prosperity. then robert andrews. chairman of the health and labor subcommittee looks at the vote count. and later virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli talks about his state's intention to block the mandate in the health insurance bill. "washington journal" is next. .

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] independent, 202.628.0205 >> joining us to give us an up- to-the-minute update on the where the process is going adriel bettelheim. he latona's in just a minute. the new york times is talking about where this linchpin of boats are expected for tomorrow is taking place. democrats who oppose abortion centers around stood pat. house democratic leaders were exploring the possibility of opponents that would clinch the final vote. they face stiff resistance from

lawmakers who support abortion rights. it goes on to say bart tupac seceded -- succeeded in tight coverage of abortion. that is some of the expected were going on today. it is about healthcare. it is about art is to pack being a part of capita -- it is about the artist tupac being a part of that. what is going on specifically with him and think like him on abortion? guest: we are seeing a replay of what happened in november. he succeeded in inserting some tough curbs on what participate in the exchanges.

he wants a blanket ban on taxpayer funding for abortion. in december, at the senate came up with its own abortion restrictions. it is more of a compromise they are trying to insert the original house and which back into the compromise. he has made some headway. >> is there a separate vote involved in this now? >> our understanding is he is trying to enable this group to introduce a concurrent resolution, a joint resolution, that would enable them to put the abortion restrictions in the senate bill. these are normally used to correct grafting areas and normal areas. this is unusual to use this on such a big issue on the massive bill. host: at the beneficial world record about this? guest: he will elaborate on this later on today, this morning.

the talks are going pretty late. speaker placebos positive with members of the abortion-rights -- pelosi was positive with members of the abortion rights group. it is fluid right now. it said the prospect that the whole thing would have to go back to the senate for the resolutions can be filibustered. there is a lot of -- it is is easy to see what the republicans would do. whether they would support this language. it could codify the existing federal law. host: you mentioned the abortion right caucus. what is their response to what has been going on? guest: last night members seem pretty upset when they came out of the meeting with pelosi. it must be interesting for them. is the second time in six months for the democratic congress. they are trying to buy the abortion bill.

host: aside from those who follow him, what is your sense of the vote today? guest: i think they are closing in on 216 fresh dose that they need. whenever you have a boat like this at the last minute, people are feeling off. they are going from yes to undecided to try to extract the boats down the line. the president has been on the phone with about 64 different members this week. there is a lot of lobbying going on. we think they are pretty close. they really put the process in play if they were not pretty close. for those who are joining as committee do not fully understand what the committee does, what happens today at 10:00. guest: they begin drafting the rules essentially. if they finalize the compromise

. this would really solidify what they have now. essentially, they would say they will debate this for two hours. where they want to have a votes boaon that. it is have the job of the rules. there are two things that they have to votes on. the house would have to clear the health bill that the senate passed on christmas eve. then they would have a separate bill that incorporate their preferences, how they would propose fixing senate bills. they would then pass that and send those corrections to the senate, presumably for the senate. host: everything is still on track for tomorrow. what is expected guest: tomorrow once the rules for the debate is drawn up, it a debate. they come in about 1:00. we can expect a debate on the

rules as written today followed by a possibly series of votes on these measures. we can expect the republicans to try to erect procedural hurdles. they would have fewer options in the house and the senate. you could expect a pretty fiery replay if everything we have been hearing for the last 13 years 14 months. the republicans are continuing to say the democrats are giving away the story of last-minute deals and abusing the process. the democrats' message is focusing on how much people will benefit from this health system, particularly the more choices. host: to your statement about the republican sentiment. the headline of the wall street journal says they see horse trading going on. is that what you are saying?

guest: yes, we are shocked. this happens all the time. the magnitude of this cannot be understated. they are talking about the largest coverage expansion of health care since medicare was created in the 1960's. it is a truly massive undertaking. this is the way that congress always works on one level. it is such a big event was such a real impact on how many people benefit. host: adriel bettelheim joining us to give us the latest on what is going on. thank you for your time. guest: thank you. host: all that information can be seen on our web site, speeches, in testimony, programs, everything you need to know. it is on c-span.org. for the remainder of our time is half hour, your thoughts.

you can call us on the phone. you can also twitter us at cspanwj. you can always send us e-mail at journal@cspan.org. we will start with the phones. it democrat line. first up. host: good morning. i'm so happy this thing is about to come to an end. so we can move onto other things. republicans, led the fighting does things. they not thinking about all the other people that really want this thing and needed. let it pass. if it is not going to work out, people know what to do in november, right? i am just so happy. host: you said you want to see other things take place as far as moving on. what is first on the list of other things that need to be considered? caller: jobs.

the president was talking about an. he ran all of these things. i believe that he really wanted to move forward. we do need a lot of other things. they didn't want to fight this thing all the way out. congress has just got done so ugly. it has just got done so ugly. it makes me sick. host: next up is ohio on our republican line. are you there? caller: hello? host: go ahead. good morning. are you with us? let's wait done her. then we will try oklahoma on their independent line. i think i'm having a phone is to appear. -- issue up here. the wall street journal has a story this morning.

she talks about what happened if the legislation does pass right away. what would happen as far as immediate concerns? the primary bill would pit half a dozen major consumer provisions in place six months after it is signed. insurance companies would no longer be able to cancel enrollee policies because they got sick or plays lifetime caps on the policy payouts. children will be able to say on insurance policies until the 26th birthday. the most significant provisions will not go into effect until 2014. let's go to chicago. our democrat line. good morning. caller: it appeared the bill is not a health care bill. it is a bill about religion. i'm not a religious person.

i do not think this bill should be about anybody's religion. it appears to have a composite media. we also have an elite party. the elite party can pass bills by reconciliation. it can pass bills by the past. if the democrats want to do that, all my god, it is so unconstitutional. it has never been done before. we cannot do that. i want people like steve pacupaa data the party. it has become the party of the religious right. religious right destroyed the republican party. it is that going to do that to the democratic party. host: virginia. good morning. republican line. caller: good morning. i would like to say two things

about this. the first one concerns abortion. bin laden, george bush and the pope are all against birth control. the thing i would like to say, all these other countries subsidize their workers with health care. our workers are not subsidized with health care. i believe that is one of the reasons that we are falling behind. host: ok. it is not as republicans that rejected this bill. saar and many democrats. -- so are many democrats. caller: i want to things got

from for running. the reason i say that. that allows us to open the floodgates to learn about reconciliation. i have no idea that the republicans did so much to pass an agenda through reconciliation, especially these tax cut. as far as health care, what the lady said, he has got to go. he is too weak for us. we do not need to be weak but that. is talking but abortion. it is not in there. it is against the block. it is not in there. he needs to get in the game britand vote for this health ca. canadians, everyone has told me they have great healthcare. when asked them why in vegas they have dual citizenship and they go back to canada for health care, i had friends who

moved to europe for that live better health care but for better dental care. republicans before a small amount of people and not a majority. thank you. host: he is expected to explain his role about 11:00 today. the washington post talks about insurance subsidies.

caller: this is going to be a historic weekend for all americans. i am so proud i think we have to recognize that a nation cannot move forward. they would receive the bulk of the foreign aid. we would give those monies and dollars to the american people. i think that the republicans

have but -- boxed themselves into a whole. it is a resurgence of all we call the new confederacy . their desire is not to receive health care. they have been trying to do that for years. their objective is to defeat the president. our president has worked extremely hard on this project. i know that we are going to prevail. i do think and other pro-life democrat are not democrats. they are republicans. they need to be the party. we will celebrate this weekend for the american people. seven host: chris will hold rallies over healthcare. one is called americans for prosperity. later on this program, a

democrat from new jersey who has been in negotiations on the process will join us to get his perspective. springfield, oregon. jeff, independent line. caller: hello. i have been thinking about this and thinking about this since everything has gone along. i kind of think it just might boil down to some sour grapes. on the side of the republicans. and they did not get their election win. unfortunately, turning a deaf ear to the plight of people who have spoken up about how th eir lives have been destroyed by health problems and the finances

involved. mine wife and i had to have a medical bankruptcy. we have experienced that, too. i have gone back to school. i currently do not have any insurance. i pray this passes this weekend so we can have something and move forward and join the rest of the progressive world. host: you talked about republicans been concerned about this. what about the democrats that are concerned in this process to have been waiting in holding out as far as how they will pass the bill? caller: well, you know, the budget office just released information that this is actualyl going to save money. enough is being spent on medical care right now to provide everyone with medical coverage.

host: who is caller: everyone everybody in the whole country. caller:if you take all the money that is spent on insurance premiums, indigent coverage, the federal government is already spending billions and billions of dollars a year to cover indigent coverage. with what is being spent, my understanding is that everyone could already be covered. host: will go on to ohio. good morning. caller: as a single payer advocate and as a self-employed worker who brought of three kids with no health insurance, including myself, and never took

a dime from the federal government and only -- always paid my taxes, this passage does not help me, but i'm a single payer advocate. the public option would have been the compromise i would have liked to sing. i can afford to buy into medicare. -- and a couple hundred bucks a month. i cannot afford five or six of your dollars a month. -- $500 or $600 a month. there are so many pluses in this legislation for people who already do have healthcare d. the republicans have shown their true colors. they are not concerned about their constituents who have pre- existing conditions or coverage for children up to 26 .

there are so many pluises for the american public. they have truly shown their colors. i would have thought he could have compromised. i also hope that senator harkin and senator sheriff brown and commerce and kucinich say that they will revisit -- congressman kucinich say that they will revisit the public option. that they will revisit this after they pass legislation. at this point, i cannot get on the bus. i'm happy for the things that are in the legislation that will help others. here is what i'm really amazed by. we call ourselves a religious nation. i grew up in the catholic church. i am amazed people who go to church on sunday and could not want health care.

everyone will be able to access healthcare. the contradictions are just outrageous to me. i am just hoping it is going to pass. i encourage everyone to call in and call in. host: the washington post includes a chart on various aspects of the bill should be passed. there is a section under what it would mean for people.

ohio up next, republican. caller: good morning. i have a question on the health care bill. i have watched countless numbers of hours of the debate on c- span. i think you all for bringing it . 32 million americans are going to be covered under this bill. when is that when to kick in? host: some of the kicks in automatically. some of the kicks in at a later place. as far as the details, i do not know an exact date. caller: 45,000 americans are

dying every year from not having coverage. the majority of this bill does not begin for four years. does that mean is a case for another one and a thousand to die before the bill actually kicks in? host: i do not have an answer for that long. clearly come and give them following. what the thing about the process so far. and try to find an answer to your question. caller: i'm not happy with the process. senator kucinich is my revisited here. and he was voting no. now he is voting yes. i'm not happy with the process. host: because? caller: i think the democrats think that they are in charge. they won the election. they can do what they want to do. there have been a lot of good offers made by republicans that have been pushed to the wayside

i think it could have been done a lot better. host: i'm going to continue to talk about this. we will move on to our next caller. i will try to find that in with the papers. chicago, illinois, democrat. caller: good morning. i think the previous caller is a tad misguided. i believe as soon as the bill is signed by the president, which god willing it will be signed, i think children will be covered immediately. as soon as the bill is signed. the children up to the age of 26 will be covered immediately, which a hug me. my son is 24. college -- he paid for his own college. he worked to part-time jobs. -- he works to part-time jobs. he has no health benefits.

