a tenpoint lead in the race for president. Were back with dan hennen ger, mary ogrady and bill mcgurn. Joe ray go also joins the panel. Dan, when Newt Gingrich, who has been kind of the unofficial trump translator for the Republican Party, when he critici criticizes, donald trump, you know things are going badly. How bad is it . Well, its quite bad. I mean we had the fox poll. Hes down by ten points. In the wall street journal poll, hes down by ten points. And in the maris poll, hes down by 15 points. That is not going in the right direction. As Newt Gingrich says, he has all that potential. I think this is whats troubling Trump Supporters. Paul ryan said he won the primaries fair and square. He defeated 16 other candidates. Donald trump has this extraordinary gift for connecting to the American People or to some segment of them. He has a charisma that you simply cant buy. But bothering his supporters is why is he using that to attack people like the khans or even john mccain and not using it to take on Hillary Clinton . That is the main bout. Hes got these gifts. He should be using them against his opponent. What is this telling us, his behavior of the last week . He said the election may be rigged. I mean its extraordinary for a president ial candidate to basically tell the American People that the election might be stolen from them. Thats the kind of thing you hear in thirdworld countries. What is this telling us about trump as a candidate . Well, the main force of his effectiveness in the primaries was to talk to people as if hes on their side and that the establishment everything concerning the establishment is against them. So the idea that the election is rigged is an extension of that way of thinking, and he believes that that is why hes where he is today. So he wants to continue playing it. Also, i think his big problem is hes blaming the media. Again, he thinks that has resonance with the american public, but hes bringing this on himself because hes making it about himself, and hes missing all these opportunities to talk about jobs and the economy and terrorism and instead it always comes back to donald trump and how someone picked on him and how the media is against him. And that just doesnt have a lot of resonance with the broader public. Bill, ive been talking to Trump Supporters, some of his advisers, and what they say is, look, hes got to get on message. Right. This is a change election. The countrys unhappy. They want a change. Right. Hes got to make the case against obamas policies and clintons poll citizen and say, i can bring that change. And here are three or four ideas that i think will help make your life better and make america safer. Its just that simple. Right. Why wont he do it . Look, i think because hes not disciplined. This week i wrote a column likening him to the little rock coach who is always on offense. The High School Coach . The High School Coach who never never punts. Its a great offense, and he has the stats. But donald trump, to do that offense, you dont send your linemen after your own people or in the standing or something. You know, you got to direct it at the opponent. And what you mentioned is theres a lot of material for him to work with. The 1. 2 economy, the hillary emails, now the iranian deal. And hes giving mrs. Clinton a free pass. But worse than this, her best line at the convention, i think, was a man you can bait with a tweet is not someone you want to trust with nuclear weapons. So the worst thing about this is its playing to her portrayal of him as unhinged. So its not just that hes missing the stories that he could be doing. Hes confirming the way shes trying to paint him, and the polls, you know, at least for the moment seem to bear her out. And his politics, joe, is so personal. Its all about donald. Right. Democrats want to make this a referendum on donald trump, and donald trump seems thrilled that democrats want to talk about his favorite subject, which of course is donald trump. Thats just who he is. And before people who say were being unfair to trump, i mean if you look at the transcript. Washington post interview he gave this week, it was probably, i dont know, 30 minutes, 40 minutes. It was there was not on idea in there. There was not a policy in there. You dont see the trump people defending him on this. No, you dont. Like gingrich, its an important statement when someone like Newt Gingrich comes out like this because hes a trump supporter. Whats worrying is this is not the first time this message was delivered to him. He doesnt seem capable of changing. I want to hold on to the idea that perhaps he can, but hes heard this over and over and over again, and he doesnt respond. Who does he listen to, joe . I think he listens to paul manafort. I think he listens to a variety of his children . His kids. But does he listen to them enough, and can he stay focused on message . Theres only 100 days left. Right. Theres fewer. Can he stay on message . Maybe. I mean he just has to talk about things he talks about instead of the other things that he talks about. I mean he has raised some of these themes, and he actually he had a good fundraising month in july. So there is potential here if he can sort of steer himself in a more constructive direction. Thank you all. Still ahead, forget Hillary Clinton. Donald trump is taking on his fellow republicans . What the continuing feud signals about a broader conservative divide when we come back. Nals about a broader conservative divide when we