Transcripts For MSNBCW Up W Chris Hayes 20130223

Stress sweat is different than ordinary sweat. It smells worse. Get 4x the protection against stress sweat. Introducing new secret clinical strength stress response scent. I just served my motherinlaw your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much. I told her it was homemade. Everyone tells a little white lie now and then. But now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] shes right behind me isnt she . [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. Good morning from new york. Im chris hayes. The Obama Justice Department Filed a brief last night with the United States Supreme Court urging justices to strike down the defense of marriage act which the court will rule on later this year. Were going to be talking about mother Supreme Court case in just a second. And the president announced last night that american troops have been sent to build a new base there. Right now im joining by the nation magazine editor. Conservatives take aim at Voting Rights. Ryan haygood a member of the Litigation Team arguing shelby v. Holder before the Supreme Court this week. And bishop harry jones, a pastor at the Mount Mariah Baptist Church in colorado and in support of the Voting Rights act. In 1965, over a century of the emancipation proclamation, signed into law, people of color with their exercise of the right to vote. The heart of the voting ryes action is section five which subjects any voting changes in the south and some other covered jurisdictions with a history of Racial Discrimination to a process known as preclearance. Meaning these states must first clear any changes that affect the Justice Department or the federal court to make sure they dont have a racially biased fact. When the Supreme Court hears shelby versus holder that essentially says things have changed in the south. Its now antiquated, unnecessary and therefore unconstitutional. Undeniably, the south say different place today than it was in 1965. And yet not one africanamerican has been elected to state office in mississippi, louisiana or South Carolina. In the last few months states covered under section five and not covered have shut down voting. The i. D. Laws, last october, a panel of federal judges blocked South Carolinas proposed voter i. D. Law from taking effect. And john bates wrote one cannot doubt the vital function that section five of the Voting Rights act has played here. The Supreme Court under roberts has hinted that has run its course. President obama approved a local exemption in section five. And in the oral arguments Justice Robert questions if section five is necessary and why it burdened separate jurisdictions differently. So is it your position that today southerner, more likely to discriminate than northerners . I wouldnt frame it in that way, chief Justice Robert. So your answer is yes . I think its fair to say that the pattern has been more repetitious violations in the covered jurisdictions and more one off discrimination in other places. Well, its remarkable that the case before the court is at its outcome more or less hinges on the u. S. Supreme court. Five justices deciding whether or not to strike down and reauthorized four times by massive overwhelming parties of congress and president s of well, only republican president s. Because of whether the Court Decides the south is no longer racist. Its great to have you all here. I think this case, weve covered a bit on the network. But i think you cannot overstate the importance of the case. Its probably one of the biggest cases the court has had in a long time. And bishop, i want to begin with you. Thank you for traveling up here in new york from Shelby County, alabama. One of my best friends lives in alabama. I love the state of alabama. I want to go to you first. Because the basic argument here when you clear away the constitutional arguments being made, the legal arguments, part of whats so strange about the case is its going to come down to a determination of a basic sociological fact which is how imbedded is racism in areas that are covered . How much is this law still justified by the fact that there is still the wielding of power and the instant towards exclusion on the part of people that wield power in the south in this long history. So my question to you is, whats your sense of that . What would be your answer be in you could talk to the justice of what its like in shelby what would you tell them . I would definitely assure them that racism is still alive. It hasnt gone anywhere. I think racism has taken a different face. In the earlier days it was blatant. I mean, they didnt hide it. Now, its kind of concealed. It travels in a different vehicle now. And so, ive lived in alabama all of my life. And im kind of a bloodhound when it comes down to racism. I sniff it out, you know. And it is still alive. And i think that sometimes we paint a picture on the surface, but i think that being a resident of Shelby County i look beneath the surface. So, i mean, the bloodhound metaphor is great, right . Because the weird thing is were going to unleash these nine justices sniffing this out. Not from Shelby County, not from the covered jurisdictions. So how would you convince me, how would you convince chief Justice Roberts or Justice Kennedy, that things will go very badly if they strike this down . Well, i mean, you know, weve already seen some things. Weve had one of our councilmen, mr. Earnest montgomery, because of the way the district was divided, lost the election. Even on top of that when the d. O. J. Told them or advised them not to have the election, they went on with the election anyway. This is a black elected member of the city council, is that right . Thats correct. Because of that, he lost his seat. D. O. J. Came back you know, deemed it, i guess, unconstitutional. And they had to redo. And they had an atlarge vote and he was the top votegetter. It was designed to dilute the black community. Is this what this case ultimately rests on . Perfect for this, ive worked in the court. Ive spent some time in the court. How fact down this case seems. It really seems like the court is going to make some determination about this basically sociological fact about the covered jurisdictions which is how much racism is there . How imbedded are these practices . It seems a strange thing for the court to be doing . It is a strange thing, chris. Whats interesting Congress Asked all these questions about whether or not Racial Discrimination is prevalent in the covered jurisdictions. They analyzed looking at the covered jurisdictions versus the uncovered. I know theres rhetoric that he didnt do that. But they did. And congress looked at it. 21 hearings. Yeah, right. Its sortch this huge process, exactly what congress is supposed to do. I think what youre getting at, the court defined the parameters how the court can act. I guess for the 90s said, look, heres the work where you can act. Heres unconstitutional conduct and you can act in this world. Right. And they actually held up the Voting Rights authorization for 92 as the Gold Standard for how congress should act. And congress acted in that way in this instance, so whats the problem. How do we lose . Can i just say, its not racism like it was in 1965, the George Wallaces of the world are gone. But its political racism, in the sense, luke in the south. The southern gop is 88 white. The Southern Democratic Party is 50 white, 56 africanamericans and the rest are minority groups. When theyre growing in the south are aligning themselves in the Democratic Party, the gop is passing Voter Suppression laws in response to that. It doesnt matter if its outright racism it has the same effect. I think it pushed back for a second, not completely, but i actually think the power of the section five is not on the national level. Or not the congressional level. Its important there what we just heard about whats happening in clara and Shelby County, were talking about water districts. County commissions. Police juries, local stuff where party doesnt matter. Its not partisan. I think its important to take away from what Patrick Jones said, manifested in places covered by sections five is synonymous with the original discrimination we saw in 1965. This is really part of what dates back to the beginning in alabama . What do you mean by that . The city of calera, in 2008, submitted by the city of calera that sought to eliminate the sole africanamerican district by reducing the black population from 70 to 29 . Right. Though the department of justice rejected it as discriminatory, his redistricting plan, the city of calera never held an election which the sole city councilman who is also a party in this case lost his seat. This is after the d. O. J. Rejects the plan. Thankfully, under section five, the department of justice required the city to redraw the ballots in a nondiscriminatory way and hold another election in which we saw the africanamericans, because of the votes of the africanamericans in that district in calera regain his seat. And this practice is exactly what voters in alabama saw when the Voting Rights act was passed in 1965. An iconic example of this is kilmichael, mississippi. The consensus, the town has a population of 830 of whom 52. 