i have a sister who lives in san francisco. she has been a surgical nurse for over 30 years. she belongs to a group with her fellow surgeons and nurses that go three or four times a year to various countries. they have been going to china. if they do volunteer surgery and they go to the little villages and volunteer searchers on people that cannot get access to anything. they patted their own pockets to do these trips. they do to three times a year. we do it two or three times a year. -- and they do it now to with three times a year. she is waiting on a hip replacement. her insurance company denied her surgery at the last minute because they said she had a pre-

existing condition which -- condition. she does charity surgery's for other countries and her own insurance company -- the charitis denying her to get a se hip replacements so she can get back on their feet and go their fellow surgeons and go to china to do more charity surgery. host: i have to leave it there. i apologize. for the benefit of the previous caller, the wall street journal to give detail as far as what would happen.

any state would be eligible for medicaid. the government will begin handing out tax credit to all insurance program for the four. over 30,000, with payment no more than 3% of income for insurance. i would plead to our c-span hub.

that is our resource house of information on the health-care debate. there it is on your screen at c- span.org. it is all the information we have collected about this. atlanta georgia, did morning. republican line. are you there? atlanta, georgia? one more time. ok. we will go to one more call. south carolina. independent line. caller: good morning. i want to address something grow quickly that i do not hear a lot of talk about. i'm a deserving veterans. during all the talk between democrats and republicans, i hear a lot of things about health coverage is going to be or not going to be. i would like to challenge anyone who is never been in a va hospital.

my impression of what i have heard so far -- and i do not want to downplay the va. have been really good to me. for people out here who are wondering what socialized health care might feel like, they need someone that is a disabled veteran and has been hospitalized recently and talked to them about how it is to be in a hospital room with four people and to wait and surgical procedures. i have been waiting for a knee replacement for over 10 years. i keep getting turned down. i am just curious. i do not hear very much conversation about veterans and how we play into this whole mess. host: that is the last call we will take on this. healthcare all day. the house is in the 9:00. we will go to the house when it

comes them. one of the groups protesting measure on health care, americans for prosperity. they are part of a coalition of groups that are going to post here in washington, d.c. we will hear from their representatives on the comeback. ♪ >> lawmakers are heading for a final vote on the house. you come all the latest from the

white house and capitol hill on the only network that covers washington gavel-to-gavel. an editor with the commercials are commentary. take it wherever you go online. iphone users come and get the latest with the c-span radio application projects on this historic day, the house of representatives opened its proceedings were televised coverage. >> america's cable companies created c-span as a public service. today we have extended your access to politics and public affairs, a nonfiction books, and american history through multiple platforms, radio, and online. this is c-span's video library. >> "west central co continues.

host: they have been one of the groups active in the protest of the health care proposal that is being debated on capitol hill. here is one of the television ads. >> i was diagnosed with breast cancer when i was 43. my mother died of breast cancer. early detection saved my life. an earlier panel says women should receive mammograms until age 50 -- should not receive mammograms until age 50. that could cost you your live. if i cover the new guidelines, my cancer would have spread undetected. my chance of survival would have been reduced. the government takes over healthcare, recommendations could be law for all kinds of diseases. if you find a bum, if you could wait months for treatment and life-saving drugs can be restricted. your thoughts as chairman and health care. their five-year survival rate is 79%. in the u.s., it is 90%.

my officer fighting cancer were high because my care is the best. what are your odds of government 6 of your healthcare? >> tell congress to start over and get health care right. host: joining is now is the vice president for policy for americans for prosperity, phil kerpen. what is the message you are trying to send? why did to target this legislator? guest: we ran this in 18 districts. we are running it nationally. we are running it fairly bright. our message is that what really is at stake is government control of our health care, not the direct sense of government- run insurance companies or single payer system but through the pass regulations of bureaucracies that are created in this bill that in our view puts politicians in between patients and doctors. that we think is the most serious aspect of this bill.

host: is it a protest against is that specific part of overall with the democrats are trying to do? guest: a problem with a lot of different elements. intrusion into people's health care decisions and having taken over by bureaucrats. osama bin ladenalso, the procesn used that is correct. we have a number of objections. the one we are highlighting it should be listened to one. who decides? do you decide what can healthcare you get? we think that is the central question. host: you and other groups of be on capitol hill today. what is the purpose? guest: there have been several of these big protests with the tea party groups. i think that with the final vote coming up in the house, people

wanted to do it one last time. all the groups are coming together in collecting. host: are you going to expect the masses that you have seen before? have you resign yourself to this bill being passed? guest: host: we certainly have not done that. we do not think they have the votes yet. in the segment to pelosi is trying to cut some kind of deal with stupak. that indicated she needs their votes. i think it is still up in the air. the people understand that. i think we will definitely see thousands of boats. i know our wisconsin chapter is bringing buses. our state chapters are bringing folks. i heard from people all over the country. i think we will see a turn in

the thousands. and not think there will be as many as a timber where there weas more time to plan. we have that information for people who send e-mail some phone calls. we also been calling for folks to call at district offices. i think our members have made pretty clear that this is something the public is opposed to. the question is, will the democratic leadership the left- wing ideology ahead of what their constituents want. at the bell determines what happens. host: arguses with this until it got today. the lines on your screens. you can also send us a twitter. and in e-mail at journal@c

span.org. more americans of a prosperous. guest: we are pro health reform. we are not for this reform. it is a step in the wrong direction our guiding principle is the way to get patients and doctors more tauruses and control. some of the market reforms might have seemed ok if they were not overlaid with government bureaucracy. there are major concerns about the cost. i do not think it is affordable or the right approach host: gimmicks such as? guest: they are pretending we are going to have a 21% cut in medicare and dr. reimbursements.

they have it taxes the start right away with the spending programs that do not start until 2014. they had six years of spending against 10 years of revenue. they have a new entitlement, the class act. it is used to finance a new benefit program. that money will be needed for its own program. they have money that goes into the medicare trust fund. is it going to pay for medicare, it is being immediately raided out in order to balance the book under the cbo's corporate and -- cbo score. even max baucus says the real cost is going to be more like $2.50 trillion instead of $1 trillion. the real costs are much more. host: 80 oppose this effort, what iis an ideal model

guest: reform one that starts with tax reform that puts people on a level playing form. one problem we have now is most folks only have one choice, whatever their employer offers. we would reform the tax code to you can use pretax dollars for any health insurance purchases and maker own choice. you do not have relied on what your employer chooses. we would like to see association held planned so people can band together to get their own plans. we are open to the idea of the uninsured risk pools as solutions to the pre-existing condition issue. we need a targeted approach on the issue.

host: good morning. you are on phil kerpen wit. caller: we need to make sure insurance companies and not to get vantage of the law. -- the coverage of the health care bill. and raise the rates for everybody before we can get this health care bill going. phil kerpen phil to be taken out to the democratic -- bart stupak to be taken out of the democratic party. what he is trying to do is position himself in some political way to go to a greater office. hostguest: i think you are right

that the insurance companies will take it vintages this bill. in december, when this bill was being debated, the left wing's said it was of riches. we have a mandate that requires everyone to buy insurance. yet regulations that will put smaller insurance companies out of business. then you have to and a billion dollars of taxpayer money going into subsidies -- $2.5 billion of taxpayer money going into subsidies. we are forcing everyone into the arms of the insurance companies whose problems have caused this push to reform in many areas. i think people are concerned about insurance companies and to be skeptical of this approach. host: michigan, good morning, republican line. caller: i am a fan of american

prosperity and the i am a fan on facebook. everything you have said this morning i agree with the 100%. and the other folks calling in. everything they are adding to this bill like insuring kids until 26 and no more underwriting for health insurance would increase our premiums for the average person who already has health insurance. the thing they can enforce the making people buy it, people are not on to buy it if they do not want to buy i know people that want to bring in a vehicle and one not buy health insurance. march stupak is my rep. he is a liberal. he has voted for health care reform. he would have went with this health care reform. he supported the most far that abortion person in history.

he also voted for nancy pelosi. there was contributions from nancy pelosi to stupak. he has blood on his handed this passes. host: do think mr. stupak will do it the ended the day? caller: he will not vote for this bill with the abortion language in it. when he boat at the ballot box, he voted for the guy with the most left-wing ideas in the senate who is an extreme abortion is, obama. he also voted for nancy pelosi for speaker over a person who is against abortion -- what is his name? harold ford? black guy? host: harold ford. caller: he could never voted for him and he did not.

stupak did money from nancy pelosi. but the people are calling him a hero. believe me. god knows who he voted for. guest: i would like to address the cost issue that is in there in the comment earlier on. i think this is really crucial in the debate. the best estimate that we have is that in the individual market, premiums would go up as a result of this bill. they would go up to 11% and 13%. advocates will say, after you take into account the subsidies, it is irrelevant. as a society, you have to pay for the cops of the subsidy. we pay for it as taxpayers.

the overall costs are going up, then we are spending more on health care. we are not getting costs under control. but suppose the one of the object is. i very much agree with that comment. i think that is a major problem. host: independent line for phil kerpen. caller: good morning. after you should be put it on a lot of the msn news the other night at the prosperity gainsborough dollar bills at a fellow who has parkinson's disease who is sitting on the grounds that the protest on thursday or friday. this is the kind of folks that americans for prosperity are. tossing money at a guy who is crippled with parkinson's disease. the second thing. he said 200,000 people were at a rally last year. but it is happy but the tea party.

that is a buy. i wish to call this people. they have 84,000 or 50,000 people there. who are the health care corporations that back americans for prosperity? guest: there are three questions in there. i will address each of them. the demand in cents a hannay -- cincinnati was reprehensible. when you have large crowds, someone acts out of line. that is the situation there. it is inappropriate. i do think that if we are going to address people who have diseases, which should have a positive vision for research and development in finding new cures. i worry we are going to discourage a lot of this development if we had more government controls and centralize authority.

in the rest the world, there is little innovation because there is not access to the market. if we go down the path of this bill, we will not be able to address incurable diseases. regarding how many people wear here september 12, i'm not an expert. the numbers i said was close to the present consensus to ds. some are saying 1 million. i think that is an exaggeration. i think 40,000 is not consistent with the aerial photograph. it is not really crucial. it is pretty clear that there is strong public sentiment on the question of our donors, we did not disclose our donors. we do that to protect the people who choose to contribute.

