-- at 8:30 a.m. eastern. rolell also discuss what ♪mericans can 26 the -- 26,794. that is the bottom line number of healthcare.gov. the number of people who were able to navigate the federal website and select a health plan in its first month. when you add the state-run exchanges, the number is 106,185, and another 396,000 were eligible for expanded medicaid insurance. good morning, everyone on this thursday, november 14, 2013. washington is above with the -- thosezz with

healthcare.gov numbers. now it is your turn to weigh in. democrats, (202) 585-3880, republicans (202) 585-3881, and independents, all others, (202) 585-3882. you can also send us a tweet @cspanwj or post your comments on facebook.com/c-span and e- mail us journal@c-span.org. callsl get to your phone we thoughts in a minute, but have someone joining us on the phone. everybody has known the numbers since yesterday afternoon and lots to say about them, but let's begin first with what the white house had to say when they released these numbers. [video clip] -- are you there? guest: hi. the white house was trying to downplay expectations about these numbers. everyone knew that they would be poor, and yesterday, president

obama did not have anything direct to say about them, but the administration was upbeat. they said the people are online and shopping in the marketplace. they predicted that enrollment would ramp up over time, which is what we have seen in other programs like medicare part d come and the massachusetts help reform that was obamacare's predecessor. most people tend to sign up for coverage closer deadlines, so that is what the administration hopes will vindicate them after the first month, which did not go well. host: but if the deadline is not until march, why were expectations so high to begin with? people do not have to sign up until later. guest: that is right here at march is a key deadline because it is obviously the end of a six-month enrollment period. the other date is december 15, which is when people choose plans if they want them to kick

in in january. there are a lot of people losing their coverage right now and they're going to want to remain insured, and for them, the middle of december is the crucial deadline. the reason that that is tough for the administration is it comes only two weeks after the deadline, where they say they're going to have the website fix, which is the end of this month, so if they cannot have healthcare.gov up and running, functioning enough for millions of people to actually buy their health plan, a lot of people are going to be in trouble come january. so the other issue is those people who have lost their health care coverage, their current plans and are up set because president obama said if you like your dr. you can keep your doctor, you can keep him.

what is the administration say about a possible fix? guest: the administration is under a lot of pressure not only from it is clear that its critics but also from the democrats who are upset at with how the affordable care act has been implemented so far. i think the administration is really looking this one up and they want to see a quick fix. even though we have received a guarantee from the white house that they are going to have some kind of an announcement soon, nobody is really sure what that will look like because it is very hard to go back in time and to extend people's coverage that they have already lost. huge turnaround for the individual insurance market. it would be very difficult for insurance companies, so it is possible that the white house could announce something like an expansion of the tax credits under obamacare that are helping make coverage more affordable for people making up to about 400% of the poverty line. maybe they could expand that

threshold and allow more people to receive federal discounts on their health insurance. it is possible that even a plan like that would need to go through congress, where, you know, i do not know if the house would be likely to approve it, frankly, because they think they can get obama to give major concessions. house, white house officials were up there yesterday meeting with house democrats. why did house democrats tell the white house? guest: house democrats are extremely upset. they say they want a fix right now. they were guaranteed in the month of october i administration officials that the website would be working better than it currently appears to be working. i think a lot of these lawmakers are feeling a little bit misled by the administration at this point. these are people who were crucial to the affordable care act's passage. some of them voted for it, despite concerns. by it duringd

tough elections. so they feel as if the administration needs to fill straight with them and also address this growing problem of people who are seeing their policies canceled and directed to the members of congress saying what do we do. members of congress are in a difficult position because they say well, we would like to tell you to go to a website, but of course the website is not working well at this point. host: so when the house takes up fred upton's legislation, the republican who leads the energy and commerce committee, that vote expected on friday that would allow americans to keep their insurance plans if they like them. how do you expect democrats to vote if the white house does not announce a fix? guest: it is interesting. i think by this time, we could see democrats siding with republicans on this bill and large ways. that has not been a case, which is really a testimony to house minority leader nancy pelosi's

