that's going to do itfor us, and we'll see you back here tomorrow. >> the news continues here on cnn with kyra phillips in the "cnn newsroom." >> we are about an hour away from the special coverage of the big health care summit, but hold on. you know the credit card protections that went into effect this year, now you can get a credit card with 60% interest. what a deal. sign me up.

a lot of people might have to choose food or mortgage. you can take an animal out of the wild, but you cannot take the wild out of the animal. when a huge killer whale reveals its wild side, bad things can and it did happen. thank goodness for ed henry, he will tell us why the bipartisan health care summit is a big deal. no pressure, ed. and then rob marciano with more proof that that darn groundhog nailed it. this is the winter that just keeps on giving. reforming the nation's health care system. the clock is kicking, and at the 11th hour is just minutes away. the democrats will plead their case for reform in a summit nothing short of extraordinary,

for one the bipartisan negotiations will be open and contentious and televised to a public itself that is divided on the issue. three dozen lawmakers are to take part in today's talks, and leaders of both parties are expected to speak. the expected topics, controlling health care costs and informing insurance rules and expanding coverage for uninsured americans. let's begin with ed henry. what is the bottom line here? what does the administration expect to get out of today's session? >> reporter: this is the last chance for the president to get a comprehensive health care bill. if not, it's likely this administration will have to go to a slimmed down version, much less ambitious plan. what they are hoping today will be an honest exchange of ideas, and show the american people what each side is pushing for.

they are hoping finally they can cut through the noise and give this president momentum. they don't believe both sides will find a magic formula for a bipartisan deal. and they want to give this one last chance, and it's unlikely the white house will move forward with democrats on the hill with what is known as reconciliation, where basically they need a simple majority instead of a super majority, and then a 50 in the senate, and a 50 votes plus vice president biden to break a tie, and 218 in the house. that's the simple majority to pass the president's plan. here at the white house, they are still a little nervous about whether they will get there, and that is very much the bottom line, and that's the last best chance at some sort of bipartisan deal. and this white house will basically move on and go their

own way and hope they can pass it without republican voltes, kyra. >> is there a date for the deal? >> well, they sort of learned their lesson and they will not set a deadline. but what i am learning from top democrats privately, they have a new target date for the end of march. when you get to the end of march, you have easter and then they go away for recess. when they come back for recess in early to mid april, they want to do some of the appropriations bills piling up. the bottom line if you count it from today to the end of march, after the summit meeting is over today, they have exactly one month to get it done otherwise democrats on the hill are warning the white house they have to move back to jobs and other things. this is the last chance for a deal, kyra. >> yeah, and president obama is bringing all sides of the debate in hopes of pushing some form of

health care reform. cnn will bring coverage to you of the summit live right here at the top of the hour. more charges could be filed today in that alleged new york subway bombing conspiracy. two defendant's, both friends of this man, najibullah zazi are due in court today. he pleaded guilty of conspireing to blow up subways. zazi is allegedly cooperating with prosecutors now. and the afghan government has a major city back in its fold. in marjah, they planted the afghan flag today. that's pretty significant. >> reporter: yes, it happened today. 700 people were in attendance where an administrator for

marjah was installed. this was in the presence of marine general, larry nickelson. and things have stabilized somewhat. shops are open. people are going about their business. according to the coalition, they are getting more tips on where bombs or ieds may be located. the question is can they hold it? this is a huge country, and coalition forces and the afghan army simply cannot be everywhere in force all the time. in the past, the problem has been the coalition has managed to gain control of areas, but it has pulled its troops out or lessoned the numbers, and the taliban and the men in black have come right back. kyra? >> been, thank you. toyota's president in front of a congressional hearing said that he was sorry, a few times. but will apologizes and promised

to do better save toyota's bottom line. all all allen cheernoff has more. >> he says his company was thinking too much about expansion and not enough about making safe cars. >> these priorities became confused. i intend to further improve on the quality of toyota vehicles. >> but promises may not be enough by toyota owners who are shaken byr away cars. >> do you believe the recall will solve the problem of sudden unintended acceleration?

>> not totally. >> our lease is coming do, and what other car could we get? do i trust toyota? >> do you? >> no, i don't trust them. >> reporter: would you buy a toyota for yourself now? >> to be honest, i would not buy a toyota now. >> reporter: it's a crisis say industry experts. >> the brand is being damaged. >> reporter: toyota dealers say the vast majority of customers are remaining loyal to their brand. >> 95% have been positived and owned toyotas before and are not worried. >> reporter: but toyota dealers are hoping to hold on to customers. last month toyota's u.s. sales slumped 16% even as the overall auto market rebounded. and now competing auto dealers are going all out to grab other customers.

>> now what allen? can the brand be saved? >> they have to deliver. saying you're sorry, that's nice. but what american consumers want is performance, and that's what they expect from toyota. there is called grand finance, and they are saying if toyota does not fix the acceleration problem, the brand could lose one third. >> here is a broadcast exclusive. >> you apologized on behalf of toyota. one congresswoman didn't think that you showed enough remorse. how -- this is hard to put in words, maybe.

how sad are you over this? >> translator: well, all the vehicles bear my name. if the peoples' trusts, vis avis, sometimes people tell me that i am not explaining enough. it's unfortunate, but i really would like to continue doing my best to convey my feelings. state ahead. what does sea world do with the killer whale now? i am rob marciano. another winter storm bearing down on the northeast. it will mean high winds and rain for some, and heavy snow for others. details coming up after the break.

it's not called a killer whale for nothing. seaworld in orlando is looking at its operating procedures after a death of a trainer. a trainer was working on the deck beside the whale named tillikum when it grabbed her ponytail and pulled into the water. take a listen to the witness. >> we had left the dining with shamu show, and went down to look at his full body under the observation tank. everything seemed calm and okay, and the trainer was laying down on him and kissing his nose, and

you could see her hand in the water, and then the next thing, it happened so fast and within five minutes she was down in the tank and we saw the thrashing and the bubbles and him pushing her with his nose. it was just so so traumatic. and all the people around -- of course, my daughter, and she saw it. i tried to shelter her eyes from it, but it was too late. >> seaworld has cancelled all of the killer whale shows at all its parks. a nightmare for some, and it's good news for the ski resort where snow has been in short supply this season. they are calling it a god send. rob marciano, it makes you want to go and hit the slopes? >> yeah, it does. >> who are you talking to over there? >> we're a team here. i am trying to get --

>> is there late-breaking snow news. >> i want to get to the watch and warning map on that has snow totals on it. and our computers have a hurricane name. if you hear me throwing out names like gustav, and this is gustav, you remember that storm that went through new orleans a couple years ago. we have a katrina and this storm has more facets to it. the last few really for the most part, they have been pretty decent storms, with a lot of moisture running in with cold air and you get snow. this one is much more complicated. it will sit and spin in one place, and drift backwards towards the west and northwest. it will have moist air in off the pacific, and that will complicate things what we are

seeing for snowfall amounts. and big waves, and high wind warnings are up for boston and massachusetts coastline. they are not seeing much in the way of snow, but they will get a lot in the way of wind and waves. rain snow line right now, pretty much the jersey shore up the hudson river. and that's where it's going to hangout and kind of fluctuate for the rest of today. new york will go from snow to rain, and maybe back to snow, and then it will pileup over time. and then by the time tomorrow rolls around the warm air will be worked out and then it will be all snow. this is now strengthening quite nicely. and then even through newark, we are trying to see some snowfall begin to get a little bit more intense. as far as what kind of temperatures, gustav, sometimes gustav just rubs me the wrong way. let's pull up glenn.

