Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20170314

While the white house withholds what, if any, evidence it has to back up that claim, republicans are working to counter a health care problem, just a little one, 24 Million Health care problems in fact. Thats the number of americans cbo says will lose their health care a decade from now under the gop plan. Joining us now this morning vice chair of the Intelligence Committee senator mark warner, plus white house budget director milk mulvaney. Andrew cuomo and the massive storm that triggered a state of emergency shut down much of the northeast. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to morning joe. Joe has the morning off. With us on set on capitol hill senior political analyst for nbc news and msnbc mark halperin, political analyst and coauthor of game changer, associate editor of the Washington Post and msnbc analyst euGene Robinson, New York Times Jeremy Peters and in new york former treasury official and economic analyst Steve Rattner. We begin with the latest on the massive storm thats bringing much of the northeast to a standstill. The storm is working its way p the east coast with washington, d. C. , serving as the dividing line between the snow up north and the rain down south. Eight states in the northeast are facing blizzard warnings with parts of the region expecting more than a foot of snow and strong winds up to 50 miles an hour or higher. Federal agencies in d. C. Are now on threehour delay because of the storm. New york, new jersey, pennsylvania, virginia all declared states of emergency. Connecticuts government issued statewide travel ban. In new york aboveground portions of the city subway system are shut down. Am track says it will operate on a modified schedule while express will shut down service between new york and boston but offer limited service between new york and washington. Schools are closed in major cities including new york, boston, baltimore, and philadelphia. D. C. Public schools will start on a twohour delay. So far more than 5,000 flights have been canceled due to the storm while another 1,000 plus have been delayed. Good luck with that. Lets bring in bill karins for the very, very latest. Bill. Mika, biggest change, tracks a little closer to the coast bringing warm air off the atlantic, cut down snow totals in big cities on i95. 68 milli people impacted today from the storm but whats really amazing is that 31 Million People under blizzard warnings from burlington, vermont, to new york city to the trent area through much of massachusetts and all of the state of connecticut. Here is the latest snowfall projection, heaviest axis of snow, northern new jersey, this area of red is 18 inches of snow. Get to the pink, thats the 12 inch line. Boston not get a food. Hartford on the foot line. Philadelphia, northwest a foot. D. C. Messy 2 to 4 inches. Here is a look at the latest radar. You do not want to be on the roads around new york city. This is starting to be the peak of the storm, highest snowplow rates, plows have a hard time keeping up. Snow for pennsylvania. Now intensity move spot areas of the hudson valley. City specific snowfall totals when were all said and done. Right now an inch of snow in d. C. We added an inch of sleet. Still a lot of sleet mixing with rain around the city. 3 to 5 thats it for you, snow on the tail end, 4 to 8 for baltimore. Again, when you look at the heavy snowfall totals, 20 miles to the north of philadelphia we could talk a foot and a half in philly itself, of to 10, mixing with sleet, snow on the back side. New york city, 4 to 18. How about this, poconos and catskills, someone has a chance of getting almost 3 feet of snow out of this storm. Some of the bulls eye populated cities, hudson from albany to kingst kingston, poughkeepsie to newburgh, 2 feet from this storm. Yes, northeast for the most part shut down for the day today. Good news, in and out and done by tomorrow morning sunshine and warmer temperatures will arrive. We look forward to that, bill. Well watch that through the show. Back to washington, while the white house stumbles back the wiretapping claim, making plans for overhauling a health care a very tough sell this morning, much tougher than it first looked like, even within their own party. The report finds the number of uninsured will increase by 24 million peop over t next decade. The ranks of the uninsured will grow by 14 Million People next year. Three major factors. The bill takes away the current penalty for being uninsured. More will opt out from buying insurance. The tax credits in the gop bill are less generous than the current subsidies so purchasing health care will be overall less affordable for people. Some states will roll back their Medicaid Expansion so there will be a decrease in coverage for low income people will these are the questions weve been asking lawmakers every step of the way, will people lose their health care. The answer is yes. Over the tenyear period in the current plan, medicaid will undergo an 880 billion spending decrease with 14 million fewer medicaid enrollees. Thats a 1 reduction from the number enrolled under obamacare. Overall the percentage of u. S. Residents under the age of 65 without Health Insurance is projected to return to preAffordable Care act levels. Yesterday health and Human Services secretary tom price tried to project the data. The cbo looked at a portion of our plan but not the entire plan. In fact, the entire plan includes the regulatory apparatus that weve got the ability to use at health and Human Services. They also ignored completely other legislative activities putting into place. We disagree strenuously with the report put out. We believe our plan will cover more individuals at a lower cost and give them the choices they want for the coverage they want for themselves and their family not that the Government Forces them to buy. The cbo also found a substantial impact on the federal deficit. A reduction of 337 billion by 2026 compared to the smaller reduction of 124 billion by 2019 under obamacare. The stark net change in the deficit will come through limiting medicaid spending and ending aca tax credits. Okay. Where do we begin, Gene Robinson. Make america sick again. First of all campaigned on the people left out. They are going to be left out even more. Yeah portfolio if he campaigned on trying to connect with conservatives on any level or made any promises, is this conservative in any way. Its conservative in that it doesnt give subsidies, it gives tax credits. That makes it conservative apparently and also spends less money over 10 years by taking away health care from a lot of people. Imagine how this is going to play in a place like kentucky, where the number of uninsured fell dramatically under the Affordable Care act and now its going to go back up. Mark halperin, cbo, isnt that usually respected in terms of the data they put forward or is it more like trump speak these days where you respect something until you dont like what you hear, which has nothing to do with the facts. People trash cbo when they dont like their numbers. They can quibble, maybe they would win. I didnt think it would be a devastating report, i thought it would be a bump for him. How about now . Its devastating. Not just cut back in coverage but slashing taxes for wealthiest americans. That juxtaposition democrats will hammer effectively. I think a lot of republicans not only are afraid of the politics of this but substance. Its opened the eyes of republicans to the fact this legislation is going to require major change to pass. Republicans already in a little bit of a tough position with this president whether they know it or not or will admit it or not. This doesnt help. Theyre already fighting about this plan, are they not . They are. I think one of the things most striking about it in addition to politics, mark and joe are talking about, this notion of clear were going to cut medicaid for the poor and tax break to the rich, a really ugly contrast. The fact yesterday you saw how Little Republican Party was on the same page. Paul ryan doing the smart thing, cbo, thats the score keeper, make it better well accept that. Tom price, others trashing cbo. They knew this was not going to be a good report. Yet you have some factions wanting to embrace it, some wanting to trash cbo, some saying we havent read the report yet. There was a lack of coordination. If youre trying to do Something Big like this, you need to have all the players on your team going the same direction. Steve rattner, how do you look at the numbers . Every step of the way ive never heard anybody on the republican side reports this plan answer the question will americans lose their existing health care. The cbo appears to answer that pretty clearly. Sure, the cbo answered it clearly. It was a devastating report as mark said. The highest previous number out there was 15 million from the Brookings Institution which was usually dismissed as left leaning organization. Can the cbo be wrong . Of course they can be wrong. A metaphor apt today, weather forecasts arent always right but you try to guide your behavior by them, the cbo has in the past. I think its quite devastating. I think to johns point theres complexities here. Cbo is part of congress. I think its awkward for paul ryan took trash the cbo, especially when the director of the cbo was appointed by republicans, perhaps a little easier from the white house to walk away from it. The Republican Health care plan is clark with what President Trump promised voters on the campaign trail. Since after the election here is what he said in 2015 and 2016. Im not going to cut Social Security like every other republican and im not going to cut medicare or medicaid. Everything is going to be covered. This is unrepublican, the lower 4 or 5 cant afford private. Universal health care purchase im going to take care of everybody. I dont care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody will be taken care of much better than now. Uninsured person . They will be taken care of. How . I will make a deal with existing hospitals to take care of people. Make a deal. Who pays for it . The government is going to pay for it but were going to save so much money on the other side. She wants to knock the hell out of Social Security, knock the hell out of medicare and medicaid. Im going to save them. This is a reversal for democrat republican but im going to save them. January of this year, less than two months ago the president told washington potts were going to ha washingtone going to have insurance for everybody. Again, the new plan is estimated to make 880 billion in medicaid cuts and leave 24 million fewer people insured over the next 10 yea years. It really you can be off with your data just a little bit but i dont think the cbo is way off, are they, jerry . Probably not. The irony here, mika, the cbo director is somebody tom price had a major role selecting here. He talks about the vast experience cbo director has. On top of that the reason they selected keith hall was he was somebody they felt more comfortable with because previously director was giving projections on cost and deficit reduction obamacare would bring about that some republicans felt too rosey. Now the republicans dont like the numbers their handpicked cbo director is giving them. They are doing around trashing him, which is ironic. In the latest salvo between paul ryan and breitbart, the conservative website, has published a reported audio reporting of ryan telling republican congressional representatives that he would never again defend their partys president ial nominee. Remember breitbart did that article that prompted that tweet about obama being a flown that the president put out that hes now trying to walk back but not walking back enough. Its still in the news. Were going to get to that. Were going to cover it every day and figure out what happened there. Theres going to be investigations on capitol hill because of it as well. So breitbart has this audiotape which was allegedly reported october 10th during a Conference Call between ryan and House Republicans three decades after a decade old access Hollywood Video surfaced of donald trump making lewd comments about women to billy bush. Ryan can be heard telling House Republicans he would not defend trump then or in the future. There are basically two things i want to make really clear. I am not going to defend donald trump, not now, not in the future. You guys know i have real concerns about the nominee. Is it going to be a turbulent month . Many of you on this call are facing tough reelections, some of you are not. But with respect to donald trump, i would encourage you to do what you think is best and do what you feel you need to do. I guess he did what he needed to do eventually. You remember when this happened, the monday after the second president ial debate. Everyone was horrified. The access hollywood tape. There were reports, not on the audio, reported widely monday that paul ryan basically cut donald trump loose and told his members do what you have to do to save your skins and that was seen as a big moment politically in the course of the campaign. Theres not really news here. Whats interesting about it, especially coming after the weekend when paul ryan on face the nation was criticized so roundly for kind of trying to laugh off the issues around wiretapping, paul ryan carrying trumps water. Here is breitbart with connections to steve bannon in the white house turning around kicking the boot to paul ryan at the time they need paul ryan to get the Health Care Bill passed. The palace intrigue here is pretty fascinating. While the general substance of the call and ryans comments were widely reported at the time nbc news able to independently verify the recording. In response to breitbart, a ryan spokesman stated the world is aware of this history and a lot has happened since then. The alleged audio leak could not come at a worse time for ryan as the Republican Leadership tries to garner support for their Health Care Bill. It is certain to strand frayed relationship between white house and leaders on capitol hill who are trying to garner support for their Health Care Bill. That bill has infuriated some conservatives who see it as obamacarelite. Also worth noting President Trumps strategist steve bannon is the former chair of breitbart. Early in the day breitbart took time to highlight how the ryan plan will drop the number of insured by 24 million in 2016 citing newly released Congressional Budget Office report. Jeremy, you know, a lot of republicans were put in the position paul ryan was in to make a call on trump. I just wonder if they are going to get to the point where they have to do that again. With all the work they want to do, i can understand why they might be navigating and dancing a very fine line. But if this president keeps making boldfaced lies like obama being a felon and wiretapping trump tower at some point hes going to come to bear in congress and senate and say, you know what, we cant get behind this guy and we have to do something. I think the release of this breitbart tape, this is how it starts. This is how the relationship between paul ryan and donald trump starts to unravel. I would not be surprised if the tension over this Health Care Bill becomes so great theres a sharp break between the two of them. Youre already starting to see it happen. In the Oval Office Meeting donald trump had last week with conservative movement leaders, im told that he was already laying groundwork for throwing paul ryan under the bus. A couple of the leaders said to him, look, we havent heard from paul ryan, we havent heard from house Republican Leadership. They are not consulting us on this bill. Trump turned to them and said, you know what, im listening to you. You guys are here right now talking to me. You have my ear. That was a signal to him hes not necessarily in lock step with paul ryan. If he needs to, hell throw paul ryan overboard. I disagree. Whats going on . Only one speaker, one president. They are pretty as far as i can tell from talking to people on both sides, they are pretty in sync. They both have to figure out a way to be flexible but also get through a bill that looks pretty much at this point like the one they have already submitted. I think the president and ryan have a relationship. That reporting is from the stone age in their relationship. They dont have a choice. The reason ryan is accepting trump, the reason why hes working with him is hes the president of his party. Ryan wants to get things done. Its the only way to do it. I dont think the fact president showed flexibility was to undermine ryan, they are trying to figure out how to finesse the left and the right to get something. The question about this bill is, i dont think that republicans can defend this bill. Mainstream republicans in the house and senate especially can defend this bill. They are going to end up paying the price. 