grip on her caucus. beexpected that they would trying to support up to instill in droves as a message to their constituents, but that has not turned out to be the case so far. what the white house plans to do with this bill. under a veto threat, it is not clear whether house democrats will oppose the white house. it is possible that they stick guaranteesed on the from the administration that something else will happen, that the white house will have a solution for these people who are losing their plans. that is a different story in the senate, actually, where lawmakers like mark pryor, even dianne feinstein are signing on to plans that are -- would allow people to keep their health policies. that is a sign a lease in the senate -- you have a lot of democrats of difference rights rallyingent stripes

around the idea that obama needs to be held accountable for his promise. host: mike the administration support diane feinstein and mary landrieu's legislation on this? very: i think that is unlikely because that would put them in a different -- a difficult spot with the health insurance companies that have become their allies over time, which is in interesting narrative because the obama administration was not always in the health insurance companies' corner to say the least. but at this point in rolling out the affordable care act, they must be partners with the industry and the industry has a lot of power here because they are undergoing an enormous amount of change to make this work and to set back the clock to make everything possible. it is hard to say the administration would support that bill. i think they would supervise greatly the democrats who signed onto to it, but they will need to propose an alternative to make it work. host: all right, elise viebeck,

with henry cuellar, -- with "the hill," thank you very much. from politico this morning, a couple of pieces about what is going on behind the scenes and the thinking on strategies on the democratic side. the calculus is straightforward host: then on the republican side from politico, this is what dick sherman writes

host: now it is your turn to weigh in on these numbers that were reached by the data released by the white house. william, you are up first, florida, democratic caller. go ahead. caller: yes, good morning. i think this is much ado about nothing. the program will work. people just need to stand fast. most of the yelling is coming from the republicans because of the fact that we all know that they do not want to fix this thing. but if they were so concerned, they would have worried about hundred thousand, 300,000 in their own district needed medicare before they started thinking about the 1% that started sending me letters all it the same time, saying that we are losing our coverage and everything. people losing their coverage for

months -- people have been losing their coverage for months. people who had hurricanes, insurance dropped them like hot cakes. nobody says anything about that. now we are more concerned about 2% who have received letters. oh, my constituents are losing their health care. how convenient. host: ok, william. we will go to loretto, pennsylvania, independent caller . caller: hi, how are you? i just want to say that obama is going to have to live with it on his conscience for all the trouble he caused. he is killing people. -- theyled policies canceled policies because of him because he put such restrictions on the insurance companies. people are in the middle of cancer treatment than they cannot get their cancer treatment. host: loretto, where have you heard those stories? caller: right from the horse's

mouth. there are people that i know better and middle of cancer treatments, and also i saw on a man said he chose to die because he does not want to leave his family destitute. he said i don't know if it is going to help any way. he says i am not going to take the chance and was everything i have and leave my wife and family destitute, so i am just going to die because of obama. host: loretta, what network was that? caller: i think it was the fox channel, but then i have seen others. other channels do not want to report anything because they want obama to look like a king. [inaudible] host: all right, we will go to middleton, democratic caller. caller: good morning, greta. host: good morning. caller: first thing i want to

say is i got my wife signed up. she is not quite signed up yet, but we got her and rolled in the health care marketplace. people, just like this lady just called, she was talking about the guy on fox news, he did not check to see if he could get any insurance. the highest policy that you can get in the affordable care act is $700 and something. that guy was lying on fox news, andy fox news does not ask and show -- i can show you on the exchange how much they were going to pay. fox news was not going to do that. that is what i have got to say about that. but there is another thing. on a is an article i read website, it is called revenge of the insurance companies. people need to read that. insurance step the president and everybody else

