Schwarzenegger told me theres a book i needed to read, its called rat blanked and it tells of how to reshape the map of america. And you know his voice was the simpson, you know his face from, this is spinal tap, but harry sheer is also a legendary political satterist and hes here to turn it up to 11. But first, yesterday on my Radio Program i said that should the Gop Health Care program go down in flames, it would be due to a failure to answer a basic fundamental question. What was the goal . Say what you will about president obama and the Affordable Care act but it stood for a purpose that everyone, even opponents understood. Namely to supply more americans with health care, to establish universal coverage. That was the failure with the republican plan, that there was no universal objective, no singular purpose, no common denominator other than to dismantle the Affordable Care act which might be fine, so long as you have a replacement that is capable of explanation. It is, afterall, now an entitlement which people are loathed to giveup. But despite there have been been more than 60 votes to repeal obamacare since it passed, now when it mattered and with control of the white house, the house of representstives and the it senate the gop couldnt get it done. Proving that its far easier to criticize than to govern. If you disagree with my premise tweet me or post a comment on my Facebook Page and tell me, how would you fill in this blank, the Gop Health Care plan sought to what . Until that question can be answered with something positive, something proactive, something that builds while it deconstructs then i dont see the public support necessary to get a bill passed through both houses of Congress Even when controlled by a party chaffing to repeal it. Joining me now is congressman charlie dent. Hes a republican who had said that he would oppose the bill. Congressman, you know i appreciate it whenever youre here. React to my premise, dont you need to be for something in a circumstance like this . Yes. When weed the new year and thanks for having me on the show. Now that said i wanted to just get back to something here. We started the year we started the year talking about repeal only and i cautioned the leadership at the time, a repeal only strategy would be terrible. Over the next few years you try to replace it. We would never replace it. It would be took difficult then we moved to a repeal replace strategy. The replation was just too rushed. There are artificial deadlines. This debate should have been more about the people who are going to be impacted by our decisions and to reform medicare and to create tax credits for people in the exchanges, this is going to be very hard work. I dont think it could have been pulled off in 60 days. I think to a certain extent we did have an alternative to provide health care in a more competitive providing greater choices, more competition and make it a more marketed Oriented Approach but the idea in my view was fully fleshed out. It was simply too rushed. Youre a member of the tuesday group, the more moderate republicans. By the way, im thrilled to know there is such a collection of individuals in the house of representatives. Is it possible to get your group and the Freedom Caucus on the same page . On this issue i dont think so, because i think our goals and objectives were quite different. My reasons for opposition to the bill had to due with the fact that the medicaid changes were not workable. I have a proposal right here from governors kasich and snyder and sandoval, four republican governors who expressed real concerns that they werent going to have the appropriate flexibilities to serve their medicaid population and they were concerned about they represented expansion states. They told me, if this happens, if this reform were to happen that the people who would be off of medicaid wouldnt be able to afford insurance on the exchanges because the tax credits would have been insufficient. They would have gone naked. No coverage. There was a failure to build coalitions to help allies to support this effort. The Freedom Caucus they had other reasons for opposing the bill. All right. So if you say that you cant get the Freedom Caucus and the tuesday group on the same page, is that a failure of paul ryan . I want to show you a reaction from the right. This was what breitbart looks like this morning and theyre calling into question whether paul ryan can survive, discussion about gop replacement to paul ryan as speaker of the house intensifies in white house and congress. Is he role in jeopardy . No. No, its not. But the truth be told when john boehner stepped down as speaker more than a year ago, i said that the dynamics that led to John Boehners resignation have not changed. The dynamic of the house conference hasnt changed and that was going to be paul ryans biggest challenge. Those dynamics still must change. The big thing on health care is this. If were going to have a durable, Sustainable Health care reform in this country it must be done on the bipartisan baez. Their failure was they jammed this thing through on a partisan basis and weve been fighting it ever since. We as republicans should not make that same mistake. The house could flip and the senate could flip and wed be back at this fighting ad naus m nauseam. So to that point President Trump said something that i want to show the audience and have congressman dent react too. Roll the tape, please. I think the losers are nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer because now they own obamacare. They own it 100 own it. And this is not a Republican Health care. This is not anything but a Democrat Health care. It really frustrates me to see this treated as a hot potato because were talking about something that keeps people alive. Having made that observation, to the president s point, what could democrats do now, if they were motivated they have to acknowledge their shortcomings with the Affordable Care act, what opportunities do democrats have to try and extend an olive branch and get something done . Look, as you point out there are democrats, you know, who love obamacare but they no darn well that there are problems that need to be repaired. There are republicans who detest obamacare and know darn well that there are parts of this law that are going to be retained. I think there was one great area of potential collaboration. The democrats know the individual Insurance Market is broken and obamacare made it worse and the republicans acknowledge that so lets work to repair at the very least the individual Insurance Market. Thats got to be repaired. We can also talk about theres some of the taxes paid for as both the republicans and democrats that do not like, the medical device tax, we could find areas of agreement to improve this system. And again, no matter what we do, we have to do it on a bipartisan basis because to get a bill through the senate is going to require at least eight democrats votes there but we need to build a coalition in the house. If we have some on the hard right who cant get the yes on anything, then of course we need to have democrats help us get to 218 votes. That simple. No doubt. I applaud your