84 Million People will lose them. 14 million next year. Just in a year. They are going to have to muscle through the house and figure out how to change in the senate. I dont think theres any doubt now the changes in the senate are going to be more substantial than before the cbo. To try and prevent that type of hemorrhaging . The biggest problem will always be, weve already seen it, not conservatives in the house abandon the bill, eventually on their side, biggest problem whatever passed the house was always going to have problems in the senate. The senate is going to want something more generous and moderate. This makes the divide all the greater because this bill is in much worse state, much worse place. Senate moderates are going to be freaking out. Steve rattner though close here, the plan the president wants gives tax cuts to the rich and gets a lot of people, takes away their health care for millions of americans or makes it much more expensive. Is that what the existing plan does . That is a very good summary of what the existing plan does. Its essentially taking money from the poor for medicaid from the subsidies under aca and giving it to the rich through a bunch of tax cuts. To the point that was made before, yeah, i agree they can muscle this through the house. They are going to have trouble in the senate. Of course if they then move toward a more moderate bill to get to the senate its going to have to go to the house and face the same related issue back in the house with the right side of the party. So they are really between a rock and a hard place in terms of how they get this bill to a place where the public is a little more supportive of it, keep their conservatives on board and get their moderates on board. All right. Still ahead on morning joe, the Trump Administration missed its deadline to provide evidence supporting the president s claim that president Obama Wiretapped his phones in trump tower last year. Well explain what happens next. Plus well be joined by white house budget director mulvaney and Governor Cuomo who declared a state of emergency amid this winter storm. Vice chair of Intelligence Committee senator mark warner on set, republican adam kensethinger. Well be right back. Or here. Even here. And definitely here. At fidelity, were available 24 7 to make Retirement Planning simpler. We let you know where you stand, so when it comes to your retirement plan, youll always be absolutely. Clear. Time to think of your future its your retirement. Know where you stand. Time to think of your future announcer get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. So how old do you want uhh, i was thinking around 70. Alright, and before that . You mean after that . 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When they said they were going to make the sweaters for the chickens, i thought it was the most foolish thing i had ever heard in my life. They are so cute, you know. Never thought of it, a chicken would wear a sweater. Never. Im not sure that we can show scientific results but weve definitely seen some improvement in our egg production. I have chickens. I thought about the sweaters for the chicken because somebody sent me that leak. Thats bbc profiling in boston. Donna, gina and nugget are fantastic and nugget makes blue eggs. Ill bring some in. Just three. Donna. Gina and nugg. Does ari reprent them. They probably should think of signing soon. Anyhow, we will leave the chicken sweaters to the women in boston as we watch this storm, which is really giving the northeast one last punch this morning. Its a huge one. 70 Million People impacted by this major storm shutting down much of the northeast. Bill karins following this. Well keep you posted on that. Meanwhile the Trump Administration missed its deadline yesterday to provide evidence supporting the president s claim that president Obama Wiretapped his phones in trump tower last year. The Justice Department asked for more time to find what, if any, responsive documents may exist to back up the explosive charge, which president obamas office has denied. The house Intelligence Committee said it would extend the deadline to monday march 20th when its russia hearing gets under way. While a spokesman for the committees republican chairman said if the Justice Department doesnt meet the new deadline, the panel might use its subpoena power to gather information. Joe weighed in yesterday by a twitter writing, this is a joke, right . Im not being a smart ass here but Everybody Knows trump was lying about obama and the fbi tapping him. Everybody. Does anybody here disagree with that tweet . Solid. Good solid tweet. Solid tweet. Were having all these investigations. If the president was lying, dont you think at some point he ought to say i apologize, i am just an idiot. I will not do that again because it was idiotic. It was an idiotic move. Does anyone here agree he wasnt completely idiotic and embarrassing. Sean spicer walking it down. Wiretapping and wiretapping. Here is the thing. Here is where it gets actually worse. Think about it. This is ridiculous. People are saying ridiculous with a look of alarm in their eyes when they describe this situation. Sean spicer told reporters to direct the questionsbout the Committee Deadlines to the Justice Department and attempted to recast the meaning of the president s words. If you look at the president s tweet he said very clearly wiretapping, end quotes. There has been substantial discussion in several reports that bret baier from fox on march 3rd talked pout evidence of wiretapping. Theres been reports in the New York Times and bbc and other outlets about other aspects of surveillance that have occurred. The president was very clear in his tweet it was wiretapping. That that spans a whole host of surveillance options. He doesnt really think president obama went up and tapped his phone personally but i think theres no question that the Obama Administration, there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election. That is a widely reported activity that occurred back then. The president used the word wiretapping in quotes to mean broadly surveillance and other activities during that. When he says something, can we trust that its real . Yes. You said he meant wiretapping hement surveillance. He literally had it in quotes. So youre interpreting the tweet for us it sounds like. In some cases ill ask him what do the quotes mean. You asked him about that . I did. He said quotes referring to surveillance overall, something referred to in other reports. He cited other reports in his conversation with you. He did. Yes. Its almost hard to watch. The reporters in there, its hard to watch these reporters trying so hard to keep a straight face. And sean spicer who is a nice guy but hes got to stop. In the era of transparenc i dont understand whats going on with the Justice Department, why they need the extensn. Find the stuff and hand it over. What if there is nothing. You cant hand it over if theres nothing. The main thing about this argument they are having yesterday utterly meaningless, wiretapping, broader surveillance. The president made accusation. Serious one. The president has control of all these agencies. It is the case he could pick up the phone and answer the question in ten minutes whether he was wiretapping specifically or other forms of surveillance, what is the evidence upon which you based this claim, whatever that claim meant and then we can decide whether there needs to be an investigation or not. John mccain, senator john mccain says if you have something prove it. If you dont so its not pundits and analysts trying to, i dont know what, go off on television. Were just asking the question. I would like to know the answer to the question, were you lying, mr. President . Did you make it up . Was it some sort of little spurt of activity that you had out of need to have action . Id like to know where it came from because its a very serious allegation. It questions everything that you are about. It questions whether we can ever believe you and whether americans can ever believe you and whether this country is being run by someone who thinks this is a serious job or thinks its a joke. He can amuse himself on twitter every single day because he feels like it and spew out lies about people and call them names and make defaming claims about their reputations just because he feels like it. Are you that person or are you the president of the United States that we respect . I just want to know. Is this over the top . No. I really think its a good question. You ow,here was this whole sort of thing during the campaign, take him seriously but not literally. In fact, he is the president of the United States. So what he says has to be taken literally and seriously. Lets be honest, it was pure nonsense. There is no evidence that obama ordered wiretapping or surveillance of the Trump Campaign. Maybe we should just ignore it and move on, gene, what the heck. What you just said. You dont do you know, thats not right. It should be called out and has to be called out. The president should Say Something about it. He should say First Amendment rights. Well, actually he was defaming someone. We can spend the intervening week while we wait for them to meet the next deadline talking about health care. In a week we come back and see when evidence they hand over. Coming up cbo report find the number of uninsured under gop Health Care Bill will decrease the number of uninsured will increase by 24 Million People over the next decade. Steve rattner has been crunching the numbers. Weve got his charts next on morning joe. Can i get some help. Watch his head. Im so happy. Whatever they went through, they went through together. Welcome guys. Life well planned. See what a Raymond James Financial Advisor can do for you. Why do so many businesses rely on the u. S. Postal service . Because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. Thats why we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Here, there, everywhere. United States Postal Service priority you bp uses flir cameras a new thermal imagining technology to inspect difficulttoreach pipelines, so we can detect leaks before humans can see them. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. We disagree strenuously with the report put out. Strenuously object. Objection. Overruled. No, i strenuously object. Oh, strenuously object, so i should take time to reconsider. Perhaps do that. Steve rattner has been crunching cbo numbers for you. Steve, what did you find . He can object strenuously but the numbers are what they are. To start with people who Lose Health Care, you mentioned 24 million number. Lets break that down a little bit. From the total of 24 million you see here in 2026, they are going to lose, 14 million are going to be lost from medicaid, regular medicaid and expanded medicaid obama im sorry President Trump president obama put in place. These are amongst the poorest americans. 3 million who buy them on the exchange will lose their insurance. Here is something a little surprising, about 7 Million People will actually lose employerbased insurance under this in part because they are removing mandate on employers to provide insurance. The impact of this by 2026 can we go back to the previous chart for one second . The impact will be take the uninsured rate down onfrom 10 , 18 back to 19 , all the way back from where we came. If you look at the next chart, you can see the tax credits President Trump is offering are not a substitute for the subsidiaries obama offered. Let me illustrate this with somebody with 26,500, lower income person in 2026, you can see they would have gotten under obama a subsidy 12,600, now a tax credit of 4,500, so not nearly enough if youre 60 years old to pay for your insurance. Same is true to a lesser degree at ages. If you make 68,000, get same exact tax credits, not a subsidies under obamacare because it was deemed obamacare subsidies were not needed for to you pay for your Health Insurance. Bringing this all together is perhaps the most remarkable example how they are taking money from less well off people and giving it to more well off people. 880 million in medicaid cuts, another 675 million to end aca subsidies. They are giving back about 542 million through their own tax credits. But the btom line is a netcut of 1. 