come back. vo pro plan bright mind adult 7 promotes alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older. ray the difference has been incredible. She is much more aware. She wants to learn things. vo purina pro plan bright mind. Nutrition that performs. Donald trump ramped up his feud with fellow republicans this week, but after a contentious week of fighting within the Republican Party and in a surprising turn of events, the gop nominee decided late friday to endorse House Speaker paul ryan. Ryan is facing a primary challenge on tuesday from wisconsin businessman paul kneelen, who trump recently thanked in a tweet. So correct me if im wrong, mary, hes running against Hillary Clinton, not his fellow republicans. He won that battle. Why would he pick a feud like this . Right. I mean hes complaining about members of his own party, but if we go back to the convention, you have paul ryan, scott walker, you know, a number of republicans coming to his support. They were there. They supported theyve said he won fair and square, and so well support him. Right. But he believes again that all of his momentum in this is being against the establishment. So anybody who is not on his side has to be branded as a member of the establishment and has to be crushed. And without that, what does he have to offer . Nothing. Well, dan, i mean ryan basically has endorsed him, but ryan has said his endorsement doesnt necessarily mean he cant take issue with trump from time to time on subjects and thats what he did with his criticism of the khans, for example. I mean its not endorsement doesnt mean a vow of silence. Right. So why but heres the thing. Why does trump just not ignore that and move on . Well, hes marching to his own drummer, and everyone in politics has to march to their own drummer, paul. And these are politicians running for reelection all across the United States. The rule of thumb, as we all know, is that at the top of the ticket like in these state senate elections, if the top of the ticket, donald trump, falls more than five points behind his opponent, its very hard for these senators to compete. In the current wbur poll in new hampshire, kelly ayotte has fallen ten points behind her opponent, governor maggie hassan. Thats a stunning loss for ayotte who now has to decide whether to stick with trump or decouple. Pat toomey is facing the same thing in pennsylvania . His race against katie mcginty. Hes trying to struggle to decide whether he should stay with trump or go off on his own and basically follow his conscience. All of these candidates are now trying to figure out whether donald trump is running as an independent candidate and they are on their own, or whether they should associate with mr. Trumps candidacy. Joe, youve been following the paul ryan primary on wisconsin, which is coming up on tuesday. Whats going on there . And i know ive read that a lot of money from outside the state is coming in against ryan. How associated is this moment with trump himself . Its certainly part of the trump movement. I dont know how much its personally affiliated with donald trump. But some of his supporters, for sure. A lot of his supporters. A lot of his former staffers are helping out paul kneelen. Hes getting laura ingraham, breitbart. Com. All the trump media organizations are all pulling for kneelen. Look, trump hes not a policy man, all right . Right. But a lot of his supporters are. What they want to do is they want to purge the ryan wing of the Republican Party, and this is based on what issues . Trade, immigration, national security. I would say those are the big trump themes. If you are a Republican Party that purges the ryan wing, you really dont have a Republican Party. Look, i slightly disagree with joe. Im not sure its as driven by issues. Trumps whole theme is im the antiestablishment guy, and when i hear from Trump Supporters when they write, they lump everyone in. And, look, in politics we know these people have big egos. Oftentimes party people dont like each other, right . The difference with donald trump is that hes moved people from a private dislike to public nonendorsement or opposition. A lot the problem is a lot of people in his base like that. You know, they like that, but its not going to help him. Hes already got those people. He needs to move you and i are old enough to remember when paul ryan was the insurgent, trying to get votes on the floor for conservative budget reform. That was before you were a rhino, paul. But i mean the point is this cant help him politically trump. I mean if youre going to start purging the speaker of the house because he doesnt agree with you on trade, then thats a losers proposition. Well, i think his message is if im going down, im taking everybody with me. You think its that bad . Yeah, and i think that, you know, again what did he run on . What brought out the crowds . What made everyone cheer every time his name was mentioned . That he was against the establishment. So he really believes that this is his one theme that riles everybody up, and hes going with that. And if paul ryan wont get on his train, hes going to run the train off the tracks. All right. Thank you, mary. Much more to come in this onehour edition of the journal editorial report. Still ahead, Hillary Clinton creating some controversy of her own this week with some dubious claims about the fbis investigation into her private email server. Claims about the fbis americans are buying more and more of everything online. And so