philly will see snow pretty much the entire time, but they will see less intense snow. probably 10 inches. new york, rain and snow mixing. you will see more moisture, but less cold air. that will hold down snow totals. and then i think we will see 1 to 2 feet of snow with blizzard conditions tonight. there will be a quiz on all the names later? >> they are easy. we covered them all. a high stakes health care summit. democrats and republicans at the table, sleeves rolls up, and trying to hammer out a deal. we'll talk about it. [ engine revs ]

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will we be able to afford health care? this is a question we are asking as the health care summit gets ready to kick off in 40 minutes live here on cnn. and kathleen sebelius will be there, of course, but first she is talking to us live from the white house. also our own chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, joining me to ask a few questions. it's good to see you, secretary sebelius? >> thank you. >> i saw a piece that you wrote saying americans agree with 80% of what is within the proposal, and mitch mcconnell came forward and said yesterday, quote, it's nearly impossible to imagine a scenario under which we can reach an agreement today. your response? >> i am hoping that leader

mcconnell and leaders are coming with open minds. there are so many issues, as we pointed out in the post opt ed, there are many comprehensive ideas in the proposals, going after fraud and creating new market places, and assisting small businesses owners and families to get coverage, and making sure that insurance companies can no longer pick and choose who gets coverage and who doesn't. focus on wellness and prevention, and not waiting until people get sick to enter the health care system. the president wants to hear what else the republicans have to put forward that deal with costs in the long term, and deal with coverage in the long term, and deal with insurance company practices. we can move toward together. >> secretary sebelius, it's sanjay gupta. >> hi, sanjay. >> you look chilly. >> yeah, it's cold.

>> what is health reform versus insurance reform? back over the last year it has been said that health reform is not health reform unless there is a public option and there is back and fourth on that. is this truly what you are talking about, is it insurance reform or health reform? what is the deal breaker here? what won't you tolerate as you move forward? >> sanjay, that's a great question. the comprehensive rextra henc p investing in prevention and wellness that you and i talked about, and changing the way we pay for health care, so we pay for quality out comes and make sure that every american gets high quality care each and every time they enter the system. and this insurance market is failing way too many american families and way too many small

business owners. they are kicked out of the market when they get sick or locked out because they have a preexisting condition, and they are priced out of the market, and 40% rate increases across the country. we have to change the rules once and for all. >> executives are making so much money in a time when so many people are not insured. the commerce committee were investigating and holding a meeting. >> my salary is $1.1 million. i received stock compensation with a value of $8.5 million, and last year annual incentive payment of $73,000. >> of course that makes sense that you would need a big rate increase. >> of course, she was being quite facetious there. is that going to stop? >> actually, that is sort of the tip of the iceberg.

that's a modest salary compared to a number of the top ceo's who are making up to $24 million each. the top five insurance companies in 2009 had $12.2 billion worth of profits between the companies. 50% higher profit statements than a year earlier. enormous rate increases. staggering rate increases, don't match. too many americans are in a life or death situation, and they don't have coverage, and they simply don't have thousands extra to put on the table. >> a lot of people say when you talk about the tip of the iceberg, it's not just insurance companies. maybe hospitals? maybe manufacturers of the supplies used in hospitals.

there are people who contribute to health care costs. are you going to all of these folks, and they are huge companies that make supplies for hospitals, and how about them? >> part of the underlying health reform is to really pay a more reasonable rate for the products that are delivered. we want to go to competitive bidding on durable medical equipment, and that in and of itself making companies bid and not fixing a price. we want to insert market strategies so we can lower cost over time. there is a lot where we are over paying, and subsidizing the plans, and 80% of seniors are paying the higher rates for issues that don't really add to health out comes for seniors. we need to pay for quality, and pay for out comes, and stop over

paying for everything in the medical system, which is driving up costs. that's part of the reform bills that passed both the house and the senate. >> well the health care reform summit starts in about 30 minutes. >> and it's insight. >> there you go. and it's inside, where you don't be cold. >> although you are beautifully lit back there as the sun rises. thank you both. what is in your wallet? how about a credit card with 59.9% interest, and with credit card protections like that, who needs enemies? woman down from nasal allergy attack.

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when the chairman speaks, wall street listens. ben bernanke back for round two, and stephanie elam back. another rally today? >> sorry, kyra, i don't think we will get a repeat one. >> that was a sarcastic, laugh. hell no, kyra. >> yeah, pretty much. we will not see the same picture. but bernanke will deliver the same testimony today but this time before the senate banking committee. yesterday, investors were happy to hear they were going to keep key interest rates for a while longer. they raised the discount rate on what they charge to banks, and

if that happened it could slow the recovery and it's a precarious time for the economy. investors jumped up and cheered ben bernanke after he said he was staying the course. and then the debt problems in greece may be getting worse. as i was saying, we are looking for triple digit losses out the gate. and that's what we have. the dow off 137 points. and so no, as i was saying, no, not another rally, at least not to start. >> gosh, okay. shut me down. thank you, steph. definitive. there we go. let's move on. hummer goes the way of pontiac, and stud baker. the deal to sell the brand to a chinese company fell through. rising gas prices really killed them. gm already has pontiac and

saturn as their cost cutting. and what should we be on the lookout for? >> that's a great way to put it. even after credit card reform, some lawmakers are calling this gaping holes in the legislation. with the interest rates you might not be able to believe this. let me give you an example. premiere bank is offering a card with 59.9% interest rate. they can still do it. here in new york, they are capped at 18% interest rate by law. and that infewer rates some lawmakers that banks don't have a cap. here is one lawmaker. take a listen. >> what we have right now are millions of americans who are paying 20, 25 or 30% and more on interest rates on credit cards, and frankly that is immoral, and

that's something that we have to end. the middle class is hurting and it's unfair to ask people to pay the outrageous interest rates. >> why is this? we did digging. you have to go back more than 30 years to actually a supreme court decision based on a minnesota bank case in 1978, and what it essentially did, it was market national bank, and they deregulated interest rates so banks could charge any interest rate they want. you have seen lawmakers try to cap interest rate and they have not been able to get it through, and they have not been able to get the bipartisan report. we have no cap on interest rates, kyra. >> so who is getting the 60% credit cards even after credit card reform? >> that's a great question. it's not every one. the subprime borrowers.

they may not be able to qualify for a credit card from the credit union. and then they said, listen, if we were to cap interest rates, that would make it extremely hard to get credit. people with bad credit could not get what they needed. that's their argument. we went to this credit card and talked to them. they indicator to middle class people that work for the government. these are people with average incomes. and most of the ones that we saw were 11%, and 9% interest rates. so it's something to keep an eye on. lawmakers, a lot of them crying out even after the reform and saying why is there no cap, kyra? >> good point. thank you. let's get the latest on the looming face of the health care reform big debate going on. tempers flare, and threats fly, and bipartisan talks about to get under way and it's going to happen here on cnn, 10:00 eastern. the democrats will plead their case for reform in a summit that is nothing short of

extraordinary. for one the bipartisan negotiations will be open and contention and televised to a public that is divided over the issue. that starts a high stakes gamble who are facing a tough election year. parties are expected to speak. let's look at the latest on this now. dana bash has a preview from capitol hill. >> reporter: we asked both the senate's top republican and democrat where they may agree on health care. but their answers were mostly how they disagree? >> you will not see a 2,700 page of a re-right of one-sixth of our economy. >> we need major health care reform. that's what the people of america want, health care reform, not some band-aid.