approach. I think we need more bipartisanship and i think we only solve problems when individuals like charlie dent are willing to reach across the aisle. Thank you for that. Good to have you back. Great to be with you as always. Thanks. Tweet me your thoughts at smerconish or post your thoughts on my Facebook Page. Joining me now to further discuss health care and the impasse phil rutger, the detailing the back story of how President Trump tried to marshal support for the bill. Its a terrific read and Senior Correspondent for Kaiser Health news. Mary agnes carry. Health care law is tough, right . This is the ultimate sausage factory, isnt that the lesson . Absolutely, true. Its so hard to get consensus within your own parties with republicans, its hard to find policy solutions that work for everyone. Its very, very difficult and i think paul ryan and House Republicans and President Trump found that out in their efforts to try to overhaul the Affordable Care act. And to your observation, mary agnes, even if this has been successful, it faced doom in the United States senate. Absolutely. You had moderates there including Susan Collins of maine, very concerned about the changes in the medicaid funding structure. There were kerchz the subsidies simply wouldnt be enough to help people afford coverage. There were a lot of concerns that faced a lot of opposition in the senate. Phil rutger, is this really a good bill . Thats not Michael Smerconish asking in your the Washington Post coverage today, thats President Trump repeatedly during the course of the last week. Explain. Thats exactly right. Its a question that he asked when the bill was first introduced back in the beginning of march and it kept nagging at him. He kept asking his advisors again and again is this really a good bill. He couldnt convince himself that it was a good bill and yet he went forward to try to sell it. He was all in for the win. Thats what he cared about, the big picture, the big victory. He tried to sell it. This is the guy that wrote art of the deal. He campaigned that he would make beautiful deals like no one else before and this was his big chance to prove it and unfortunately for him, he failed. Heres the tell as you point out in the post today, he was selling the rare product on which he refused to emblazeen his own name. Thats right. This was a bill that was created by the House Republicans of course in concert with the Trump Administration but its not the ideal measure. Had the bill passed it would have violated one of Donald TrumpsCampaign Promises which was that he was going to provide Health Care Coverage for all americans. This bill is Congressional Budget Office scoring ended up showing would have led to 24 Million People not having insurance over the tenyear period after the bill was enacted, so trump was making a lot of sacrifices in pursuit of this broader victory, this win. He wanted something that he could claim as a big victory in his first 100 days and unfortunately hes not going to get it on health care. Hes going to look now to tax reform and other issues, but thats going to be very difficult too. Mary agnes carry, you have a better handle on Health Care Law than anyone. I want to show you a tweet that i sent out yesterday as the president was reacting to having to withdraw this that got a lot of traction. I asked, what Insurance Company would, all caps, want to begin offering coverage under the aca when all President Trump does is trash it . If hes out there saying its going to implode and its going to explode and other republicans are saying likewise and im Independence Blue Cross or aetna or some other provider, why in the world do i all of a sudden want to be proactive under the aca . I think you raise an excellent point. Insurers are going to be looking for insurance either the Trump Administration or congress to try to find out what sort of marketplace will there be in 2018. What sort of outreach will there be to get people covered, get people to sign up on the exchanges, what kind of support will there be. Will there be Administrative Changes that will help them recover some of their losses. We had a lot of sicker people get in to the marketplace. Weve heard these insurers evaluating what theyre going to do, their bids arent do until later in the year. That will be a key question. Does the Administration Try to do anything to keep the insurers in the market or do they not. Do thank you see more insurers leave . Does that that hurt the next Enrollment Period and who gets the blame for that . And phil to her point, isnt almost a trap being set now for the Affordable Care act to continue a downward spiral . Potentially and trump said in his comments yesterday after this bill failed that it was going to be all on the democrats, that nancy and chuck own obamacare. Hes the president of the United States. If somethings not working its incumbent upon him to fix it. He doesnt think this laws is working, he tried to fix it and he couldnt get it fixed and i think the American People over the next few years if they see problems in the Health Care System are going to increasingly look to the administration to try to make this system better rather than pointing their fingers at the democrats and the minority. Excellent job in the post today. Mary agnes, youve got a better handle on this than anyone ive met. Continued good work and thank you both. Thank you. So i asked you after my opening commentary to fill in the blank, the Gop Health Care bill sought to what did you reply . Hit me with some tweets. The gop sought to discredit obama. You got to be for something. You got to be positive. Is there another that we can show everybody . What exactly did it represent . The Gop Health Care plan sought to discriminate. Negativity is not going to move the ball forward. How about from facebook . It didnt pass but obamacare still needs some tweaks. Will it get the help it needs. I agree with you. Its got a lot of shortcomings and im someone who bought my Families Health insurance through the exchanges so i know about this subject. I dont like the fact that all this negativity now is going to cause individuals who could turn it around to stay away from the Affordable Care act instead of fixing it. Still to come the administration and its claims of surveillance fulfilled exactly what general michael hearing aiden predicted here on last weekss show. So whats next . Jewelette is here. He was in spinal tap and does dozens of simpsons voices, harry shear is here. Mr. C. Montgomery burns. Ill keep it short and sweet. 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Show more of you. Family, religion, friendship. The latest bomb shell in the russian hack investigation came on friday. House intel chair devon nunes suddenly cancelling the public hearings about the russian hack. This capped a week of back and forth regarding russia and President Trumps claim three weeks ago that he was wiretapped by president obama. On wednesday, nunes suggested that trump transition members may have been picked up in kmungsz with foreign intelligence officials. The white house quickly seized this as substanation of the president s tweets on march 4, which, by the way, i dont think it was. In