1 trillion in Health Care Assistance for people of lower incomes and for the poor. Against that they are cutting taxes by 785 billion, the vast preponderance of that go to people making over 250,000 and to businesses, all of it really going to those groups. Thats how they got the reduction in the deficit. Essentially cutting what youre giving to the less well off people, giving a good bit of it back to rich people and a little bit of deficit reduction. Steve, thank you. Mark halperin, the cbo is nonpartisan. It is. The numbers crunched by cbo showed President Trumps Health Care Plan gives tax cuts to the rich and takes away health care from the very people who voted for him. The power of these charts are, those are facts that cant be disputed. They can dispute the cbos coverage number, the number of people losing coverage, in part they are saying were doing other things besides this one bill that will create a market to allow people to be covered. They can create a market but its tough, the number so high who loses coverage. Steves chart, who are the losers, steves chart shows you who the losers are. Older people. People who are going to pay much more in the shortterm at least. Theres no way around that. You marry that with the fact rich people are going to get a huge tax cut and something is going to have to give. This is not politically sellable going forward. Im not sure why a republican would sell this. Arent they going to get voted out of office. They have a vision of how the Health Care Market should work that requires radical changes not just from the Affordable Care act but this would be a radical change frothe syem that existed before the Affordable Care act. Thats what they have run on for eight years. They are determined to do it. They have a chance to sell the country on a different system but they are doing to have to be honest about people who are losers. Steves charts are not disputable. Facts. Okay. Still ahead on morning joe. With all due respect to our speaker, he and i must have read different scripture. The one i read calls on us to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, shelter the homeless and to comfort the sick. It reminds us we are judged not by how we treat the powerful but how we care for the least among us. Congressman joe kennedy, the grandson of rfk calling out the House Speaker for describing the Republican Health care bill as a, quote, act of mercy. He joins us straight ahead. And a look at snowy philadelphia, which is in the grips of the massive blizzard. States of emergency in new york, new jersey, connecticut, virginia and more. Well check in with bill karins in just a bit on that. Weve always been dreamers. Weve been a symbol of the future. A standard. A star. But our past is just that, past. What lies ahead is in our hands. We are pioneers. Making cars that push the limits of imagination. Cars you can drive without your hands. Cars built for tomorrow. So, our greatest achievements cant lay behind us. Because our destiny lies ahead. Thats what it means to drive the world forward. Thats what it means to dare. Z2a1fz zx9z y2a1fy yx9y at angies list, we believe there are certain things you can count on, like what goes down doesnt always come back up. [ toilet flushes ] so when you need a plumber, you can count on us to help you find the right person for the job. Discover all the ways we can help at angies list. Because your home is where our heart is. Are made with smarttrack®igners material to precisely move your teeth to your best smile. See how invisalign® treatment can shape your smile up to 50 faster today at invisalign. Com this is the story of Green Mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. Lets take a trip to la plata, colombia. This is boris calvo. Thats pepe. Boris doesnt just grow good coffee, boris grows mindblowing coffee. And because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even Better Coffee and invest in his communy, which makes his ighbor, gustavo, happy. Thats blanca. Yup, pepe and blanca got together. Things happen. All this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain coffee. Packed with goodness. Scandals happen all the time. The question is how do democracies handle scandals. What for the wider region . Children brought in. Shifting sands relations in the north may change . I would be surprised if they do. Pardon me. My apologies. My apologies. North korea south korea you know what this reminded me of, almost like a giant metaphor for Trump Administration. We made it clear first was done in compliance with u. S. Code and authority granted the president. This time when we execute this, its done in a manner thats flawless and so its not a question of delaying, its a question of getting it right. Weve taken the courts opinions. That was good. That was good use of that. That video is so cute, isnt it . The little girl walking in and the baby. Better special effects than jurassic. I know. Weve been trying to book that professor but he wont come on. I think he wants his work to speak for itself with dignity. Let me just tell you, he just got International Acclaim and my respect forever. Dont you pick your kid. So cute. This is a good one. Get ready. Two former advisers to donald trump, the donald Trump Campaign, are offering protection now from tweet risk. The term for what happens to a companys reputation and stock price when President Trump tweets negatively about that company. You know that could happen at any moment. You are all at risk of a tweet. The New York Times reports that former Trump Campaign manager Cory Lewandowski and Senior Adviser bennett and their company avenue strategies are offering such a service, telling the paper, quote, if hes going to come after you, theres nothing we can do to stop it. But if you want to figure out how to win in this environment, we can help you. Were your sherpa through turbulent times. The company says they advised Lockheed Martin from how to recover from a december meeting President Trump tweeted afterwards based on tremendous cost and cost overruns, ive asked boeing to price out comparable f18 super hornet. Trump said lockheeds meeting did not do well due to boring presentation by chief executive. Lewandowski says he does not want to be seen as cashing in and called that suggestion absolutely disgusting. I should have done a pregnant pause. Tweet risk. I cant even what . The protection racket. Here is the deal. If they are making a lot of money, theres a lot of tweet risk out there. The risk of the president tweeting something absolutely absurd and apparently untrue or defaming is a possibility. We have seen that. That has happened in the past ten days. What about the risk of two former trump advisers saying, you know, nice Little Company youve got there would be too bad if a certain president tweeted all over it, so you might want to hire us. Which part of draining the swamp does this fit into . Oh, my god. Jeremy peters, chime in. Is this a saturday night live skit . Tweet protection in it sounds like something you would see on saturday night live. Mark is exactly right. This is what undermines trumps drain the swamp pledge, just like he promised to ban lobbyists and infuse his government with people who are going to shake up the established order. Hes handing the keys to the kingdom to people who probably shouldnt have the keys. But doesnt it actually undermine the presidency to have a president that tweets out lies and defaming statements about people that cant be backed up or proven by a senate Intelligence Committee or the Justice Department . I mean that enall seriousness with all due respect. Who wants to take it . Who wants to take that question, does this undermine the president . Yes. This undermines the presidency. It undermines the trust in the highest office of the United States. I mean, its just its absurd. It also undermines the private sector. How do you function as a businessman when you can wake up any day and find donald trump tweeting something about your company that is likely to be false as it is to be true. Wouldnt that be considered abuse of power . You could make that argument. Defamation . Couldnt you sue . Depends on what he said. Okay. Still ahead, the latest pushback from republicans on cbo. Well talk to director of Office Management and budge milk muck lvaney who queioned whether the office could do the job its known to do. Plus well go live to the white house as the administration finally tries to offer some answers on the president s wiretapping claims one week later. Of course we continue tracking this major winter storm that has parts of the northeast shut down. 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Shall we initiate the restart sequence . Thrivent mutual funds. Managed by humans, not robots. Before investing, carefully read and consider fund objectives, risks, charges and expenses in the prospectus at thriventfunds. Com. Only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol® i hope everyone is staying safe and warm tonight because were expecting a huge blizzard. Up to 18 inches of snow from what the Weather Channel has dubbed winter storm stella. For winter storm stella, lets go to the Weather Channels jim cantore. Stella thanks, jim. Oh, my gosh. Welcome back to morning joe, it is tuesday march 14th. Joe has the morning off. Were live this morning in capitol hill, washington, d. C. With us we have senior political analyst, mark halperin, New York Times Jeremy Peters, former treasury official and economic analyst Steve Rattner in new york. And joining the conversation we have capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt who has been covering health care over the past few weeks. Cant wait to hear the questions weve got this morning on the cbo report. We begin this morning with the latest on the massive winter storm that is bringing much of the northeast to a standstill. The storm is working its way up the east coast impacting roughly 70 Million People. Eight states in the northeast are facing blizzard warnings with parts of the region expecting more than a foot of snow and strong winds up to 50 miles or higher. Some areas of new york state may approach 3 feet of snow. Federal agencies in d. C. Are now on a threehour delay because of the storm. Philadelphia government offices also on a delay. New york, new jersey, pennsylvania and virginia have all declared states of emergency. A statewide travel ban is in effect in connecticut in new york abovegroundortions of the citys subway system are shut down. Metro north has announced it is operating on a sunday schedule. Am track says it will operate on a modified schedule while excela express will shut down between new york and boston but limited service between new york and washington. Schools are closed in major cities including new york, boston, baltimore, and philadelphia. D. C. Public schools will start on a twohour delay this morning. So far more than 5,000 flights have been canceled due to this storm while another 1500 have been delayed. Lets bring in meteorologist bill karins on the very latest. How is it looking, bill in when is the going to be over . Mika, were continuing to watch the storm, now becoming noreaster. Winds picking up and intensity of snowfall will increase. 31 Million People and risk of blizzard conditions from new jersey, pennsylvania, new york all the way up to burlington, vermont, and areas of southern and central new england. Here is the latest snowfall prediction. The snowfall total some has come down. The pink shows you where the foot is. That footprint is away from the coast, all interior sections of new england and upstate new york and eastern pennsylvania. The big cities on i95 dealing with mixing issue, snow and sleet. Thats why totals are a little lower. If fin has a good chance of getting over a foot, new york city area. Here is a look at the latest regarded showing this yellow. Thats heavy rain. Thats coming north into the cold air. That is when were going to start to get prolific amounts of snow. Two to three inches an hour, whiteout conditions, not a time to be on the road anywhere from southern portions of new england and also outside of new york city. Additional Snowfall Forecast not much more expected around areas of washington, d. C. , baltimore, d. C. Probably more like 3 inches beltway southward, north 5 inches, baltimore 4 to 8. 8 inches on the north side of the city. Philadelphia, same. Jersey shore zero, northern will see 2 1 2 feet of snow. Thats how tight a gradient between nothing and a ton. It could be a situation where bronx gets 14 inches and queebs out towards jfk airport may only end up with 6 or inches of snow. Again, when you start mixing and having issues with sleet and snow, it really affects snowfall totals. If you want the blockbuster totals, areas with tons of snow, hudson valley, catskills, berkshires and poconos and a little less in areas of cape cod. Mika, we didnt talk about the winds. We will see scattered Power Outages, areas of long island as we go through the rest of the day. Back to you. Bill, thanks very much. Well check back in shortly. In a moment well get to white house stumbling to walk back the president s wiretapping claim. That comes as a study by nonpartisan cbo making republican plans for overhauling health care and even tougher celine within their own party. The report finds that the number of uninsured will increase by 24 Million People over the next decade. 24 million. The ranks of the uninsured will grow by 14 Million People next year. The three major factors the bill takes away the current penalty for being uninsured. So more will opt out from buying insurance. The tax credits in the gop bill are less generous than the current subsidies, so purchasing health care will be overall less affordable. Some states will roll back their Medicaid Expansion so there will ab decrease in coverage for low income people. Over the tenyear people in the current plan medicaid at 888 billion spending decrease with 14 million fewer medicaid enrollees. Thats a 17 reduction from the number enrolled under obamacare. Overall the percentage of u. S. Residents under the age of 65 without Health Insurance is projected to return to preAffordable Care act levels. Yesterday health and Human Services secretary tom price rejected the data. The cbo looked at a portion of our plan but not the entire plan. In fact, the entire plan includes regulatory apparatus that weve got the ability to use at health and Human Services. Also ignored completely legislative activities we put in place. We disagree strenuously with the report that was put out. We believe our plan will cover more individuals at a lower cost and give them the choices they want for the coverage they want for themselves and their family not that the Government Forces them to buy. The cbolso found substantial impact on deral deficit, reduction of 33 billion by 2026 compared to the smaller reduction of 124 billion by 2019 under obamacare. The stark net change in the deficit will come through limiting medicaid spending and ending the aca tax credits. Meanwhile politico reports that a white house document had forecast even higher rates of uninsured americans than the 24 million by the cbo. The conclusion that 26 Million People would lose or drop coverage over 10 years. White House Communications director said it was not an analysis but the office of management and budgets attempt to predict the cbo score. Oh, my god, kaci. So far Steve Rattner says its okay to boil it down to the rich will get tax cuts and poor people will Lose Health Care. I actually think thats a fair assessment. They are shifting how they are going to spend money, poor peoples insurance, putting variety of tax breaks 1. 2 billion reducing spending things like medicaid and 0. 