>> not exactly the makings of compromise. but peel back the rhetoric and raw emotion, and there are areas of agreement. take young adults. americans want to change the law to allow americans to stay on their insurance plans until 25. and obama says age 26. or promoting a healthier lifestyle. a house gop proposal says people on prevention and wellness programs should be rewarded with better health insurance rates. the president adopted a similar idea in his plan. the reality is those are minor issues. but what about preexisting conditions? >> i think the issue of preexisting condition is a serious issue in our health care system. we have a way to do it that doesn't drive up the health insurance costs for every other american. >> but the republican way is

expanding high risk pools and insurance programs exist in other states. and now we are back to where we started, intense disagreement. and though democrats say this -- >> we have heard that they have ideas, and we look forward to those ideas. >> reporter: skepticism reigns. >> we are happy to be there, but i am not quite sure what the purpose is. >> mitch mcconnell not too positive about the get together, shall we say, and yet the secretary of health and human services, kathleen sebelius says both parties agree on 80% of the issues. >> yeah, we showed some examples in that piece, but reality is that there are differences on the major policy issues, and differences in philosophy and approach, and not just that, a deep devivide over how to tackl

this. republicans are going to say, probably starting in about a half hour, no, the best way to do this is in increments. another thing making bad blood more toxic going into this, republicans know what we are hearing from democratic sources which is that they already have tentative plans in the works to use a parliamentary short cut to pass the bill without republicans. another big reason they are having the summit, even though it's bipartisan, is to actually get democrats united so they can make that happen long term, kyra. >> just about 20 minutes away from the summit. dana bash, thank you so much. president obama will bring all the sides together to debate the topics with hopes of pushing through some form of health care reform, and we'll bring it live to you at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxd

all right, rob, where is that winter storm going to hit the biggest? >> if you live in the interiors of the northeast -- let's get to

it. winter storm warnings are posted through the delmar up through jersey and including almost all of new york state. this will be a long on going event. 6 to 12 inches likely up through new york. and then up through bingington could see 12 to 24 nfinches of snow. and this is on top of what we have already seen. look at these numbers. and so killington got 2 feet. and then you go into altamont, new york, west of albany, they got over 2 feet of snow. now we are seeing wet snow. in some cases, rain developed with the system on top of the 2 feet of snow that has already fallen. the weight of the snow may very well bring in the roof

collapses. warm moisture coming off the atlantic, this will wind up here. you will see that with the intensity of the precipitation here. and the immediate shoreline seeing rain, and wet snow getting into most of the burrows of new york. and then eastern massachusetts may have a high wind warning that is up for later on today. is this pittsburgh or philly? probably philly. yeah, philly. we rarely get a philadelphia tower cam. this is a day of rejoicing. my friends in the city of brotherly love, you will see a system and maybe weakening at some point, but probably 10 inches of snow expected in philly, and they already have a record-breaking winter season. >> thank you, rob.

children going to bed with empty bellies, and parents forced to choose between food or heat. there are two women that are desperately trying to fix things.

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by earning your degree online... at walden university. where advanced degrees advance the quality of life. well, mad as hell and not going to take any anymore, and that's how many americans are feeling these days, and we are taking a look at broken government and looking at what it will take to fix it. a parent loses a job, and today broken government and hunger in america. in los angeles, food banks, 4 out of every 10 people served are children. half the families say they have to choose among food and utilities or heat. in st. louis, a minister visits the homeless in the freezing temps here.

why? because in and around the city the number of homeless jumped 31% from last year. here in georgia, at least 1 in 8 families don't get enough food to maintain a healthy life. and one of the main reasons why americans are homeless and hungry, no jobs. just an hour ago we learned half a million more americans filed for unemployment last week, but even in the bleak environment there are people trying to help. a grassroots group working to end hunger, and also joining us, spiritual teacher and author is kicking off a conference this weekend where we are talking about where you can get involved to be part of the movement to do something. we put in so much money to bailing out banks and big companies, and yet every single night a child here in our country goes hungry. >> well, i think that's the point. it's not just the mechanics of our government that is broken. it's the intention of our

government that has become so corrupted. money has such an over influence. when you are talking about the poorest among us, certainly a hungry child, a hungry child has no economic leverage. we accelerated this upwards that so many of the political policies favor those that already have. and the late supreme court sus is said we could have large amounts of wealth concentrated in the hands of a few or we can have democracy, and we cannot have both. those that do not have tremendous corporate power, for instance -- and this is such a preversion of the whole point of american democracy. our government is supposed to be of the people and not the corporations.

>> meredith, your organization is all about rallying people around the country and saying to our political leaders, you know, we want to fix this break, we have to do something. where are the stalemates? tell me what you are doing to try and fix what we are seeing every day, and that's our children and our family suffering? >> yeah, and at this point we are seeing a situation where 1 out of 4 kids is at risk of going to bed hungry tonight in this country. so often our political priorities don't much what everyday americans want to see. there is a disconnect. i am very lucky because i get to interact every single day with people outside of washington who are training themselves in how to participate in the political process and how to make a huge difference. there are key pieces of policy right now, and the top one is

health reform, the bills pending right now will invest in expanding coverage for people. and there are programs that make sure kids get access to meals it now in congress that really could impact this situation, but they're really at risk of derailing because of the political stalemate. >> and i know, marianne, you have this conference this weekend in l.a. you're trying to empower women specifically, women like you and meredith to get involved. why is this so essential right now? what can we learn from this conference to get involved in trying to help this broken government that is causing so many people to suffer because things like meredith points out are within congress, policies, they're stalemates that are hurting our people? >> you know, one of the reasons

why this issue of corporate power is so important is because our founders vested the force of government in the individual. the individual has a conscience. the individual can say hey, wait a minute, the health and welfare of our children has to come first. that's why you want to make sure that your governmental power is vested in an individual rather than in a corporation. and i think that women have a tremendous part to play in this, whether it's in a home or in a society. you know, among any advanced mammalian species, a common characteristic is the fierce behavior of the adult female of the species when she census a threat to her cubs. so just as among the tigers, it's got to be true among the human beings also that the adult female stands up and says feed these babies. do you know that adult hyenas encircle their babies while feeding in order to make sure adult males can't get anywhere near the food until the babies have been fed. well, the women of america can

do better than the hyenas. i think the collective uprising of conscience among american women so that we do make this an absolute priority, the health -- at this point just that our children be fed. when this kind of force rises up in america, things will change. >> well, it's perfect timing. as you're talking about health in america, meredith you brought it up as well, we are getting ready to kick off our live coverage out of washington, d.c., the coverage of the health care summit. you're seeing live pictures right now. marianne williamson, thanks so much, meredith dodson thanks so much. you can log on and find out how you can give back, how you can help n light of that discussion we just had, wolf blitzer, you're getting ready to handle the special coverage for us. whether it's reform with regard to insurance company or reform in policies to help feed our children, today is a very important day.