many businesses rely on the United States Postal Service to get it there. Because when you ship with us, your business becomes our business. Thats why we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. The United States Postal Service. Priority you with most of the media focused on donald trump, Hillary Clinton made stops this week in nebraska and colorado, outlining her plan to create jobs and attacking her opponent for making many of his products overseas. But before hitting the campaign trail, the democratic nominee generated a little controversy of her own, claiming on Fox News Sunday that fbi director james comey called her answers on the email investigation truthful. Director comey said that my answers were truthful and what ive said is consistent with what i have told the American People. That there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails. Clinton doubled down on that claim wednesday in a tv interview in colorado. Joe, truthful . No. I mean comey said almost the exact opposite of what she said. Is she referring to her testimony before the fbi . Is that what shes well, comey said she didnt tell the fbi anything false. But we have no idea what she told the fbi. The interview was never recorded, as it normally would be. It was conducted three days before the investigation wrapped up. And if you look at comeys testimony to congress when certain congressmen asked them about her public statements, he said the opposite of what she said, that that was false. So that to the public, she made a series of false statements about the email server, and she is hiding here behind the truthful reference about what she said to the fbi, which we really dont know what she told the fbi. Right. I mean its familiar clintonian rhetoric, which is very selective and legalistic and altogether untrue. Mary. Well, Hillary Clinton is just about the worst candidate that the democrats could put up. I mean she not only has a problem with truthfulness. But, you know, if we go over to the economy, she doesnt really have a plan to pull us out of this. The obama economy has been terrible. She could be linked to that. And, you know, i just think shes a very bad candidate. But look who shes running against. Heres the other thing, bret. Comey and the fbi really did give her a pass on this because they didnt interview her until, like joe said, three days before he made his big press event. Usually the fbi, with a subject of investigation or a target even, goes to the person and says, what happened here . They make a statement on the record, and then they go out and investigate, and theyll see if that statement measures up with what they found. Thats why we call him the political mr. Comey, because in my opinion he never intended to indict mrs. Clinton. He wanted to wag his finger but never to indict her because it would have been too politically charged. But it is unusual for them to wait that long to interview somebody like this, and this was a huge benefit to her. Oh, of course. But again we come back to the point that comeys conclusions in which he called her, what, extremely careless as opposed to grossly negligence was a matter of semantic parsing in order to avoid reaching the logic of his own evidence. Dan, lets turn to her economic plan because she and tim kaine are stumping on their jobs plan, and that jobs plan as far as i can understand, the center piece of it is a big, new, 275 billion spending plan on infrastructure. A terrible word, but it means roads and bridges and other things. That sounds to me a lot like a version of the 2009 stimulus. Well, paul, it sounds a lot to me like Franklin Delano roosevelts Work Projects Administration during the days of the depression. Shes talking about saying, were going to make the biggest investment in jobs since world war ii. Were going to build tunnels, bridges, ports, water systems. This is the sort of Economic Program you would propose if you were in the middle of a depression or a recession. Now, having said that, a lot of Americans Still think they are in a recession. They dont think the economys working for them. And if donald trump does not start making an alternative argument to what Hillary Clinton is proposing, im afraid, paul, that a lot of those Blue Collar Workers and unionists sitting out there listening to Hillary Clinton are going to say, im going to vote for the devil i know for these public spending projects rather than an alternative that i dont recognize at the moment. And we do need some public works. Yeah, sure. But, you know, in the 1980s, there was a famous song called turning japanese, and i feel like this is when in effect we are doing. For the last 25 years, japan has been trying to get its way out of a recession and stagnation with huge investments in public works programs, in infrastructure, and it has never moved their economy because infrastructure alone is a losing way of spending money. Return it to consumers. Return it to investors to have supplyside investments from the economy, moving things forward, not just building bridges to nowhere. I heard somebody said this week that the hoover dam took five years to build in the 1930s. It might take 50 years to do that now with all of the environmental permitting you would have to go through and the lawsuits. Lets not forget the stimulus plan that president obama launched was also supposed to fix infrastructure, and about 10 of that went to infrastructure. Also mrs. Clintons Infrastructure Program of 275 billion does not include