years. it s a mandate they go out and purchase health care, but they can t get any subsidy. they re required you know, we want imgrants, we re always saying why don t immigrants play by the rules. they want to play by the rules. but then we re saying, you re not really part of the rules. those are a couple of issues. let s get down to brass tacks. are those two issues enough for you to say, you know what, i can t support this bill? they are enough to say i can t support this bill. i m looking forward to talking to the president and see if he can t give us some kind of holistic explanation of what we re doing, because health care and immigration, housing, immigration, banking system, immigration, they re all intertwined. let s deal within a comprehensive manner so the president doesn t have to be, i think, really demeaning, the stature of his office and himself by going after immigrants by saying they can t because i don t really think he believes that. i just think somebody at
and we were able to avoid that. so that the filibuster remains at 60, unless there was a rule change. and that s pretty tough to get. all right. i m going to go to your senate primary, we re two months away from the campaign season. here s congressman sestak talking about you on monday s hardball. take a listen. he has used language that has made me appear to people as though i m a criminal. you know, and as though i m breaking the law. and you know, that s the kind of politics that people are saying, we re tired of that negativity. yeah, he brought it from the republican party leadership and he s doing again as he s done it in a dishonest way for many, many times against opponents. some strong, dare i say salty language. criminal. did you accuse him of some sort of criminal behavior? well, the statute says if you don t pay the minimum wage, you can go to jail.
me and others, we accepted reluctantly, and we thought it was bad public policy, but we accepted that for the bill to move forward, undocumented immigrants, illegal, here in the united states, would be excluded. that wasn t easy to do, but we did it. then the president kind of doubled down, right? he said, even if they go to the exchange with their own money, they can t buy health care for themselves, and for their families. i m kind of like, well, they collect the money from the irs. and their taxes. and they go to the store to shop. why can t they pay? especially since they re younger, less likely to use health care, and the premiums will go to helping support the system. so we want people to pay, but he said no, not even then can they come. and secondly, i think it s very important for people to understand that in the senate version, which looks like the way we re going here, i mean, every indication is that the is the way we re going, they re going to exclude legal permanent reside
kennedy was supporting went down to dramatic defeat over 300 votes against his position on that. by the way, it was an empty chamber he was speaking to as well. and again, he s retiring. and the outrage is showing post-retirement. blago time, back in action. when has he ever stopped. former illinois governor rod blagojevich, the once future star of donald trump celebrity apprentice, showed up on letterman last night to deliver the top ten list. it was a good one. here we go. top ten questions rod blagojevich asked himself before appearing on apprentice. can i get paid in shampoo? yeah. number six. is there any chance nbc will replace me with leno? yeah. excellent. excellent possibility. number two. how come i m not a governor and paterson is? well, that s the number
welcome back to hardball. i m chuck todd. i m in for chris matthews, who s in jordan with vice president biden. it s time to talk about some races we re loving to cover this spring. in a few minutes, colorado congressman romanoff will be here. arlen specter, faces congressman joe sestak in the democratic primary for the u.s. senate which has been may 18th. almost two months away from that. before i get to that race, i want to go to senator reid s decision to formally inform the republicans that he s going to go this senate role reconciliation. are you concerned about any of the long-term fallout on how the u.s. senate runs if and when you guys vote on some health care fixes this way is this. chuck, there are many press dents for using reconciliation. in analogous circumstances. for example, on s-chip and