in the back. that is a real good article and everybody should read that, and they would change their mind if they read that. about what the insurance companies are doing. host: all right, our line for republicans, peter in new york. go ahead, peter. caller: the last caller, i think he lives in disney world, to be honest with you, because i know people who have lost their policies and they got their hours cut. when they passed this bill, they were all snickering, happy, why is it such a great bill? why did they delay it or give up special privileges to big companies if it is so great? ok. this is a failure. this is communism, ok? you don't push a bill down our throats, the american people's throats, that we do not want to appear to you have to pay fines. -- want to. you have to pay fines. this is all communism. i'm going to tell the democrats wanting -- i am a republican, i

can care less about the republicans. i say vote out every public and the primaries, it is the democrats respond -- were smart, they would vote out each democrat in the remarries and get new people in there that worry about this country. they only worry about their own pockets. so let's just call it that. goodbye. on twitter mitchell says -- aca is a great program. it is beginning, let's give it time. tweak it, and in the end, i think it will work well. karen buchanan -- states that embrace the aca are doing well. too bad somebody others chose not to. joe in new jersey, independent caller, what do you think, joe? you are on the air. caller: young kids cannot afford it. i have two daughters that other hours cut, they are working three days a week. they got insurance payments, car payments, how are they going to afford all this? they have to pay $400 a month for insurance.

they cannot afford it. how are they going to do it? host: so you doubt that young people will sign up. caller: they can't afford to sign up. their hours are getting cut, money is getting cut, how are they going to do it? host: do your daughters have student loans to pay? caller: no, but they have car payments and insurance, that is high. host: all right, david, kansas, democratic caller. hi, david. caller: how are you doing? i would like to comment about these insurance companies. i had a job and i have health, aretal, and i care -- eye c or my company for $20 and change and change-- $28 every week for just myself. and all of these insurance companies when this law, affordable care act, went into into law, they were

unhappy because it was going to force them to have policies for people with existing conditions. and they thought that it would be a loss for them, but instead it is a game because a lot of people are going to have insurance that did not, and they will make a profit off of that. they want to make profit off of everybody. people off that had good policies and make everybody pay a higher price. it is just all about money. right, jupiter, florida, douglas, republican caller. that thet seems to me low number of enrollees are the people who basically could not get insurance before. thewe have done is burden insurance pulled with folks who basically could not get insurance and secondly we extended the welfare law. if you look, without we added 300,000 people, and eventually the people who don't meet insurance him of the other

people, they are saying from it in trolls -- in droves. is add we have done to the insurance pool. the healthy people are staying away. it is no surprise that these numbers are what they are. all right, douglas, let me show you the front page of the "miami herald." 3500 71 in florida, at just over 106,000, health insurance enrollment numbers are far from the administration's goal of 7 million. this courtesy of the museum here in washington. the "atlanta journal- constitution" reports that in a state of georgia, 536 and rolled -- enrolled in the first month. the "richmond times dispatch" in virginia -- 1023 are the people who completed enrollment in the federal marketplaces for smut -- marketplace's first month

of operation. ,667 completed applications 32,354 were, and eligible. graphics are showing the enrollment numbers, an ounce yesterday by the health and human services secretary, she held a teleconference call with reporters to go over the numbers -- announced yesterday by the health and human services secretary, she held a teleconference call with reporters to go over the numbers. you can go and find them at www.c-span.org. thething beasts -- secretary has said is over a million people have been determined eligible. about one million people have gotten through the website is what the secretary pointed out yesterday. it's at the front page of the "timber" go a reporting by the "washington post" this morning.

-- from page of the "denver post," reporting by the "washington post" this morning. all this ahead of tomorrow's vote in the house by house republicans to put on the floor -- keep your plan act 2013. on the senate side, there is legislation as well put forth by democrats, senator dianne feinstein and senator mary landrieu have legislation that would require the insurance companies to pick up people who have lost their coverage. a lot of those people have lost their coverage. terry in dayton, ohio, democratic caller. caller: listen, i've been sitting here listening to the andes, other callers everyone, and i have been on the website numerous times. i have roused, i have searched, i have been shopping, comparing lands. so all this hype about you can't get on -- it is nonsense. i get on in the evening, i get