4 are black. Currently the mayor and all five Board Members are white. On may 15th, 2001, with no notice to the community, the board unanimously voted to cancel the general election. First the decision toe cancel came only a majority of the registered voters and the release of census data indicated that black persons were now a majority of the town. You see this all the time. Weird changes being promoted just when the latino or Africanamerican Community is able to realize some electoral power. I want to talk what the numbers look like. And the argument that people in favor of striking down section five are making which is basically the act should be a victim of its own success. The fact that the numbers are good enough. One very important point that needs to be brought to the table, also, as mr. Managemenon he served there. You have other councilman aware of the fact that the d. O. J. Canceled the election. Right. And owl of the councilmen knew except mr. Montgomery who was the black councilman. He didnt even find out about it until after, you know, the election. This is a little but i want to talk more about that right after we take a quick break. 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Now with advanced stain blocking, only at the home depot, and only 31. 98 a gallon. All stations come over to mithis is for real this time. Step seven point two one two. Verify and lock. Command is locked. Five seconds. Three, two, one. Standing by for capture. The most Innovative Software on the planet. Dragon is captured. Is connecting todays leading companies to places beyond it. Siemens. Answers. Did you know not all fiber is the same . Citrucel is different its the only fiber for regularity that wont cause excess gas. Its gentle and clinically proven to help restore and maintain regularity. Look for citrucel today. All right. So from 2010 to 2011, the Justice Department objected to only 29 of nearly 20,000 proposed voting changes. Now, so one level, you can say actually this isnt imposing a huge burden. This isnt an overreach. But i think people who think the law should no longer be in effect think, looking the problem is solveds right . Right. Why do you want to keep insulting the sovereign dignity of the great state of alabama if it turns out that what is that, 99 percent are getting the number, chris, has always been less than one percent of the number of those changes that are objected to. So the number has always been small, but the actual each objection protects many, many, many voters. So, for example in the state of texas, for example, we recently saw the department of justice rejected texas photo i. D. And they litigated that in the court. And 3,000 people did have the i. D. That texas were requiring. 70,000 of whom were people of color. Each objection protects many, many voters and the number of objections has been small. I want to bring in horace cooper, cochair of the project 21 National Advisory board that filed an amicus brief to strike down section five. Horace, what is interesting here, the Voting Rights act in an american Political Landscape thats remarkably polarized is incredibly unanimously or near unanimously supported. The margin, its been reauthorized three times. A huge margin, 98 to zero. I want to play a little sound from three republican president s who signed reauthorization of the law. Take a listen. There must be no question whatsoever about the right of each eligible american, each eligible citizen, to participate in our elective process. The extension of this act will help to ensure that right. The right to vote is the crohn jewel of american liberties, and we will not see its luster diminished. Today, we renew a bill that helped bring a community on the margins into the life of american democracy. My administration will vigorously enforce the provisions of this law and we will defend it in court. And my question to you, horace, given this bipartisan support, given the extensive congressional record, given all of this, shouldnt there be a lot of deference afforded to congress for determination . Why should we be overturning something that has such broad support in the American Public . Well, naturally, of course, the Supreme Court will give a great deof deferengree of defere president and as they should. Thats the natural progress but the discussion thats occurred this morning is failing to appreciate that there are certain legal principles that are at stake. The Supreme Court is not going to be making a diagnosis of whether or not the south has made progress in terms of racial line or not. Theyre going to be addressing specific, factual issues. And the legal arguments that are associated with those. Much of that has been left in this mornings conversation. Youre right. Let me read from you the last time that the court talked about this issue, with the north austin municipal district. Chief Justice Roberts saying more than 40 years ago, the court concluded that exceptional conditions prevailing in certain parts of the country justified extraordinary legislation otherwise unfamiliar to coveredle jurisdiction. In part due to the success of that legislation, we are now a very different nation. Whether conditions continue to justify such legislation is a difficult constitutional question we do not answer today. The test that the chief justice himself enunciates in that section of his previous opinion is about whether the conditions continue to justify such legislation. The conditions are a matter of fact. And so the court is going to be mitigating a factual determination about these conditions, isnt it . Im sorry, youre looking at the rhetoric portion of the ruling and assuming thats going to be the basis for the actual determination. And the fact of the matter is, that the actual serious constitutional challenge of separating some states out and treating them one way challenges the notion of state sovereignty. And equal it is sovereignty sorry. Its a serious issue that has to be addressed. In oral arguments Justice Kennedy enunciated this the best. I think senator kennedy is looking seriously at the question of whether or not he thinks what congress did in 2006 was within that circle. That i talked about a minute ago. Of where congress is allowed to act to stop on constitutional conduct. Hes looking at that question. I think the evidence that the ryan was talking about, the pastor was talking has been answers get. In 2006, this was before the congress, they found section five, 25 of the u. S. Population. But they accounted for 52 of violations of other parts of the Voting Rights act. You look at the 2012 election, states covered in full by section five, twothirds of them passed voting restrictions compared to onethird of the noncovered jurisdictions. There isnt there isnt a power in ohio or michigan. The power is still worse in places like alabama and mississippi. Horace, more of this question, its sort of the core of this case, right after we take this break. See thats much better that was good. You had your shoulder pointed, you kept your eyes on your target. Lets do it again watch me. Just like that one. [ male announcer ] the durability of the volkswagen passat. Pass down something he will be grateful for. Good arm. Thats the power of german engineering. Back to you. I dont wanna be right [ record scratch ] what . its not bad for you. It just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal hearthealthy, whole grain oats. You cant go wrong loving it. Ive been using crest prohealth for a week. My dentist said it was gonna help transform my mouth. 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Choose 2 cash back or double miles on every purchase every day. Told you id get half. Whats in your wallet . Told you id get half. Ive always kept my eye on her. But with so much health care noise, i didnt always watch out for myself. With unitedhealthcare, i get personalized information and rewards for addressing my health risks. But shes still going to give me a heart attack. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. So horace, you raised the state sovereignty question. I dont think its disputed that the Voting Rights act is kind of a novel approach to dealing with different states and the notion of covered jurisdictions. And one of the arguments of folks who want to strike down section five have made is that this differentiation of sovereignty. And people who say thats justified by the differential conditions. My question to you, it seems like a strangely perverse agent to say discrimination is happening in places like michigan and ohio. And therefore, we should get rid of the stuff thats working in the other places. And the second question is, would you be okay with a Voting Rights act that extended to the whole country if thats the constitutional principle is the thing that you think is threatened by the current makeup. Law. Lets take that latter question first. A statute that covered the entire state would have less constitutional hurdles to clear and would make a better policy. It is a second problem, however, that has led to the situation of the litigation today. It is the enforcement in the name of preclearance standard that is the subject of the problem. If we were struck with or saddled with or given circumstances of the straightforward evidences of discrimination, you wouldnt see an argument like the one in that Shelby County is making succeed. The problem has become that the Justice Department is becoming much more interested in racism prevention than