care coverage might have been lost today as a result of the supreme court decision. but one former democratic governor who understands the decision and had to administer medicaid in his state is worried tonight. i m a little nervous about the medicaid ruling. medicaid has insured more people in this bill than anything else. joining me now to analyze the newest provision of the affordable care act as written by the supreme court, ed rendell, the newly appointed director of rhode island s health benefits exchange, a professor at george washington university and the co-host of msnbc s new 3:00 p.m. show the cycle. okay, governor, you re up. this is now optional, this expansion of medicaid. and so in your state of pennsylvania, which was one of the states that went to the
is. today s vote may make for good political theater in the minds of some, but it is at base both a crass effort and grave to the american people. ultimately, their goal was the vote that, with the help of special interests, they now have engineered. a great deal of work for the american people remains to be done. i m going to be getting back to it. i suggest that those who orchestrated today s vote do thç same. let s turn to congressman keith ellison, minnesota co-chair of the congressional progressive caucus. strange day at the office. i think the republicans thought they were going to be 2-0. they lost the ruling, then, of course, they did get this. political stunt, no doubt, how furious are democrats over this? well, i think that we re
drugs and for wellness care, for mammograms, all the things that are important to families. i went to the republican briefing on the hill today. they are calling it a job killer. they are saying it s terrible for small business. you didn t say that. the fact is, we have about 300,000 small businesses and 2 million of their employees have gotten health care since this ç became the law because they get credits to help pay for the health care. these small businesses want to offer health care, they couldn t afford it. now they can and they are doing it. governor dean, we know one thing about the republicans, they don t give up, and the next four months are going to be politically brutal. first of all, your response to the ruling today. i know you re not a fan of the mandate. your response to the ruling and your coaching, so to speak, on how the democrats have to sell this the next four months and run on it. first of all, this was a great ruling, not in the least because john robe
welcome back to the ed show. this is a big day for president obama and the progressive movement in this country. but it would have never happened if it had not been for the speaker of the house at the time who never gave up. democratic leader nancy pelosi sat down with me for an exclusive interview just hous after the ruling today. i asked her if she feels vindicated after fighting for reform. i don t know if vindicated is the word. i m very, very happy. i always knew i always thought this would be upheld.ç this is about people said, oh, people suffer because politically because of this vote, i think the election of 2010 was about 9.5% unemployment. $200 million was spent misrepresenting the health care bill, 9% unemployment, hard to get through that shield to
court has now says option is for the states not mandatory. 26 states went to the supreme court saying we don t want the medicaid provision. so a majority of the states now might not adopt the medicaid provision and the congressional budget office estimate of the 17 million who would be covered will surely now have to be revised to a lower figure. the constitutionality of the individual mandate, virtually no one has noticed how much health care coverage might have been lost today as a result of the supreme court decision. but one former democratic ç governor who understands the decision and had to administer medicaid in his state is worried tonight. i m a little nervous about the medicaid ruling. medicaid has insured more people in this bill than anything else. joining me now to analyze the