[unintelligible] i will say that the overwhelming majority of our contributions comes from individuals who believe in our mission. 80% margin nations for from individuals that a little corporate support. the insurance companies love this bill because they are going to make a ton of money on it. they will get millions of new customers who are forced to buy their product. they will get hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies. why would they be funding us when they are on the other side? host: a little corporate support. can you talk about what type? guest: we do not disclose any of our donors. host: generally come as the issues are concerned. guest: the chairman of our board of directors is david polk, and the ticket price president of the large conglomerate.

caller: i rather agree with the caller earlier who said health and christians go to church in the morning and then denied those in need of health care it is astounding. i do not understand why the europeans have a -high opinion of obama but european americans do not. the. baggers do not make over to under $50,000 a year. they are against obama giving healthcare to the poor. host: you put a lot out there.

what would you like our guest to address specifically? caller: specifically, do you believe the tea party movement is a bigoted group? guest: no, i do not think that is the case. anytime you have a large group of people you have some bad apples. for the most part, the tea party felt i have talked to -- folks i have talked to our patriotic americans who are concerned about the growth of government and the change in the relationship between government and the people of this country. a lot of folks understand and you cannot put passage on the rich without added that a everyone else. most of the employers fall into those tax brackets. it has a big effect on the people who work for them.

in any big moment, there will be bad apples. most people are really sincere. i would say that for the other side. we would do well to recognize the people we disagree with the usually well-intentioned. i hope we could improve our political discourse a little and start assuming everyone would disagree with as bad intentions. host: your group for rally today and new. what are your plans? guest: this group was the grass- roots coalition. it was co-sponsored by other groups. 60 plus the do a lot of the tea party groups. two-party patriot. two-party express. michelle bachman will be speaking. an actor from hollywood is coming into town.

this is a broad effort to fight the democratic version of reform. i expect a large crowd. i think it will send a strong message. if they do decide go democratic leadership, they will be ignoring many voters and constituents to disagree with them. but also launched a website. -- we also launched a website. host: afphq.org if you want to check it out for yourself. we had phil kerpen for about five more minutes. chicago, illinois. republican line. caller: i've heard different things on the radio. i have read different things. is there going to a percentage of tax on medical product?

i heard pr will be only the location where this passes. guest: there is a medical device taps in the bill. they did not do it as a percentage. they did as a total dollar amount split by market share. every medical device is taxed on this bill. host: dallas, texas, independent line. caller: i have a couple of comments. i have a big laughter i consider myself an independent. i do not mind paying more taxes to make sure poor people have access to health insurance. rated pfizer, i want to know [unintelligible]

it you are truly for prosperity in this country, there are other ways to pay for this. we spent $5 million a year on their defense appropriations. we go to wars when no one attacked us. does that $100 billion a year. start paying for people's education and health. in iraq and afghanistan, we have more civilian contractors making tons of money than we have soldiers. if you really want to -- what would you propose to do about this? if you have got to and bill insurance and to get into an accident your insurance goes up, the same way to deal with health insurance and do not smoke. i do not eat badly. i maintain a healthy lifestyle. i should not be forced to find

someone who is irresponsible with their life choices. i never use my health insurance. i paid $2,000 for my family. i see people that are obese and abuse themselves. i have to support them. host: we will leave it there. guest: that problem is made worse by this piece of legislation which uses a modified community ratings and prohibit adjusting payments based on the risk factors. many companies do what you are saying. they will reduce your premiums relative to someone else. under this bill, that is prohibited. help the people will have to pay higher premiums to cover these poor health choices. that is one of the other aspects in this bill. i want to just as i did the we can afford to provide insurance for everyone. we can but this bill does not

come close to doing this. they say 22 million people remain uninsured at the end 10 years. i think the idea that there are lots of poor people out there is not true. this people are covered by medicarde if they are poor. they can run the programs. most people who are uninsured are uninsured because they choose not to buy insurance or they have pre-existing conditions. i think there are targeted solutions that we talked about to do that. we should do it in a cost- effective way. i agree with the. we have much better budget priorities the may have. there have not been large cuts to other areas to free up the budget. they are talking about doing it with new taxes.

host: one more call. democratic line. washington. caller: i would like to talk about this group -- [unintelligible] they are the majority of the united states. guest: i think the polls say that. we have seen a number of people who are opposed to this plan increase over time. they see the procedural tricks that the administration have resorted to to get it through. i do not think it is a stretch to think that people are generally opposed to this bill. i think it is the reason for the political dynamic on the hill right now.

host: what is the strategy if the bill passes tomorrow? what is the strategy from your group? guest: i do not your to think about that until it happens. we will do everything to keep the pressure on. if we fail, will think about that on monday. right now, we are doing everything we can. host: phil kerpen with americans for prosperity. thank you for being on the show today. guest: thank you for having me. host: coming up, board discussions about health care. we will hear from rob andrews, a representative from new jersey. we will get his thoughts on the current state of the process. we will be right back. . . rrrrrrrrrrrr>1>1>1>1>1>1>1>1rrx<

>> congressman boyd and this is building confidence and i think it reflects the deficit reduction was a major issue. the report that came out this week said that this bill will reduce the deficit by a trillion point 3 dollars, 1.3 trillion rather. with narrow partisan majority embedded by political bribery and bribery. >> i guess they're referring to

the nebraska deal. if they're talking about the special deal for florida, out of the bill. intimidation. pedro, i've been in this discussions personally with a lot of the members and it's not about intimidation but understanding the goals and ideas of people and trying accommodate them in the deal. those are interesting political but they're just not true. >> you talked to, i guess by passed involvement in this but there was a lot of news from the anti-abortion caucus there. their concerns. that doesn't concern you leading up to tomorrow? >> of course it does. o abortion is a thing that's felt strongly by both sides. it will be resolved because we all want to get to the same place, which is no public funding for o abortion. i believe and 60,000 catholic nuns believe there is no

abortion funding in the basic text of the senate bill. there's disagreements about that. because we all want to get to the same- mace, pedro i'm confident we'll resolve it but i want people to understand the bill president barack obama signs will not fund abortion with public funds. >> rob andrewss is our guest for the remainder of our time. call (202) 737-0002 for democrats, (202) 737-0001 for republicans and (202) 628-0205 for independents. send him a tweet if you follow us on, c-spanwj and e-mail journal at c-span.org. john, buffalo? >> good morning. andrews i'll ask you, pedro please don't cut me off. liberals are needing the lines and this is very important.

andrews, are you familiar with static analysis. >> i don't know what that means, john? >> this is an amazing speck you just told me. insight in what you do or don't know. static analysis is like when you look at a budget. one for 10-years on this health care bill. what sir, and listen i don't care. i want to know exactly what happens if inflation hits and all of the sudden the debt we're financing right now maybe at one percent goes to five and ten percent? i know we're deficit spending the make sure that the 30 million people you claimed are not insured are, what happens if interest rated go up? please don't avoid the question. please tell k me. you didn't know what static analysis is. guest: okay. look. if the interest rates go up the

deficit will be higher with or without the health care bill because the debt service the government has to pay will go up. no doubt about that. but that's independent of the question of whether the health care bill, all other things being equal reduces the deficit. it reduced the deficit by 1.3 trillion over 20 years and that's not a democratic party position, that's the adjustment of the nonpart son budget office. >> detroit, michigan. caller: good morning. just a call to support the bill. as you know the michigan is suffering severely in economic downturns. it's very important as taxpayers. my husband and i were making nearly 100,000 a year. he was hurt. our premium, he became

unemployed and our premiums went up to $800 a month and we couldn't afford that with $2000 de directable each and we're part of that uninsured group now and looking forward to the passage of the bill and willing to contribute to paying our portion. helping all-americans. poor, middle class and uninsured students of the united states. our future is riding on this and also economically riding on this and we don't start having some reform, we're going to be not the greatest country i think and it's always relevant as far as how much money is contributed to many other portions of our economy. whether it's the war and et cetera. just really proud to be an american. one that wants to see all persons especially taxpayers

provided with health care, additionally, we have - sorry, one last comment. are all of our senators, our congressmen and military. prisoners are cared for with health care. poor people h aged people, children. what about the middle class working americans who fall in the cracks who need this health care? we got to have it. >> we'll leave it there. thank you. >> theresa thank you for the support of the bill. actually it's important what theresa says. this is not free health care for people that don't work. this is better health care for people that are insured and a chance for hardworking people that usually work more than 40 hours a week and have no insurance. people that pump gas or wait on tables. it's a chance for them to protect their families and get the health care they need and deserve.

it's for hardworking americans who i think deserve a better deal. >> story in the "washington post" that talks about subsidies. one of the lines in the story says that some proponents of the subsidies say as generous as they are. buying power could erode overtime in inflation. democrats approach to make seated insurance changes could help x changes would help some americans those who now look for insurance policies individually and in small groups. >> family making over 40 thousand dollars a year and have normal copays spends about $12 thousand or $13 thousand for health care. under the bill. a family making $45,000 a year would spend $5 or $6,000 a year. that's still a lot of money but

it's affordable. i guess i hear should we do this or not and i think the evidence is compelling that we should. >> david on our democrats line. caller: hi. good morning sir. representative robert andrews i want to applaud your efforts. i got a message to my republican friends. i heard it for 8 years and post our supreme court decisions. elections have consequences. we came out and voted and won health care and we're going to get health care. for the previous person that add ver tiezed 90 percent verses the 79 percent in europe. how about the person that doesn't have health care? what's their survival rate? >> david, first of all we

appreciate what you said. this constant reframe that this will make our system like europe, just u isn't true. this is a system where americans choose their own doctor and go to the doctor they choose and have reimbiers me reimbursement insurance company. whenever there's a new idea brought up people try to tear it down and try to compare it with some foreign force. social security was compared to lenin ist russia. medicare was compared to soviet union in world war ii. i don't think most people think those are communist social programs. so hearing the same rhetoric today it's equally true and it's equally ridiculous.

those that really read the bill realize how ridiculous it is. >> john on our republican line? guest: morning, john. caller: i'm here. hold on. john, go ahead. caller: my main question is, on the health care issue, as far as i'm concerned the government can kiss my - guest: john, i don't know how to react to that. thanks for the invitation but, no. if i thought that was a government take over of health care i wouldn't support it. no one can be forced into a plan they don't want to be in. government does not you know change all the rules on even and think think this is something people have been told and it's not true but i respectfully

decline your invitation. host: you think it's been a good light for this. guest: i do. the first will be tomorrow if we adopt the senate bill. voting yes, or no and whether or not we want to amend the senate bill with the positive changes that i think we've made. those are up/down votes on the record and i think that's what the public deserves and what we're going to do. host: daniel. independent line. guest: good morning. daniel. caller: good morning.. i'm looking at social security and they messed that all up, the government has and every other program they have gotten into like the post office they have goofed off. what makes the government think their medical experts and why do they want to go into a field they no nothing about? they no nothing about medicine.