on in the morning, whatever time i want to log onto it. to continuously lie to people and think that we do not need health insurance -- it is just crazy. everyone needs health insurance. know, thest like, you congress, you know, republicans going against what is best for this country, and everyone in this country needs help insurance. that the tv shows and all the news things -- just put a little bit more balance on what is really going on. everybody needs health insurance. this is going to work out. just give it a little time. it is going to work. insurance companies have been doing this for years. canceling, dropping you, so everybody up in arms -- it is nothing new. cars no different than insurance, renters insurance, house insurance -- they do it to you all the time. they change things, you pay for things you never use. i don't have dogs, but i still

contribute towards dog insurance. so stop all that hype and just let it calm down and everything is going to work itself out. that is all i have to say. says on twitter, jan ness -- this is all about be campaign dollars for next year's election. tj says -- obamacare was never about bringing people up but was about bringing people down. obama trying to rid the united states of the middle-class. reform, house speaker john boehner told reporters yesterday that it will not happen. comprehensive immigration reform, that is. this is the headline in the "washington times." the issue may linger past the midterm elections. and then there is this in the "wall street journal," white house intensifies its push for new immigration law.

host: so you can expect more of that in the coming days on immigration. yesterday, as we told you, house

and senate budget conferees met to hash out some sort of deal before their deadline in mid december. here is the "wall street journal." the conference committee heard from the cbo, who put out several different options that the committee could take up to save money and reduce the deficit. here is what those options look the cbo says over the next 10 years, the committee could save $495 billion if they keep the sequester level spending in place for the military. they could save $140 billion if they switch to a chained cpi for inflation-indexed parameters of the tax code. $135 billion savings is available if you limit itemized -- deductions to 28% of the total value, and $114 billion reduce funding for international affairs programs. $108 billion if you switch to

change cpi for social security cost-of-living adjustments, and $61 billion could come in savings if you convert medicare to a premium support system for future enrollees. again, this is over 10 years time, so this is what the cbo director told the committee. the "washington times" said the cbo director said to the committee -- you do not have a choice about doing at least one of three things. long-term reform programs like social security and medicare, increase revenue or cut other programs. he said you do not have a choice about doing at least one of those things. you can do one or two or three if you choose to, but at least one of those things will have to change. the budgetm committee yesterday. we covered that hearing. here is a little bit from the two leaders of the conference committee. [video clip] >> there is a big gap between our two budgets, if anyone noticed. that is why we are talking here it we hope that today's meeting will keep the ball

rolling. the reason we're here is to get an agreement. we have spent a lot of time talking about our disagreements. that is the easy part. the hard part is figuring out where we agree. >> chairman brian and i both know this is not easy. our budgets are dramatically different, but it is important that we step out of our partisan corners and make some compromises and lay down a foundation for some long-term bipartisan agreements. host: that was yesterday's house senate budget conference. two cochairs they're talking about their differences. they will continue to meet and try to meet that mid-december deadline. again, we cover that, so go to www.c-span.org if you missed it appeared we also covered the house senate a government reform committee who heard about the rollout of healthcare.gov feared we will show you a little but of that here coming up on me "washington journal." also on capitol hill yesterday, jeh johnson, who is the

administration's pick to head up the homeland security committee, had his confirmation hearing before the committee yesterday, it appears senator coburn is going to hold that nomination unless he get some answers from this nominee. senator john mccain also said he would not vote for the secretary unless he gets some answers on border security. then secretary of state of state john kerry was up on capitol hill along with wendy sherman, chief negotiator, and vice president joe biden talking to senators, members of congress about holding off on more iran sanctions, pleading for lawmakers to give the negotiations in geneva more time. back to our topic here for live you. the new numbers for the first month of the healthcare.gov enrollment process are out. bruce in baton rouge, louisiana, independent caller, you get to weigh in. everybody needs

