administration make in laying out this strategy to get health care reform? well, i think the president from the outset was very hopeful that we would have a broad bipartisan coalition. that s why i think months were spent in the united states senate with six senators in a room, three republicans and three democrats, lots of good republican ideas are in the bill. help for small business owners, tax credit, selling insurance across state lines aggressively going after fraud and abuse. unfortunately, those good ideas still haven t produced republican votes but the president wants to take the best ideas from republicans and democrats, he will continue to do that and he hopes at the end of the day we ll have some republican votes along the way. but what missteps did the administration make? i think there s no question that having, you know, an issue like this on the table is complicated, it s difficult. and sometimes i think people got lost in the weeds if you will. there s a lot of t
president want ordinary expected. ground has been lost. what mistake desire the administration make in laying out this strategy to get health care reform? well, i think the president from the outset was very hopeful that we would have a broad bipartisan coalition. that s why i think months were spent in the united states senate with six senators in a room, three republicans and three democrats, lots of good republican ideas are in the bill. help for small business owners, tax credit, selling insurance across state lines aggressively going after fraud and abuse. unfortunately, those good ideas still haven t produced republican votes but the president wants to take the best ideas from republicans and democrats, he will continue to do that and he hopes at the end of the day we ll have some republican votes along the way. but what missteps did the administration make? i think there s no question that having, you know, an issue like this on the table is complicated, it s difficult. an
where you can bring people over. i think e.j. s points are well taken t. challenge is if there is vote for reconciliation, if there were votes in reconciliation it probably would have been done t. question is if there are not enough votes to pass by reconciliation you reach out to the democrats and you begin to reach out to some republicans. when lbj and the republican leader worked to pass civil rights legislation they worked together. maybe that s the president and the team now can find ways to bring a few republicans over and if you have to vote with the reconciliation vote, wouldn t it be amazing if you lost a few democrats and picked up a few republicans. it might make it easier. amazing. how about a miracle. i don t put amazing out of reach. warren buffett was on a sister network and said if plan a we have to accept. if plan b is the option which is the senate bill. really a plan c is needed. might be plan c, a reconciliation approach could be adopted if we found ways to wi
energy and congress, worked on issues and he supports the president s notion about this. congressman stupak and the president agree. but they don t agree how you get it. what needs to be done, he used to abyes, he is now a no vote. how does he become a yes sflot i think people will continue to talk to him. i think that there is no question to try to persuade him he s wrong. i think there is no question that the senate bill does not provide federal funding for abortion but at the end of the day i think that we ll get to the point that there s agreement that there is no federal funding on abortion. he is misinformed. i think he is misinformed about what the senate language does but he wants comprehensive health reform. i know he has this principled issue. the president said from the outsthet is about health reform, it s not about abortion. we don t want to change the status quo. there are very clear rules that apply across the board on
people with health insurance now are going to lose it if we don t do anything. there is a report out of wall street last week that showed that insurance companies are jacking up their rates because in a lot of market there is is no competition. and they are willing to lose some people, drop people from coverage, because they can make more profit with higher rates. if we don t do something about this system, a lot of employers won t be able to afford covering their employees. harold ford, you have been in congress. this is a question of process, not just reconciliation, that budget measure. how do the no votes become yes votes in the house? there were 39 no votes among house democrats, there could be 11 more that become no over this abortion language which you heard secretary sebelius address. how do they get the votes? two ways. first, democrats in the senate were able to convince some senate republicans, scott brown, boyneovich and a few others to vote in favor of a jobs bill that