our job here is to make sure that people get more choices, and by getting more choices, you can get better quality health insurance and lower prices, and we preserve those protections for people with pre-existing conditions. that s the goal of this bill. that s what this bill achieves. and we think it s going to be a big improvement on the status quo, which is collapsing before us. thank you, mr. speaker. steny hoyer and democrats say that they will uh-oh. i was just repeating what she was just saying, not what you said. democrats are saying that they will withhold votes for a funding bill. will you press forward on a vote this week on obamacare repeal. what s your thoughts on that? could you fund a bill without democrats i am shocked that they would want to see a government shutdown, that the democrats would want to do that. let s take a step back. the reason why this government funding bill is not ready is because democrats have been dragging their feet.
board with this short-term cr, the continuing resolution to keep the government funded for another week. so, complicates things up here. we will certainly hear more from this from speaker ryan, who will hold his press conference in just a few minutes. complicated. it s that kind of status for capitol hill right now. good to see you, sunlen. thank you so much. joining me now, republican congressman leonard lance, moderate member of the tuesday group, at the center of the contract negotiations. senator, thank for coming in. thank you for having me, kate. all right, so, it is thursday at 11:21. where is your vote on health care right now? i am not in favor of the proposal. i was not in favor of it before the easter break, and i m not in favor of it today. i think we need to lower premiums in this country, but i don t think this bill does that. and i would urge our democratic colleagues to come to the table, because the exchanges are not doing well, kate, and i think
on the health care bill and we ve got 12 firm nos on the republican side and over 60 republicans we don t know or are reviewing the bill. i think ryan is saying what s true true. if they have the votes they ll move. they need democrats to pass this appropriations bill whether it s short term and do the big bill next week but democrats have leverage do you think paul ryan would let them call his bluff on this? would it look good for democrats to be seen as holding up government funding because of a vote on health care? you know, typically it doesn t look good for any party to holdup government funding or to shut down the government. we can all agree on that. there are a few issues and i think the risk of millions of people possibly losing health care is an area where democrats felt they need to do something bold. this is bold. but as bob alluded to and anna alluded to, it doesn t seem like paul ryan has the votes here.
to be a member of the tuesday group, and our real leader is congressman dent, my colleague and close friend from pennsylvania. what do you think the chances are that this version of the bill, though, sees a vote? what s your cut? i don t want to guess. i m not sure when that will occur, but i think first and foremost we have to fund the government of the united states. so, you would if democrats would hold up health care with regard to funding the government, you would support not bringing a vote on health care in order to keep the government open, yes? i think it s in the discretion of speaker ryan when that bill on health care is brought to the floor. okay. and i do not presume to advise the speaker. i think it s extremely important, essential that we fund the government of the united states, and i would urge my democratic colleagues to vote for that. congressman leonard lance, thank you so much, congressman. appreciate the time. thank you, kate. we are following
[ inaudible question ] what are your reassurances to moderates who [ inaudible ] well, i think we re making very good progress. we re going to go when we have the votes, but that s the decision we ll make when we have it, and something tells me you ll be the first to know when that happens. i would argue that this is a bill that a moderate would more likely want to support. some people were concerned about ehbs. ehbs were taken out of the bill essential health benefits were taken out of the earlier drafts of the bill. they re now put back in. so they re in the federal law, and a state would have to find a waiver for essential health benefits. so, if anything, this puts more federal protections in on pre-existing conditions. every state s a little different. in wisconsin, we had a high-risk pool that worked really well, and i think we ought to be given the kind of flexibility to tailor our markets that work for us in wisconsin, because the wisconsin health care system s differen