insurance, everybody deserves to have insurance, but what we went through, like the irs and all, what this is is in the future, and maybe not the next two or three years, it will not be long, our government -- where for we are doing, that is why they bought all those billions of bullets, even the social security administration bought 200 something million bullets. why would they want to buy that? the government is going to be able to put their hands on us and squash us when they get ready, and it ain't far down the road. marketing your books, people. host: larry in massachusetts. caller: i am from massachusetts where we have perhaps less of a problem than other folks do. i know there is a need for health care across the country. is it ison really pretty obvious now that the

democratic administration has done a lot to stonewall and get that, in terms of shutting down the federal government. it looks like now perhaps it was not the republicans' fault that the government gotten him but perhaps the democrats'. host: ok, bowling green, kentucky, democratic caller. caller: i really appreciate having c-span. it is a wonderful form of news. , watch the daily, morning noon, and i. i am from kentucky, and we have our own insurance exchange. we have a new company called kentucky co-op. traditionally, we have had one insurance in the state of kentucky. i think we have two or three now at this point. about $800 a month for myself and my wife about four years ago. i signed up on the exchange, and i think last year, my insurance

and this year00, had i taken that insurance, it would have gone up to $1500 a month. , couldpt out of my group not keep my group for my small business. i had to get rid of it. an individual policy, which is actually about $350 -- a covered very little. it would just keep me from going bankrupt if i got a bad deal. now with the affordable care act and this new company, it is a co-op, and i hope maybe all the getting the end up same kind of situation we have here in kentucky. i am going to be able to get on there for somewhere in the neighborhood of $400, i think it is a gold policy, or month. which is not much more than my major medical policy. dr. co-pays and

pharmacy and a lot less max out- of-pocket and a lot less individual -- >> host: but milton, have you hit the send button? are you signed up, are you enrolled? caller: no, not at this point. i've got my application and. i'm trying to make a decision on policy. at this point, i am in a dilemma. of control over what happens as far as my salary goes. i am 60 years old, and i want to try to pay myself as much as possible so that i can increase payments if irity decide to rick dyer -- to retire at 62. host: you are just waiting to see where your options are then. toler: yeah, i am trying weigh everything appeared to listen, i am in the theater -- the furniture business. we have customers who walk in

our store every day. i was talking to one of my finance companies, and we were both saying -- i asked her -- she said, i take credit every day. these young people are. in -- i know these young people do not want to pay these premiums, but they have a health problem, they are brewing. host: i will leave it at that. julie says on twitter -- if you do not know anybody who lost their insurance, i have, and they were better plans than obamacare. we will keep taking your phone phone calls. janet yellen will be on capitol hill, testifying in her first nomination to head of the federal reserve. up next is neil irwin, columnist for the "washington post." to talk about today's hearing. what are you expecting and what are you watching for today? yellen has been a vice chairman for three years. this is her confirmation

hearing. this is her moment in the sun and moment to establish what kind of federal reserve chair she would be assuming she is confirmed. i think she will get some tough lessons especially from republicans on whether the fed's policy,ey and quantitative easing of pine billions of dollars of bonds, how much she might continue those, what are the risks she is taking, and will she be tough on inflation. i expect a pretty full throated, vibrant hearing. host: you put in your column recently the question -- how will janet yellen do on the big stage? so how was he -- will she? guest: she is an impeccably qualified candidate. she has all the experience you might want, but when she has less experience at is the public ofing aspect of this job being federal reserve chair or she is not had this much attention or scrutiny in her past track record. got some shoes on capitol hill, it was to be confirmed that the vice chair of the federal

reserve, and that was three years ago. and i was a lower key kind of affair. this is more in these spotlight. people tryingndle to trip her up and get her off guard and make her slip up? and she has the intelligence, she has the spirits to handle every well, but at the same time, it is a test of how effectively she is going to handle this unusual situation. host: a lot in the paper that she will get questions on her dovish policies. what does that mean? guest: the wings of the federal reserve, people call them the hawks and the doves. the hawks are the people most worried about inflation, the inflation hawks. they are worried about bubbles, they do not want to continue the easy money policy much longer. they want to raise interest rates or stop the bond buying beef that has been doing. the doves, which would include janet yellen, they think the federal reserve should be doing everything they possibly can to fight unemployment, that