racism punishment. The Police Officer goes to the bank and arrests the guy who robs the bank. He doesnt go to the bank and set up standards to prevent Bank Robberies. The Police Officer also doesnt get to decide are there more Bank Robberies happening now or less Bank Robberies happening . He simply enforces the lot. My final point is, the Justice Department has decided that the number of black elected officials is a proxy for the degree of racism or not thats going on. Thats an uninterested premise. And that is the reason why, when you are addressing the sovereignty issue, you cant take untested premises and use them to offset the sovereignty of everybody. The whole point of section five was to be preemptive. What was happening before 1965, the courts would strike down suppression laws. And a new suppression law would go in effect. What section five did was the beauty of shifting that burden. The other burden, its been targeted. Thats why its been upheld. Its supposed to be narrow and deep. Just as kennedy in the oral argument that we called the mud case in the northwest austin case. He said, i know section five is effective. I know section five works. And i know the other parts of the Voting Rights act are not a substitute for it. So the whole idea that this is a bad mechanism is spurious. And ledo suggested as much. And horace said thats problematic. The genius of what it did, it surveyed it across the country to aris earlier point. To the areas that the voters were most concentrated. The places where discrimination was the most intense, most adaptive, most persistent was the existing covered jurisdictions in section five. There is a record in congress which spans 15,000 pages. Curiously horaces brief submitted doesnt grapple with at all which justifies congresss continued coverage of the existing coverage understand section five. He should run for office and see if he can win and i think that none of the things that we have to also look at the fact if that section five has been the one thing that has leveled the Playing Field. You know, and i think if had it not been for section five, and im not so much concerned about whats going on right now, im concerned about what will happen if section five is lifted. Can i ask you that question, horace . I think you would agree i dont know where you stand on this, that the Voting Rights at some point has been justified and a successful piece of legislation, right . I dont disagree with that. But i disagree with the idea that the bishop just pointed out that the test is how many are the given race are successful. Thats thought what hes saying. That is what the Justice Department has been pursuing. No, no. And in fact, the Justice Department, when they analyze the amount of racism and discrimination, one of their indices is the lack of elected officials so you cant say that, thats not the argument. Hold on one second. Got to take a quick commercial break. Well now im her dietitian and last year, she wasnt eating so well. So i recommended boost complete nutritional drink to help her get the nutrition she was missing. And now she drinks it every day. Well, it tastes great [ male announcer ] boost has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones, and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. And our great taste is guaranteed or your money back. Learn more at boost. Com [ dietitian ] now, nothing keeps mom from doing what she loves. Being my mom. [ dietitian ] now, nothing keeps mom try running four. Ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately weve got ink. It gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at Office Supply stores. Rewards we put right back into our business. This is the only thing weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from chase. And youll dump your old broom. But dont worry, hell find someone else. Whos that lady . Whos that lady . Sexy lady whos that lady . [ female announcer ] swiffer sweepers electrostatic dry cloths attract and lock dirt, dust, and hair on contact to clean 50 more than a broom. Its a difference you can feel. Swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. And now swiffer wet and dry refills are available with the fresh scent of gain. Talking about what indices of Racial Discrimination was used. Horace thinks its problematic to use this basis of how many africanamericans were elected. The truth the matter, horaces argument is wholly meritless. In alabama and other covered jurisdictions, one expression of people of colors vote is their ability to elect their candidate of choice who at times may look like them in if africanamericans. The sought to elect the africanamericans the cities are looking to the redistricting plan. And this say significant feature as it acts as our discriminatory check points for dmauemocracy. The focus of the inquiry is always what does the Minority Community want, latino voters, africanamerican voters, whos their candidate of choice. Thats what we look at. We look to see what do the voters want. This is not some patronizing or some course of black people or latino people. It really looking at actual voting patterns. The thing thats often true in many of the section five jurisdictions, a level thats not true in other places, is that the Minority Community are trying to elect candidates that the Majority Community will systematically reject. You have to find a place to have a political voice. Can i make a point . This is not an grassroots uprising. This is a conservative complex. The same field that were pushing discriminatory voting changes, they want this challenge to happen. Thats why its before the court. So theres really no constituency for this challenge, other than the biggest names in the conservative parties. Horace the thing that what people may be looking at, the fact, it seems as though, they think that were looking for you to give us something. Were not asking you to give us anything. Right. All we want is the opportunity to make the Playing Field level. Give the opportunity to the citizens to make this thing horace, are you a constituency less . You know, it feels good while were Drinking Coffee and having a conversation this morning to make those kind of denounced statements but the truth of the matter is, whether it is lawsuits against the vietnam war, whether it is the right of he to marry men, or women to marry women. Whether it is any claim, if we left litigation only to circumstances where it was popular, most of the landmark litigation that we see and we appreciate today would never take place. Yeah, but thats a species standard that is not popular. The point is, there are legal principles that are at work. Now, if this Justice Department would have remembered that the Voting Rights act was intended to stop the number of fire burnings the number of lynches, the number of shootings, and actual voter discrimination techniques that were occurring, that were predominant in those areas, instead of deciding that a new modern approach is this holistic idea of what does the voting population want, they would be on much stronger ground. Was the voting you can be black, white and brown and ask a poll about, say, voter i. D. , and youll see that number in the high 60 ps. Every one of your panelists is opposed to voter i. D. Thats not true. The right to be able to carry it out, it raises those fundamental constitutional questions. Chris, i would say theres nothing insistent with what congress in 2006 in section five. Which is when they looked at the tremendous progress that weve made in this country in democracy in reading the Racial Discrimination and recognizing the need for more. And section five has occasioned the type of progress were seeing since 1965. It itself, the strong antibiotic that it is, seeks to continue the work that it began in 1965. The congress developed, showed there were more than 1,000 discriminatory changes that were blocked. And those changes would have gone effect but for section five. Section five protects real voters from real discrimination in real places. And were where we are because of section five. You know, the sophomores paint a picture that were Holding Hands singing kumbaya in the south. Thats not the truth. There are issues to be dealt with. If the challenges were successful, if the court were to strike down section five and ten years from now in the bizarre future i still have a television show. And you come back on the program and say the number of black elected officials in the south have dropped 80 . Will you view it as a mistake if all the metrics go down . Or is the principle here the point . The principle is the point, and by the way, once we get to this question of racial voting and that being the test, where does it end . Are you going to invalidate the president ial election of 2012 because 90 of blacks, blacks voted for a candidate of their same color . Where does that quest stop. You shoot absolutely ought to s with what the law says. Horace cooper thanks for joining us popd ari berman from the nation magazine. Julie hernandez. And bishop harry jones, a party to the lawsuit supporting voter rights acts. Republicans governors put millions of lives on the line. Thats next. 