thanks very much, kyra. even in a time slot known for mellow dramatic soap operas you've probably never seen anything quite like what could be a political soap opera set to unfold on daytime tv. we're only minutes away from a emotionally climactic moment in the health care debate. the white house health care summit. right now you're looking at live pictures inside the blair house, that's across the street from the white house, where this event will take place. here's the cast. the president of the united states and his democratic allies up on capitol hill. and republicans led by the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and the house minority leader john boehner. the democrats' goal, convince americans, many of whom want health care reform, that the democrats' plan works and is good. the republicans' goal, make sure any plan includes their ideas. this historic back and forth on live tv will happen in this event that's going to continue

for at least, at least six hours. who knows how long it will go. it's happening over at blair house. as you know, that's the presidential guest quarters on pennsylvania avenue right across from the north lawn of the white house. both sides say they want to work together, but will they really stand on common ground? cnn is covering this summit from multiple angles. all of our correspondents, our analysts are standing by. but i want to bring in right now our white house correspondent, ed henry. ed, you're there on the scene. you're getting some new information on the timeline. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. we're hearing new information that now the new target is to get this done by the end of march, a final health reform package. the reason is that we're picking up from top democratic sources that harry reid and speaker pelosi have been warning the white house privately that they're going to be going on a long recess at the end of march into mid-april to celebrate passover and easter. they're basically telling the white house if they can't get

this done pie that recess, we'll have to move on to the economy, to jobs, to unfinished spending bills, all these other things that have been undone so this adds new urgency to this summit because basically when this summit wraps up later today, the president only has one month until the end of march to really get this done. as you know, there have been many other deadlines last year that were missed. this is finally make-or-break time because midterm elections are coming up. democrats warning the president it's now or never. >> dana bash is up on capitol hill. the democrats have an agenda, the republicans have an agenda. dana, what should we be looking for? >> reporter: well, i think we should be looking for, obviously, any kind of sign of agreement, but i think the most interesting thing to me based on what ed was just reporting is democrats. i've been told, wolf, by democratic sources that a big reason why they're doing this y

bipartisan summit is to unify the democrats. they did they have this deadline, they know they don't have much time and they also know despite what they're doing with this summit they are quietly making plans to work around republicans. republicans know that so it will be interesting to see how they deal with the fact that everybody is sitting there and they know this is about political points maybe more than actually pushing real legislation. >> stand by, dana bash, candy crowley is here together with the best political team on television. we're going to assess what's going on. candy, a lot of people think this is just political theater. how shocked should we be at the end of six or seven hours if they actually emerge and say, you know what, we've got some sort of momentum going. maybe we can work out a deal. >> they'll probably come out and say we've got momentum going, we'll see. i would be stunned if they came out and said, well, we have the makings of a deal here. i don't think that's going to happen. but i think this is important not just because it's theater and all that kind of stuff but because the president has got to

get the american people on his side. he has to be the one that's seen as trying to be bipartisan. and the republicans have to make their points without looking like the party of no. so there's a lot going on in terms of dynamics. >> but, john, the democrats harry reid in the senate, nancy pelosi in the house, they're already assuming this is going to fail and they have got some plan b ready to foe. >> and that's what makes this so fascinating. this is essentially two campaign rallies in a building usually used for visiting diplomats across the street from the white house. the democrats and the president have their case to make. the president wants to say i tried bipartisanship so if you don't like it, we tried, we had this big summit. the republicans believe they have the momentum right now. they know the american people want health care reform. we talked about a democratic agenda and the republican agenda. how about the american people's agenda. they want health care reform. they want to deal with insurance premiums and pre-existing conditions. what the republicans have done so far is saying the president is too big, costs too much and

puts too much money, too much power in washington, d.c., and they have also had the subplot saying we should be talking about jobs, not health care right now. so the republicans have the political upper hand right now but the president is a persuasive guy. >> here's harry reid, the democratic leader in the senate, nancy pelosi the speaker. you just saw the republican leaders. i noticed, david gergen they already had that big stack of thousands of pages of the democratic legislation that passed the senate, a different version passed the house, but i guess the republicans brought along some props. >> oh, they will bring along props. they have got talking points, they have got little things they're going to roll out. this is going to be very descending. it may descend into wonkery. i'm struck this is also occurring in a historic place for bipartisanship. after world war ii when harry truman had a republican congress, they hammered out the

marshall plan at blair house so it's nice about that. i know you're too modest to say this but i recall a young wolf bhi blitzer asked a question. you asked him why don't you reach out to israel. a few months later he did and said wolf blitzer made me do it. >> there you see the president of the united states walking from the west wing of the white house with joe biden. you see them there. it's just a very, very quick walk across the street, pennsylvania avenue. since the oklahoma city bombing as most viewers remember has been shut to vehicular traffic unless it's an emergency vehicle. but it's an easy walk across the street. gloria, you've seen this walk on many occasions. the president will go in. he's got biden, sebelius, secretary of health and human services. he's got his whole team basically ready to go but there are a lot of republicans and democrats as well. >> they were even debating the shape of the table and whether the president should be standing

or whether he would be sitting. because if he were standing, he would get a little bit of a benefit over the republicans. remember he met with the republicans not too long ago in baltimore and they felt that he was lecturing them. so they didn't want that to happen again. but what's also really interesting here, to follow up on the point that dana bash made a moment ago is not only does the president have to really talk to the public but he's got to try to unite nancy pelosi and harry reid and their caucuses. remember there were 39 democrats in the house who voted against the house version of health care reform, and the president has to convince them that this new version is something they can support. if he does well today, that may help him do that. >> as you know, joe, the democrats and the president, they could have a deal tomorrow if the house would simply pass the senate version of health care reform and then maybe make some revisions in separate legislation down the road, but that doesn't seem to be possible

right now. >> no, and it sounds like the house may turn out to be a bigger problem than the senate, which is just a bit unusual. look, the thing about this that's really interesting to me is this notion of the president trying to at least put an air of transparency and openness around the health care debate. there is so much talk about the democratic leaders going behind closed doors and hashing out the bills. so now we see the president sort of trying to at least put out the notion that he is following up on a campaign promise that he made to have the negotiations on c-span and on cnn as well i should say. but the truth of the matter is a lot of the important hashing out of these bills has already been done behind closed doors and now they're just working around the margins. >> we'll see if they can come up with some of those margins. dr. sanjay gupta, our chief medical correspondent, has a unique perspective on this health care debate. what are you going to be looking for over the next six, seven hours. >> well, for some time now you

look at all the various proposals that have been put forward. it's gone more to health insurance reform. the public option no longer bowing discussed, instead a lot of regulations specifically on the insurance industry. so there's more agreement on some things. what i'm looking for are what are the continued deal breakers. what are the things both sides will say we absolutely cannot tolerate as far as health reform moving forward. also i thought there was an interesting analogy this morning reading through some of the newspapers, this idea that they keep saying the white house, we're on the 99 yard line. if you use the analogy of a football game here. the question now really are they going to go for the touchdown or might they simply go for a field goal. i think what they're alluding do is an idea is there a more modified plan, a scaled-back plan that might be what the white house ultimately puts forward. we may start to see some of the groundwork laid for that today as well, wolf. >> but those of us who are football fans know that a team

can go 99 yards, get up to the 1 yard line and fail on fourth and one, fourth and goal to get a touchdown so that's obviously not unheard of either. let me go through some of the agenda, what we're about to see in the coming minutes. we're told the president will open up this historic session with a statement that will be followed by separate statements from the republican and democratic congressional leaders. there you see john mccain and lamar alexander. they have come -- the representatives from the house, the senators and the senate, they have been selected by the leadership to attend for their presumably unique perspective, their important roles in this health care process. john king, if you take a look at those who have been invited to this session, eric cantor, the number 2 minimum, the minority whip, it's a pretty -- i would say on the house side, the democratic side, it's sort of stacked. >> this is a very liberal conservative contrast when you look at the house delgz.

nancy pelosi has brought her chief lieutenants on the health care issue and with the exception of jim cooper, a congressman from tennessee, it is a predominantly liberal group. the democrats from the senate are slightly left of center but that's part of the problem we were just talking about. the democrats can't referee their own differences let alone the divide with the republicans. three medical doctors among the republicans in the room and they are there because they know they're going to get into the policy in this and those doctors are in the room to essentially if they need to raise their hand and say, mr. president, or madam speaker, that may be how we talk about it in washington but that's not going to work in the real world. >> let me bring in john avalon, a columnist who has studied the independents out there and that's the key goal right now, to win over some of those independents, john. >> that's exactly right. >> hold on, john, hold on one second. i want to interrupt for a second because the president is now walking into this room. he's going to greet the democrats, greet the

republicans. they're going to go through a little informal greetings over here. maybe we can hear and listen in if the microphones are working. that's tom coburn, the republican senator from oklahoma who himself is a physician, one of the physicians in the room that john king just mentioned. as i said, the president, once he sits down, will open up with a statement. we'll listen very, very carefully for the nuances. how open will he be? i noticed he gave tom coburn that nice little hug, even though they obviously disagree strongly on this health care legislation. that's jay rockefeller. let's listen a little bit. >> mr. president, good to see you. >> hey, mr. president. >> good morning. good to see you.

