republican lamar alexander and democrat patti murry nearing an agreement on the compromise. under the framework the deal likely will fund affordable care act subsidies through 2019, let ages 30 and over buy catastrophic plans, put $106 million back into promoting obamacare enrollment and make it easier for states to get aca waivers while allowing interstate compacts for purchases, getting rid of the so-called lines. president trump yesterday seemed to welcome the bipartisanship but a spokesman said he was absolutely not endorsing the deal. congressman mark walker of north carolina. congressman, good morning. good to see you. what s the take on what came up between senators alexander and murray? would it pass through the house?
all the constitution says about electing a president is that the states will appoint electorates in such manner as the legislature of those states determine. so the states are free, essentially, to govern with any method. it took a long time to come up with the winner-take-all method per state, and that what this does is it doesn t run an end run around the constitution. it honors the constitution by using that provision of the constitution, that the state legislatures have this power and then the provision allowing for interstate compacts. so what you would have is a mechanism by which we would elect the president, the same way we elect governors, senators, city council people, the same way we do it in every other election, namely, you take the people who are affected by that office, the constituency for that office, in which case, in the case of the president, that s the united states of america, you count the votes, and the one with the most votes
legislation. for example, they ve said that they want tort reform to be part of health reform. as you know, tort reform efforts were incorporated into the senate bill. they re still complaining about tort reform, still complaining that they re going to vote against it. is are you feeling like there is anything constructive coming from republicans on this, or are you just asking for that? i have been talking to republicans. i ve been talking to democrats. and i think if both sides get together, we can, for example, say let s go after the special interests rather than each other. let s try to score policy points rather than political points. let me give you an example. the republicans very much want to allow for shopping interstate. now, we have a very good provision in our bill. it s called section 1333. it would allow for interstate compacts. that s moving in the direction the republicans want to go. let s get into these policy questions. i think we can find common ground and parti
efforts were incorporated into the senate bill. they re still complaining about tort reform, still complaining they re going to vote against it. are you feeling like there s anything constructive coming from republicans on this? or are you just asking for that? i have been talking to republicans, i ve been talking to democrats, and i think if both sides get together. we can say let s go after the special interests rather than each other, let s try to score policy points rather than political points. let me give you an example. the republicans want to allow for shopping interstate. now, we have a very good provision in our bill, it s called section 1333. it would allow for interstate compacts, that s moving in the direction the republicans want to go. let s get into these policy questions, i think we can find common ground and particularly building around more choice and more competition, we can hold costs down, and that s something that will allow both sides to say we re putting the