what happens? what are the facts? does it actually stop the what paul ryan calls the death spiral of obamacare? does it actually help insurance companies provide options for people? does the competition allow individuals to better afford healthcare? does eliminating the essential health benefits allow more options for voters? if it ends up working, then who knows. but if it doesn t, and it ends up being the dire prediction we re hearing from nancy pelosi and david axelrod. what you need is certainty in the marketplace. this is what the insurers are complaining about is the uncertainty in the marketplace. if you have a plan in the marketplace and you give it a chance to see how it works out, maybe it will. maybe it will work. but that doesn t answer the question about state funding for medicaid for example. which will be, you know, a big unknown here. what will it do to those people who depend on their health benefits under medicaid?
bluer even purple districts from people saying are you kidding me how can you take away my health care because that s what they will hear from a strong democratic message machine. that s by far better politically than the notion of leaving here and once again going home for a recess and ultimately maybe even by the next time they go and face voters not keeping that fundamental rudimentary promise to repeal obamacare. that at the end of the day is the most important thing which is why you heard paul ryan emphasize that and you hear republicans in the hallway practice their talking points before they step out into their cars and trains and planes to go home and face their constituents. already, dana bash on capitol hill for us. we ll come back to you in a second. in this revised version, jake, house republicans want to replace the protection obamacare provides for people with pre-existing conditions with federally funded high-risk pools. let s discuss how this would work and the pote
it s an opportunity because the public will now see what they gave their name to. they put their name next to your paying more for less. and we ll make sure that the public is aware of that. i just think they walk the plank. they were i don t know. duped into walking the plank for a bill that will not become law. but i guess their desire to give a tax break for the rich trumped everything. with that i m pleased to yield. thank you very much, leader. let me congratulate you. you were the most significant leader in assuring the passage of the affordable care act. we re going to continue to monitor the democrat s reaction, obviously, they lost the republicans won in this initial step to repeal and replace obamacare. i want to bring in man u raju,
political commentator david axelrod. david, your reaction to the house of representatives passing a bill that to a degree begins the process of repealing and replacing obamacare. you know normally jake when you cast a vote like this you want to feel like the vote wasn t in vain and the law will go on to the senate and be signed by the president. in this case if i cast a vote for this i might be hoping that the senate changes it dramatically or it never comes back to the house and it doesn t become law because despite what leader mccarthy just said the cbo says 24 million less people will have health care as a result of this law if this bill if it were to become law. a lot of those people will be impacted will be older americans, lower middle income americans. in other words the trump base, the base that s now become the
senate. this is something we should take a note of and say this is particularly since they were in such dire straits they had to pull the bill they thought obamacare would be the law of the land for so long after they really messed this up a little more than a month ago. now they have some victory to declare. a big win for the republicans on this day after a major setback only six weeks ago when they didn t have enough votes to even have a roll call. let s get quick reaction from john king. 2018 control of the house began right there. a defining moment for the president in the short term. doesn t get him to the finish line. a big event at the white house. every democrat will try to tie those republicans to president trump. what this does is this is a, gives the president the short term victory to get the long term success he and the republicans want. we re going to learn if this president can negotiate and resolve the differences between the republicans in the house and the very na