a separate bucket of money that she wants to use to launch an infrastructure bank, which is spanish for corruption. Paul . You know, this is where Development Banks are where crooked administrations put all kinds of contracts and favors to cronies. So i think that would be another problem with her plan. Dan, we got about 30 seconds. Is it working . She spent the week after the convention in pennsylvania. The new Franklin Marshall poll has her ahead of trump by nine points right now in pennsylvania. He has got to get out there and staunch the bleeding because this message of hillarys seems to be catching on in some of these battleground states. Just briefly, what about the strategy of Hillary Clinton now of separating trump from the republicans in order to peel off some republicans for her campaign . Look, the polls suggest it may be working. I think theyre trying to say trump is worse than a normal republican, but now theyre saying all the republicans that are endorsing him belong to the trump party. So i think its a shrewd and clever strategy. All right. Well see how well it works going forward. Still ahead, zika fears grow as the cdc issued an unprecedented warning right here in the u. S. Are we prepared to combat the threat . The centers for Disease Control and prevention issued an unprecedented warning this week, advising pregnant women and their partners not to travel to a Small Community just north of downtown miami. Its the first time in history that the cdc has issued a travel warning within the continental United States, and it comes amid news that more than a dozen people in the wynwood neighborhood have been infected by the zika virus. Dr. Scott gottlieb is a practicing physician and the former Deputy Commissioner of the food and Drug Administration and a frequent contributor to the wall street journal. Good to have you here again. Its now first week of august. How bad do you think the zika outbreak is likely to be here in the snuts. Right. In the mainland u. S. , i think were going to get a handle on this. I think youre likely to see some isolated outbreaks. Were coming up on the end of summer, but these are going to be eminently containable. It comes down to effective mosquito abatement in the u. S. Weve had outbreaks of yellow fever and dengue in the past, two other virusesed spread by the same mosquito and weve been able to contain those to just isolated outbreaks. Is this the kind of infection that is going to happen and return in future years . Are we going have to is this going to be something were going to have to cope with every year for the foreseeable future . It might be like west nile where it becomes endemic for a period of time. Again, if we can get rid of the particular mosquito which has been spreading this virus, which we can do, we shouldnt see too many of these infections. The states have historically done a very good job at mosquito abatement. I bet theres not a single mosquito in orlando right now. I bet disney has skilled them all. Theres a lot of discussion in congress. We need to spend, you know, a couple of billion dollars more on this. Youre saying that the real key here is mosquito eradication . Right. And can that be used with pesticides that we currently have in our arsenal . Yeah, and theyre using those pesticides. If you look at what theyre doing in florida, theyre putting pesticides down the sewers. Is that particularly toxic . No. These are common pest sites that we use. This isnt a ddt situation where we have to waive our statutes against some destructive pesticides . I mean there are some pesticides that are potentially more effective that there are some limitations on the use, but theres lots of ordinary pesticides that can get hrid of these mosquitos. And these mosquitos dont range far. Really all you need to do is target areas where people live. You dont need to go into the swamps and abate the mosquitos there because those mosquitos arent going to come into Populated Areas. You just need to go into the Populated Areas and get rid of the mosquitos. All right. But as long as theres still a threat before we take care of that, what do you do if you are a pregnant young woman or somebody who could get pregnant or a partner who could get a woman pregnant . What should you do here . The interim . I think common sense precautions. A mosquito ranges during the day, not at night. Its most active at dusk and dawn. Long clothing at those hours. Deet containing pesticides are effective as well. If youre planning a family vacation, should you avoid florida . I wouldnt be worried about florida. Id be worried about south america right now and perhaps puerto rico if i had a wife who was pregnant, but i wouldnt be worried about florida at all. Theyre going to take care of this. They do good mosquito abatement down there. Why do we hear all of this clamor in washington, then . Spend more money. Spend more money. We need to spend a billion here, a billion there. Weve been told that theres still unspent money for the virus problem of last year. Right. I think theres a lot of political reasons why they want to have an emergency supplemental around zika. The reality is the money theyre talking about is going to go toward longer term measures like the development of a vaccine. I dont think a vaccine is going to be operative here. We have a vaccine for dengue fever thats feev. Fever. Theres 400 million cases in the world. Most of those are in the tropics. Very few people are using that vaccine right now. We also developed a vaccine for west nile, and it was never put into production. I think its unlikely we would use a zika vaccine if we had one, at least here in the u. S. So youre saying the debate about the money is basically political, people trying to get some advantage, saying, you dont care about the zika virus and therefore were going to hit you with it in a campaign ad. I think its become a republican issue because the republicans want to offset some of that money, and the democrats dont think a supplement should have to get offset. So thats become what the fight is about. Its not about planned parenthood. Theres also speculation that the white house wanted to bust some budget caps with this bill, so they were tied to that 1. 