9 billion adding things in, the cost of these tax cuts. Thats how under the circumstances to 337 billion savings. Thats also what has moderates, particularly in the senate frankly very umbrella happy with this. I mean, if youre tom cotton, youre in a really weird spot. Really weird. He would be one of these conservative house members if he was still in the house. Theres almost no question in my mind. Now hes working with the governor of arkansas who expanded medicaid. Obamacare generally is working in the state. They have set it up in kind of an interesting way, the insurance system in arkansas would fall apart. Thats how republicans got themselves in this situation but first republican reaction. The rest of the partys response to cbo news was as divided as their ideas on how to fix health care. Speaker paul ryan saying, quote, this report confirms that the American Health care act will lower premiums and improve access to quality Affordable Care. The cbo also finds that this legislation will provide massive tax relief, dramatically reduce the deficit and make the most fundamental entitlement reform in more than a generation. Actually, i think if you read this entire report im encouraged by it. It exceeded my expectations. Of course the cbo is going to say if youre not going to force people to buy something they dont want to buy, they wont buy it. At the same time they are saying, our reforms will in and lower premiums and make health care, therefore, more accessible. This is part one of a threepart plan and thats hawaii iwhy im. Reno gazette said looked like nancy pelosi was more efficient. Maybe not right but much more efficient with her peoples time. Not a great start. Susan collins of maine called the scoring a cause for alarm asking the house to slow down and reconsider parts of the bill. Bill cassidy told reporters, yeah, its awful. Huh . When asked about 24 Million People projected to lose coverage by 2026 he added, quote, of course its concerning. I try and avoid hyperbole and adjectives but its always a concern. Even before scoring came out some highprofile republicans had their doubts . Are you going to vote for speaker ryan plan as it looks right now . You know, im not prepared to vote for it as it is right now. Thats not because of a specific this is unacceptable but because i think we can do better. Let me just say this about the socalled threephase process. Thats just not going to happen. Thats just politicians talk. Its all talk. Phase two is as yet unwritten regulations which are going to be subject to the whims of judge in america. Phase three is some imaginary bill that might pass with democratic support. If we had democratic support we wouldnt need phase two and phase three. Still, the House Budget Committee set to mark up the bill thursday. Mark halperin, how did republicans get themselves in this situation. Theres a l of discussion they didnt sell the plan well. Now is it the right plan . Political, conservatively. It falls short of what the president promised in terms of coverage, certainly falls short being politically safe. What ryan and other republicans are banking on they can sell it, substantively correct. The problem with that is cbo cast doubt about whether substantively this plan should pass given what republicans claim their own goals are. When you think about the way you look at not just Susan Collins of the world but people like david purdue supporting trump in every instance, now saying the same thing. Theres a chorus on the senate side from moderate to the conservative in the senate who are all basically saying this is not going to work on this side of the hill. Mark said earlier you can try to jam something through the house and get it over to the senate. The differences between the house and senate are so profound in terms of how they look at this, i think they have wandered off to a place thats fog to be really hard, the gap between what these two sides of capitol hill see as acceptable and doable and politically sellable and substantively correct is really vast right now. Really vast. The divide between House Republican leaders and white house in reaction to this. Tom price and milk mulvaney walking to microphones, to talk to reporters. Saying we havent read all of it but we reject them. This is not the deal. This is not what President Trump planned to do on the campaign trail. If you listen to speaker ryan, this is exactly what hes been trying to do for his career. This is what the conservative Republican Party wants. I think that, if anything is going to cause this bill to fail is going to be the white house saying forget it. We cant do this. Another layer on top of that, breitbart with its connections to steve bannon in the white house taking this moment. Today. To stick the boot into paul ryans side by leaking this audiotape of ryan distancing himself. They were out to get ryan. All of a sudden another kind of dirty, nasty breitbart piece which gets the president in big trouble on saturday mornings, because if he only reads breitbart and doesnt read anything else, he doesnt actually have good information. Unfortunately it gets him in international trouble with the entire world seeing him as a liar, as someone who does not tell the truth on twitter about the former president. But now breitbart is rearing its ugly head again. All of a sudden, just out of nowhere, some audio of paul ryan has been put out by breitbart, the conservative website that was run by steve bannon. Im sure he had nothing to do with this, but here it is. Paul ryan right after the access hollywood scandal where donald trump said those lewd things about grabbing women by their private parts to billy bush. Here is the tape of paul ryan shortly after that access Hollywood Video aired and horrified a lot of people. Take a listen. Theres basically two things i want to make really clear, i am not going to defend donald trump. Not now, not in the future. You guys know i have real concerns with the nominee. Is it going to be a turbulent month . Many of you on this call are facing tough reelections, some of you are not. But with respect to donald trump, i would encourage you to do what you think is best and do what you feel you need to do. All right. Breitbart releasing that audio, just happens to be today. Does anybody think its coinciden coincidence . Nah. While comments widely reported the times has not been able to independently verify the recording. In response to breitbart a spokesman said the world is well aware of this history. Obviously a lot has happened since then. As pointed out, comes as congressional leadership tries to garner support for their Health Care Bill. It is nearly certain to strand the already frayed relationship between the white house and leaders on capitol hill who are trying to garner support for their Health Care Bill. That bill has infuriated some right leaning conservatives who see it as obamacare light. So just republicans just keep in mind that if the president doesnt like you, they will come after you. They will do things like this, that sort of chip away at your credibility. Now, i dont know if thats somebody you want to work with, if you want to do business with. Sometimes the deal is not worth it. Jeremy peters, chime in. No. I think youre right there, mika. They are coming after ryan and doing it in a couple of different ways. One of the things youre hearing on the right is the nickname for the bill. Its not trump care its ryan care. Thats the name conservatives have given it, pejorative, trying to tar ryan with a bill thats likely to run into significant trouble first in the house and then definitely in the senate. I mean, the problem here is the hard right conservatives are falling on their sword of principle here. Its very hard politically to defend a right not to have health care. Thats effectively what republicans are saying here. We dont want to force americans to buy health care. Okay. But in the process you unravel this governmentrun Health Care System that like it or not is the reality. So thats where you start to see this getting very, very messy, especially in the senate where moderates hate the bill for a completely different reason than hard line differences who want to dismantle obamacare. Theres no way the cbo report is going to be buried under a blanket of snow and forgotten. Its going to be a talking point for democrats and a lot of senators. My question is we know where ryan is and his belief he can coral the votes. Where is Mitch Mcconnell . What does he think about cotton and others speaking out certainly. Look, thats the question of the hour. Even if paul ryan pushes this through the house, entirely plausible to get 216 votes in the house i think is the general thinking on capitol hill right now. But what mitch mccom is going to do is an entirely different proposition. Hes of course weighing a number of factors including does he retain control of the senate in two years. This is an issue that democrats essentially fell on their swords. Nancy pelosi was speaker of the house, passed health care. There are other factors going. She ultimately wasnt speaker of the house anymore. They lost theenate as well. I think thats the set of calculations that mcconnell has to make. I think theres generally a sense hell be able to change it in the senate, but i think when they send it back again with the way the white house is on this, i dont know if i see it. Mcconnell saying recently what hes going to do is take the house bill and take it straight thats what hes been saying. Seems hard to believe given how shrewd Mitch Mcconnell is, the state the bill is now in, is going to take the bill as is. Doesnt have 50 votes. If he doesnt have 50 votes. Good point. Steve rattner, your thoughts . A couple of things. First of all, remember that while the white house may be trying to make this into ryans bill, mulvaney and price were very close allies of ryan. The white house deeply involved in drafting the bill and certainly signed off on it. Certainly i think kasies point is right, they are between a rock and hard place they can pass the senate, hard to pass in its current form and equally hard to imagine whats it likes when it goes back to the house. I dont think theres ever been a time in our history where weve taken a major social program thats been in place, that people are benefiting from and yanked it away. This would be something without precedent in american history. So i think i would probably take the under on the odds of whether this thing ever emerges in anything like its current form or not. Which would then say their number one goal to repeal and replace would then be a massive failure. Here is the risk. One of the things ryan did in his lecture last week when he got up in front to try and explain this. He said this is our only shot. Desperation is always an unlucky thing. Now he set it up so the stakes are if this fails, republicans fail to appeal obamacare. That is a tough place to be. If they get it through they also fail. So wow, okay, thats a great place to be. Thank you, mr. President. Still ahead on morning joe. Do you have anything more . Bottom line the question you have not answered. I have answered. Can you say affirmatively whenever the president says something we can trust it to be real. If hes not joking, of course. Just yes or not, are cbo numbers legitimate or not . Thats not my determination to make. No, it depends legitimate . It depends. Hold on. Hallie, you guys have like an nbc thing. They are like waving their arms, trying to say we want a straight answer, just please. Here is a square. Is this a square, yes or no sean spicer. Am i making a square . Its unbelievable. He cannot answer one question. Make that square again. It was a triangle. Its a circle. Thats literally what the conversation is looking like and these reporters are incredulous. Its incredulous. Were going to bring in peter alexander. Im going to ask how hes doing mr. Incredulous himself. Also joining us the head of the office of management and budget milk muck mulvaney openi questioning the cbo report before it was released. Well talk live to Governor Cuomo as he leads the state through another weather emergency. Youre watching morning joe right now. Kevin, meet your father. Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin Kevin trusted advice for life. Kevin, hows your mom . Life well planned. See what a Raymond James Financial Advisor can do for you. Heres to the wildcats this i gotta try. Bendy. Spendy weekenders. Whatever kind of weekender you are, theres a hilton for you. Book your weekend break direct at hilton. Com and join the weekenders. At angies list, we believe there are certain things you can count on, like what goes down doesnt always come back up. [ toilet flushes ] so when you need a plumber, you can count on us to help you find the right person for the job. Discover all the ways we can help at angies list. 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Side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headach tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Ask your dermatologist about otezla today. Otezla. Show more of you. 22 past the hour. Joining us andrew cuomo out working early this morning because of massive storm. How is it going in new york, sir . Im on overtime this morning, mika. Its going okay. Its difficult for us, because this is across the entire state. Normally with the geography of new york, we normally have it on the east side or west side but this is statewide, so we have all across the state. We have 5,000 plows out, 2,000 national guard. Weve been through this a number of times, so were prepared for it. Airports have basically closed, laguardia and jfk. Government is basically closed. Schools are basically closed. So theres no real reason to be on the roads and we made that clear yesterday. The rate of snowfall is problematic. Its about 3 inches per hour. 3 inches per hour is basically the point you cant keep up with it with the plows. But by and large so far so good. Well see how we do as we go through the day. Youre asking most people to stay home, nonessential state employees being asked to stay home. Mass transportation is that operating at all on a limited schedule . Subways, underground subways in new york city are operating. The railroad, Long Island Railroad and metro north are operating. Metro north were going to suspend later in the day because metro north goes to the northern part of the state where the snowfall is heavier. Buses are working in new york city on an intermittent basis depending on the route, but we may suspend bus service according to rainfall. Theres no reason to be on the road. When one car gets stuck, mika, as you know, it makes everything harder for emergency workers, et cetera. Mark halperin has a question for you. While we have you here, i want to ask you about health care, which is huge for constituents. What is your posture about Republican Health care bill and what are you doing to try to counteract its movement through washington . You know, mark, first we have to see what it is. Obviously the consequences for a state like new york are devastating depending what they do. We have 3 Million People insured under obamacare. What