inflation is not much of a risk, that the thing to do is keep rates low, keep growth going again the job market back. janet yellen again it's more that dovish camp. a lot of republican guard skeptical of that. aret of them believe they leading the country into a bad place. those of the kind of question she will be getting. host: issue more like greenspan or bernanke? guest: a little of both. of the been an engineer communications policies out of the that. they really made a shift over bernanke's chairmanship over the last 7.5 years. for more clearly articulating their goals, policies, strategies. greenspan had this famous line -- if you think you understood what i was saying, you misunderstood me. he would talk and service -- and circles and make it hard to understand what he was trying to signal. bernanke has been more

straightforward. yellen will follow and not mold. host: will she dropped clues about tapering? want: i think she does not to. she does not intend to come into this sending a signal about the near-term directive the fed policy. the tapering you are referring to, will they taper off these $85 billion in bond purchases they are doing every month? will they start tapering in december, march, april? markets are going to be on a ledge looking for clues as to what the answer is and when they might slow down the pace of one buying and slow down the amount of money they are pumping into the economy. she may not intend to send any signals, but people will read between the lives of everything she says looking for clues. host: does she think the economy still needs federal aid? guest: she does. she said that in the prepared testimony that was released last night. it is clear she is not going to back away from the policies the fed has been undertaking. she is not going to say we had it all wrong, i am going to radically change directions if you can for me. she is going to preach continuity and articulate ideas that have been consistent with what the fed has been doing for the last few years. host: what do you think she will

say about things being too big to fail? -- banks being too big to fail? guest: she will articulate her concerns that it is not an ideal situation when you have these giant institutions that bring down the -- the entire economy with them. better regulation, smarter regulation, things to make sure that these companies are well regulated by the federal reserve and other global regulators, not trying to just go and willy- nilly and break them apart. warn lawmakers, like bernanke would do every once in a while, about facing the fiscal cliff? that that is not good for the economy, that you need to deal with entitlement reform? those type of big questions, big challenges -- do you think she might talk to lawmakers about those? guest: it depends on what she is asked. the odds are yes, she will be asked about fiscal policy. it is a tricky balance for a

federal reserve chairman it on one hand, they are supposed andr side of the world, on the other side the physical =-- fiscal has theirs. that simplistic model might suggest. an idea similar to what ben bernanke has said which is trying not to talk about specifics, not risk task policy or -- risk tax policy. move cautiously, do not raise spending too cut much immediately. at the same time, keep an eye on long-term entitlements, make sure that the growth of entitlements is not going to bankruptcy country. what we are seen as tightening over fiscal policy has resulted in slower growth than we would've seen. at the same time, i think she will preach longer-term fiscal discipline. host: if she is confirmed, irwin, will she have the ear of

the president? there was a lot made of the fact that the present preferred larry summers over janet yellen, and mr. summers withdrew his name from the nomination. let's say she is confirmed, what are her chances, then does she have the ear of the president? guest: it is funny, larry summers was the front runner over the summer. a lot of democrats are not like him for a much. he withdrew from consideration rather than face a tough confirmation battle. janet yellen is not as close to the president as larry summers. larry summers worked in the president for the first two years of his administration. janet yellen is not the same kind of situation. she was at the san francisco fed at the start of the administration, then over to the federal reserve. they are not personally close. i am not sure that is an unhealthy thing. the same is true of ben bernanke. they have a perfectly fine

relationship, but not a close, intimate think there'd you want your central bank to be independent from the government, independent from the elected authorities feared that is the reason you have its entire structure of keeping the fed independent from the rest of the government. so no, she is not super close to the president, but i'm not think that is a bad thing. host: what about her getting through the senate? guest: it looks good. unless there is a completely surprising misstep today. looks like the democrats are behind her. they have a majority. the number of votes among the publicans, tough criticism. this is not something where they are going to go to war on and try to stop the nomination. she is an elite qualified. it is not the battle they want to wait. host: you wrote a book about ,he 2007 federal reserve crisis and how other countries that would that crisis. tell us about that book, but janet yellen, and the role she played in dealing with the 2007 crisis.