why would they want to take over something they're completely ignorant about? and they want the majority of the people to give up their health planning for a minority without health insurance? guest: daniel, can i ask you a question without being too personals. your health insurance through your work or how? caller: i worked 30-years for it. guest: retired? nothing would change. you get to keep it if you like it. i would invite you to look at the bill that's on the internet and try to find a place in there that says you would lose your plan. you wouldn't. we understand and respect the fact you work 30-years for the plan and we don't think it's right to take it away from you, so we don't. host: queens new york. on the democrat line.

good morning.. caller: i'm calling to make two points, but first of all i would like to say it's time for us to have health care bill passed. i call for this. secondly, i have my daughter that lives in canada. she has a pre-existing condition and she - i've watched her get all of her treatments without a problem. i have a daughter in new york and lost her job and has no insurance and has to pay the city doctors, so i think it's a long time coming and the other thing is that, members are saying that the people - the people do not want this insurance. who are the people. they're not speaking to me or anybody. not anyone of my family so i don't know who the people are and i think they have said, to have nothing is that this president tried to do but to be

successful and i think this is what's going on right now. guest: i agree with you and i thank you. i think that if your daughter has that pre-existing condition, that she never again should be denied the right to get insurance and i don't think she should be charged more than someone that doesn't have pre-existing condition and when we pass this bill and president barack obama signs it, that'll be the case. i think it's long over due. host: sin si in the the i ohio. republican line. caller: i'd like to dispute a few points here. first of all, if her daughter is unemployed and not working and still paying health care, she's eligible for state aid. they'll cover anyone unemployed with no income and as for the other lady too who rambled about how it's going to help everyone

in the middle class. if she thinks her premiums will go down, everyone agrees that the premiums will go up. president has said it. pelosi. it's never going to go down. and then, my other point is, i don't see how you can force americans to pay for something and mandate something. now i've heard it compared to autoinsurance. autoinsurance is not mandated. i've heard this across the line from our president, below pe l. autoinsurance is not mandated. people that ride the bus do not pay autoinsurance. guest: on the first point being able to get state aid or medicaid if your unemployed. that's usually not true if you have assets. your excluded from the medicaid program if someone works hard

and buy as house they don't get medicaid. as far as being forced to buy something, since 1965 we've had mandatory enrollment in medicare. when you hit 65 you have to be enrolled and there's premiums with that. i think we can disagree about the policy. host: are there constitutional concerns for mandating of health care? guest: i'm sure it'll be litigated. it's wholly constitutional. if mid care is constitutional in requiring people to enroll i don't think this is different. i must say, i worry about the supreme court. think the citizen's united decision was frankly the most radical decision since lplesy verses ferguson. we're trying hard to write a

bill that will be successful with a constitutional challenge that i believe no doubt will come. i think there's no question this is constitutional. host: worried about the court for certain member? guest: i think the citizen's united decision was incredibly powerful power grab. the court addressed and issue never before it. we have to be careful to write this that precludes that power grab in the future. host: rob andrewss is with us for another nine minutes. al on the independent line. caller: good morning, pedro. how you doing? couple of main points and make sure my t.v. is all the way muted. two months ago i called in and they had a gentlemen there. i'm not - hit was an independent organization that analyzed these kind of programs.

and i asked him a question specifically. the moneys that are going to go in, because this is not a free program. people are on the illusion it's free. the moneys taxed for us will go into a general fund like social security, and that the government will not tap into that fund and i'm asking. will the government never tap into that general fund like they do in social security? i'd like a specific answer on that question. second of all, as state governments which are facing near bankruptcy yours included and mine included. once they hit that level of, not being able to pay for their essential services, what is the government going to do, and thirdly, this is just a general

appraisal so far of the democratic party and republican party and president barack obama. once again, he is putting cart before the horse. if there was a surplus in the economy and it was doing well, i would say let's go for this. it's a great concept. something that's well-deserved and over due but president barack obama seems to put the cart before the horse and this is a tremendously big leap of faith. >> i'll try to answer your questions. the bill says specifically the moneys collected here are exclusively to be used for the health plan. congress has broken in the past that promise and i want to make sure this one is kept. secon second, as far as state governments are concerned there's new. medicaid 7-10 years from now. states pay ten percent of the

cost of the new medicate enrollees and i think states get a much better deal because uninsured people are presently paying to take care of will be covered as a result of this program. your final point. i think this bill puts the horse before the cart. i don't think you can begin to bring our economy back to health when businesses and families and state and local governments are paying enormous amounts of money for insurance programs for their employees. it's one of the main reasons why state and local governments are having financial difficulty. i believe if we have more competition and bring down cost of premiums relative to over income, overtime that our businesses will be healthier. families will be in better financial state and so will our country. i think this is very much about

creating stronger private sector economy and stabilizing our country's fiscal system. >> detroit, michigan. good morning. gene on the democratic line. caller: i want to make a few points. i feel health care should be not a for profit business. i'm disappointed we don't have competition for the insurance companies. also my mother became sick in 1993 until her passing in 1991, i dealt with hospitals and doctors during that period as well as my own up to this point and i can't count the number of times i was told, she had to be discharged from the hospital because the insurance companies would not pay for her to stay in the hospital. also, i hear the republicans talk about the cost. the cost. well, what is the cost of the lives of the 1-45 thousand or

ever however many people that die without health insurance. there's an ideological difference between democrats and republicans. i listen to republicans call in and they take and talk about individualism and the cost of things and concern how it effects them and it reminds me of what jesus described as hypocrites, the scribes and pharoses. they refer to president barack obama as a socialist. christian principals are socialist. jesus told the rich man that came to him at night, what must i do to be saved. he said sell all you have and give to the poor. the democrats follow more the teachings of jesus and senator kennedy said until you've done it to the least of these. that's what jesus said.

you've done it unto me. guest: first of all, the passing of your mother, when she had her issues during that time, under this law you would have been able to appeal to someone that doesn't work for the insurance company the decision to get her out of the hospital earlier. if the doctor felt the right thing was to keep her there, the insurance company would have had to do that. as far as doing nothing, the cost of doing nothing, we know. premiums have doubled in the last 10-years. the number of uninsured has gone up by 15 million people. the number of people getting help from employers has dropped down to 61 percent. we know what will happen. if your worried about costs, and we do. doing nothing the most expensive alternative. passing this bill will improve our country financially and make

it better businesses and i think this is the way to go. host: jacksonville, florida? caller: i'm also african-american and i hope you let me talk as long as you let the lady from detroit talk. one, this congressman, one he said everyone has to register for medicare when they're 65. you have to work like 20 hours before you qualify for medicare. it's not a free entitlement. the second thing, of the 31,000,000 that are not dying on the street, 15 million of those are people who will go on to medicaid. now you know, i heard someone make a comment yesterday. if putting 15 million very poor, uninsured people on health care basically if that is going to solve our financial problem, why don't we go ahead and ensure china that way we'd pay off the national debt.

he said this bill will take the burden of medicaid off the state. why is florida suing the federal government? we're already going bankrupt from medicaid. we can't pay what we have. arizona is suspending because they can't pay it. washington wall greens and cvs not filling medicaid prescriptions because they can't pay it. we don't have any money. secondly, i would like for every human being in the world to have insurance. i would give it to them in a minute. i also could quote jesus and say those that do not work should be turned away from the table. you can go on and on. we don't have the money. we cannot up sure the world. guest: this is not that people don't work. this plan is for people that are pumping gas or waiting on tables or working in a retail store that make 20 to $35,000 a year and don't get health insurance from their employer and can't

afford to pay $15,000 out of pocket. one thing i think it's important to understand. think is not free. it requires payments to premiums and copays of premiums by people. it's not for people that don't work. to the contrary this is for people that work very hard that usually work in companys or industries will employers can't afford to ensure them. giving them extra to get them over the hump. that's a matter of basic decency for our country. host: phyllis on our independent line? guest: good morning.. caller: thank you gentlemen for taking my call. i do have a question regarding. i'm perplexed that we find out neither the senators or congressman or federal employees are going to be on this program or on to the health plan. fits so good, why are they not

include? >> we are. members of congress will be treated the same as everyone else. if we want to join the exchanges we can. if we do, we get full choice of benefits. what this really does is treat federal employees and members of the congress, everybody else. host: what do you expect to hear from the president today. guest: i think the president will ask for our votes and i think he's going to put this in the context of what the plan means for people and not for politics. there's been enough politics and ads run and poles taken. i think the president will come in and talk about what this means for someone working in a gas station or retail store or worried about their families financial future and explain why this is imperative. this is a president who i think can look beyond the political to the issues that most matter to

the american people. host: democrat from new jersey. thank you for your time. several states have indicated if health care reform should pass they will use legislative matters to block it. one of those is commonwealth of new jersey and we'll from their attorney general right after this. and the look at the political weekly news through the political cartoons. ♪

>> "washington journal" continues. >> on your screen the attorney general. ken cuccinelli joins us, if health care reform passes, what

are the states recourse if they don't want it? guest: well, virginia has on a bipartisan basis pass as statute that's now the law in virginia that blocks requirement of an individual mandate basically saying, that if virginia citizen cans decide to or not to buy health insurance if the bill passes at the federal level it will be in conflict with virginia's law. that conflict is normally resolved by the supremacy clause in favor of the federal government. but in this case we don't think it will. we'll go to court to block the mandate and the reason we think we'll prevail is the federal law over reaches the commerce clause power and therefore is unconstitutional. the supremacy law only trump as federal law when it's constitutional. that's how the fight will come

about in virginia if it passes. setting a side deem in the past the focus of the debate. in court. at that point. debate tow sounds like down the street. first of all, contrary to the congressman just here, there's never ever been a point in history, in the congressional research system. i researched this with hillary care up 16 years back, where the federal government has ordered americans to purchase something. and - they know that on capitol hill. the finance committee and u.s. senate last year got a similar report okay naujing the constitution of the original mandate and of course as i noted it would conflict with virginia law. at this point, and we would expect to go to richmond, the

eastern district of virginia federal court and not so much out as to claim supremacy for virginia's law and blocking the application to supremacy clause because of the unconstitutionality. >> example for medicare. >> i love these simplistic and totally in applicable examples. senator der bin lows it off. we've never erased the constitution though pieces lay in ruins in this day and age. the medicare situation, is nothing but a tax. those folks are not forced into medicare. they're not ordered to buy something from another american. it is not an way. a better decision would be

supreme court rulings from 1995 in 2000 to the gun free school zone situation where congress tried to use commerce clause to say gun free school zones and that's big deal to me as attorney general and in fact the supreme court said keeping gun as way from schools has nothing to do with commerce. the rational was people will be afraid to go to school. won't be afraid, and prepared for the school days. it's six degrees of kevin bacon. that kind of rash. and in the morrison case in 2000. violence against women act. again, i want to keep everybody safe in virginia but violence against women was not deemed by the supreme court to effect commerce. they'll be afraid to go out of their homes and not go to work