9 billion number. Look, the money will be helpful in the long run. But right now the states have money for mosquito abatement. Florida spends about 160 million a year already on mosquito abatement. So sylvia mothatthews burl stressed theyre moving hard on a vaccine. But youre saying that, number one, thats unlikely to move very fast at all, and even if we got one, it probably isnt all that crucial to solving this problem. Right. Well, certainly unlikely to move fast. Why is that. Because the Development Cycle for a vaccine for something thats otherwise not a very serious condition for most people, the regulatory hurdle is going to be very high before the fda allows an unknown vaccine to be used in people. So this is going to have to tested in tens of thousands of people. The reality is you really wouldnt use it here domestically because its just not prevalent enough. Still ahead, mou. Strugglin. What it could mean Health Insurance giant aetna announced this week that it is abandoning its obamacare expansion plans for 2017 and may withdraw from the exchanges altogether. The company now offers plans in 15 states and was set to move into another five. But after an expected loss of more than 300 million this year, ceo mark bert leeny is thinking that move just months after calling obamacare a, quote, good investment. Were back with dan henninger, joe rago and dr. Scott gottlieb. Joe, that was a big shocker from aetna because they have been the most committed of the big insurers to the exchanges. Right. Theyve really backed the social Justice Mission of universal coverage, and theyve said we have an obligation to participate, to try to make this work for as long as we can. So they were prepared to take very large losses in the first two years. This sudden turnabout is really big, and youve seen it across all the major insurers. Youve seen it across the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans that are nonprofits. I mean its an indication that as its currently structured, the law is not working as intended. Well, and i think aetna figured, look, if United Health is pulling out and some united pulling out and some of the other Big Companies are pulling out, we can get more market share and make money. So even if they are pulling out, they think these exchanges simply are not going to be profitable at all. There has really been a darkening of the mood among the insurers, among the managed Care Companies that the problems with the law cannot be solved under the current political arrangements in washington. So scott, the insurers backed obamacare in the beginning, i think in part because they thought that they had no choice politically, but also because they thought were going to get a lot more people to insure. And we can make more money. Why were they wrong . Because these exchanges turned out to be unprofitable markets. You had a lot of adverse because of the way the rules were minute. By adverse selection, you mean people who cost a lot of money to insure, not offset by healthy individuals paying premiums . Right. Because basically the administration wrote the rules, they wrote the rules in favor of trying to get more people into the market rather than allow a functioning market. They also tried to tightly regulate the profitability of the plan. Part of the problem here is attitudinal as well. They didnt want above maybe a 5 profit margin. They created rules to regulate the profitability. Thats why you saw no Investment Capital coming into the market and no new plans being formed there has been no new net plan formation since 2008. None . Zero. Its actually negative because the coops are going out of business now. For every health plan started youve seen exit. Thats because they tried to regulate the profitability. You didnt see Investment Capital come into the market. The other news this week is humana also shrunk its footprint in obamacare. They went from being in 1200 counties to 200 counties next year. So its not just aetna pulling out, its all the insurers. The only insurer growing its footprint are the medicaid hmos. Thats unfortunate what this is going to become. Thats a government program. Basically, thats a prescribe kind of care for low income people. Right. And the medicaid hmos generally provide very austere plans. Lets put it that way. A very delicate way of putting it. Bad health care. Thats going to be the kind of plan that can function profitably in this market. A plan that is not offering a lot of coverage. So what does this mean if you are somebody who doesnt work for an employer and get your insurance from an employer, you got to buy on the exchanges. What does this mean for their Consumer Choice and for premiums . Well, look, in terms of choice, youre just going to have a lot fewer option there