are you going to do with 3 Million People. Medicaid is a big piece of our bud budge. They talk about block grants, turning it over to the state. The question is black grants do they pass the money. You remember the old experience passing the buck without passing the bucks. Governor of new york, my fear is the rhetoric of give it back to the state sounds great. But if you give it back to the states and cut funding youre putting states in a terrible situation. I get the political appeal of repeal obamacare but be careful what you ask for a little bit this is the dog that chases the car. What are they going to do . You have millions of people affected. You could definite tate a state budget. I just did my budget. I said, look, i dont have a contingency plan. I dont know what they are going to do. They could take a action for which there is no contingency plan. Theres been rumors they could cut the state of new york, 2, 3 billion. I cant make up 2, 3 billion. It would wreak havoc in this sta state. So its their move and i want to see what they come up with. Governor andrew cuomo. Thanks for being on this morning. Good luck. Thanks for having me, mika. Lets bring in Nbc News National Correspondent mr. Incredulous, peter alexander. Peter, your face when you were listening to sean spicer speak you looked incredulous. Here you are pressing him on a number of issues. What did he have to say about the president s claims of being wiretapped, well run some of it. Bottom line we were trying to zoom in on the white house a week after white house said President Trumps on president obama wiretapping and candidate trump at the time spoke for themselves. Yesterday they sort of basically said the president , President Trump didnt mean wiretapping specifically when he was talking about it, was talking more broadly in general. Here is my exchange with sean spicer trying to give a little wiggle room on this issue. He doesnt think president obama went up and tapped his phone personally but i think theres no question that the Obama Administration, there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election. That is a widely reported activity that occurred back then. The president used the word wiretap in quotes to mean surveillance and other activities. Can you say affirm tichl whenever the president says something we can trust it to be real. If hes not joking, of course. Every time he speaks authoritatively, he speaks as president of the United States. What i was trying to pin sean spicer down on when we talked about the jobs report he quoted the president. He said the numbers may have been phony back then but its very real right now. So the question i was asking him is when can we as journalist but more broadly as americans know the president is speaking literally. Means what he says, asking specifically about the issue of wiretapping. I thought it applied and asked him about other issues like the claim from. Still unfounded more than 3 million americans voted illegally during the election worth noting the Justice Department missed the deadline to turn over related materials as part of this review into whether or not president Obama Wiretapped trump tower. That has been extended, we are told. Were hoping to get that information. The committee by next we the same date as the russia hearing. Mika. All right. As a journalist, you honestly cant tell whether the president is serious or lying. Its not even i think so much as a journalist as americans. The question is words matter and when the president says i was joking then but im serious now, how do you know when hes being serious and when hes joking. Shaean spicer says hes serious when hes not joking. Puts a lot of people not only in the country but around the world in a position trying to interpret the words of President Trump. Peter alexander, thank you very much. Could not have said it better. Peter, come back. Two yes, sir, First Northwestern beat vanderbilt. We feel strongly. I assume willie geist not setting in. I took my 3 years old were all in on the cats this year. Second, i know theres a credibility right now, not just for the president on these questions but sean spicer. Youre sitting in this room every day having surreal discussions with spicer. At what point do they become crippling for him dealing with your colleagues in that room . Thats a good question you asked there. Here is the challenge. Our conversation with sean spicer every day. Weather permitting well have another discussion with the white house to try to pin down details. Bottom line is sean spicer says its the words of the president that matter. The credibility issue is with the president , trust the information hes providing them right now. What i do want to note and i consistently talk to trump supporters, people i met on the campaign, iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina in recent days. What they say is under the circumstances caught up with the nuance of every little word. We know what thisredent means more broadly. I think theres a big divide in this country whether this is sufficient. A lot of people, certainly sitting in the white house, better specificity and certainty when the president speaks. Did you guys ask about Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser who works in the white house, i believe she has valeries office. She does. Did you guys ask about her microwave . Im dead serious. She was kind of backing up the president s claim that president obama committed a felony and tapped trump tower, shes sort of backing it up by sidestepping it talking about how microwaves can become cameras. Did you guys ask about that fantastical claim. On that topic she later tried to clarify and said i wasnt talking about these being used as surveillance tech niece at trump tower, just broadly they exist, we know surveillance is out there. Reference to the leak that came out about wikileaks about cia tactics overseas. Former cia director said none of this stuff is being used on americans. Thats beside the point. To the question youre asking right now, i think the answer we got from sean spicer more broadly about this they believe in some form widely there was surveillance that took place that was basically keeping an eye on President Trump but sean spicer certainly didnt suggest it was his microwave. Okay. Thank you. [ laughter ] thank you, peter. Yeah. Democratic senator joe manchin of West Virginia has warmed up to the Trump Administration on certain issues but told the Washington Post im not an attack person, you know that. I dont attack because youre on the other side of the aisle. How can you look at your self and say, okay, ill help the person who needs help the least, the wealthiest people with more tax cuts because im going to be taking away from the elderly population. If hes skeptical, which democrats can be won over. His colleague mark warner joins us on capitol hill. Were back in a moment. Everyone deserves attention, whether youve saved a lot or just a little. 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They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol® the house plan will expand choice, lower cost and ensure Health Care Access to all. Were negotiating with everybody. Its a big, fat, beautiful negotiation. My gosh. Okay. The president at his first Cabinet Meeting yet joining us. Member of foreign affairs, democratic congressman from new york and from boston member of energy and Commerce Committee democratic congressman joe kennedy of massachusetts. Tom, what are you guys going to do . Can you just watch this train wreck or is there some impact democrats can have on health care legislation. They are doing a lot of this on their own right now. Watching what unfolds among themselves is a pretty interesting dance. We have to let them do what they are doing, continue to point out 24 Million People kicked off, premiums go up, a transfer of cutting tacks on wealthiest americans and raising premiums on Senior Citizens and others. I think the shame here, kac e hunt theres bipartisan could be better, it needs to be improved, we agree on that, instead we have this kind of major damage happening on capitol hill and the white house. I dont think theres any sense obamacare is a perfect bill, which democrats will admit behind the scenes but unable to say in public. Im curious for you as youre having behind the scenes closed door conversations with former House Speaker nancy pelosi, is there any kind of, i dont want to call it glee, but waiting for republicans to make the same mistake overreaching some would argue democrats made back in 2009 . Theres certainly no glee because this has a real impact on peoples lives. I campaigned on mend it, dont end it and came to washington to try to work across party lines. Im vice chair of problem solvers caucus, 20 democrats and republicans, lets try to Work Together to find consensus. This president and this Health Care Bill makes that very difficult to do. Go ahead. Congressman kennedy, what aspects of the Affordable Care act do your constituents not like . Obviously here in massachusetts its a bit of a unique environment. Weve got 3. 4 Unemployment Rate and 2. 8 uninsured rate. We actually are the model if you have bipartisan consensus to make this bill work right you can do it and have it work really, really well. So yes weve had some challenges here in massachusetts, particularly when it comes to Small Businesses and some of the costs on Small Businesses, which is an area i would love to work with my republican colleagues on. However, theres nobody across massachusetts that believes that the right way to reform our Health Care System is kicking 24 Million People off their health care. Thats exactly what this bill does. For those folks that might stay on their health care, the benefits they are going to get for a lot of them arent anywhere close to the level of benefits they can get today. The idea this is a serious plan put forth by anybody in congress belies the fact behind cbo scores and behind power point presentations are peoples lives and families that will be devastated if this bill passes. All right. Gene robinson, you have a question. Take it. So whats the end game here . Because obviously this plan the never fly with democrats. It doesnt look like its going to fly with moderate republicans either. So what then happens . Is the Affordable Care act just sort of allowed to the extent it does to wither on the vine . Does it get fixed, upheld at some point . What happens . Gene, who is the question for, tom or joe. For joe. Look, i have been one of those with respect to kasies comment earlier ill say, yes, Affordable Care act has done wonderful things for the country. Undoubtedly some aspects need to be strengthened, including republican colleagues back home, needs to be strengthened, supported. Ive been waiting since ive come to congress to try to find some republican colleagues to work with to actually strengthen that bill. For a wide variety of reasons they have been unable to. Fine. I would hope as this process does go forward, gene, theres a recognition that, you know, in that hearing for 28 hours that i was in last week, while you heard story after story from republican colleagues saying how disastrous this was, there was also an intern in there from my office whose life was saved twice by the Affordable Care act. Shes 25 years old and has had cancer now twice. Because of the aca she is not only did she got access to the treatment she needed, her family could afford it, she could get insurance and shes covered now going forward. You cannot deny this law has done some really good things to people in need. That at its heart is what health care is supposed to be all about. Its about how we treat each other in a time of need. And the idea that the answer to that question, for some of my republican colleagues is stripping people from health care, saying youre on your own, giving them socalled choice to choose between paying their mortgage and paying their Health Insurance and medication and saying thats good for our country is just mind boggling. Tom, agree . 100 . Joe is right on point. There are real peoples lives affected. This is really a life and death thing. We think about the polics of it all, republicans, democrats, these are peoples lives were talking ab. Again, i came to washington, d. C. , im a freshman congressman. I said i want to work across party lines. I want to Work Together. Skbloe pointed out earlier how Small Businesses are affected, people see prel going through the roof. There are problems with obamacare but its helped so many people. If we can get beyond and its not going to happen now, can you see the environment, get beyond politics and talk to each other and find Common Ground and make things better for people. I wish the president would do something about that. Thank you very much. Up next may be a Founding Member of the House Freedom caucus, but when it comes to Republican Health care bill, that conservative kinship doesnt seem to pay off for kmab turned white house budget chief Mick Mulvaney. The director joins us with his take on the cbo report. This is the story of Green Mountain coffee and fair trade, told in the time it takes to brew your cup. Lets take a trip to la plata, colombia. This is boris calvo. Thats pepe. Boris doesnt just grow good coffee, boris grows mindblowing coffee. And because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even Better Coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. Thats blanca. Yup, pepe and blanca got together. Things happen. 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At angies list, we believe there are certain things you can count on, like a tired dog is a good dog. [ dog barking, crashing ] so when you need a dog walker or a handyman, we can help you find the right person for the job. Discover all the ways we can help at angies list. All right. 