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Florida republican governor rick scott announced his support this week for expanding medicare making florida yes, i lost my breath because it was so shocking. Making florida only the seventh state with a republican governor to opt into the expansion. While the federal government is committed to paying 100 of the cost, i cannot in good conscience deny floridians that need access to health care. We will support a threeyear expansion of our Medicare Program under the new health care law. As long as the federal government meets their commitment to pay 100 of the cost during that time. Scotts announcement as he seen there in that hostage video is in many way a Shocking Development because rick scott who once led the countrys largest forprofit hospital change has one of the largest proponents of the medicare act. He spent money to lead that. And florida fought the Affordable Care act only to lose. In june, scott responded to the courts decision upholding the aca. It is so disappointing. This is going to be devastating for patients. Devastating for taxpayers. Its going to be the biggest job killer ever. Were not going to implement obama care in florida. Were not going to expand medicaid because were going to do the right thing. The practical and moral victory of the Affordable Care act would provide coverage to people who would get covered through the Medicaid Expansion. Rick scott aside, 14 have said they will not participate. The Medicaid Expansion will provide coverage to almost 6 Million People in just those working states that have opted out. The implementation of Medicaid Expansion in the state level is now the front line of the Health Care Battle in this country. Will ultimately determine whether the new clauses in the social contract uniformly apply across the country. Joining us julia arekoosh and former minute of mitt romney advisory group, author of the apothecary. Tia mitchell, tampa bay time, miami tallahassee bureau. And joy reed. Great to have you here. Tia, you broke this story. What change flipflop say term that gets overused in politics. But this is a flipflop. This is. And what happened is governor rick scott took the practical the words you used, practical, he said, it doesnt make sense for florida to leave 100 federal match on the table. But the weird thing about it, he seemed like he just that was in the bill back in june when he said it was terrible. It wasnt like he was just rooting around in his desk and saw, oh, theyre going to cover 100 . Maybe we should get on this. He knew that. Well, a couple points i want to make. Number one, he is not saying florida will, florida should. Hes been very careful to say if the legislature does this, this is what i would sign. Right. And thats an important distinction because hes going to get the best of both worlds. He gets to look pragmatic. Hes moderating himself. Hes running for reelection in about a hour. However, hes not saying hes going to advocate for this or make it more likely it actually happens in florida. Thats a really good point. What do you think changed his mind on the politician of it . Like i said, he cant be 100 of the fact its on the federal government . I think moderating himself for reelection is a factor. Also, he pointed out his mother passed away in november. He said it gave him quote unquote new perspective about the law, its impacts and the needs of families to have health care. So i mean, i do think some of it was a personal decision. But its also political and its also you know, the bottom line is money. Yeah, im a little bit less convinced. I feel badly that his mother passed away. What happened in florida, tia well knows this, when the gun industry is not running florida. The Insurance Industry takes up and run florida. The insurance entities came to the legislature and said youre going to take this money. The hospital industry was first in line. The reason for that, Public Hospitals will essentially go bankrupt if this money is not taken. Florida has 1. 3 million uninsured. Second highest. 12 million of, 995,000, approximately, of those people would not qualify for the exchanges and still have medicaid. Right. So that means these people can come to hospitals, get treated. And when the whole Affordable Care act passed, hospitals said they will take that to ensure the customers that come to us. There was a trade. Federal fund for hospitals for people who cant turn away. Theres Something Like 50 billion a year spent by hospitals treating people like that. Yep. And theres a federal fund that reimburses some. Correct. That federal fund was cut by the Affordable Care act. What the hospitals are looking at if Medicaid Expansion doesnt happen, we no longer get the funds, but we dont get the medicaid, and were screwed both ways. Exactly. Miami hospital, its treated people that literally face bankruptcy. The hospital lobby came to him and said youve got to take the money because were using this money. The Insurance Company came to him and said we want privatization on this. He made a deal with the federal government to put people in hmos. I want to show the incoming president of the Florida Hospital association basically coming to the Florida State house. When when he come back, you can take a look at him basically coming to the state house and saying, please, give us the money. [ male announcer ] couldve had a v8. 100 vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings in every little bottle. Every signature is unique, and every fingerprint unrepeatable. At sleep number, we recognize the incredible diversity of human beings, and know that up there with your Social Security number and your phone number is another important number. Your sleep number. So we created the extraordinarily comfortable sleep number experience. 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Its 26 billion over ten years. 7 billion in the first three years for floridians to pass up. Thats mark robitaille, incoming president for the Hospital Association testifying before the Florida State house. On the Medicaid Expansion where the government pays 100 of the expansion for the first three years. As a Republican Health policy, did rick scott do the right thing . Well, you know, one of the things we talk a lot about in Health Policy circles, coverage. Were expanding coverage. Were doing this for coverage. Theres a lot less emphasis on the quality of coverage. And this is a problem. In florida, for example, for every dollar that a private physician paid for a patient, medicaid pays 44 cents. What this means, a lot of doctors dont take medicaid, because they lose a lot of money caring for medicaid patients. If you cant get seen by a doctor, your cancer doesnt get diagnosed late. Your heart condition doesnt get diagnosed early. Its too late to treat. But its better on what the control group is, right . Because theyre much better than people that dont have Health Insurance . Not necessarily. There are other studies that show otherwise. University of virginia conducted a study with 900,000 surgical patients that showed medical patients have a higher mortality than patients who have no care at all. I sense of literature, medicaid actually has relatively good health outcomes. Depends on the control group. Theres been a lot of different stories. Theres certainly a lot of debate about it. Nobody debates that medicaid is a lot worse than private insurance. There was an option, it depends on the state, to put more people on the exchanges where the quality of coverage would have been better than the medicaid where the quarter of coverage is worse. In terms of operators, its not obvious that the patients are going to do better . Do you agree with that . I dont. The study that you cite from virginia has mythological flaws in it, it looked backwards over time, what had happened in the past. I think a much better study and a study much more indicative of whats likely to happen with the expansion, the oregon Health Insurance. In 2008, oregon created a lottery, anyone who met certain criteria 0 could come into it. And a group were able to get medicaid through that lottery. They followed the group that did get it to the group that didnt. And a year later, they studied what happened. The difference between the two groups were striking. The group that did get the medicate coverage reported both physical health and Mental Health. Thats subjective. Thats not hard outcome. They had much better outcome. 60 better mammogram screening than those who didnt have are insurance. They were more likely to be taking the right prescription drugs for their current conditions. Less medical debt, fewer unpaid bills. So i think when we see in realtime, watching what medicaid does for people it making it a tremendously positive impact. Were also going to have a good one Going Forward. The oregon study has not measured actually yet. Florida is moving towards managed care. It will be privatized and hmr pistorius and insureds controlling the Medicaid Program in florida. Florida is opting out of the exchange. Florida, the same thing, medicare managed care, theyre still play paying at the below the combursment rates so the access to physicians and quality care will be better. Let me point out a few factual things lighter. Medicaid reimbursement rates set for the state. Medicaid has tremendous latitude for the states. They determine eligibility. Theres a basic package required. The eligibility, optional benefits package and the reimbursement rate all determine ted state level. It squeezed providers so you have reimbursement rates lower than private insurance. Unlike medicate where reimbursement rates get fixed in the federal government. By the way, in florida, governor rick scott slashed the compensation that went to Public Hospitals because he wanted to favor private hospitals. And he has been running this experiment in medicaid managed care. People dont like having the hmo experience. At least to your point, when you compare people who have no insurance at all, those are people getting care in the emergency room, by and large. Theyre not going for mammograms or screenings. Sure, doctors do a good job of treating people in the emergency room, but that doesnt mean thats where you get health. Given the political economy, that the hospital is grabbing the dollars which i think is a fair enough way to stay in florida. Im fascinated whats happening in florida where you are. Blue state, republican governor, seems to be leaning towards objecting against the medicare expansion. I want to talk about that right after this break. 