>> good to see you again. >> how are you? >> mr. president. >> nice to see you. i'm doing great. good to see you. >> henry waxman is the guy in the middle, the democratic congressman from california who plays a really important role in health care reform legislation. charlie rangel is back there. of the president is meeting some of the democrats right now. it's sort of white house turf, blair house, but it's not exactly the white house and i think that's one of the reasons why they selected blair house. as the president sits down, gets his notes, let's listen in to the president.

>> good morning, everybody. welcome, thank you so much for participating today. i am very grateful to all of you because i know how busy you are. what i want to do is just make a few brief remarks on the front end and then we're going to allow leadership from both the house and the senate to make some opening remarks and then we will dive in. last year obviously was one of the toughest years we've had on record, and all of us in one way or another were devoted to focusing on breaking the back of the recession, restoring economic growth, putting people back to work. we've still got a long way to go, so i know both the house and the senate are interested in how do we propel economic growth forward, how do we create more

jobs. i was very pleased to see a glimpse of bipartisanship in the senate recently in passing a jobs bill, and i hope that continues and i know there are going to be some additional pieces of legislation moving forward around, for example, making sure that small businesses can get financing. those are the kinds of things that i think all parties in both chambers should be able to agree to, so i'm very much looking forward to working with you on all those issues. i have said repeatedly, i said at the state of the union, i said last night when i was meeting with the business round table that in addition to dealing with the immediate challenges we face in the recovery, it's absolutely critical that we also look at some fundamental structural problems in our economy that are hurting families, hurting businesses and having an impact on the exploding deficits and

debts that the federal government but also state governments are carrying. and it's for that reason that last year around this time actually i hosted in the white house a health care summit and indicated to congress that it was absolutely critical for us to begin now moving on what is one of the biggest drags on our economy and represents one of the biggest hardships that families face. some of you know that i get ten letters out of the 40,000 that i receive every day for me to take upstairs to the residence and read every single night. these are letters from all across the country. constituents from every walk of life. i can tell you that at least two, sometimes five of the ten letters relates to the challenges that people are

experiencing in health care every single day. i'll get letters from parents whose children have pre-existing conditions and maybe those children were able to get health insurance when they were young, but now they're grown up, they are about to move out and they can't get insurance, no matter what job they find. i hear from small businesses who have just opened up their new rates from their insurance company and it turns out that their rates have gone up 20, 30, in some cases 35%. i hear from families who have hit lifetime limits and because somebody in their family is very ill, at a certain point they start having to dig out of pocket and they are having to mortgage their house and in some cases have gone bankrupt because of health care. so this is an issue that is affecting everybody. it's affecting not only those

without insurance, but it's affecting those with insurance. and when you talk to every single expert and you just talk to ordinary people and you talk to businesses, everybody understands that the problem is not getting better, it's getting worse. right now it's projected that premiums for families with health insurance, not people without health insurance but with health insurance will almost certainly double over the next decade, just as they doubled over the past decade. in the individual markets it's even worse. businesses are having to make decisions about just dropping coverage altogether for their employees. if they're not doing that, then money that they are spending on health care is money that otherwise could have gone to job creation. and i don't need to tell people here about the effects on the federal budget. you know, we've got some people

who have been working a very long time on figuring out how can we control the huge expansion of entitlements. almost all of the long-term deficit and debt that we face relates to the exploding costs of medicare and medicaid. almost all of it. that is the single biggest driver of our federal deficit. and if we don't get control over that, we can't get control over our federal budget. now, i'm telling all of you things you already know. maybe more personally i should just mention the fact that i now have about as good health care as anybody can have. i've got a doctor right downstairs. and all of us when i was in the senate and all of you as house and senate members have good health care. but remember maybe when you were

younger, when you were first starting off, i can certainly remember malia coming into the kitchen one day and saying i can't breathe, daddy, and us having to rush her to the emergency room because she had asthma. or sasha when she was a baby getting meningitis and having to get a spinal tap and being on antibiotics for three days and us not knowing whether or not she was going to emerge okay. in each of those instances i remember thinking while sitting in the emergency room what would have happened if i didn't have reliable health care. my mother, who was self-employed, didn't have reliable health care and she died of ovarian cancer. there's probably nothing that modern medicine could have done about that. it was caught late and that's a hard cancer to diagnose. but i do remember the last six months of her life insurance

companies threatening that they would not reimburse her for her costs and her having to be on the phone in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies when what she should have been doing is spending time with her family. i do remember that. now, everybody here has those same stories somewhere in their lives. everybody here understands the desperation that people feel when they're sick and i think everybody here is profoundly sympathetic and wants to make sure that we have a system that works for all americans. you know, i was looking through some of the past statements that people have made, and i think this concern is bipartisan. john mccain has talked about how rising health care costs are devastating to middle class

families. chuck, you've been working on this a long time, you've discussed the unsustainable growth in medicare and medicaid in our budget. mike has worked on this, partnered with ted kennedy on a range of health care issues, is chairman of the committee, you said that small businesses in your home state are finding it nearly impossible to afford health care dpoumpcover for the employ is and you said the current system is in critical condition. mitch, you have said that the need for reform is not in question, and obviously there are comparable statements on the democratic side as well. so here's the bottom line. we all know this is urgent. and unfortunately over the course of the year, despite all of the hearings that took place and all of the negotiations that took place and people on both sides of the aisle worked long and hard on this issue, you know, this became a very

ideological battle. it became a very partisan battle. and politics i think ended up trumping practical common sense. i said at the state of the union and i'll repeat, i didn't take this on because i thought it was good politics. this is such a complicated issue that it's inevitably going to be contentious. but what i'm hoping to accomplish today is for everybody to focus not just on where we differ, but focus on where we agree, because there actually is some significant agreement on a host of issues. i've looked very carefully at john boehner's plan that he put forward. i've looked at tom coburn and senator burr's plan that's been

put out there, paul ryan has discussed some of the issues surrounding medicare. i've looked at those very carefully. >> mike ense in the past you put forward legislation around small businesses that are very important. so when i look at the ideas that are out there, there is overlap. it's not perfect overlap, it's not 100% overlap, but there's some overlap. now, what i did, what the white house did several days ago is we posted what we think is the best blend of the house and the senate legislation that's already passed. the basic concept is that we would set up an exchange, meaning a place where individuals and small businesses

could go and get choice and competition for private health care plans, the same way that members of congress get choice and competition for their health care plans. for people who can't afford it, we would provide them some subsidies, but because people would have some pooling power, the costs overall would be lower because they'd be in a stronger position to negotiate. we think it is a plan that works with the existing system, the employer-based system, the private health care system, but allows a lot of people who currently don't have health care to get health care. more importantly for the vast majority of people who do have some health care, it allows them to get a better deal. we also have some insurance reforms in there that, for example, prohibit people who have pre-existing conditions from being banned from getting

coverage. we also talk about how we can help to make the medicare system more effective and provide better quality care. in each of these cases, there are corresponding ideas on the republican side that we should be able to bridge. so i promise not to make a long speech, let me just close by saying this. my hope in the several hours that we're going to be here today, that in each section that we're going to discuss, how do we lower costs for families and small businesses, how do we make sure that the insurance market works for people, how do we make sure that we are dealing with the long-term deficits, how do we make sure that people that don't have coverage can get coverage, in each of these areas, what i'm going to do is start off by saying here's some things we agree on, and then