and that effects commerce. that's far too in direct. not buying health insurance is not commerce. - and by forcing americans to do that under this bill, they're trying cram a square peg into a round holey gally. and constitutionally and we don't think it's going to fit. frankly, the supreme court cases that are most similar on this point are in favor of blocking the application of the commerce clause. host: in the writing of this a same they took careful measure to do so because of the constitutional concerns. mentioned the supreme court in light of the citizen's united decisions. ge guest my take from his comment was more than that he's concerned about the rulings of the supreme court and that one in particular because he didn't like it. it is certainly been a

contentious ruling but it's awfully well grounded if anyone would read the 156 pages. the attempt by the federal government to severely regulate speech in the election arena is something we don't do in virginia. we just have a reporting and disclosure requirement. but the federal level they regulate the daylights out of it. - and they over did it according to the supreme court there. i don't think it has much bearing at all in terms of the jurisprudence with the legal decision on whether or not the health care bill would be constitutional. i have my own vents at the supreme court. host: you said in your initial comments this with a side from the demon past. what did you mean by that? >> it can be done constitutionally and

unconstitutionally. let's focus on unconstitutionally because it's simpler if they use demon past to side step voting on the text of the bill in the house of representatives that would violate article one section 7. if they use demon pass to say, include a rule vote in with a vote on the bill, then they're voteing on the bill and they get to write their own rules in that respect. but one constitutional provision that allows each body to set it's all rules doesn't trump another that has to be passing by both houses and signed by the president. this is addressed by justice stephens in 1998 in the clinton verses new york case. the line item veto case in which just in stephens from the right

walked through the three requirements for a bill to be constitutional and the house bill has to match the senate and be the same as the bill signed by the president. that's all we're saying and the demon past discussion that i've heard that gives me concern is, if it's used to side step the requirement of actually voting on the senate bill. host: which means the common wealth will file suit? guest: that would be an additional challenge on our part if the health care bill with original mandate passed bo line and fits done by demon past where they side step topped senate bill that would be another yes. host: attorney general of virginia. huntsville, alabama. democrat line, go ahead. caller: good morning, pedro. may i remind you. the civil war is over.

your forefather's lost the civil war and you need to move on. if you remember, doctor laurie in the congressional, president barack obama in his - let me remind you of the last words he said. before i look at this, we ask you lord to help us to work for that day when blacks will not be asked to get back where brown can stick around and yellow will be mellow. when the red man can get ahead and lastly he said when white will act to embrace what is right. what country can do what is right. guest: my first obligation to the attorney general is to protect the constitutions of the ni united states for virginia. nothing more, nothing less.

ly say i don't like the policies embodied in the bill. there would be great things to do, but my focus is on whether or not it's constitutional and whether or not in virginia's particular case, there is another violation. in our case we have a too out the to protect but my first obligation so to protect the constitution and the civil war in no way eliminated the requirement to uphold the constitution. i think it's being walked on in this process and i think a lot of people in washington to migrate disappointment, don't really care. host: two states so far are trying block health insurance mandates. virginia and idaho. there's are bills in one chamber that have passed. missouri, oklahoma and tennessee. caller: i'd like to point out somethings to the attorney

general and get his opinion on it ch it. i went to the hospital with breathing problems and i got put on a neb liezer and the nurse brought the machine out and ran me through the ten minute process. i get released and i get a bill of a thousand dollars. $200 and something for the machine. $100 and something and $300 for the emergency room, $208 for the person to bring it. in a year later i'm in wal-mart and i see this machine for $69 and a box of medicine next to it for i think it was $49. so i'm thinking, how in the heck is an insurance company problem that we're getting charged a

thousand dollars for a $200 unit? or is it the hospitals raising these prices so freaking high that the insurance companies have to match that and everybody just blames the insurance companies? >> for f starters there's a contest between insurance rates and hospitals. i do think a lot of costs, as i said, could be addressed if we took pieces of the health care issue. for instance, we tried in virginia unsuccessfully to get permission to buy insurance across state lines and increase cost competition to open transparency is something else we can do in terms of who's doing what. seeing what that hospital is doing with cost and putting it up on the internet and making it available to people before they come. we have a lot we can do in the

scope of the congresses constitution but what they're trying do in this bill goes too far congresses constitutionly. beyond they're authority under the congresses constitution. i agree we have a lot of things to do to bring down cost and certainly insurance is one area that's worth looking at. tort reform in many parts of country is a big problem being addressed in many areas. we have very good limits to liability in virginia so we don't have a run away tort cases. we don't have juries breaking the bank without ray gaus awards which should keep our insurance rates down and that's where i look in virginia to see some improvement. my focus is obviously more virginia than utah. but i know that he is on this as well.

host: passed this type of legislation have you talked to other attorney generals as well? guest: we've been fielding calls and making some of our own around the country. the idaho law as i understand it. i haven't seen the statute is different from virginia's in essentially orders the general attorney to su as opposed to setting up what we call a health care freedom act a separate free standing state statute that creates a conflict between the federal law and state law if it were to pass. i point out, we have a democratic controlled senate, so to pass that bill required a bipartisan effort and i think that's reflective of where virginians are and probably not much different around the country. host: because of individuals couldn't you referendum on a vote? host: arizona has a

constitutional amendment on the ballot in november that would put in their congresses constitution the same protection as we put in statute by virgin. you their whole state will vote in november. there's one state slated to do that regardless of the outcome here on capitol hill. interesting to see that. host: ellis? caller: good morning.. i have two questions. first is, how is a person that makes less than $15,000 considered middle class? the second question is, how is it the people that are poor and make less than that much, how it is seems like the republicans are trying block the poor people from getting insurance, which i don't think is fair? republicans using scare tactics

but through the whole eight years of bush we wasn't getting nothing. we was always blocked a way from everything and every time i look on t.v. at the rallies there's not one african-american in the group. why are republicans not going to the african-american groups and having these rally? guest: the next place i'm going after this show is a conference put on by african-american groups addressing a number of top picks but i'm going to speak on health care. some of us always do that. redoing the outreach and so fourth. but we have a lot of african-americans on the republicans side among conservatives in particular. i think you see numbers like $15,000 counting as middle class, when they need to claim the middle class to produce so much money of tax revenue to

support the government program at this issue, health care. that's why you see numbers like that counting as middle class. i agree with you. i don't think folks at $15,000 a year earnings are middle class. we want to move them up and raise they're boat as long with everybody else's and we do that by creating on for jobs and growing the economy. one aspect of this health care mandate and everything along with it is it's incredibly suffocating to business. caterpillar came out yesterday and said this will be a 100 million dollar cost to their company. that's money not spend adding new jobs or building more factories and jobs here in american and it encourages them to send those jobs offshore. those are policies that have not been a priority i don't think. host: house of representatives

comes in, in about ten minutes. bill on the democrats line. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. bill. caller: i would like to comment on a couple of things. you talked about the constitution being walked all over. currently i agree with that. of course, you know, that was noted back during bush's administration. i worked at a hospital and my wife is a nurse in the emergency room and one reason the hospitals charge so much is that when people come into the emergency room in vast majority of them according to my wife who is a nurse in the emergency room don't have - that's their only option in effect what's going on is, that the - they run up their costs to have to cover that and

then they write a lot of that off. one more comment here. your interpretation of being in pass seems that, it's more like, well if the republicans do it, it's constitutional, if the democrats do it, it's uncongresses constitutional. you being an attorney, know that the constitution is interpreted by different people in different ways. - and - you know, i would like to see that if one thing that happens. if we would pass the public option, period, then all of this wouldn't be going on. guest: well i certainly think the discussion would be a lot different if they were going up down the public option route using power. the pass question. people that know virginia

politics know i don't change what i do apposing a democrat or republican. frankly, that is - i've had more fights with republicans over the years when i was in the state senate than i did with democrats. typically over taxes and the growth of government. that isn't an issue for me. my first obligation has nothing to do with being a republican but has everything to do with being an american and virgin yen and protecting the u.s. and virginia constitution. there's a constitutionle way to use demands pass. what would be unconstitutional is to avoid the bill. if demand pass is used to side step and the pass on the senate bill pass that's unconstitutional of deplanned pass where you have to pass the same bill through the house of

representatives and the senate, and that would not have happened if they side step a vote on the senate bill. how they can do it is if the senate bill is piled in with other things. they can call it a vote on a parliamentary procedure as long as part of the house rule, they include the senate bill as part of the vote. there's a constitutional way to do this. but that's not what i'm hearing being discussed. what i hear is the idea we can have this demon pass vote that doesn't include the senate vote. that's not going to qualify under the constitution. my first obligation is to defend the constitution and i don't think there's a lot of people taking that seriously in washington right now. host: house meets at 10:00 today and you can listen to them

on c-span radio. guest: think they're doing the pass today. host: it will be discussed. steve on the republican line. good morning.. caller: good morning.. people have to understand this is not about health care. this is about tyranny. when a government tells it's people it has to bye something whether it wants it or needs it or not, that's tyranny. when a government changes rules in the house sent to by pass the constitution that's step towards tyranny. when elected representatives are bribed with taxpayer money, stimulus money to change their vote against the will of the people in their country and put it into bankruptcy that's step towards tyranny. folks, the people that will vote for this bill need to be held accountable. they're sending this country way in the wrong direction.

thank you. guest: steve, thanks for your call. let me draes that. ray fan talked about growing the economic pie. lower taxes and create economic growth. people have heard that discussion before. i talk to folks about the liberty pie there's only two slices. government power and citizen freedom. the more government power increases the less liberty citizens have. part of the problem with the over reaching part of this bill is it reduces the liberty of u.s. citizens dramatically. we will lose a great deal of freedom over our own health care decisions and over time, the government will decide those. that reduces the freedom of every single american. every single american. and part of the reason that we are in the position to challenge

this constitutionally is because they have gone too far under the constitution with this bill. it is an over reach, it is an nonpermissible reduction of the liberty of the citizens of the united states of america if this bill passes and we'll resist that. we'll always defend liberty in virginia. we have for over 400 years. host: democrats line. karen, good morning.. caller: hi. who gave you a law degree. guest: george mason school of law and economics. caller: that explains that. caller: you're a charmer. caller: you have to wonder where your background is. your philosophy is abhor responsibility. guest: yeah we don't want people obeying the law and staying in the constitution. what would happen? we would have liberty breaking

out all over the place. the courts will ultimately decide that question. caller: that's courts as crooked as they come. look what they did in the 2000 election. host: caller we have three minutes until the house comes in. if you have a question or comment, please do so? are you here? caller: who gave him a law degree is my question. host: danny, independent line. go ahead. caller: thanks to the attorney general trying look out for the general interest of the people. it's a shame 2700 pages of bill is not being able to be read by the people. there's some things that are in it that really concerns me that i respect the attorney general for trying look out for the best interest of the people. medicare, 500 billion out of medicare. and we're already $82 billion

dollars short. i understand $53 billion will be taken out of social security that's supposed to go to social security and it's a shame, mr. obama or president obama and his campaign speeches for this thing, actually contradicts itself in the same campaign. the federal regulatory authorities have proven that they are unable to do the job. look at fda with viox. they said it was safe but never required it being tested for the people that would use it a most and that would be the elderly with arthritis and resulted in heart attacks and death. the whole nine yards. ho host caller we're on the verge of going to the house. if you have a question or comment. now the time to do so. caller: question for the

attorney general is if something is mandated guy federal government are they supposed to provide the funds for that or string them out as it is with med kated and it's proven the states are in capable. guest: i understand. they use the taxing power for that and this is what you identify as one unfundnd mandate and as long as they don't go beyond the congresses constitutional authority they can dictate what states to do. . .

the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., march 20, 2010. i hereby appoint the honorable yvette d. clarke to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father coughlin. chaplain coughlin: let us approach the lord with praise and thanksgiving. strong is his love for us. left to ourselves, we are easily overwhelmed. we cannot be attendive to his -- attentive to his word or accomplish his soul. make this congress bold and strong. as your instrument of mercy and compassion, drive away all that is evil and reveal the path that will strengthen your

people in hope and salvation and give you the glory both now and forever. amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house her approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. >> madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i request the question on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the journal stands approved. >> madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will please rise.

a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question are postponed. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from ohio, congressman wilson. mr. wilson: i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will now entertain up to five requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from -- the gentlewoman from pennsylvania seek recognition?

>> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: so ordered. ms. schwartz: today we are on the road to passing health care reform. it benefits all of us, families, seniors, businesses, taxpayers and our nation. this plan includes many vital provisions that strengthen health care for americans, provisions i have fought hard for. prohibiting insurance companies from excluding pre-existing condition coverage for children and adults. six months after reform is passed all children will be protected from these denials. strengthening primary care for seniors with a new focus for those with chronic diseases. seniors will no longer have to pay co-payments for preventive care and will have greater access to primary care doctors and nurses. and ensures that all insurance companies use plain, easy-to-understand language so consumers know what they're buying and can compare the

choices. the status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable. i urge a yes vote on health care reform. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? mr. wilson: madam speaker, i request permission to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: so ordered. mr. wilson: madam speaker, ronald reagan once said the most terrifying words in the english language is i'm from the government and i'm here to help. this is exactly what washington liberals are trying to tell the american people. the scheme that the government can give everyone free health care is a fairy tale we defies history and reality. the reality is that there are real and affordable ways to improve the health care financing system and republicans presented 70 such proposals. proposals like h.r. 3400 will make health care accessible and affordable, covering pre-existing conditions, promoting employer-sponsored insurance and offers insurance across state lines. the pelosi bill will kill 1.6 million jobs, according to the

national federation of independent business. in conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the global war on terrorism. citizens can make a difference like chuck staulk with brenda and lynn of lexington, south carolina. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. wilson: madam speaker, i rise today to share my strong support for health reform bill that we will be voting on this weekend. this bill's not perfect, but it's a significant step forward. this bill will ensure that a wonderful little girl that a wonderful -- from ohio will not be denied health insurance due to a pre-existing condition even though she was stricken with cancer at 3-year-old. not only will bridgette benefit but this legislation will guarantee that 9,300 other residents in ohio's sixth

sdribblet with pre-existing condition -- district with pre-existing condition can improve coverage. it will improve coverage for 365,000 residents in my district. with health insurance and extend coverage to 40,000 people who are uninsured. the bottom line is that we need this reform. families like bridgette's need this reform. our economy needs this reform. this is a historic vote, and i am proud to cast my vote in favor of commonsense health care reform that finally benefits the people, not the insurance companies. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. poe: i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. poe: madam speaker, the united states is poised to raise the white flag of surrender in space exploration. america's the leader in space technology, but yet there are plans afoot to turn our lead over to the russians and the chinese. by foolishly canceling the

constellation program and when the last nasa shuttle flight occurs, we will have no means to transport our astronauts into space. we will have to hitch a ride with the russians if we want that transportation. and if one of our security satellites needs repair, who's to say the russians will even let us buy a coach ticket on their space aircraft? now, even the iranians have entered the space race. last month they sent a rat, two turtles and a worm into space. keeping our edge in space flight is a national security issue. we cannot give that away to anybody. after all, when neil armstrong landed on the moon the first word was houston, not moscow or beijing and that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. klein: madam speaker, from the beginning of the debate on health care reform, my top priority has been clear.

strengthen and protect medicare for our seniors like bunny steinman in my district. i believe the doctor-patient relationship is absolutely essential, especially for our seniors. no one, not the government nor private insurance should stand between the patient and the doctor of their choice. when i talk to seniors in my district many of them tell me that struggling to cover the cost of prescription drugs, especially if they have fallen into the part d drug doughnut hole, is a problem for them. i worked with aarp to make sure that this bill closes the doughnut hole for good. seniors will get immediate relief on prescription drugs, a $250 rebate next year and thousands more in savings in the years ahead. we have won this fight, this reform will close the doughnut hole and save seniors money. there will be other benefits for seniors such as preventive care, such as cancer screenings will be free, no co-pays, no deductibility. we owe it to our seniors.

they paid into the medicare trust fund. benefits like these are critical to our senior population in south florida in my district and around the country. i thank you and urge support of the bill. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. roe: thank you, madam speaker. i know that i'm just a country doctor from tennessee, but the fact that we can't have a true up or down vote on one of the most important pieces of legislation this body will ever consider just flat out confinds me. i've decide to do a little research on it. the house has recorded votes on whether to congratulate two football teams, a college basketball team, whether there was a vote on a college quarterback. we've even held votes on honoring 10 colleges and universities and named 30 post offices. the house held a recorded vote on whether to pay tribute to homeland security department employees. and this week we voted on whether not to congratulate

vancouver on hosting the winter olympics. heck, we've even asked members to go on record about the 2,560th birthday of confucius. we can vote on all these matters but we can't have a vote on health care. madam speaker, if anyone can explain this to me, my phone line is open. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition? mr. yarmuth: request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. yarmuth: madam speaker, this morning on my way to the capitol i experienced a moment of karma. the first song that came on the radio when i turned it on was a song from the show "les mis." it's song on the eve of insurrection of french students many of whom know they were going to die. one more today we are going to pass an historic piece of legislation that will not take lives, it will save lives. the 18,000 lives that are lost

every year due to lack of insurance. we will save medicare and we will save jobs. one more day more until we accomplish that for our economy, for our citizens and for our country. tomorrow indeed will be a wonderful day. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. smith: madam speaker, here is what the associated press has to say about the administration's health care plan. "buyers beware." president barack obama says his health care costs will decrease by double digits. listening to obama pitch his plan, you might not realize that's how it works. the congressional budget office concluded that premiums for people buying their own coverage would go up by an

average of 10% to 13%. the rest of the national media should report the facts about health care, not cover them up. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from connecticut seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. himes: setting aside the moral dimension, let's talk about the costs and the need to bring down costs. i want to come back to that moral dimension. i want to come back to the fact that at the core of that moral dimension is the belief we look after our own. that if you are attacked by your enemies, we send the best military in the world for hundreds of billions of dollars. if your house catches fire we will send men and equipment to put out that fire. if an assailant enters your home we will send men and equipment to look after our own. but if you are one of the tens of thousands of people diagnosed with breast cancer,

coronary disease, leukemia, well, then we're not sure. we might look after you if you have a job. if you can keep that job. if you don't have pre-existing conditions. if you haven't committed the sin of getting older. madam speaker, if we are to be true to what is the value of this country that we look after our own we will finally join the company of civilized nations and say every american, we will look after you, you will not die needlessly, by passing health care reform. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what reason does the gentleman from louisiana seek recognition? without objection. mr. cao: madam speaker, i understand that we need health care reform. i have a younger brother who has a kidney disease that put him on dialysis at the young age of 30 and forced him to have a kidney transplant. i have a father who is also on dialysis and struggling to survive. i have a younger sister who has

been fighting lupeis for over a -- lupis for over a decade. i saw how my sister fought the insurance company for coverage. i understand the crushing costs of health care. i understand we have to fight the insurance companies, but i also understand that abortion is wrong. last week i called my brother and apologized to him and told him i cannot support the senate health care bill. he told me that he understands, and i thank him for it. tomorrow will be a sad day for me as i cast a no vote against something i believe we need, to prevent the expansion of abortion, an absolute moral evil. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess subject to the call of the chair.

senate filibuster. and this requires a simple majority rather than 60 votes but provisions must meet specific budget requirements. you can watch the rules committee meeting live beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. that's on c-span 2. while we wait for the house to gavel back in, we'll show you a discussion on the health care bill and why this guest is against the house passing it. it's from this morning's "washington journal" and this is about 25 minutes. host: they have been one of the groups active in the protest of the health care proposal that is being debated on capitol hill. here is one of the television ads. >> i was diagnosed with breast

cancer when i was 43. my mother died of breast cancer. early detection saved my life. an earlier panel says women should receive mammograms until age 50 -- should not receive mammograms until age 50. that could cost you your live. if i cover the new guidelines, my cancer would have spread undetected. my chance of survival would have been reduced. the government takes over healthcare, recommendations could be law for all kinds of diseases. if you find a bum, if you could wait months for treatment and life-saving drugs can be restricted. your thoughts as chairman and health care. their five-year survival rate is 79%. in the u.s., it is 90%. my officer fighting cancer were high because my care is the best. what are your odds of government 6 of your healthcare? >> tell congress to start over and get health care right. host: joining is now is the vice

president for policy for americans for prosperity, phil kerpen. what is the message you are trying to send? why did to target this legislator? guest: we ran this in 18 districts. we are running it nationally. we are running it fairly bright. our message is that what really is at stake is government control of our health care, not the direct sense of government- run insurance companies or single payer system but through the pass regulations of bureaucracies that are created in this bill that in our view puts politicians in between patients and doctors. that we think is the most serious aspect of this bill. host: is it a protest against is that specific part of overall with the democrats are trying to do? guest: a problem with a lot of different elements.

intrusion into people's health care decisions and having taken over by bureaucrats. osama bin ladenalso, the procesn used that is correct. we have a number of objections. the one we are highlighting it should be listened to one. who decides? do you decide what can healthcare you get? we think that is the central question. host: you and other groups of be on capitol hill today. what is the purpose? guest: there have been several of these big protests with the tea party groups. i think that with the final vote coming up in the house, people wanted to do it one last time. all the groups are coming together in collecting. host: are you going to expect

the masses that you have seen before? have you resign yourself to this bill being passed? guest: host: we certainly have not done that. we do not think they have the votes yet. in the segment to pelosi is trying to cut some kind of deal with stupak. that indicated she needs their votes. i think it is still up in the air. the people understand that. i think we will definitely see thousands of boats. i know our wisconsin chapter is bringing buses. our state chapters are bringing folks. i heard from people all over the country. i think we will see a turn in the thousands. and not think there will be as many as a timber where there weas more time to plan.