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Im chris hayes here with Valerie Arkoosh from the National Mission alliance. And joy reid. Were talking about medicaid and the surprising addition with rick scott, the betten noir of the president S Health Care act. He were passively accept if the state legislature votes for the legislation. I want to counter that with whats happening in pennsylvania, governor tom corbett there. When it was upheld by the Supreme Court, there was this surprising decision, right, thats created this that said it was unconstitutional for the Affordable Care act to be structured in such a way that it didnt expand 138 of the poverty line, right . If they didnt do that, originally, the bill said, you dont get any medicaid. Done, right . In a 81 decision in the Affordable Care, the Supreme Court said thats an unconstitutional overreach which is giving the states the options and were seeing states come down different way. I think there was a remarkable blitheness dprumg all the quarters that the states would accept. Obviously, the dollars, 100 for three years, 90 thereafter. This is jack lew talking to George Stephanopoulos basically saying were going to get there. In 1960s when medicaid was enacted with a much smaller federal share where the state had to actually pay a considerable amount, the state ultimately came in. Do you think the governors in 1997, when the Child Health Care program was expanded, the states came in. Its 100 federal. And goes down to 90 goes down to 90 after several years but its the most generous match in the history of medicaid. The governors are going to answer to theyre own people. The governors are going to have to answer to their own people. Governor corbett in 2014, what is going on there . He didnt say no, but he said not at this time. But he didnt put any funding in or appropriate the money to drawdown the federal dollars. Its an interesting situation that sounds like no to me. The pennsylvanians that would benefit from the medicaid prevention. And its successful in our state, it seems inconceivable that he would walk away from this money, particularly with a 100 match. If this were money to build roads and bridge, clearly theres Something Else going on here. Well, what is the Something Else . Whats with the political economy of florida and pennsylvania, pennsylvania is actually a very old state. 600,000 people. Its a blue state. It has a republican governor, but in national elections, it votes quite reliable. How can you get away with this, i guess . What are the politics that the same Hospital Association folks arent going to come and beat down this door . Right now, the state has instate senate are republican controlled. At the state level right now having reelected overwhelmingly president obama in the last election. And i think whats been tough to understand in pennsylvania that governor corbett is really not sharing his analysis publicly. Theres been reports issued with numbers in them, but we have not seen the data on some which of those analyses were based. In fairness, governors do have to make sure they have a balanced budget, particularly the first three year, essentially across the state, nothing. And very importantly, the laws written in such a way that should that federal fund going away, that governors can pull back on the expansion. So this is not a one time forever were expanding. So they have that flexibility down the road as well. I just the Republicanled Legislature in florida has some of the same concerns, i think, especially the Florida House which is more conservative. And i talked to several members last week, and they said, you know, we just dont believe the federal government is going to make good on its promises. This is deficit spending. So there are, you know, definitely, conservative talking pointses too why the Medicaid Expansion doesnt make sense. But the other side is, you have in florida, millions of uninsured. This would reduce it give 1 Million People insurance. So theres this kind of two sides that have to be debated out in the session. And that clip that you brought up with jack lew, hes right about the incentives. States have the incentives to take the money, because otherwise it goes with other states. But the difference between now and then, why is this more of an issue now versus 1965 or 1997, is that medicaid is now such a large part of state budgets that theyre much more sensitive to the issue are they going to be on the hook for this extra medicaid spending down the road. Its 100 the first couple years, 90 at the end. What if it goes to 85 . 80 . Thats what states are worried about. I will take them at their word. Its amazing how state governments dont tent to lower about longterm costs in 2020. In a whole other variety of fields. Its a larger portion of the budget. Right. Pensions are huge. Every governor, republican or democrat is happy to take out pension costs to 2030. Right. Other thing right now, lot is in 90 in perpetuity after 2020. There is nothing statutorily in the books right now. And then you have scott saying and sounding bogus in not taking the money. And he put out numbers that were actually false that it wouldnt cost money. I dont understand corbett but the governors who got elected in 2010, the Tea Party Governors who have to go up for election in 2014 are by and large taking it. In ohio, michigan, rick snyder. But then the sort of president ial potential president ial candidates. Wisconsin, scott walker. Louisianas bobby jindal, South Carolina not taking it. The people who have national or political aspirations are not taking it. Pennsylvania is a different case. Theyre actually in a weird position because they already had eligibility above the its a less devastating impact in wisconsin in terms of who is not going to be covered. And i love what scott walker did in wisconsin. He understands the point i was making before. The way he set up his system was to maximize the degree. This is what drives me crazy, the republican act saying the exchanges are going to be better. None of the republicans are setting up exchanges in their state. Exchanges are incredibly complicated. If people think theyre going to provide health care, why arent they getting it together to get it going . They dont need to. They have very little latitude to change or design the exchange in a different way than the federal government will. So its easier to offload that risk on the federal government because if theres anything that goes wrong with the implementation obama gets blame right. People will still get covered. I really want to jump in on this issue of medicaid patients not getting access. I think the largest expansion of primary care, both physicians and nurses is underrated in this country that weve seen in several decades. In the Affordable Care act there is money to increase reimbursement for primary care doctors up to the medicare rates. In pennsylvania that means 90 increasing rates for primary care doctors. And Community Health centers, more being built, with the expectation people going there now even with medicaid will continue to go to places like that. But i think what gets missed in this conversation when a person befalls some catastrophe. They get diagnosed with cancer, they get hit by a bus and they have to go to the hospital, people who are uninsured have effectively debt that they will be paying off for the rest of their lives. They cannot ever get back from that. And people who have medicaid do not have that problem. Right. It pays the hospital bills and its not a lifeending, from a financial standpoint, experience for someone to get hit by a bus. They can go to the hospital. They can get better. They can get out without endless debt and go back to work. Thats what we want, people who can work and contribute to their communities and take care of their kids and not worry that the next layoff means theyre done. I thought republicans didnt believe in federal control of peoples live. Now people are saying, hey, federal government, come in and rub the exchange with my state. This is completely upset down. Because as i said, the states dont have much latitude. But Kathleen Sebelius said they try to work with it. From a policy standpoint, the latitude that states have to design the exchange structurely is very different. I think the other question Going Forward is how that shapes the politics in