let's talk about some areas where we disagree and see if we can bridge those gaps. i don't know that those gaps can be bridged, and it may be that at the end of the day we come out of here and everybody says, well, we have some honest disagreements. people are sincere in wanting to help but they have got different ideas about how to do it and we can't bridge the gap between democrats and republicans on this. but i'd like to make sure that this discussion is actually a discussion and not just us trading talking points. i hope that this isn't political fear, where we're just playing to the cameras and criticizing each other but instead are actually trying to solve the problem. that's what the american people are looking for. as controversial as the efforts to reform health care have been thus far, when you ask people should we move forward and try

to reform the system, people still say yes. they still want to see change. and it strikes me that if we've got an open mind, if we're listening to each other, if we're not engaging in the tit for tat and trying to score political points during the next several hours that we might be able to make some progress. and if not, at least we will have better clarified for the american people what the debate is about. so with that, i just want to say again how much i appreciate everybody for participating. and i am going to now turn it over to senator mcconnell so that he can make some opening remarks and we'll just go back and forth between the democratic leaders and the republican leaders, house and senate, and then we'll just open it up and start diving in, all right. >> thank you very much, mr. president. john boehner and i have selected lamar alexander of tennessee to

make our opening framing statement. let me turn to him. >> thanks, mitch. and mr. president, thunderstorm watch -- thank you very much for the invitation. i've been asked to try to express what republicans believe about where we've gotten since then. as a former governor, i also want to try to represent governors views. they have a big stake in it. i know you met with some governors the last few days. we believe that our views represent the views of a great number of the american people who have tried to say in every way they know how through town meetings, through surveys, through elections in virginia and new jersey and massachusetts that they oppose the health care bill that passed the senate on christmas eve. and more importantly, we want to talk about we believe we have a better idea. and that's to take many of the examples that you just mentioned about health care costs, make

that our goal, reducing health care costs and start over and let's go step by step toward that goal. we'd like to briefly mention, i'll briefly mention, others will talk more about it as we go along, what those ideas are, what some of them are, what some of the suggestions we have are. i'd like to begin with a story. when i was elected governor, some of the media went up to the democratic leaders of the legislature and said what are you going to do with this new young republican governor a few years ago. and they said i'm going to help him because if he succeeds, our state succeeds and that's the way we worked for eight years. but often they had to persuade me to change my direction to get our state where it needed to go. i'd like to say the same thing to you. we want you to succeed because if you succeed, our country succeeds. but we would like respectfully to change the direction you're going on health care costs, and that's what i want to mention here in the next few minutes.

i was trying to think about if there were any kind of event that this could be compared with and i was thinking of the detroit auto show, that you had invited us out to watch you unveil the latest model that you and your engineers had created and ask us to help sell it to the american people and we go and you do that and we look at it and we say that's the same model we saw last year and we didn't like it and neither did they because we don't think it gets us where we need to go and we can't afford it. so as they also say in detroit, again, we think we have a better idea. your stories are a lot like the stories i hear. when i went home for christmas after we had that 25 days of consecutive debate and voted on christmas eve on health care, a friend of mine from tennessee said i hope you'll kill that health care bill. and then before the words were out of his mouth he said, but we've got to do something about health care costs. my wife has breast cancer. she got it 11 years ago. our insurance is $2,000 a month. we couldn't afford it if our

employer weren't helping us do that and we've got to do something. that's where we are. we think to do that we have to start by taking the current bill and putting it on the shelf and starting from a clean sheet of paper. now, you presented ideas, there's 11-page memo on the -- i think it's important for people to understand there's not a presidential bill, they're good suggestions and ideas on the web. we've made our ideas. but it's a lot like the senate bill. it has more taxes, more subsidies, more spending. so what that means is that when it's written, it will be 2700 pages more or less, which means it will probably have a lot of surprises in it. it means it will cut medicare by about half a trillion dollars and spend most of that on new programs, not on medicare and making it stronger, even though it's going broke in 2015. it means there will be about a half trillion dollars of new taxes in it. it means for millions of americans premiums will go up because when people pay those

new taxes, premiums will go up and they will also go up because of the government mandates. it means that from a governor's point of view, there are going to be what our democratic governor calls the mother of all unfunded mandates. nothing used to make me madder as a governor than when washington politicians would pass a big bill, take credit for it and send me the bill to pay, and that's exactly what this does with the expansion of medicare. and in addition, it dumps 15 to 18 million low income americans into a medicaid program that none of us want to be a part of because 50% of doctors won't see new patients, so it's like giving someone a ticket to a bus line where the buses only run half the time. when fully implemented, the bill would spend about $2.5 trillion a year and it still has a sweetheart deals in it. one's out, some are still in. what's fair about taxpayers in louisiana paying less than

taxpayers in tennessee. and what's fair about protecting seniors in florida and not protecting seniors in california and illinois and wyoming. so our view, with all respect, is that that this is a car that can't be recalled and fixed and that we ought to start over. but we'd like to start over. when i go down on the floor, and i've been there a lot on this issue, some of my democratic friends will say, well, lamar, where's the republican comprehension i've bill? and i say, well, if you're waiting for mitch mcconnell to roll in a wheelbarrow with a 2700 republican comprehensive bill it's not going to happen because we've come to the conclusion that we don't do comprehensive well. we've watched the comprehensive economy wide cap in trade. we've watched the comprehensive immigration bill. we had the best senators we've got working on that in a bipartisan way. we've watched the comprehensive health care bill and they fall of their own weight. our country is too big, too complicated, too decentralized for washington, a few of us here, just to write a few rules about remaking 17% of the

economy all at once. that's sort of thing works in the classroom but it doesn't work very well in our big, complicated country. it doesn't work for most of us. if you look around the table, i'm sure it's true on the democratic side as it is on the republican, we've got shoe store owners and small business people and a former county judge and we've got three doctors. we've got people who are used to solving problems step by step. and that's why we said 173 times on the senate floor in the last six months of last year, we mentioned our step-by-step plan for reducing health care costs. and i'd like to just mention those in a sentence or two. you mentioned mike's work on the small business health care plan. that's a good start. it came up in the senate. he will explain why it covers more people, costs less and helps small businesses offer

insurance to, helping americans buy insurance across state lines. you've mentioned that yourself. most of the governors i've talked to think that would be a good way to increase competition. number three, put an end to junk lawsuits against doctors. in our state half the counties, pregnant women have to drive to the big city to have prenatal health care or to have their baby because the medical malpractice suits have driven up the insurance policies so high that doctors leave the rural counties. give states incentives to lower costs, number four. number five, expanding health savings accounts. number six, house republicans have some ideas about how my friend can continue to afford insurance for his wife who has breast cancer, because she has a pre-existing condition, it makes it more difficult to buy insurance, so there's six ideas. they're just six steps, maybe the first six, but combined with

six others and six more and six others, they get us in the right direction. now, some say we need to rein in the insurance companies, maybe we do, but i think it's important to note that if we took all the profits of the insurance companies, the health insurance companies entirely away, every single penny of it, we could pay for two days of the health insurance of americans and that would leave 363 days with costs that are too high. so that's why we continue to insist that as much as we want to expand access and to do other things in health care, that we shouldn't expand a system that's this expensive. that the best way to reduce costs, to increase access is to reduce costs. now, in conclusion, i have a suggestion and a request for how to make this a bipartisan and truly productive session, and i hope that those who are here will agree. i've got a pretty good record of working across party lines and of supporting the president when i believe he's right, even though other members of my party