we have that information for people who send e-mail some phone calls. we also been calling for folks to call at district offices. i think our members have made pretty clear that this is something the public is opposed to. the question is, will the democratic leadership the left- wing ideology ahead of what their constituents want. at the bell determines what happens. host: arguses with this until it got today. the lines on your screens. you can also send us a twitter. and in e-mail at journal@c span.org. more americans of a prosperous. guest: we are pro health reform. we are not for this reform. it is a step in the wrong

direction our guiding principle is the way to get patients and doctors more tauruses and control. some of the market reforms might have seemed ok if they were not overlaid with government bureaucracy. there are major concerns about the cost. i do not think it is affordable or the right approach host: gimmicks such as? guest: they are pretending we are going to have a 21% cut in medicare and dr. reimbursements. they have it taxes the start right away with the spending programs that do not start until 2014. they had six years of spending against 10 years of revenue.

they have a new entitlement, the class act. it is used to finance a new benefit program. that money will be needed for its own program. they have money that goes into the medicare trust fund. is it going to pay for medicare, it is being immediately raided out in order to balance the book under the cbo's corporate and -- cbo score. even max baucus says the real cost is going to be more like $2.50 trillion instead of $1 trillion. the real costs are much more. host: 80 oppose this effort, what iis an ideal model guest: reform one that starts with tax reform that puts people on a level playing form. one problem we have now is most

folks only have one choice, whatever their employer offers. we would reform the tax code to you can use pretax dollars for any health insurance purchases and maker own choice. you do not have relied on what your employer chooses. we would like to see association held planned so people can band together to get their own plans. we are open to the idea of the uninsured risk pools as solutions to the pre-existing condition issue. we need a targeted approach on the issue. host: good morning. you are on phil kerpen wit. caller: we need to make sure insurance companies and not to get vantage of the law.

-- the coverage of the health care bill. and raise the rates for everybody before we can get this health care bill going. phil kerpen phil to be taken out to the democratic -- bart stupak to be taken out of the democratic party. what he is trying to do is position himself in some political way to go to a greater office. hostguest: i think you are right that the insurance companies will take it vintages this bill. in december, when this bill was being debated, the left wing's

said it was of riches. we have a mandate that requires everyone to buy insurance. yet regulations that will put smaller insurance companies out of business. then you have to and a billion dollars of taxpayer money going into subsidies -- $2.5 billion of taxpayer money going into subsidies. we are forcing everyone into the arms of the insurance companies whose problems have caused this push to reform in many areas. i think people are concerned about insurance companies and to be skeptical of this approach. host: michigan, good morning, republican line. caller: i am a fan of american prosperity and the i am a fan on facebook. everything you have said this morning i agree with the 100%. and the other folks calling in.

everything they are adding to this bill like insuring kids until 26 and no more underwriting for health insurance would increase our premiums for the average person who already has health insurance. the thing they can enforce the making people buy it, people are not on to buy it if they do not want to buy i know people that want to bring in a vehicle and one not buy health insurance. march stupak is my rep. he is a liberal. he has voted for health care reform. he would have went with@@@@á'" far left abortion president in history, obama. and he also voted for nancy pelosi over harold ford for speaker of the house. low and behold on opensecrets.org there was contributions from nancy pelosi

to bart stupak. he has blood on his hands. if this thing passes he's not innocent. host: what do you think bart stupak is going to do at the end of the day? caller: he won't vote for this bill with boxer abortion language in it. the fact of the thing is when he votes at the ballot box like the rest of us he voted for the guy with the most left wing voting record in the senate who's the extreme abortionist, obama, and he also voted for nancy pelosi as an extreme abortionist for speaker over a person who's against abortion, ford. what's his name, harold ford? black guy from tennessee. host: harold ford. caller: key have voted for harold ford and he didn't. when you look at opensecrets.org a year later stupak took money from nancy pelosi. i don't know -- a lot of people are calling him a hero, but

believe me, you know, god knows who he voted for. host: we'll leave it there. guest: well, i'd like to address the cost issue in the caller's comments earlier on. i think it's crucial in the debate. the best estimate of the cost impact that we have, sort of the official estimate from the congressional budget office is that in the individual market premiums would go up as a result of this bill. they'd go up between 11% and 13%. advocates of the bill say after you take into account the subsidy, the fact you can get a taxpayer subsidy to buy insurance if you're below 400% of the poverty level it will actually cost you less out of pocket. while it's true for some folks who qualify for the subsidy, it's also irrelevant. as a society we have to pay for the cost of that subsidy. pay for it as taxpayers. there are a lot of taxes in this bill for us to pay for it. so if overall costs are going up, then we're spending more as a society on health care. we're not getting costs under control which was supposed to be one of the objectives of the bill.

i very much agree with that comment and i think that's one of the major problems here is it's driving costs up, not down, which is one of the reasons to do the bill. .

>> that was an inappropriate way to deal with that person. i do think, though, that if we are going to address people who have currently incurable diseases, we need to have a positive vision for medical innovation, research and development, for finding new cures. i worry we are going to discourage a lot of that research and development if we have more government controls and more kind of centralized authority and kind of an austerity based ratcheting down what's available. and there is very little innovation because there is little access to the market where you can make a return on that. i am concerned if we go down this path, we won't be able to address incurable diseases and continue to have effective

research and development. that's an important issue. regarding how many people were here september 12, i am not a crowd estimate expert but i think the number i said was pretty near the press and pretty reasonable if you look at the aerial estimates. the over-the-top people on our side said it was one million or two million. i think that's an exaggeration. i think claiming only 40,000 or 50,000 are here is not consistent with the aerial photographs i have seen. it's also not really crucial what the exact number was. it was pretty clear there is strong public sentiment against this bill. it's born out in polling as well as the large number of attendees we have seen. donors, we don't disclose our donors, we do that deliberately to protect the free speech rights of people who choose to contribute to us as the supreme court ruled compelling the disclosure of donors. but i will say that the overwhelming majority of our contributions come from ideologically committed individuals who believe in our commission about 88% of our donations were from individuals

last year. we get relatively little corporate support. and also point out that the insurance companies love this bill because they are going to make a ton of money on it. they are going to get millions of new customers who are forced to buy their product. and they are going to get hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies. why should they be funding us when they are on the other side. they have been running ads supporting this bill or months? host: little corporate support. can you generally talk about what little corporate support? >> we don't disclose -- guest: i tend-k say the chairman of our board of directors is david coke who is the executive vice president of coke industry. a large conglomerate in among other businesses there are refinery business and a number of oriole petrochemicals and so for the. you can look them up. host: university park illinois, rob on our democrats line. caller: good morning.

i believe the caller go to church in the morning and then leave the house of the lord and then deny those in need of health care. and i also wanted to say, i understand why your opinions have a high favorable of obama administration, but european americans do not. it doesn't make sense to me. the tea baggers, the overwhelming majority of the tea baggers do not make over $250,000 a year. they make far less. but yet still they are against vehemently against obama giving health care to the poor and those who can't afford it. host: you put a lot out there. what would you like our guest to address specifically? caller: just about specifically do you believe that a tea party movement is baseically--

guest: i don't think that's the case at all. again as i said any time you have a very large group of people you'll have some bad apples out of line. but for the most part the tea party folks i have talked to and we have co-sponsored some of these events and worked with a lot of these groups a patriotic memps who are concerned about the growth of government and the change in the relationship between government and the people. a lot of folks understand you can't huge taxes on the rich without affecting everyone else because most of the employers in this country, most of the small businesses fall into those tax brackets. the incidence of the tax might be on them but it has a big effect of the people who work for them who lose their jobs or not see raises or otherwise see less capital in that business. most people are skin sear and well-intentioned. i would say that about folks on

the other side as well. i think we do well people we disagree with are well-intentioned. they just have philosophical differences or believe in solving problems in different ways. i hope we can improve our political discourse a little and stop assuming everyone we disagree with have bad intentions. host: your group is rallying at noon. who else is involved and what's your plan today? guest: this rally is put together by ther american grassroots coalition. co-sponsored by a number of other groups. freedom works will be there. 60-plus. a lot of the tea party groups. tea party patriots, tea party express. michelle balkmann will be speaking. jon voight the actor from hollywood will be in town. this is a broad collaborative effort of all the groups that have been involved in citing this democratic version of reform. i expect a large crowd and i

hope it will send a strong message to folks who still are not decided if they do decide to go go with the democratic leadership on this, they'll ignore being voters and constituents who disagree with them. we both a launched a website where people are voth against them who vote for this bill tomorrow. host: the website a.phq.org. there is the front page. chicago, illinois. good morning. rick on our republican line. caller: good morning. i have a question. i have heard different things on the radio. i have read different things in the newspapers. is there going to be a percentage of a tax on medical products? i heard that in puerto rico -- would be the only location that would have this tax. then i heard the entire country would have a percentage of tax on pharmaceuticals, any type of medical product? guest: there is a medical device tax in the bill. i don't have the exact numbers

in front of me. they don't do it as a percentage. they did it as a total dollar amount. then split up by market share among the various companies. the answer is every medical device has a tax but i don't have the numbers in front of me. host: dallas, texas, dan on our independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. a couple comments on this health insurance bill. i have a good life. i consider myself an independent. and i would really not mind paying more taxes to make sure that poor people have access to health insurance. fine, raise my taxes 5%. i want to know that a 5-year-old kid that cannot afford insurance is not going to die because he doesn't have insurance. if you are for prosperity in this country, there's other way to pay for it. right now we spend $500 billion a year on our defense appropriations to go to war when nobody attacks us.

everybody complains where does the money come? it's going to cost that much. just cut $100 billion a year. out of that budget. and start paying for people's education and health. right now in iraq and afghanistan we have more civilian contractors that are making tons of money that -- than we have soldiers. if you really want to get real about this, what would you propose to do about this stuff? one last thing is, if you have audio insurance and get tickets, your health insurance goes up. the same way should be in health insurance. i don't smoke, don't drink. i exercise. i maintain a healthy lifestyle. i should not be forced to support somebody who is irresponsible with their life choices. i never use my health insurance. i pay $2,000 a year for my family. i never get sick. yet i see people that are obese that go and abuse themselves and

abuse the system. i have to support them. guest: that problem is actually made much worse by this piece of legislation which uses something called modified community rating which prohibits adjusting premiums for risk factors. right now many companies do what you are saying. go for a regular physical, low-risk factors, they'll reduce your premiums. under this bill that's prohibited. healthy people will pay higher premiums to cover the poor health choices of people who live less healthy lifestyles. that's one of the other effects of this bill. i want to address this idea we can afford to provide insurance for everyone. i think you are right. i think we can. i don't think this bill does anything close to doing that. the c.b.o. score of this most recent version with all the new revisions that came out yesterday said that 22 million people remain uninsured at the end of 10 years under this bill. and i also think the idea that there are a lot of poor people out there, including children

who don't have insurance, is not true. those people are covered either by medicaid or schip if they are indeed -- if they are indeed poor. and those programs are available. they can enroll in them. i think most of the people who are uninsured are uninsured either because they choose not to buy insurance or because they have some pre-existing condition that makes it unavailable. i think there are targeted solutions we talked about earlier that could do that. i think we can afford to do it but do it in a cost-effective way that doesn't turn upside-down the health insurance system for everyone else. i agree. we ought to have much better budget priorities than we have. unfortunately there haven't been large cuts to other areas on the table to free up the budgetary resources for this. they are talking about doing it with the taxes i don't think our economy can afford right now. host: washington, democrats line. caller: i would like to talk about who has chosen people --

these groups, the tea party, they are the minority of the united states. guest: i think the polls bear that out. i think we consistently seen the number of people oppose to this plan increase over time. the more people learn about what's in it as well as the more they see all of the desperate procedural tricks and tactics and end runs that the administration and democratic leaders have used to resort to get it through. i don't think it's a stretch to say that there are people generally opposed to this bill. i think it's been borne out by most of the polling. i also think the reason for the political dynamic on the hill right now were people really worried about the political implications of supporting them. host: what's the strategy, if the bill passes tomorrow, what's the strategy for your group? guest: i don't want to think about that until it happens. we'll do everything we can to keep the pressure on and try to beat this thing tomorrow.

