[inaudible conversations] with fdrs decision to let macarthur and king go through the central and south pacific, virtually all the big military strategy decisions had been made. the rest was up to the commanders in the field. there were only two major decisions left to be made, and unexpectedly roosevelt would not be the one to make them. on the afternoon of april 12, 1945, vice president harry truman thought he would be playing poker that night. instead he was in friend of the chief justice and being sworn in as the 33rd president of the united states. when roosevelt died in april 1945, harry truman came

into office with little idea with what was going on. fdr had a permanent style of leadership he didn't keep a lot of notes. it was a lot of one-on-one conversations with him and fdr trusted his cabinet secretaries with very examination his vice-presidents even less. fortunately for truman there were only two decision he had to make. germany was defeated. japan was on it last legs so the only thing truman needed to decide was whether to invade japan or drop the atomic bomb. truman took office knowing virtually nothing about the a bomb and it was up to henry system son, the 74-year-old secretary of war to tell him about this new revolutionary weapon. system son managed the development of the bomb, the manhattan project, and he was concerned as a former secretary of state, more with figuring out how to use the atomic bomb to preserve the peace of future

generations rather than using to it end the war now or vanarrize a couple of japanese cities. after talking it over with the joint chiefs and stimson herb gave japan an ultimatum. unconditional surrender or prompt an utter destruction. stimson suggested adding something that if they kept the emperor on this throne, we could still accept it with that condition, but that was noted ad to the ultimatum. japan never replied to truman's demand, and on august 6, 1945, two more japanese cities were turned to ashes. nagasaki was not speaks told be the second city. that honor belongs to kyoto, but

secretary stimson toured kyoto before the war. he knew about the shrines and believed the world would book down on the united states if it destroyed so much of japan's heritage so he insisted on using a different city. that's why mag -- knack saki swallowed the second hell. >> joining us on job book carly fiorina. what do you do for a living. >> the institute is a think tank and i start mid own think tank, the goodman think tack. my focus is public policy. >> host: where are you based? >> guest: i'm in dallas but we have a virtue think tank, and so i could be anywhere.

>> host: now, john goodman, you have written about health care for quite a while. is that fair statement? >> guest: very fair. >> host: here's your most recent book, "a better choice: hillarh care solutions for america." the affordable care act i now the law of the land. >> guest: it is. this book focuses on six big problems with obamacare that aren't going to go away and will require congress and he president to get together and solve them, and if they don't, things will get very bad. >> host: what problem number one in your view? have you -- do you accept the affordable care act, obamacare, as the law of the land, and are you okay with that? >> guest: well, of course the law of the land but, no, the big six problems are big, big problems. it's a bad reform. we could do much better than that, and that's what i'm trying to dive the book. >> okay. the biggest problem in your view. >> guest: we're required to buy an insurance package whose cost is going to grow faster than our

income, and if history is the guide it will grow twice as fast so it's going like this, but the federal government's help for us is going to be very flat. spending on medicare, spending on medicaid hospitals indefinitely. the subsidies and the exchanges after 2018 are going to grow only with the economy, but healthcare is growing like this. the government's help is flat. so it means more and more of the burden through time is shrifted to the private sector. >> host: why is health care going like this? >> guest: it's been doing that for 40 years, and i suppose one of the main reasons is we mainly don't pay for health care with our own money. we're just like people in other countries. we mainly pay for it with our time and somebody else hands over the money, an employer, insurance company or government. >> host: in your view, should health care be tied to our employer? >> guest: to what? >> host: to our employer.

>> guest: i would create a level playing field. you get just as much help if you buy insurance an your oregon as you do at work and i would get rid of the laws that prevent employers from buying insurance for you that is portable. then let the market decide. if employers have something to offer, they'll do it. if not, they shouldn't be in the market. >> host: don't obamacare offer is portability? >> guest: no, no. it puts huge fines on employers who try to die for their employees individually owned insurance. for a while some employers were doing that give. the employee the money and they can buy their own insurance. state governments said, don't ask, don't del. obama says if you do that well impose punitive fines on you to stop it. >> host: what if congress repealed or radically changes obamacare if there's a republican elected in 2016.

>> guest: we have to have a replacement. i'd like to see universal tax credits, give everybody the same amount of help. make sure it is not affected by how people work or how many hours they work or how much they earn. really universal and then let government back up and get out of the way, let people make their own choices and let me market compete. >> host: medical savings accounts. have you been involved with -- >> guest: i'm called the father of health savings accounts. it's very key here. we need a much more liberal health savings account law. neated to be very flexible, wrapping around any third party insurance, this could be a huge boon to the chronically ill, many of whom would like to manage their own health care. they need to manage the money that pays for the care. >> host: john goodman you write as one of the problems -- one of the six solutions -- real insurance, what do you mean by real insurance?

>> guest: president obama said we're going to end the discrimination against people with preexisting conditions. what we got is a bait and switch, and it's true that right now in insurance companies cannot turn you down or exclude you because of a pre-existing illness, but what we're seeing is this race to the bottom in the exchanges, these very narrow networks. i you're a heart patient you can get in a network and find out there's no heart doctor within 50 miles of you. that i think is intolerable and there's a much better way of doing it. i think the premium the individual pays shouldn't be based on his health condition but needs to be some condition to that so the insurer gets an actuarial fair premium, like so we'll have insurers competing on a level playing field. >> host: part of the debate on health care in the nation is whether or not health care is a right. >> guest: no place in the world has made health care a right.

you live in canada, you don't have a right to an mri scan you. don't have a right to wait in line. so, the language of rights distracts us a from what is really happening. i think access to health care could be made much better in the united states, and what is happening with obamacare is going to make access worse for people in medicaid, in the subsidized plans, and low income folks. >> host: medicaid as a competitor is one of your ideas. >> guest: i would lead everybody join medicaid. the left says we want a public plan to compete with the private sector, fine, letted are it me medicaid. lit everybody in medicate get out and get in a private plan i they wantment if a very wealthy person wants to go in met spade wait for his care, he can do that. most medicaid plans these days are run by private health plans but not very good. there are long waiting periods and private insurance is better.

>> host: is it politically feasible to make medicaid and medicare a competitive option? >> guest: of course. the -- said earlier i'd like to see a uniform tax credit available to everyone. i would say that $2,500 for an adult, 8,000 for family of four. that what i'm told it costs to put people into medicaid. so, that's enough money to get medicaid-like insurance, and i don't see any reason why you couldn't let people get it from medicaid itself if they want it it the vast majority of people won't don't to be in medicaid. >> host: john goodman, inindependent institute, the goodman institute. here's the book "a better choice: health care solutions for america." >> next, pulitzer prize-winning journalist micha