might not on that occasion. my request is this, that before we go further today that the democratic congressional leaders and you, mr. president, renounce this idea of going back to the congress and jamming through on a partisan vote through a little used process we call reconciliation your version of the bill. you can say that this process has been used before and that would be right, but it's never been used for anything like this. it's not appropriate to use to write the rules for 17% of the economy. senator byrd, who is the constitutional historian of the senate has said that it would be an outrage to run the health care bill through the senate like a freight train with this process. so this is the only place, the senate, where the rights to the minority are protected and sometimes as senator byrd has

said the minority can be right. i remember reading alexis detoteful's books and he said that the greatest threat to the american democracy would be the tyranny of the majority. when republicans were trying to change the rules a few years ago, you and i were both there. senator mccain was very involved in that, about getting majority vote for judges. then senator obama said the following, what we worry about is essentially having two chambers, the house and the senate, who are simply majority at, that's not what the founders intended, which is another way of saying the founders intended the senate to be the place where the majority didn't rule on big issues. senator byrd -- senator reid in his book writing about the gang of 14 said that the end of the filibuster requiring 60 votes to pass a bill would be the end of

the united states senate. and i think that's why lyndon johnson in the '60s passed the civil rights bills in the republican leader's office because he understood that having a bipartisan bill not only would pass it but it would help the country accept it. senator pat monihan has said before he died that he couldn't remember a big piece of social legislation that passed that wasn't bipartisan. and after world war ii in this very house and in the room back over here, president truman and general marshall would meet once a week with senator arthur vanderberg, the republican chairman of the senate foreign relations committee and write the marshall plan. general marshall said that sometimes van was my right hand and sometimes he was his right hand. we know how to do that. john baener and george miller did that on no child left

behind. mike ense and ted kennedy wrote 35 bills together. you mentioned that in your opening remarks. you and i and many other senators work together on the america competes act. we can do that on health care as well. but to do that, we'll have to renounce jamming it through in a partisan way. if we don't, then the rest of what we do today will not be relevant. the only thing bipartisan will be the opposition to the bill and we'll be saying to the american people, who have tried to tell us in every way they know how, town halls and elections and surveys that they don't want this bill, that they would like for us to start over. so if we can do that, start over, we can write a health care bill. it means putting aside jamming it through, it means working together the way general marshall and senator vandenburg did and row deucing health care

costs and making that our goal now. it means going step by step together to reearn the trust of the american people. we'd like to do that and we appreciate the opportunity that you've given us today to say what our ideas are and to move forward. thank you very much. >> well, thank you, lamar. both i and lamar went a little bit over our original allocated time. i do not want to be a hypocrite and wanted to give you some slack. we're going to have nancy and harry i think my understanding is you guys want to split time. we'll split it up and so we'll let them have some quick remarks. what i will then do is just address -- john, are you going to make the presentation yourself? what i will then do is just address a couple of points that were raised by you, lamar, in terms of process and then we

will start diving in and getting to work, all right? nancy. >> yes, mr. president. thank you very much for bringing us here today. i will try to stick to the time because we have many people to hear from. thank you, mr. president, again. it was almost a year ago march 5th of last year when you brought us together in a bipartisan way to set us on a path to lower costs, improve quality, expand access to quality health care for all americans. in the course of that time in our committees in the house and the senate, we've had lively discussions. here we are today. you began your remarks, mr. president, by saying there was a glimmer of bipartisanship in the senate with the passage of the jobs bill. i want you to know there was a blaze of bipartisanship in the house yesterday with 406-19, we passed under the leadership of several the lifting, repealing

of the exemption that insurance companies have on health insurance and the antitrust laws for health insurance. 406-19, a very strong message that, yes, the insurance companies need to be reinned in. so put us down on that side of the ledger. that day, march 5th, we all remember the bipartisan spirit, the hope that was in the room and also when senator kennedy came into the room and declared himself a foot soldier in the fight for health care for all americans and then later he wrote to you and said this is not just about the details of policy, it is about the character of our country. the character of our country has formed the backbone of our country, our working middle class families in america. as we sit around this table, i think we should be mindful of what they do when they sit

around their kitchen table. what we do here must be relevant to their lives. and for them, they don't have time for us to start over. many of them are at the end of the line with their insurance, with their caps, with their this and that. you talked about stories. senator alexander did too. i can tell you many stories as i travel the country where i've seen grown men cry. one man in michigan told me that his wife had been sick for a long time. he was at the end of the line in terms of his finances. he might have to lose his home and she was bed-ridden. he was afraid of what was going to happen. he was too proud to tell his children that he needed help. because they were raising their own families. he said when is something going to happen on health care in america? i can't hold out much longer. i have a letter from -- michigan seems to be where i get some

mail on this subject, since i've traveled there recently. a woman said that their family to pay their deductible, they have to subtract it from their food budget, and that's just one of the concerns she mentioned. you can't mention health care in michigan without acknowledging chairman dengel, his institutional memory of how difficult it was to pass medicare, how he has worked over the decades to improve it, how committed he is to preserving it and how important a part of preserving medicare is to this passing this health care bill. later he will inspire us with that, but he, mr. president, as you know, as a young congressman gavelled medicare into law in the house of representatives. you have talked about how the present system is unsustainable for families, for businesses, large, small, any size and how it's unsustainable, as you said

on march 5th of last year. health care reform is entitlement reform. our budget cannot take this upward spiral of costs. we have a moral obligation to reduce the deficit and not heap mountains of debt onto the next generation. but i want to talk for a moment about what it means to the economy. imagine an economy where people could change jobs, start businesses, become self-employed, to pursue their artistic aspirations or be entrepreneurial and start new businesses if they were not job locked because they have a child who's bipolar or a family member who's diabetic with a pre-existing condition. and all of the other constraints that having health care or not having health care places on an entrepreneurial spirit. think of an economy with that of people following their pursuits, taking risks.

we want them to take risks and yet we lock them down and we have an anvil around our businesses because of these increases costs of health care. so this bill is not only about the health security of america, it's about jobs. in its life it will create four million jobs, 400,000 jobs almost immediately. jobs of, again, in the health care industry but in the entrepreneurial world as well. you, mr. president, under your leadership we passed an american reinvestment and recovery act last january and got a running start on some of the technology on scientific advancements by the investments and by medical research, health i.t., health information technology, a running start by your signing the children's health bill insuring 11 million children. we had a running start on expanding access. not only that, but doing it in a

way that is of the future. this is not just about health care for america, it's about a healthier america. this legislation is about innovation. it's about prevention. it's about wellness. but most people haven't heard about that. and those people sitting at that kitchen table, they don't want to hear about process. they want to hear about results. they want to know what this means to them. and what it means is a health initiative that is about affordability for the middle class, lowering costs, improving access for them. accessibility, affordability and accessibility are closely in line. and accountability for the insurance companies. so it is a very important initiative that we have to take and i want to say because medicare was mentioned, unless we pass this legislation, we cannot keep our promises on medicare. we simply must make the cuts and

waste, fraud and abuse in medicare so that the benefits and the premiums are untouched. we owe it to our seniors, we owe it to our country. that day, march 5th, senator kennedy said health care is a right, not a privilege. let us move in a way, who can say we started this six weeks after your inauguration, just six weeks after your inauguration on march 5th with you extending a hand of bipartisanship and many of the provisions that are in our bill are initiatives put forth by the republicans. others of our colleagues will talk about this. but i just hope that as we sit around this table, we understand the urgency that the american people have about this issue, how it affects not only their health, but their economic security and i thank you, mr. president, for your leadership

in getting us to this place. >> mr. president, my friends in the house and in the senate, i want to spend a few minutes talking about nevada, about our country and not what's going on here in washington. i want to start by talking about a young man by the name of jesus gut reez. he has a restaurant in reno, nevada. he had everything that he wanted except a baby. he had health insurance, he had employees that liked him, but he was fortunate, they were going to have a baby, it was going to be a little girl and the baby was born. just a few minutes after the birth of that baby he was told the baby had a cleft palate. but that's okay, he was told, we can take care of that, and they did. they did some surgery on the baby and he was happy.