4 past the hour. Joining us director of office of management and budget Mick Mulvaney. Very good to have you on the set with us. Thank you for coming in. Happy to be here on a beautiful, warm, sunny day. Horrible out. Its sunny and 74. Sun is coming up behind the blizzard. So we are looking at the cbo numbers and republicans have in the past supported cbo numbers. Is it safe to say you have in the past supported cbo numbers . I think what youre seeing is something we have in the past. You have to sort of rely on cbo to count money because thats why its there. Weve been very critical in the past about their ability to count coverage numbers, Insurance Coverage numbers. I think just three years ago, for example, back down to 2013, obamacare was already around and they did an estimate then of what obamacare would look like this year. The number they estimated at that time, not 20 years, three years ago, 24 Million People on the exchanges. Today its 11 1 2. They missed by 50 over a window of just a couple of years. Its really, really hard to do this. We dont even try to do this at omb. Thats how difficult it is. Cbo good at counting money in and out, tacks, policies, so forth. Not sure so the question thats been asked over and over and over again is are people going to Lose Health Care coverage . Are people doing to be uninsured under trump care, whatever you want to call it, this new plan or repeal and replace. And republican after republican who supports it has failed to answer the question. Now the cbo comes out with this report saying 24 million americans, 14 in the next year, and were supposed to also believe that these numbers are way off and that nobody is going to lose their health care . Can we be honest. Meek, i dont think wed be dodging the question. I think what were saying is theres another more important question. Theres a question that dodg. If you give me a chance, ill explain. Answer that. The democrats are focused on coverage. They covered me. The president of the United States has been very focused if you let me finish, i was covered. I was on obamacare, on the exchange as a member of the house. I have the same plan as somebody that makes a lot less than i did at the time. 12,000 annual deductible, i could afford it. How could someone who makes a fifth of what i do afford it . You are talking coverage. Coverage is not the end. They dont get better with coverage, they get better with care. You ask me about coverage, thats fine, but talk about how to afford to get it. Look, thats fine, meaning, yes, there are millions of people who will lose their coverage. If you have coverage that doesnt allow you to go to the doctor, what good is it . Most are covering medicaid. Yes, limitations going to doctors. However, it is a system that is not that individual market or the Obamacare Exchange we talk about. It is a lot of people and why tom cotton is so concerned about this bill. Again, i keep going back to this disconnect. Paul ryan is making the same argument. Look, this is not about universal coverage, this is about cost. The president of the United States is saying the opposite. We are going to take care of people. No one is going to lose their coverage. He tweeted, i will not cut medicare, Social Security, medicaid. You heard people that have coverage, not care. The president is around to understanding the important thing is allowing people to go to the doctor when they get sick. Democrats have all this credit for giving people coverage, but ignore the fact people could not go to the doctor. Thats whats important to the president. How do folk that is support him and need the assistance and how they get to go to the doctor when they get sick. How do you answer the criticism this amounts to tax cuts and money to wealthier american who is didnt vote for the president. We are going to repeal all the taxes. Thats what the proposed bill does. All the taxes you can. Keep in mind, when obamacare got created, some of it was put with 60 votes before ted kennedy passed away. There are things we cannot do. You talk about that in the show. Everything we can repeal with 50 votes, we do. We do it in such a fashion that allows these folks to go to the doctor. Who cares if somebody else benefits . Why do you have to have a system that punishes somebody that helps somebody else. We think we have a system that allows people to get Affordable Health care. Why is it bad if folks benefit from a tax reduction at the same time. The house vote would have to change to get i believe every senator believes every house bill needs to be changed. Do you agree it has to change somewhat to pass the senate . We are working on getting it through the house. Do you have 216 in the house . I havent run the final numbers yet because the framework bill has a couple ideas floating around. There will be proposed resolutions today or tomorrow, depending on the weather for changes. As much repeal and as much replace we can do. There have been good ideas from across the political spectrum with republicans in the house. If they get added to the bill, the president will be there. I dont think we are in a position to count votes until we know what that bill looks like. So, the cbo report. Do you do you agree with the facts it presents . Are the facts correct in the cbo report . I dont believe the facts are correct. Im not just saying that because it looks bad for my political position. Im say thag based upon a track record of the cbo being wrong before and we believe they are wrong now. Let me give you specific examples of that. Its not politics. Go read the report. The cbo assumption, to get to the numbers they get to assume you are on medicaid today. The house bill passes tomorrow. The cbo assumes you go off med said. Okay . Its a free program. The cbo assumes as soon as the mandate is gone, you will give up something free in exchange for nothing. That makes no sense. I think thats where it looks. The cbo is good at counting numbers, but not that good at coverage. Mick mulvaney, thank you for being on the show this morning. Up next, we are going to get a different take. Sheldon white house and mark warner join us on the set. Plus a storm bearing down on the northeast. Washington is getting off to a slow start this morning. Well speak live with d. C. s mayor on morning joe. Whats going on . Theres nothing going on. We are closing the road. A blizzard is moving in. What blizzard, its a couple flakes. Why do so many businesses rely on the u. S. Postal service . Because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. Thats why we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Here, there, everywhere. United States Postal Service priority you when a fire destroyed everything in our living room. We replaced it all without touching our savings. Yeah, our insurance wont do that. No. You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty Mutual Insurance heigh ho heigh ho heigh ho heigh ho its off to work we go heres to all of you early risers, whats up man . Gogetters, and shouldbe sleepers. From all of us at delta, because the ones who truly change the world, are the ones who cant wait to get out in it. Except when it comes to retirement. At fidelity, you get a retirement score in just 60 seconds. And well help you make decisions for your plan. To keep you on track. Its your retirement. Know where you stand. To keep you on track. A mihappy birthday, sweetie oh, millies. Trick or treat were so glad to have you here. What if we treated great female scientists like they were stars . Yasss queen what if Millie Dresselhaus, the first woman to win the National Medal of science in engineering, were as famous as any celebrity . [Millie Dresselhaus was seen having lunch today. ] [. Rumors of the new discovery. ] what if we lived in a world like that . crowd applauding we know a place thats already working on it. Making it look so wonderful so if we end it, everyone is going to say how great obama care used to be. Its a little bit like president obama. When he left, people liked him. When he was here, people didnt like him so much. Thats the way life goes. Thats human nature. The fact is, obamacare is a disaster and i say this to the republicans all the time. By repealing it, by getting rid of it, by ending it, everyone is going to say, it used to be so great, but it wasnt great. President trump, yesterday, hosting a listening session for people struggling with the costs of the Affordable Care act. Who the white house called, quote, victims of obamacare. Welcome back to morning joe. It is tuesday, march 14. I hope he listened. Joe has the morning off. We have live this morning on capitol hill. We have nbc capitol hill concerned casey hunt and euGene Robinson. Sheldon white house of rhode island. In a moment, we are going to get to the cbo report that 24 Million People would lose their Health Coverage under the new gop plan. First, the latest on the massive winter storm that is bringing much of the northeast to a standstill. The storm is working up the east coast impacting roughly 70 Million People. Eight states in the northeast are facing blizzard warnings with more than a foot of snow and strong winds up to 50 Miles Per Hour or higher. Some areas of new york state may approach three feet of snow. Federal agencies in d. C. Are on a threehour delay because of the snowstorm. New york, new jersey, pennsylvania, connecticut and virginia declared states of emergency. A statewide travel ban is in effect in connecticut. In new york, aboveground portions of the subway system are shut down. Metro north announced they are operating on a sunday schedule. Last hour, on morning joe, new york governor, andrew cuomo said the service is going to be suspended later in the day due to heavier snow. Amtrak will operate on a modified schedule. Express will shut down service between new york and boston, limited between new york and washington. Skooms are closed in major cities i new york, boston, baltimore and philadelphia. D. C. Schools start on a twohour delay this morning. So far, 6,000 flights have been con selled. 1800 have been delayed. Lets bring in bill karins who has been tracking the progress all morning. Its a difficult forecast. It continues to be a difficult forecast. This noreaster, unfortunately for forecasters is over the coast and over the coastline. Its not off the coast. That has significant implications, a lot of changes to the snowfall expectations and what will happen the rest of today. The storm is located right along the coast. It was supposed to be located just off the coast. Its a difference of 5075 miles but it has huge implications. Now we have watched areas of sleet through d. C. , baltimore, philadelphia. It is raining in areas we were expecting heavy snow. Sleet through new york city. New york city is expecting heavy snow at this time. When you get sleet, its the weathermans kryptonite. It takes down the snowfall totals. Its messy, slippery and a pain to shovel but it doesnt add up like snowfall. D. C. , you picked up two inches. Baltimore, one to three inches. Philadelphia, maybe an additional 24. So far you have about two inches in the city. A lot less than you were expecting. Areas to the north like new york city, they were saying 22 inches of snow. Now that we have the sleet, i was a lot lower than that, but thats regardless. I dropped my totals in half. Im down to 48 inches. It is going to sleet hard for two to three hours and snow on the backside of it. You go from nuting in new jersey to the poconos and the catskills, you are talking two feet of snow. Ski resort getting three feet of snow. The bulls eye shifted from a couple days ago from central portions of new england to interior sections of the worcester area and the mountains and the berkshires to the hudson valley. Even though we are not seeing high snow amounts, we have to deal with the winds throughout the day. They move up the coast and Power Outages on long island and areas of southern new england. Again, the big thing is, the i95 corridor has been spared heavy snow. Its a sleet storm throughout the i95 area. Terrible. Bill karins, thank you very much. Joining us by phone, the mayor of d. C. What are the biggest concerns in the d. C. Area . Caller well, mika, i think you know with the forecast, we are coming into the storm and what we are seeing around washington, d. C. Is less than three inches. In some places, we have even less. We opened the government two hours late, the d. C. Public schools will be open two hours late. The federal government is on threehour delays. Are you getting reports in washington, d. C. , at least coming in here early this morning, the roads werent being cleared completely. How are you doing with Getting Services to the roads to keep them clear . Caller we have touched all of our main arterial now. As i mentioned, the accumulations are not that high. So, we would have been able to touch all the main arterials and now go to the residential streets. Thank you very much. The house of representatives is handling the snow by taking the day off. President trumps anticipated meeting with german chancellor merkel, a first for the World Leaders has been postponed until friday. All right, lets talk about the cbo report. The study fwi nonpartisan cbo is making republican plans for overhauling health care a tougher sell, even within the Republican Party. The report finds the number of uninsured will increase by 24 Million People over the next decade. Some republicans are refuting that. The ranks of the uninsured will grow by 14 million next year, according to the cbo. The three factors, the bill takes away the penalty for being uninsured. More will opt out from buying insurance. The tax credits in the gop bill are less generous. Purchasing health care will be overall, less affordable. Some states will roll back their Medicaid Expansion. There will be a decrease in coverage for low income people. Over the tenyear period in the current plan, medicaid will undergo an 880 billion spending decrease with 14 million fewer medicaid enrollees. Overall, the percentage of u. S. Residents under the age of 65 without Health Insurance will be preAffordable Care act levels. Yesterday, tom price rejected the data. The cbo looked at a portion of our plan, but not the entire plan. In fact, the entire plan includes the regulatory apparatus that we have the ability at health and Human Services and ignored the actives put in place. We disagree with the report that was put out. We believe our plan will cover more individuals at aer cost and give them the choices they want for the coverage they want for themselves and their family, not that the Government Forces them to buy. Moments ago, we spoke to omb director, Mick Mulvaney and whether he believes the analysis. You have to sort of rely on the cbo to count the money. Right. Thats why its there. We have been very critical in the past about their ability to count coverage numbers, Insurance Coverage numbers. Three years ago, for example, 2013, obamacare was already around and they did an estimate of what obamacare would look like this year. The number they estimated, at that time, not 20 years ago, not three years ago, 24 Million People on the exchanges. Today, its 11. 