medicaid. Weve seen the politics in medicare which is fascinating. Weve got to do something about medicare. Youre cutting medicare. And its an incredible powerful force in our politics. Medicaid is an adjunct, those other people. Its interesting to see how that shapes the politics Going Forward, operating . As people get brought into the system by expansion it might change the support. Theres that old line about programs for the poor are poorer programs, right . The more something is made at which eligibility creeps up in the increase scale, you may see increase in quality, right . A lot of misconceptions about who medicaid takes care of. Seniors and Nursing Homes one of the biggest percentages of medicaid dollars. Children in pennsylvania, a very significant portion of children get health care through medicaid. Pregnant women and people with disabilities. So it is not in pennsylvania if youre a fulltime working adult and you dont work for someone who offers Health Insurance, you basically have no way to get Health Insurance. Valerie arkoosh of the National Commission alliance. Tia mitchell and joy reed, thanks for being here. The conservative activist council has invited yours truly to speak. My response as agent that visit. Tax refund time is here. Im with malcom and kelly who are looking for a great new smartphone. You think you can find one at walmart . Maybe. Lets go see. Alright. Let him tell you about sprint. Weve got the Samsung Galaxy s iii on the sprint 4g lte network for just 148 nice wow. And you get a 50 gift card. Awesome. We can split it. I dont think so. Okay. [ earl ] see for yourself. Get a 50 walmart gift card when you buy any Samsung Smartphone on the sprint 4g lte network. Now through march 2nd. Walmart. Full of beautiful highlights and lowlights. Thats why nicen easy builds dimension into every shade. So heres a challenge love the gorgeous dimension of nicen easy or well pay for a salon color. Take the salon challenge, from nicen easy. My story of the week. Conservatives and me. And you. So last week, i was surprised and oddly delighted by something that my friend Rachel Maddow also picked up on. They have invited chris hayes to cpac here this year. Chris hayes of msnbc invited to speak on a panel with ralph reed. I dont know if hes going to go, but cool that they asked him. Yes, the conservative Political Action conference has invited me to speak this march. Specifically invited to be part of the financial csi washington, along with andrea burckle, Michael Barone and ralph reed. Id be gracing the stage from activists from marco rubio to sarah palin to mitt romney who have used the occasion to flaunt their conservative bona fides. How do you know americans are conservatives, heres why . How come liberals never admit theyre liberals . I was a severely conservative republican governor. We must outsmart the liberals. We must outsmart the stupid people trying to run america. Keep your change. Well keep our guns, our god, our prostitution. The form letter invitation i received even paid me the slightly odd compliment of calling me one of americas leading conservative voices as in as one of americas leading conservative voices your participation in cpac 2013 will be critical to our efforts. My initial reaction is of course ill go. I have a special career, for cpacs willingness to invite someone to speak to the attendees as someone who invites conservatives to sit at our table with leftist, it seems appropriate to except. But then i remember a pretty gross episode from 2011. That year, the board of the American Conservative Union which sponsors cpac voted to ban the gay conservative go proud that sponsored the 2012 conference. Go proud cofounder chris baron told me one of the first things they did was to send it to cpac. As far as go proud knows, the policy of not being allowed to sponsor the event is still in effect. So, i wrote back to al cardenas who runs the aclu yesterday and asked whether the policy is still in effect. If it isnt, im psyched to go, if it is, ill wait until it changes. Go proud is not an organization i share much with ideologically or like all that much. Go proud is not really the point. The point is the principle which is its not okay to ban organizations for reasons of bigotry. But the aclu does this because theres a powerful constituency with conservatism that may have it that way. A number of conservatives have said to me, the bigots have enough juice, they call the shots. This sums up the whole problem in the Republican Party, doesnt it . Maybe because im a squish or in the immortal words of abby hoffman, i always want to find the skepticism of bureaucratic dysfunction. The perils of central plans, reference for central institutions but i feel that the conservatism that the Republican Party controls is just a name that is given for hierarchy exclusion keeping those people whoever they might be out. This year, cpac will be largely be devoted to brainstorming how to resurrect good fortunes of conservatism of which those people make up the majority. And they are, as cofounder chris barron pointed out to me exclusive. In the last few months, there has been an absolute avalanche of blogs and magazine cover stories and segments on how to save the Republican Party. What i want to ask my guests when i get back is, is the Republican Party even worth saving . How do you keep an older car running like new . You ask a ford customer. When they tell you that you need your oil changed you got to bring it in. If your tires need to be rotated, you have to get that done as well. 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Im janet long and i formed my Toffee Company through legalzoom. I never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. Go to legalzoom. Com today and make your business dream a reality. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. If by blessed you mean freaked out about money well we suddenly noticed that everything was getting more expensive so we switched to the bargain detergent but i found myself using three times more than youre supposed to and the clothes still werent as clean as with tide. So were back to tide. Theyre cuter in clean clothes. Thanks honey yeah you suck at folding [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] one cap of tide gives you more cleaning power than 6 caps of the bargain brand. [ woman ] thats my tide, whats yours . Joining me now the professor of linguists of columbia university. We have akin roid. And michelle goldberg. And john mitchell, associate editor of the capitol times in wisconsin. Heres my first question, should liberals have an investment . Do liberals have an investment or purchase in the great debate how to rebuild the Republican Party . Right, i think the general feeling in the press coverage that liberals do. Im just not sure they do. The question is, should you want these strong Republican Party . Whatever that means. Or should you want complete total unilateral victory. Dont you think it depends on where your interests lie. On the one hand, its clearly in the interest of the Democratic Party to see the republicans continue to margealize themselves and implode and fight the civil war. The country is ingovernable, right . Like we kind of lurch from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis because we have this rumpf that will not agree to any kind of government. In as much as you want a twopart system, you want both of those to have a baseline of santi. Any partys degree of selfcriticism. Thats what democrats accuse republicans these days of not having. Any party has tendencies which need to be tempered. Anybody thats concerned with the state of the nation the way its supposed to be run is a good thing. I think as a democrat myself of fairly recent vintage. Always vintage. Just a cranky democrat. Youre back in the fold, dude. Im back in the saddle. And i think identity politics is great when it starts, but then i think it sinks and in becomes a poison. I think there needs to be a party that can temper that. I think that all of us can often have a visceral distrust of business and corporations. Im always happy when theres a party that counters that. However it has to be a Republican Party that is a conservative party, rather than what it actually is, which is today, in many senses, a radical party that makes gestures towards what any thinking party would call conservatism. Im old enough to remember 1992. 