guest: the story i tell in the , they came together and worked in concert to try to carry out this really global response to the financial crisis. janet yellen was part of that from 2010 on when she was vice chairman of the fed. the central bankers meet six times a year in switzerland and have what i call the world's most intimate dinner party on sunday night where the central bankers of the leading industrialized nations get together and talk about their mutual ideas and their strategies. janet yellen and ben bernanke alternate in rep resenting the u.s. with that, so she has been at that three times a year for the last two years. she is very much a part of that club. she has made mistakes along the way but they've been trying to do all they can to pop up the global economy and get things back on track. ok, neil irwin, thank you. back to our phone calls for all of you about the new numbers on healthcare.gov.

kevin in lawrenceburg, tennessee, independent caller. hi, kevin. caller: yes, how are you doing this morning? i think one of the biggest things with me is just the implementation to begin with. just the amount of time and the preparation it seemed that was from the sunday law was passed until october 1. it seems to me there are a lot of people that were aware there were some issues with the site, some of the security checks were not being performed before the deadline. is know, i do think that it important for everybody to have proper health care. i think the awkward position of the united states is the law actually forces you to pay into an insurance group that makes a profit off the money that you pay in, that is paying for the doctors to provide the care.

one of the key things the health care has been rising in the u.s. for years, for decades, and everybody is aware of that, foodt is the type of people eat, some of the prescription medicines. it is all about the healthy living. eating better, staying away from some of the processed foods, that all goes back to income also. there are millions of people in the u.s. who do not have the money to buy the best foods for the families or for themselves. i think it is just kind of a snowball effect that has been going on for quite a few decades. i mean, initially i was against the mandatory of the health care act as far as everybody having know they which i have extended that i think for three months. only the u.s. government could really screw up so bad, and

having so much preparation time to have us go into effect on october 1. host: all right, kevin, and i was remiss in telling you that we are going to be covering, by the way, the confirmation hearing for janet yellen. at 10:00 a.m.3 eastern time. that is when the confirmation hearing will kick off for janet yellen the for the senate banking committee. so life on c-span3 if you are interested in watching appeared sharon, kingston, illinois, republican caller. caller: good morning. even though i am a republican, every time i hear the word confirmation, i get nervous because the first thing i think of is the republicans are going to hassle that poor woman. know, evenf, you though i have always been a republican, i am not part of my party when they do that. i mean, to tell the people that

are trying to get confirmed, they seem like a good, hard- working people that are honestly trying to do a good job. and instead of -- i am sick of them hassling people, you know, like the lady from kansas, too, in charge of the health care stuff. host: kathleen sebelius. caller: yeah. it embarrasses me. i want to kind of change parties, but my grandfather, father, everybody in my family is a republican. they always have been. i'm kind of ashamed of them. the only republican i like now is john boehner, and i used to like paul ryan, but every time i see paul ryan, like the clip you had earlier i watched, paul ryan reminds me of john boehner. they are kind of the same. i used to think they were both the smartest republicans. i liked them the most. but they just don't understand with the latino votes, it will never be high for them ever, and i don't think they have a high african-american vote, they do

white peoplene blow, they have the crazy white people blow. i can see where the -- people vote. i can see where they're going down. they have always needed to go moderate. if they have gotten moderate from the beginning and not gotten in talks with the tea party -- host: you might be interested in a piece on the cover of politico's new magazine, the cover story is locked in the cabinet -- the worst job in barack obama's washington. it is a piece about how the white house aides are keeping the cabinet, president obama's cabinet, at a distance. it is a link the piece inside politico's new magazine on their website politico.com. coming up next, we will talk with democratic collison --