5. They missed by 50 over a window of a couple years. Its really, really hard to do this. We dont even try to do it at the omb, thats how good it is. Cbo is good at counting numbers, not so sure they are the best folks for this. The question thats asked over and over again, are people going to Lose Health Care coverage and be uninsured over trump care or whatever you want to call it, the new plan, repeal and replace. Republican after republican who supports it failed to answer the question. Now the cbo comes out with this report saying 24 million americans, 14 in the next year. We are supposed to also believe that these numbers are way off and that nobds is going to lose their health care . Can we be honest . I dont think we are dodging the question. Well theres another more important question. No, actually, theres the question that you are dodging. If you give me a chance, ill explain it. Answer that. The democrats are focused on coverage, coverage, coverage, coverage. They covered me. The president of the United States if you let me finish, i was covered. I was on obamacare, on the exchange as a member of the house. I had the same plan that somebody that makes a lot less than i did at the time. 12,00015,000 a year deductible. How could somebody that makes a fifth of what i do go to the doctor . Yes, you are talking coverage. Coverage is not the end. People dont get better with coverage, they get better with care. Thats the conversation we are trying to have. You ask me about coverage, look, thats fine. Lets talk about how to afford to get actual care. Look, thats fine, meaning, yes, there are millions of people who will lose coverage. But if you have coverage that doesnt allow you to go to the doctor, what good is it in the first place . What is he doing there . Hes answering a question that wasnt asked, which is what this administration is so good at doing when their facts dont line up with reality. No republican, as you point out, has been able to answer is how many people will be worse off. Tom price, on meet the press this weekend, made the statement that may come back to be the you can keep your doctor, if you want to keep your doctor line in this cycle, which is, no, no one is going to be financially worse off. They cant promise that. Casey . Senator, what is your sense of where this stands in the senate . They pushed it through the house. The questions are shifting toward Mitch Mcconnell and maryland rat republicans . What are you hearing . Huge questions and uncertainty. This plan is such a mess that theres actually some talk they would like to see it die in the senate then blame it on the democrats, but not actually have to go out there and throw tens of millions of people off coverage. Todays talking points about high deductible plans, thats fine, but there are a lot of fans under the aca that arent high deductible. There are a lot of people on medicaid that arent high deductible. You solve it by pulling more money out of the system . Let me ask Gene Robinson a question. What is the political ploy here, if there is one . For example, if there are republicans who support this bill, and there are, why would they want it to go through . Isnt it ultimately going to bite them back when they are up for reelection . Absolutely its going to bite them. I mean, one thing history teaches is that if your political party, ownership of the Health Care Issue has a risk to your health. That certainly was true by the clinton administration, it was true in the Obama Administration after the Affordable Care act was passed. The president s party took a shellacking in the 2010 elections and its going to be true, almost inevitably with republicans, certainly if they get this through. But, whatever they do, they own this issue now. There is the Affordable Care act now because it is essentially being neglected. Its not in great shape. It could be fixed, it could be made better. The republicans will not do that. One assumes it will decline and not be great. By the same token, if they go to this scheme that they have, thats wrapped up in this bill, i think the political implications for the republicans are much worse. Its kind of rock in a hard place. Thats where they are. All right. The Republican Partys response to the cbo news was divided. Speaker paul ryan was optimistic. Actually, if you read the entire report, im encouraged by it and it exceeded my expectations. Of course they are going to say if you are not going force somebody to buy something they dont want to buy, they wont buy it. At the same time, the reforms will kick in and make health care more accessible. This is part one of a threepart plan. Thats why im excited. Mark told the reno Gazette Journal that House Speaker nancy pelosi was more efficient. Maybe not right, but more efficient with her peoples time. Susan collins of maine caused it a cause for alarm and asked them to slow down. Bill kassidy of louisiana said yeah, its awful, huh . When asked about the 24 Million People projected to lose course its concerning. T of i try to avoid hyperbole and adjectives, but still, its always a concern. Here is senator Lindsey Graham. The cbo kind of missed it when it came to the number of people inrolled in obamacare and they missed it in terms of the escalation cost. Having said that, i dont think this is particularly good news. If they are half right, thats a lot of people that would be uninsured. It reduces the deficit and premiums, some. Overall, we should take the report and make the bill better. Lets bring in deputy republican whip congressman Adam Kinsinger of illinois. What do you make of lindseys assessment . Perhaps theres points the cbo made and maybe the bill can be improved . Do you think the bill is okay and the cbo is wrong . You know, obviously f this passes in the current form, the senate made it clear they want to negotiate or look at areas to change. I would be interested in hearing what the senate has to say on that. They have a lot of different constituencies and concerns. Some of the criticism is accurate. I dont want to put on the cbo they are finding a way to seek and sabotage it. When it comes to the decisions, we know where the money is coming in and going out. In terms of policy, everybody is going to stop medicaid, thats in question. Theres a couple big points to make here. This is a threepart plan, as we mentioned. This is one of three. This is only the stuff we can get through on budget reconciliation. Theres a limit on what to put in this. Tom price is the second part. We cant know as congressmen what that is because theres ethics rules and part three is the broader follow up thing that eds 60 votes. The other thing, the previous senator said this is a talking point, no, its a fact. The fact is there are deductibles so sky high and premiums so sky high that folks have a piece of paper that says insurance and the benefits never kick in until they spend 30 grand that year. We have not a lot of dispute at the table that obamacare, or the present Health Care Plan needs to be improved, not at all. This current plan, as it stands right now, do millions of americans end up losing insurance . Is that a fair analysis . Well, look, that question is one where, if you respond everything is taken out of context. The reality is this. No, no, no, congressman, i cant get an answer to that question. No disrespect at all, but no, i understand. Im really hoping that you can answer the question and not say theres a bigger question or more important question or a bigger problem. Just actually, if you could answer the question. Anytime you take away people being compelled to buy a product, you are probably not going to have everybody compelled to buy that product. People on the left arent evil, people on the right arent evil thrks is a difference in opinion. We dont believe people should be compelled or forced to buy. Thats the difference from the current Health Care Plan. We are giving people an option from the medicaid thing. We are saying expansion states can keep expanding, keep people at the same level of benefits until 2020, at which point, the person on medicaid can stay in perpetuity until they cycle off. If they cycle back on, its a lesser rate and the state comes in with state funds to see how they want to handle it. Its a different way of doing it than obamacare. We think this, as one of three, is the best way to begin. Im sure there will be with the Senate Changes at the end of the day. Chairman . Jeremy peters from the New York Times here. What it sounds like you and a lot of republicans are saying is americans have a right not to have health care. Is that it . Well, no. No. Thats saying basically that you are trying to make the jump to saying health care is not a right. We are talking insurance. This is the first time anybody has been compelled to buy a product for existing unlike Car Insurance you are compelled to buy a product because you pose risk to other people. Im thinking about that. Yeah, i guess im lost there. Health Care Insurance is not as fundamental as car insuranc here is what you are tryin to do we are not trying make a jump that goes to health care is not a right. Thats not what im saying. What i am saying is people have a right to decide whether or not they want to buy Health Insurance. Right now, its compelled on to them because they exist. When it comes to Car Insurance, you can compel people to buy it because you are making choice whether or not to drive on the road and what is the minimums is the risk you show to other people when you are driving a car, its to protect other people as well. I think other people are protected in the Health Care System because their costs dont skyrocket from people who dont have insurance who show up at the emergency room and drive up cost for everyone else. Yeah. Congressman, thank you for trying to clear this up. You bet. Thank you for trying to answer the question. You bet. Thanks, guys. A lot havent. Casey, i have a quick question for senator whitehouse. Snowstorm Lindsey Graham has said we may subpoena the wiretap information if there is information. Do you have anything on that, yet . And what have you asked jim comey to do . Not yet. We have two questions pendsing cht first is bipartisan letter we wrote to the department of justice asking for any warrant applications that they made for any kind of surveillance at trump tower. When do you expect an answer to that . By the year end. Tomorrow . Yes. He said he would confirm there was an investigation in this by the date of the hearing. We cat be in the position of hang an fbi director insisting we steer clear of a criminal investigation while not confirming there is a criminal investigation. So, we are looking for those two answers. We have a great panel to look into the question of Russian Election interference and i really applaud chairman graham for letting us get started. They have 24 hours to get the information to you . Thats whats left. Are you prepared to subpoena some of this information . Absolutely. Totally. Are you going to issue that tomorrow morning if you dont hear back . Well have to see. Thats the chairmans call. The sooner we get answers, the better off we all are. Why are you still trying to get answers . Because we havent gotten any so far. Sort of seems i mean this is what the president asked the doj to do, right . The president asked dwrou do this . First of all, there are two answers. Okay. One is, there were no warrant applications. We know that and we can put to rest the president s fanciful assertion he was wiretapped. The second answer, which is more interesting, actually there were warrant applications and a judge to a standard of probable cause agreed there was likely to be evidence relevant to an investigation of criminal activity. That opens up a new set of doors for us to follow. The bottom line is, we want to continue to focus on this question of Russian Election interference. I dont think that issue is going to go away. They are doing it around the world and doing it here. It leads, not only into just the Public Information manipulation they did, but also into the way they commonly behave, which is through bribery and corruption. You are talking the russians . Yeah. Do you have confidence in jim comey as director of the fbi . He certainly made some really unfortunate, for a guy of his stature, rooky errors along the way. I hope he corrects and goes back to following the rules and doing things by the book. I think we need to work with him. I think he will do a good job. I admired him until he had his series of errors with senator clinton. The next 24 hours should be interesting. Could get really useful information on these questions. Hope so. Okay. If i could say one last thing about the previous conversation, the reason they are like a bucket of eels of whats going on with repeal and replace, soon the numbers we are hearing are going to be faces, disabled people, kids with chronic conditions and it will be brutal. Nator sheldon whitehse, thank you very much. Thank you. Well be watching what happens. Still ahead, the british Prime Minister could start the process of exiting the European Union. Steve bannon, brexit couldnt come soon enough. Michael crowley joins us with his new reporting. You are watching morning joe. Well be right back. We have this need to peek over our neighbors fence. And once we do, we see wonder waiting. Every step you take, narrows the influence of narrow minds. Bridges continents and brings this world one step closer. So, the question you asked me. What is the key . Its you. Everything in one place, so you can travel the world better. Explore your Treatment Options with specialists who treat only cancer. Every stage. Every day. At Cancer Treatment centers of america. Learn more at cancercenter. Com experts at angies list, we believe there are certain things you can count on, like a tired dog is a good dog. 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It comes after they voted to throw out changes to the bill, which would have given them power in the negotiation process. It set the stage for the government to trigger article l, waving the way for them to leave the eu. Joining us now, michael crowley. He has a sweeping piece about steve bannon in Politico Magazine called, the man who wants to unmake the west. He says the chief strategist is focused on reshaping america and the European Union. He writes, in part, this, bannons remarks make clear he believes brexit and trumps election are part of Something Bigger, a revolt that could restore lost sovereignty on the continent. To bannon, a strengthened eu is nothing less than a risk to civilization, a body that diluted identity and allow islam to invade the west one refugee at a time. You are painting a grim picture, michael. Welcome. Thank you. Well, bannon has a dark world view. Its important to understand, its not just about political strategy in the United States and conservative media and getting donald trump reelected. This is a guy who loves to read history. His library is an eclectic group of books. I talk about a catholic french author who is a figure in this european nationalist right. This is a view that bannon clearly cares deeply about. He was running breitbart, he was instrumental in brexit, working with nigel and that crowd. Now expanding to germany and france. Do you see examples of that dark world view coming to light in the president s behavior . Absolutely. I think the way trump talks about undermining the judiciary and the news media and branches of government, lying on twitter. People who are, quote, unquote, different, foreigners. Bannons view of europe is it is under assault by immigrants and islam and diluting their identity. I think that flows with the world view you are seeing applied to the United States. We have a culture and heritage and frankly, ethnic identity that is under attack. A white, christian identity. Thats what the United States is. Jew ndao. White supremacist. You spend a lot of time with jim bannon, you cover him. I have said often on the show, im concerned of certain things happening here that could lead to what michael is writing about. Is it fair to take it seriously at this point . I think to understand steve bannon, the quote that you need to listen to is when he spoke to cpac and he said the United States is not just a nation with an economy without borders, but has a shared culture and sense of identity. You know, i get what steve is saying when he says that he feels like immigration to a certain extent has corroded the economy and left people feeling like they dont have a sense of country. What i dont quite understand and i wonder if michael picked up on this in his reporting, he talks about a clash of civilization, clashes of culture. Is war an inevitable result of that . You have to sit back and wait to happen or is war something that is preventable in that situation . Yeah, i dont know if theres a sweeping answer to that. One gets the sense this is different. He thinks we are headed toward war with china. If you think you headed toward war with someone, you want to be the one to throw the first punch. Its alarming to talk that way. You have the incentive to hit first when you have an advantage. What applies to europe, i read what he said about europe, talked to him about this, he has this dwlaz nationalism in europe makes for strong nations and good neighbors. I heard him say strong nations make for good neighbors. That flies in the face of european history. Has he read does he know what nationalism in europe went to . What are you talking about . World war i, world war ii, bannon. Bannon has. Thats the remarkable thing. What lesson did he draw from that . How can you say that nationalism is a great thing for europe and really produces peace and prosperity. You are absolutely right. I talked to a lot of people who agree, point out a lot of examples and times when it went wrong. When you talk to european diplomats and government, they are freaked out. I dont think this guy has their history completely upside down. I dont think his view of the United States is one of a white nation. I would strongly refute that. I spent enough time with the guy. He is not a white supremacist or nationalist. He is somebody that believes the nations sense of identity, which is multicultural and he accepts that, has been unhinged from what its founders meant it to be. That doesnt, to me, say white supremacist. Would you accept, though, his idea of the culture and civilization of the United States is that that is essentially white european western . Well, i mean, the thats a good question. I dont speak for steve. He does talk about cultural traditions and values. Its hard to disentangle it from race. Theres no question in the u. S. And europe, the key point is people should understand he sees it as not only the United States, but western europe and defending tradition values, heritage and he believes in this pride in a strong nation state which ill quickly add, this dove tails with how Vladimir Putin is thinking these days. When you see Kellyanne Conway spreading misinformation, sean spicer coming close to doing that and the president definitely doing that unless tomorrow yields unbelievable, fantastic information about wiretapping, does it match with what you are writing about, the unmaking of the west . It does in the sense that europe, right now, is under assault from the real now we have fake news, which is not fake and real fake news which is really fake. And fake white house counselors. Seriously, there is. There might be inaccurate news coming from the white house. Alternative facts. I do think, again, this is where russia comes into the picture. The European Union is under assault. Brexit was the first blow. You have key elections coming up that could further pull it apart. Vladimir putin is trying to egg that along. Russian propaganda across the continent including germany and france. They are getting the kind of fake news that influenced our elections. Again, you are seeing a global trend. Its a disturbing one for people who believe in the transatlantic American European order that existed the last seven decades. Thank you for brightening our day. Thank you. On that note, well readour piece in Politico Magazine, the man who wants to unmake the west. That would be steve bannon. Still ahead, the worst of the storm may be over for new york city. Crews at laguardia were able to clear the way for one, one plane to take off this morning. Nearly 6,000 more have been canceled. Well get the latest on the storm from bill karins next on morning joe. 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Lets bring in bill karins who has been tracking the storm for us all morning. How is it looking now . Some areas hit harder than expected and some less. This is when we thought new york city would see the heart of the storm. Let me show you the picture from time square. It looks like its the middle of the night. It is snowing hard, big, huge flakes. It looks like a snow globe and someone shook it up. Laguardia had a period of snow, then a period of sleet and tried to clear the runways and get the work done. It doesnt look too bad or too deep. They are doing a good job there. The storm itself located on the southern jersey. The heavy snow from a line outside philadelphia 20 miles to the north all other northern new jersey. New york city northward, south is a mess on i95. A lot of sleet mixing in. Philadelphias totals were more than expected. A lot of sleet in the overnight hours. D. C. Two inches. It was like a sleet storm to the south of i95. The bulls eye areas t mountains of eastern pennsylvania, including the poconos, 1824 when we are done. Sock areas higher than that. Philadelphia, you are going to get a little on the backside. You are just about done. New york city somewhere around 48 inches. Again, new york cityeady picked up four inches, then sleet, then snow hard and the sleet moves back in. Messy snow in new york. Southern new england, a mix. The noreaster, we are in the heart of it right now, when everyone should be off the roads. We dont want to risk anyone getting stranded. Bill karins, thank you so much. Still ahead, Mark Zuckerberg pushes back on facebook is responsible for propagating fake news. Well talk about that. Well be right back. Theres nothing more than my vacation. Me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. Booking. Com gets it. They offer free cancellation, in case i decide to go from kidfriendly to kidfree. 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You have a good Bernie Sanders line there. Is that a Bernie Sanders line . I thought i made that up. Its a Bernie Sanders line. Every american will have access and feasibility to purchase it. Hhs secretary tom price speaking with the today show earlier this morning. Lets bring in sara live at the new york stock change. Is there reaction . I have been watching the big insurers and Little Market moves since the details on the gop plan and the cbo score has been released. Thats probably because its been a mixed bag for them. For instance, cutting back the expansion of medicaid over time can hurt the insurers exposed there. They get a big tax cut as a result of the gop plan. That includes executive compensation. Well wait and see. The big insurers have outperforms the overall market since President Trump was elected on the hope of a repeal and replacement. Well continue to watch that as we get more details. Also wanted to mention this story from Mark Zuckerberg speaking out turing a town halle vent at North Carolina ant state university. He posted some of that video on facebook. I wanted you to listen to the part he pushes back on the idea that fake news could be good for facebooks business. Watch. One thing i really want to be really clear on is that we are really against fake news and misinformation. There have been some accusations that say that, you know, we actually want this kind of content on our service because its more content and people click on it, but thats crap. I mean, no one in our Community Wants fake information. Right . Everyone wants real information. So, you know, if someone clicks on something and they have a bad experience, they are not going to trust facebook and not want to get more content from facebook. Thats not good for us. Thats crap, he says. Facebook has been under pressure since the election as a result of allowing news articles backed by in facts to fleurish on their website. Facebook has been taking action. Users can flag a report with misinformation so it can be backed up and checked by a third party. He says its not easy to distinguish opinions, which are important for democracy and fake news. Facebook is responding to figure out the complex problem. They are the biggest. They have billions of people using the site. Sara, thank you. Its a tough one. Can silicon replace coal in rural appalachian kentucky. An effort to develop a part of the country that really needs jobs. A congressman that represents Silicon Valley joins us at the table. Deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced. Our senses awake. Our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say. If you love something set it free. 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Boris doesnt just grow good coffee, boris grows mindblowing coffee. And because we pay him a fair price, he improves his farm to grow even Better Coffee and invest in his community, which makes his neighbor, gustavo, happy. Thats blanca. Yup, pepe and blanca got together. Things happen. All this for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain coffee. Packed with goodness. Everyone deserves attention, whether youve saved a lot or just a little. At pnc investments, we believe youre more than just a number. So we provide personal Financial Advice for every retirement investor. Joining us now, member of the House Budget Committee, democratic congressman of california. He serves as vice chair of the congressional progressive caucus. Yesterday, he participated in a bipartisan event focused on connecting Silicon Valley opportunities with socalled silicon holler. First off, congressman, welcome to the show. What is silicon holler . Its a valley near the mountains in appalachia and they are proud of their vision for participating in technology. Tell us about this idea and how it would work and would it be effective for people in areas that are really suffering and have very specific jobs, its very hard to start over again. Well, i was impressed with the energy of people there are clear headed. The folks will tell you they love coal. They are proud of their coal jobs, but they want to diversify. One person said his father was laid off three times from coal in a year. What they are doing is learning ios software for apple, Google Software for android. 45 of them have jobs, 40,000 a year. Theres energy. My promise to them was we have to tell the positive story. They are making the effort and they need to diversify. Gene . Can this be scaled . Yeah. Thats my question. You have 45 people, to what extent can it be scaled . Two things are needed. One is a commitment by employers to participate. The key is, people knew they were going to have jobs at the end of the program. It wasnt training without jobs. The second thing is teaching the right skills. The Community Colleges there were teaching folks how to replace hardware. That had no prospect. They came in and learned swift programming on apple, how to develop apps. That had a promise. One final point because i know the president sometimes watches your show. For someone who made his reputation on the apprentice i would hope he would fund apprenticeship programs around the country. Tech apprentice programs would make a difference. This is a president who made a promise to bring the coal mining jobs back. Thats right. We are going to open the mines up again. To do that, of course, he would have to change the whole world energy price thing. Which, i dont think he can do. Thats why the coal mines shut down. I wonder, more broadly, you represent Silicon Valley. Do you feel like your time in congre, congressrstas what people are trying to in Silicon Valley or is what is going on in washington outdated for the businesses in your constituents . I think its both. I think sometimes congress could use more time out there to see what skills are actually relevant for the jobs of the future so we have Work Training programs. Im not convinced they are training people for the job that is are going to be there. Frankly, Silicon Valley can use a dose of humility as well. We need to understand what transition people are going through from an industrial to Digital Economy and how to participate in helping this country. I think its both way that is need to be better connected. Finally, we have been talking about the cbo report on the republicans Health Care Bill. Watching this from your perspective, i guess what is the most you can hope for . Well, coming from Silicon Valley, we care about data and numbers. Trust the data. Trust the data. Its been surprising to me, the same people, the speaker, tom price who praised cbo, he picked the cbo director and now discrediting it. Have the data. Have a philosophical disagreement but dont question the numbers. I mean well, im beginning to feel like what planet we are on. We have already had Kellyanne Conway ban on this show. Now im watching sean spicer. Definitely trying to understand where the president is coming from. Here is the White House Press secretary trying to talk to reporters during a briefing and our reporters from nbc trying their best to get answer. Take a look. Do you have anything more . The bottom line is, the question is i have answered. Can you say affirmatively when the president says something, we can trust it to be real . If hes not joking, of course. Just, yes or no, are cbo numbers legitimate or not . Its not my determination to make. No, no it depends. There are a lot of things. Halle, you have an nbc thing. Let me amazing. No, its not an nbc thing, its a desire to hear the truth or maybe get an answer or something that makes sense. Start with getting an answer. That would be a start. Its called journalism. We can worry about truth, but get an answer. Yes or no. Yes or no. We are in a strange place, gene, are we not . We are. I hear a lot of people laughing. I think we are nervous by laughing. Its nervous laughter. Its not funny. That doesnt happen at the white house in the United States of america. You ask a theres an answer. You may not like the answer, but theres an answer. Its true. Thats not the case. Not getting anything. Congressman, thank you very much. Casey hunt, thank you very much. That does it for us this morning. Well baa back tomorrow. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Hi there, mika. Im Stephanie Ruhle live in Rockefeller Plaza with the storm of 2017. It is at maximum strength right now. More than 70 million americans caught in the cross hairs as this monster storm moves up the northeast as much as two feet expected in parts. This is not your typical winter event. Thousands of flights canceled. Travelers stranded. The federal government shuts down for hours. Its not letting up, yet. States of emergency declared in new yk,