that is jesus was happy until he got his mail four months later. opened the envelope and the insurance company said we didn't realize that your baby had a pre-existing disability. we're not covering the $90,000 in hospital and doctor bills you've already run up. so he's trying to pay that off. the baby needs a couple more surgeries. this shouldn't happen to anyone in america. he had health insurance. he paid his premiums. i say to my friend lamar, who i have great respect and administration for, you're entitled to your opinions but not your own facts. your opinion is something that is yours and you're entitled to that, but not your own set of facts. senator moynihan said that many years ago and that's what we have to do here today. let's make sure that we talk

about facts. last monday, a week ago monday, all over america results were run from a poll done by the kaiser foundation. it was interesting what that poll said. 58% of americans would be disappointed or angry if we did not do health care reform this year. 58%. across america more than 60% of republicans, democrats and independents want us to reform the way health care works. is it any wonder. they want it so that businesses can afford health care. they want to give consumers more choices and insurance companies more competition. and the doughnut hole. what is the doughnut hole? well, a senior citizen will tell you what the doughnut hole is. under the medicare law that is in existence, you can be sick and you can get your medication paid for for a while.

after you spend $2,000 approximately in medication, you are finished until you spend $3500 more out of your own pocket. and what happens during that hole that we've called the doughnut hole? seniors in america are splitting pills in half, not getting their prescriptions filled, taking them every other day. again, lamar, you're entitled to your opinion, but not your own facts. no one has said, i read what the president has online. no one has talked about reconciliation but that's what you folks have talked about ever sense that came out, as if it's something that has never been done before. now, we as leaders here, the speaker and i, have not talked about doing reconciliation as the only way out of all of this. of course it's not the only way out. but remember, since 1981

reconciliation has been used 21 times. most of it has been used by republicans for major things, like much of the contract for america, medicare reform, the tax cuts for rich people in america. so reconciliation isn't something that's never been done before. it's as if there's a different mindset, a different set of facts than the reality. remember, chairman dodd in the health committee held weeks of markups, and in the bill that he reported out of that committee, there's more than 150 republican amendments that are part of that legislation. the same happened with chairman baucus in the finance committee and that's what we brought to

the floor. so the bill on the floor that my friend lamar is lamenting here has significant input from the republicans. so let's look at the facts a little bit more. because they can be stubborn, you know. harvard just completed a study that shows 45,000 americans die every year because they don't have health insurance. almost a thousand a week in america. in 2008, about 750,000 bankruptcies were filed. about 70% of those bankruptcies were filed because of health care costs. 80% of the people that filed for bankruptcy because of health care costs had health insurance. america is the only country in the world where if you get sick or hurt you're going to have to file bankruptcy. 750,000 bankruptcies in 2008.

these facts show the story that i told about jesus is not just a story of some young businessman in reno, nevada, running a restaurant that gets jerked around by an insurance company. it happens all over. health reform shouldn't be about political parties fighting each other, it should be about people fighting for their lives and fighting for a better quality of life. people like jesus and that little girl. it shouldn't be about whether an idea came from democrats or republicans or one side of the aisle or the other side of the aisle but whether the idea will improve the health care delivery system in our country. i know it's obvious, we've heard it. our republican friends oppose our legislation. and that is your right. but also it becomes your

responsibility to propose ideas for making it better. so if you have a better plan for making health insurance more affordable, let's hear it. if you have a better plan for making health insurance companies more accountable, let's face it. let's work on it. if you have a better plan for doing this while cutting the defic deficit, as our bill did. our bill cuts the deficit by $132 billion. the second ten years up to $1.3 trillion. those aren't my numbers, they're the congressional budget office. so we're ready to listen. i so appreciate the president getting us together. i want the american people to know that we need to work together. and i want to do everything that i can as a senator to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get this done. we need to do health care reform. i've spoken with madam speaker

on many occasions, numerous times about health care. we spent most of last year talking about health care. i so admire her tenacity, her legislative brilliance and i will do everything i can, mr. president, to get this health care reform over the goal line. >> well, thank you very much, harry. everybody went a little over time, which is not surprising with a room full of elected officials. i wanted to give people a little bit of wide berth starting off, but we're going to need to be more disciplined moving forward if we're going to be able to cover every item, and i'll try to set the example here. i just want to address very quickly, lamar, the issue of process that you raised at the beginning and then we'll move on and start talking about the specifics. as i listened to your description of the house-senate bill as well as the proposal

that i put on our website, obviously there were some disagreements about how you would characterize the legislation. on the other hand, when i listened to some of the steps that you thought republicans would be open to, i thought, well, a bunch of these things are things that we'd like to do. and in fact are in the legislative proposals. so part of the goal here i think is to figure out what are the areas that we do agree on, what are the areas where we don't agree, and at the end of that process, then make an honest assessment as to whether we can bridge these differences. i don't know yet whether we can. my hope is that we can, and i'm going to be very eager to hear and explore how we might be able to do so. so rather than start at the outset talking about legislative

process and what's going to happen in the senate and the house and this and that, what i suggest is let's talk about the substance, how we might help the american people deal with costs, coverage, insurance, these other issues and we might surprise ourselves and find out that we agree more than we disagree. and that would then help to deck at a time how we move forward. it may turn out on the other hand there's just too big of a gulf and then we'll have to figure out how we proceed from there. so that would be my proposal. and what i'd like to do then is to start first with something i heard everybody agree on, every single speaker, and that was the issue of cost. it is absolutely true that if all we're doing is adding more people to a broken system, then costs will continue to skyrocket

and eventually somebody is going to be bankrupt, whether it's the federal government, state governments, businesses or individual families. so we have to deal with costs. and i haven't heard anybody disagree with that. now, i've already indicated some statistics, but i just want to reemphasize these. more than a quarter of small businesses have reported a premium increase of 20% or more just last year. 20%. as a consequence, a lot of small businesses have dropped coverage altogether. fewer than half of businesses with fewer than ten workers now offer coverage. by one estimate, without health care reform by the end of the decade, premiums for businesses for more than double in most states. and the total cost per employee is expected to rise to more than

$28,000. so you can imagine what that does to hiring, what that means for incomes and you can imagine how many families are going to be unable to afford insurance. as i mentioned earlier, i hear stories from people all the time about how these costs have very concrete impacts on their lives. i spoke to a family from nashville, tennessee. they have always tried to do right by their workers with their family-run company but they had to do the unthinkable and layoff employees because their health care costs were too high. i've talked to other business people who said we were going to hire but we decided not to when we get our monthly premiums. and so one of the goals that i set out very early on in this process was how do we control costs. now, what we have done, as i mentioned earlier, was to try to

take an idea that is not just a democratic idea, but actually is a republican idea, which is to set up exchanges. these are pools where people can come in and get the same purchasing power as members of congress do as part of the federal employees health care plan, as people are lucky enough to work with big businesses can do because there are a lot of employees in those big businesses. what we've said is that if you join one of these exchanges, you will have choice and you'll have competition. you will have a menu of private insurance options that you'll be able to purchase, but because you're not purchasing it on your own, you're purchasing it as part of a big group, you're going to be able to get lower costs. >> all right, we're going to take a quick break. we'll continue our coverage in a couple of minutes. stand by, this conference is only just beginning. business card says,ever r

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