are so many counties that are now being served by only one or two insurers. So youre not getting that competition. And under obamacare, all plans are essentially interchangeable. So youre going to get the same standard of care either way. In terms of premiums, theyre just going to keep rising. Theyre already high. For the 2017 planned year, were seeing doubledigit increases across the country. So youre stuck in a failing system. So, dan, lets make this political, since everything in American Life now is political. What and the obamacare made health care extremely political. Is this going to play, the facts that theyre describing going to play in the election . Thats a big question. The democrats, theyre saying this publicly, that they think obamacare is here to stay. They know it needs to be fixed. But they think donald trump is not going to make much of an issue of it. And therefore its being in their words depolitic sides. When Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, she can do business with the congress republicans. And the republicans have to had ad mitt that obamacare is not going away and theyre going to have to negotiate new tweaks to the Affordable Care act such as increasing subsidies. Im not saying thats going to happen. But their view is because trump isnt fighting it, the politics are draining out and they have the advantage. Scott, briefly, is the law going to be reopened in 2017 no matter who wins . Absolutely. And i think if clinton does win the election, youre going to see an effort to try to reform the law and move it towards more of a market based structure. There are ideas floating around capitol hill how you would fix the law. If she wanted to as opposed to driving the system towards more single pair government. Thank you, gentlemen. One more break. When we come back, hits and misses of the week. A replacement. In just a few clicks. With safelite you dont have to miss a thing. Yall did wonderful thank you. girls sing safelite repair, safelite replace. I thodid the ancestrydna toian. Find out im only 16 italian. So i went onto ancestry, soon learned that one of our ancestors was eastern european. This is my ancestor who i didnt know about. Is 22 pages long. Did you read every word . No, only lawyers do that. So when you got rearended and needed a tow, your Insurance Company told you to look at page five on your policy. Did it say great news. Youre covered on page five . No. It said, blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. The Liberty Mutual app with coverage compass™ makes it easy to know what youre covered for and what youre not. Liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. Time now for our hits misses of the week. Start us off. There is a hit for bill bratton who is step do you think as the new York Police Departments commissioner. Those of us who remember new york in the 1980s and early 90s remember what a hell hole it was for crime. Bill bratton was Rudy Giulianis first Police Commissioner and used broken windows theory in order to start dramatically reducing the crime rates in this city. He later did it also in los angeles. He has had a harder time of it under mayor de blasio and the erosion of that policing theory. But he showed us the way towards a safer america. And he deserves our thanks. Mary anastasia. This is a myth and any members looking to contain a nuclear north korea. This week they launched two ballistic missiles. One of them landed in japanese waters, 155 miles offshore. Ban kimoon, the u. N. Secretary general said he was deeply troubled by this. No doubt. And so am i. And he will be able to do as much as you could about north korea. Probably less. Bill . Big hits for success academys Crown Heights charter school. This is the school that is predominantly black, predominantly poor, and they scored the highest in math and english scores of any Grammer School in the state. Now this is also the chain of charters that the mayor treats as public enemy number one. And it reminds us that the reason charters are so hated is not because they fail, they go out of business. Because they succeed and they prove that poor and minority children can learn if given the right opportunity. Thank you, bill. Dan . Paul, i missed brazils unfortunate olympics. The big story is brazils failure to deliver adequate facilities to host the olympics. The host province rio is bankrupt. I think there is a lesson in here, which is we have to notice that bad economic policies and political systems that fail to deliver enough wealth for its even to stage an olympics or to support its own people. So i would say enjoy the performances out there. But do not fail to notice the bad economic policies that produced literally this mess. All right, dan, thank you. And remember, if you have your own hit or miss, be sure to tweet us to us jer. Thanks to all of you watching. Hope to see you here next week. And hello, everyone. Im arthel neville. Welcome to americas election headquarters. Hello. Everyone, im eric sean. Top of the news this hour, donald trump set to unveil his economic plan tomorrow. So what can we expect he will propose . And will it be enough to help him silence his critics after his rocky stretch on the campaign trail this week . Plus Vice President ial nominee tim kaine speaking out about the Hillary Clinton email scandals, promising both will be more transparent. So how is that going over with their critics . And a prominent scientist who helped our side by apparently giving information on