12 years of republican president s in the white house. Every article in newsweek was the irrelevance of the Democratic Party. The real question is not whether the Republican Party will survive, but what will be the policy platform of the Republican Party . Will the Republican Party move to the left to accommodate a new liberal majority . Or stay conservative and expand to groups that arent voting republican today . Thats really the question of what will happen with the Republican Party, not whether it will survive. I think youre right. The Republican Party is going to survive. Unfortunately, we have an electoral system thats designed to to have these two parties. Yeah, agreed. As a progressive, and not as a democrat, i definitely hope the Republican Party gets its act together. Because the Democratic Party say mess right now. And it is a mess because it exists as were its platform is, were not as bad as those guys. And until the republicans become a lot better, the Democratic Party will not become a lot better. And to give you an example of this what does better mean . How does the Democratic Party say mess compared to what . It seems to be in better shape than only lectelectri electorally. The d. O. C. , theyre not getting any more. The party is essentially more liberal than its been in anytime. In what way its a mess compared to what president obama does on the keystone pipeline. Well see what president obama does on the decision of medicare and medicaid. Well see whether the democratic is the party of roosevelt or stands on core principles. Wait a second and a better Republican Party gives that credit. I totally i think i disagree. Disagree contingent on what the definition of better is, right . Is better a more effective party, more effective, can squeeze out more efficiency out of its Current Coalition . Look at the texas Republican Party. They produced ted cruz. They produced ted cruz and theyve done better in some elections. Its oh, i dont wanna. Better say party that would attract more interest among young people. And im going to say more interest among critically thinking people who try to think out of the box because at this point, whats going on is that the party say radical party. Which to a large extent is in the hands of people looking to outside authorities, such as, for example, religion or os sa fied theorys that arent based on what actually works but based on a religious ooh ooh ooh fervor. This is not the party of burke. I was teaching burke at columbia this week. My key question to the students is, youve read burke, conservatism. You thought you werent going to like him. Yet most of you hate republicans. Whats the difference . Wait a second im a great admirer of burke. I understand what youre talking about. I think part of the modern challenges of the movement in america was forged in the 1960s, before the great society. So there needs to be a reassessment of how you apply conservative principles to the 21st century. That philosophical is ongoing on. The author of the great director of mind. If hes watching, hes losing his mind because i think the whole persuasion of burke, burke is a radical calling your revolution. Monar monarchist revolution. His whole point we liberals consider a have this argument, it was good conservatism back in the day. Burke was in dialogue exactly, the ones who are no longer in power. I want to talk about that right after this break. Hey, its me, progressive insurance. You know, from our 4,000 television commercials. Yep, there i am with flo. Hoohoo watch it [chuckles] anyhoo, 3 Million People switched to me last year, saving an average of 475. [sigh] it feels good to help people save. With great discounts like safe driver, multicar, and multipolicy. So call me today. Youll be glad you did. Cannonbox [splash ] theres this kind of liberal fielding that todays conser conservatives are not that bad. To the same time we have empirical voting methods in the house. You actually see the parties move to the right. I dont think thats that deniable. Let me take a piece of that. To me, this say fascinating thing. The Republican Party was a Diverse Party and a party that had many ideological streams within. Forced the republican a lot of ways. Civil rights. John lindsey and a group of republicans. Goldwater no, before. Kennedy. The first civil rights put forward with getting a chance to get some place, republicans were very involved on it. But my point is if you look back at the history of the Republican Party its had conservative streams in it for a long time. Conservative leaders historically called out the nuts. William f. Buckley went on the front page of National Review and called out the burkiers. And reagan called out the nuts. You were not writing that about reagan in 1994 when reagan was there. No, but you know whats amazing, were already doing this about george w. Bush. I know. Well, george w. Bush was but do we not accept then, that is the generation of the Republican Party which we should be concerned about . Yes. But i also think its important to not fall into the temptation of then kind of putting reagan on a pedestal. So, im a little devils advocate here. Talk about me and my evolution, such as it was. It was more youre the founder of the cranky party. Society evolved around me. Which is when george w. Bush came in and i wrote a book, i had many wonderful people telling me i was really a republican who didnt want to admit it. I would openly admit for a year and a half, i considered it. I tried to to be open minded in everything. It made sense to the gestures towards conservatism. Frankly, i think welfare reform was a wonderful thing. However, whats happening over the past ten years, in particular, no me could possibly consider becoming republican, and no more young people. Youre right about the Republican Party losing its moderate wing and gesture towards capacity, and it has absorbed the saluatory tradition. Obama does have respect for families, institution, all these kinds of things. But the identity politics that youre docking about, although the modern Democratic Party is a coalition of these different groups, you dont see any kind of of the ridiculous you know, this isnt the party thats going to support ebonnics. I want to get to the idea of reagan and buckley calls out the nuts. One of the structural things about the conservative movement today, its leaderless. There isnt any one person who has the stature today, since reagan died, basically, or since buckley leave the scene who has that kind of stature to say heres what conservatism should stand for. Here are things that conservatism should not. If there becomes a conservative bearer over the next few years that could change. George w. Bush was that. Lets be clear. Let me ask you there were a lot of conservatives, on this issue of compassion. Conservatives are already compassionate. Lets be clear about this, this is revisionist history. Conservatives loved george w. Bush. I loved george w. Bush. Everyone wants to talk about when they became antifascist, right . Paul ryan cast the deciding vote in Medicare Part d which i will never get tired of saying. Bush was a conservative, if you criticized that that is not true. In early 2000, he actually was moderate. Thats my point, after 2000 he wasnt a leader of the intellectual no. But the intellectual we could go back and find some embarrassing floral, purple hints of the conservative hints controller go find let me ask you a question, you said didnt have the leaders. When buckley called out the john birch, he became conservative and said i am not this. I think the crisis in the Republican Party today is that there are not people standing up and taking the risks. I want you to think that ted cruz is the problem with the conservatives. Well, what hes saying harvard is the seed bed of communism. Hold off. I want to play the president making his argument for loyal opposition. The Republican Party getting its act together to be an effective counterbalancing force that works to govern the country, right . Theres this question of sort of purging of the nuts which is a term i dont really love. But about people that we think are extremists or stand in the way of actual functioning, practical politics, right . The exchange. But the thing to me, as someone who is to the left. Pretty far to the left of the american mainstream politics, what investment do i have in getting that worked out . The question is, do i want a Republican Party that, fringeor instance, comes to the table on climate . Thats what i want. Right after this break. 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This is the only thing weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from chase. A hairline fracture to the mandible and contusions to the metacarpus. What do you see . Um, i see a duck. Be more specific. I see the aflac duck. I see the aflac duck out of work and not making any money. I see him moving in with his parents and selling bootleg dvds out of the back of a van. Dude, thats your life. Remember, aflac will give him cash to help cover his rent, car payments and keep everything as normal as possible. I see lunch. [ monitor beeping ] lets move on. [ male announcer ] find out what a hospital stay could really cost you at aflac. Com. Im a big believer not just in the value of a loyal opposition, but in its necessity. Having differences of opinion, having a real debate about matters of domestic policy and national security, thats not something thats only good for our country. Its absolutely essential. Its only through the process of disagreement and debate that bad ideas get tossed out. And good ideas get refined and made better. And that kind of vigorous back and forth, though imperfect and wellfounded process that it is is at the heart of our democracy. Thats the president when he went to address the Republican House ideas conference. That famous interchange is an amazing moment that will never happen again, because it was so great. And it was sort of like, you know, up with chris hayes people of actual power. President obama is exactly who he wants to be. Right. Thats who president obama wants to be. One, a, i think this model of strong and vigorous debate, obviously, i believe in that. Thats what i try to do that here. Thats what i do for a living. Politics to me seems like im a realist on this. Pure will to power. Im not