and they are doing the absolute worst thing because they don t believe in the bill, it s a bad bill, and it was passed so donald trump could have a press conference in the rose garden. talk to paul ryan. and they are lying about it. if you would talk to paul ryan, he would say, joe, we re going to cut the tax cuts and not give it to the wealthy, how would you explain it? you can t cut benefits. by the way, i m sorry, don t want to bring religion into this, but if you are a matthew 25 christian and you believe what jesus says that we will be judged on how we treat the poorest among us, then there is no legislative justification for cutting $650 billion in health benefits. and then turning around and in the same bill and benefiting the richest among us $850 billion. i m not judging anybody. i m just saying, if paul ryan or
more than they bargained for here, mark. how did we get to this point? the constituency for this plan, to a large extent, is republican members of congress and some business interest. it has an 18% approval rating. not a single medical group supports it. many business groups don t support it. to get through the politics of the house, as you said, the president doesn t care much what is in this, by all accounts, so he can move on to tax reform. they have to decide whether they want to defend it on the merits or talk about it in terms that don t line up not only with what the president said on the campaign with you what s in the house bill. they re trying to do three things at once that they can t d
to get a makeover in the senate with members of the administration saying they will re-tool the narrowly passed house version rather than try and pass it. and by the way, the senate working group that the white house chief of staff reince priebus referred to is comprised of 13 men. mark halperin, why don t they put a woman in there? susan collins, lisa murkowski will be a key player here, they aren t going to pass anything without their support. so why don t you put them in the working group? i suspect if they are not formally put in, they will be put in for the unofficial way. the nat is different than the house. and susan collins could bring this to a crashing halt if she decides she wants to. on the other side, if you re saying, does it have a chance? mitch mcconnell has thought it through more than he s shown publicly. and he has a plan to try to figureut how to pass it through the senate. ifou look at susan collins,
championed, this is donald trump s health care plan. this is every bit as much of a divide from what he attacked barack obama for saying, if you want your health insurance policy, keep it. if you want your doctor, keep it, et cetera, et cetera. i mean, that is a problem. and the biggest problem for republicans is, this debate is not about the cost curve, it s about whether government pays for health care that spends too much money per person is inefficient, or whether insurance companies pay. instead of saying, how do we put more forces in the system to drive down overall costs, save medicare, save medicaid, save middle-class americans from the runaway bills. mark said earlier that republicans like the bill, but several members who voted for it are praying the senate changes it. so they don t necessarily like it. that s what they are all saying. they are basically saying, don t look at this bill, the senate is going to save us. so they don t like it.
hope you don t make those bush league moves anymore for the sake of this country. sad. we ll set up what could be a blockbuster day on capitol hill. i have spent years taking over-the-counter products