if we fail we'll think about that on monday. right now we are doing everything we can to beat this. host: the vice president for policy for americans for prosperity, asphq.org the website. thank you for being on the show today. >> the house is in session this weekend currently in recess. subject to the call of the chair. we expect them to gavel back in at about 10:30 eastern this morning to work on several items. one, a bill that extends public land management training in this legislation allows agencies to enter into contracts with service groups through which volunteers perform conservation projects. expect debate on a couple of amendments as well as other bills. including one that recognizes the 65th anniversary of the battle of iwo jima. and all this as health care remains the focus of congressional action this weekend. debate and a final vote on the legislation could happen as early as tomorrow. and you can follow the house

live here on c-span when members gavel back in. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >>? just about 15 minutes the rules committee is set to meet to decide floor proceed fures for tomorrow afternoon. the legislation aims to amend the bill passed by the senate in december but has yet to go before the full house. the reconciliation procedure requires a simple majority rather than 60 votes and is being used as a way to avoid a senate filibuster. but provisions must meet specific budget requirements. in the rules committee meeting begins live at 10:00 a.m. and a note from the rules committee informs that overflow space is being set aside in the capitol visitors center. this is the first time ever. and is in keeping with the

commitment to make the committee process transparent and accessible to all. you can watch that meeting on c-span2 beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. our washington journal focused on health care this morning. and we'll show you more of that now with new jersey democrat robert andrews. host: where the votes? guest: we'll get there. i'm confident a majority will support the bill tomorrow. host: where does that confidence specifically lie in? guest: i think we are now up to eight members that voted no in november switched to yes. congressman ellsworth, congress woman -- congressman boyd. a lot of people. this is building confidence.

i think it reflects the deficit reduction was a major issue. the report that came out this week that said that this bill will reduce the deficit by about $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years i think has made a major difference. host: the "wall street journal" editors talk about the bill today. this is one of the statements -- guest: it's not terribly favorable? host: he said if the health bill passes in the house, it will only do so the way it did in the senate with narrow partisan majority, abetted by political bribery and intimidation. guest: this is not true. bribery i guess they are referring to the nebraska deal that's out of the bill. if they are talking about the special deal for florida, out of the bill. intimidation, look, i have been in these discussions myself personally with a lot of these members and it has not been about intimidation. it's about understanding the goals and ideas of people and

trying to accommodate them in the bill. those are interesting. those are accusations are interesting political feeder but not true. host: bypass mr. stew pack's involvement in this. but there are a lot of news about it especially from the anti-abortion caucus. their concerns. that dornte concern you at all? guest: sure it does. abortion is an issue that people feel very strongly about on both sides. and it is an issue that's raised by this bill. it will be resolved because we all want to get to the same place. which is no public funding for abortion. i believe and 60,000 catholic nuns believe that there is no abortion funding in the basic text of the senate bill. there's some disagreement about that. because we all want to get to the same place, i'm confident department we'll resolve it. i want to be sure people understand this. the bill that president obama signs will not fund abortion

with public funds. host: rob andrews is our guest. you can talk to him on one of three lines. 202-737-0002 for democrats. 202-737-0001 for republicans. you can send him a tweet if you follow him, follow us on twitter thea, c spafment wj and email us at journal at c-span.org. first up buffalo, new york, on the republican line. john, go ahead. caller: good morning. representative andrews, i'm going to ask you a couple questions. please don't cut me off. we seem to have a lot of liberals today flooding the lines which is very important. representative andrews, are you promoteing -- guest: i don't know what that means. caller: when they do the c.b.o. scoring, this is an amazing fact you just told me. it's an insight into what you do or don't know. when you look at a budget like

the one for 10 years on this health care bill. what, sir -- i don't care. i want to know exactly what happens if inflation hits? it almost doesn't--financing right now maybe 1%. i know we are down deficit spending in order to make sure that the 30 million people that you claim aren't insured are insured. so we are going to deficit spend. what happens if interest rates go up? please don't avoid the question. please tell me. you didn't know what static analysis was. host: you made your statement. go ahead. guest: look. if the interest rates go up, the deficit will be higher with or without this health care bill. because the debt service the government has to pay will go up. no doubt about that. but that's independent of the question of whether the health care bill, all the things being equal, reduces the deficit. it reduces the deficit by $1.3

trillion over 20 years. and that's not a democratic party position. that's the judgment of the nonpartisan economists who work for the congressional budget office. host: detroit, michigan. caller: good morning. just a call to support the bill. as you know detroit and michigan suffering severely in these economic downturns, the bill is very important to us as citizens of the united states, as taxpayers. personally my husband and i were making nearly $100,000 a year. he was hurt. our premiums, he became unemployed. our premiums went up to $800 a month. we couldn't afford that. with $2,000 deductible each and 20% co-pays. we are part of that uninsured group now. looking forward to the passage of the bill. willing to contribute to paying

our portion on that. helping all americans. poor americans, low class americans, uninsured students of the united states. our future is riding on this. and also economically riding on this as we don't have -- start having some reforms, we are going to be not the greatest country, i think. it all is relevant. it's all relevant as far as how much moneys are contributed to many other portions of our economy. whether it's to the war and etc. just really proud to be an american. want to see all americans, especially taxpayers, provided health care. additionally we've got -- one last comment. many people are insured. all our senators, our congressmen, military, prisoners are cared for with health care. poor people, aged people,

children. what about the middle class working americans who fall in the crack who is need this health care? we got to have it. host: we'll leave it there. thank you. guest: theresa, thank you for the support of the bill. i think it's important what theresa says. this is not free health care for people who don't work. this is better health care for people who are insured and it's a chance for hardworking people who work usually more than 40 hours a week and have no health insurance, people who pump gas or work in a retail store or wait on tables, it's a chance for them to protect their family, get the health care that they need and deserve. this is not free. it's not for nonworking people. it's for hardworking americans. i think deserve a better deal. host: there's a story in the "washington post" that talks about the subsidies that will be involved to assist families. one of the lines of the story says that some proponents of the subsidies say that generous as they are, their buying power

could erode over time in an era of rapid inflation. insurance exchanges would help some americans, those who now look for insurance policies individually or in small groups, but provide fewer new purchasing alternatives to most americans who get coverage from the jobs. guest: a family that makes $45,000 a year under present law spends if they buy health insurance policy for themselves and have the normal amount of co-pays and deductibles, spends about $12,000 or $13,000 a year out-of-pocket on health care. unaffordable. under the bill a family making 45d,000 a year would spend $5,000 or 6,000 a year. that's still a lot of money, but that's affordable. i hear all this analysis, but i guess what i would say is, should we do this or not? i think the evidence is pretty compelling that we should. host: pittsburgh, pennsylvania. good morning. david on our democrats line. guest: good morning, david. caller: good morning, sir. representative andrews, first i want to applaud you for all your

efforts. i got a message to my republican friends. i heard it for eight years. our supreme court decision. elections have consequences. we came up, we voted, we won health care, and we are going to get health care. for the private -- previous guest on their commercial, that advertised 90% cure rate in america versus the 79% in europe, how about the person who doesn't have health care? what is their survival rate? we are a civilized nation. guest: i'll tell you something else. we appreciate what you said. this constant refrain that this is somehow going to make our system like europe just isn't true. this is a system where americans will choose their own doctor, go to the hospital that they and their doctor choose, and have the reimbursement paid for by an

insurance company. it's an historical tradition in the united states that whenever there's a new idea proposed the people try to tear it down, try to equate it with some unpopular foreign force. social security was compared to leninist russia. medicare was compared to the soviet union in the wake of world war ii. i think most americans don't think that social security and medicare are communist, socialist programs. hearing the same rhetoric today it's equally true today as it was then. it's ridiculous. i think that those who really read the bill and know the facts realize how ridiculous it is. host: parachute, colorado. john on our republican line. guest: good morning, john. host: you are on, sir. go ahead. caller: i'm here. host: john, go ahead.

caller: my main question is, on the health care issue, as far as i'm concerned the government can kiss my -- guest: john, i don't know how to react to that. john, if i thought this was a government takeover of health care, i wouldn't support it. it isn't. no one can be forced into a government plan or any other plan they don't want to be in. government does not change all the rules on everyone. i just think that this is something people have been told and it isn't true. i would respectfully decline your invitation. host: do you think this is a good strategy? guest: i do because it's been mislabeled. there are going to be two up-down votes tomorrow. the first will be whether we want to adopt the senate bill. we will either vote yes or no. and the second vote will be on whether we want to amend the senate bill with the positive

changes that i think we have made. those are up-down votes on the record where every member will go on the record. i think that's what the public deserves. host: englewood, california. daniel, independent line. guest: good morning, daniel. caller: good morning. i'm looking at social security and they have messed that all up. the government has. and every other program they have gotten into like the post office they goofed up, what makes the government think that they are medical experts? and why do they want to go into a field they know nothing about? they know nothing about medicine. why would they want to take over something that they know nothing about? they are completely ignorant about. it doesn't make any sense at all. and they want the majority of the people to give up their health plan for the majority -- for a minority that doesn't have health insurance. why should people give up their health plans?

guest: daniel, can i ask you a question, without being too personal. what is your health insurance? through your work or how do you get health insurance? caller: i worked 30 years for it. guest: ok. you are retired? caller: i am. guest: daniel, nothing would change. you would not have to give up the health plan that you are in. if you like it, you get to keep it. i would invite you to look at the bill that's on the internet and try to find a place in there that says you would lose your plan, you wouldn't. we understand and respect the fact that you worked for 30 years for this plan. and we don't think it's right to take it away from you. so we don't. host: queens, new york, up next. guest: good morning, gertrude. caller: good morning. i'm calling to make two points. first of all i would like to say it is time. secondly i have my daughter that