quite sure these exchanges ever like, do we have some idea that these exchanges back and forth improve things. And im not sure how much thats ever the case. But the other question is like how do we get like on climate, for instance. Josh bearer had this column he was talking about why hes a republican, right. He made a distinction between different parties are good because of values. Different conceptions are good, different values, moral codes of what should be valued, you know. But we should agree on positive factsing right . We should say change is real. Exactly. Now, you have a set of enor enormative principles that you want to deal with. It does feel that the problems we want to encounter are on questions of fact, right . Theres disengagement from that. And i dont know what changes that. The only thing that changes you basically have a party thats obstructed that reality and now lives within it. Theres been a hope for a long time that that bubble is going to burst. But you have to see, i think, the current Republican Party real crumble, really suffer several more years of serious electoral defeats before youre going have some kind of reckoning with the intellectual culdesac. I dont think its going to happen. Heres the other thing. You know what the midterm electorate is going to look like in 2014 . Like the 2010. Smaller, older and white. And going to legislate a lot of republicans well be sitting at this table writing articles. I can tell you thats not true. Really . Yeah, i think 2010 was like that. In 2010 in 2008, after obama won, people had all the same conversations theyre having today. Then 2010 happened, conservatism is fine. Doesnt need to change. 2008 made people realize that the 2010 change is has been an that the electorate has a much more urgency to how to improve and modernize. Thats happening. Go ahead. Youve come full circle, though. You started out why should progressives care about this. Right. The fact of the matter is, until the Republican Party becomes right. I use the term better until it becomes better at what it does. The Democratic Party will always have a huge space in which which to compromise. For progressives, they should want the Republican Party to become an intellectual vigorous and Strong Conservative Party from a realitybased point. What do we know now that we didnt know last week . My answer after this. In just a moment. A quick correction for an error i made on another show. On friday, february 15th, i appeared on the rachel mad do you show. One of those tactics is divestments in which advocates call for stocks. On the California Public employment retirement system as having divested from gun manufacturers when in fact it was the california state teachers retirement system that was the first major pension fund to divest from firearms manufacturers. As a coda, it turns out a few days after i appeared on rachels show, calprs voted to divest from two gun manufacturers as well. So you can also view my error as a brief moment of claryovance. Christine quinn has, after 1,000 days, not brought to vote a bill that would require all businesses in the city to give their employees five paid sick days a year. This week, Gloria Steinem signed a letter along with hundreds of other women that ran an ad in the New York Times calling for miss quinn to bring sick pay day legislation up for vote. If elected, she would be the first out gay mayor of new york. But miss steinem says making life fair for women seems more important than breaking the barrier for one one. We now know china has done what the u. S. Has not, put a tax on carbon. On tuesday, the official state newspaper announced that quote, china will proactively introduce a set of new taxation policies designed to preserve the environment including a tax on Carbon Dioxide emissions according to a senior official at the ministry of finance. We dont know when the tax will kick in, how high it will be or how strictly it will be enforced. We know there are reasons to be quite skeptical of chinas commitment to reducing emissions but we know chinese authorities are increasingly concerned about Climate Change and directing more investment toward Renewable Energy. We know Public Investment in Renewable Energy in if u. The u. On the decline. We know the citizens of a houston suburb, missouri city, better be towaready to pay up w they need the services of the local police. Starting march 1st, drivers will be charged the cost of dispatching First Responders to the scene of car crashes, a tab that can run as high as 2,000. We know city Officials Say the new policy is intended to close the citys budgets deficit and will save 50,000 a year. We know the model of goods purchased is the inevitable result of the austerity regime and is an offense against the most foundational conceit of our social contract which is that we all pay in to provide basic service, universal services we all might use some day. We know that increasingly the disaggregate funding with means testing, the only durable goods are those we pay for and use collectively. Finally, we know the new name for the Florida Atlantic universitys football stadium. The school in boca raton saw a sponsor for the stadium in exchange for naming rights. On tuesday we learned for the price of 6 million, the new name of the stadium will be geo group stadium. Geo group is one of the nations largest operators of forprofit prisons. We know geo facilities have faced lawsuits and accusations of human rights abuses. We know in the last decade the industry has boomed with the top two private prisons both enjoying record profits topping 1. 6 billion in revenue last year. We know nothing makes a mockery of the notion of a free market like booming magnates of the Prison Industrial Complex who exist solely off government contracts and then turn around and use their money and influence to push policy makers to put more people in prison. Even the staunchest conservative will tell you the invisible hand is supposed to be an instrument of liberation, not imprisonment. Want to find out what my guests know they didnt when the week began. John . From 1937 to 1963, there was a gridlocked congress. People were as appalled at the state of lawmaking as we are now and what broke it was a gradual groundswell of social related feeling which we now know as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That was created by uniquely politically talented president who got in for accidental reports. Not sure what the lessons are for today. However, congress has been worse than it is now and i think its something we could remember. After the Affordable Care act is fully implemented there will still be 30 million americans without Health Insurance. The former director of the Congressional Budget Office in the Bush Administration put out an oped in reuters making the case for market based universal coverage as the way forward for entitlement reform. This is the beginning of a multiyear project to try to make the case to conservatives that universal coverage is the path to getting our fiscal ship in balance. Michelle . You know, most weeks seem to bring at least some news about why the Catholic Church has no business setting itself up as the kind of moral arbiter of american politics or any other kind of politics. This week we learned from the popes resignation might be related to a circle of high level gay clergy being blackmailed by male prostitutes. I saw that report and i spent time in italy. Not sure how much i trust the sourcing on that but i did see that report. John . One thing we know is that the sequester is austerity, is kind of across the board blunt austerity but the austerity that Erskine Bowles and alan simpson want which is ultimately much more devastating going after Social Security, medicare, medicaid, is being pushed by a group called fix the debt. Theyre spending literally tens of millions of dollars to advance the idea that this is the only alternative. The terrific group center for media and democracy has launched a new website at prwatch. Org that tells you all about this group and whats revealed is that its being run by a lot of billionaires who dont want to fix the debt. They really want to lower their taxes. Nation magazine has a great feature on fix the debt this week. Check that out. My thanks to my guests. Thank you for getting up. Thank you for joining us today. Join us tomorrow, sunday morning at 8 00. Well have robert gibbs on the president and the White House Press corps. Next, melissa harrisperry. Today, how president obama compares to kevin bacon in footloose. That and a once Great American citys on life support. Will america let detroit die . See you here tomorrow at 8 00. [ slap ] [ male announcer ] your Favorite Foods fighting you . Fight back fast with tums. Calciumrich tums starts working so fast youll forget you had heartburn. Tum tum tum tum tums youll forget you had heartburn. When you lost the thing you cant believe you lost. When what you just bought, just broke. Or when you have a little trouble a long way from home. As an American Express cardmember you can expect some help. But what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. Spends like cash. Feels like membership. Ive always had to keep my eye on her. But, i didnt always watch out for myself. With so much noise about health care. I tuned it all out. 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