congressman henry cuellar about the rollout of the affordable care act and healthcare.gov and the new numbers. later, we will talk with republican senator john barrasso about health care as well. right after this break. ♪ >> i started with teddy roosevelt. i knew so much had been written about teddy, but i needed another story. i got into tabs knowing he had been friends, knowing they had broken apart in 1912. when i figured out what the difference between the two and their leadership, it was ted taft'sblic leadership, failure as a public leader. i started reading about the magazines and the press, and these guys played a central role, even the best historians writing secondarily will say these people were the vanguard

of the progressive movement. then i started reading about them. wright, but i did not know the others. and i did not know thm cclure, so he came into my life. >> the bully pulpit at 8:00 on c-span's "q&a." she left toung age, right. she would often create the ones as gifts for her parents. on christmas and birthdays, she would write a poem and illustrated. we have two early examples here from when she was about 10 years old. in the fall of 1950, jaclyn entered -- jacqueline entered "vogue's" contest. question three of the essay -- who are three people in history you wish you had known? the first two she mentions are charles baudelaire and oscar diae in addition to serge

ghlief, the russian impresario. she was a camera girl for the "washington times herald o." one column we have here is she in theewed adversaries 1960's presidential campaign. as we know in her later life, the last part of her life, she was a very prolific editor of books in new york city, working with several different authors on books of several different topics. >> watch our program on first lady jacqueline kennedy at her website, www.c-span.org/first ladies, or see it saturday at 10:00 p.m. eastern and sunday at noon on c-span. our series continues life monday as we look at first lady lady bird johnson. "washington journal" continues. host: we're back with congressman henry cuellar,

democrat of texas, and vice democratic policy committee. let me show you the front page of "usa today," a shocking shortfall is what they call the numbers of people that enrolled on the federal website in the first month of healthcare.gov. what is your reaction? guest: percival, let's look at history. when you look at part d prescription drug rollout under president bush, it was also slow starting up your 20 look at was also slow coming in. but what has heightened this is certainly the website slow starting out, and that is with the website not working properly. host: so what should be done? soon: fix the website as as possible, then a push to get people that appeared in my commercial district, i got areas like, my home town of laredo in those areas, you that almost 38% of the operation -- population

have no insurance. you have a lot of need out there, but if they cannot access the permission, then they're going to have a problem. website, the, the way it has been rolled out has not been the best by the president and the administration. host: are these numbers accurate? the "wall street journal" questions---not make too much of the numbers because they are deliberately inflated to jump accounting. in the hhs footnote release explains that the agency is only reporting people who selected a plan. that means they may or may not have paid for it as required in the company that may or may not be their new insurer may not recognize it as a new customer. know abouti do not accurate the numbers just cannot. but if they're doing it, if the president or this administration are inflating be numbers on purpose, then they're going to add to what i call this credibility issue that they are having right now. there is a credit ability issue

with the administration, not only with the public, but some of us are starting to question the administration on this implication. i do -- i hope they do not pile onto the issues that they have right now. host: are you concerned about that? look at the "washington post" this morning. obama has long relied on its honesty rating, and they have taken a hit, 10 points. he writes this poses a problem for is a general agenda and legacy been his approval rating. the erosion comes prematurely from the independent voters and from his own pace, crucial to his party's success in next year's midterm elections. guest: there are two issues here. the first issue is his legacy. is he going to go out as a ronald reagan, a bill clinton, or as george bush? as you know, people can come little writ elected at the end of their term, and that can be used against them for elections. number one. -- other thing is where it

will it have an impact on the democrats? one year from now, it is silly, it is almost in political terms like a century away. again, without a doubt, some of my colleagues or little concern about that issue. i as an individual, he as an individual, one of the things you want to be judged is being honest. asyou are not looked at honest, that affects everything you do after that. then they question everything you're doing. if you lie -- i should not they like, but if you did not tell the truth or you do not put it out the way it's this -- it should be, that it will affect you. that is what the president should look at. host: it all goes back to the president saying if you like your health plan, you get to keep it, period. tomorrow ontes republican legislation that will allow people to keep their insurance plans. will democrats vote against that? guest: they're giving the white house a little bit of time to see if they come up with an

administrative fix on this. but i can tell you, talking to a lot of democrats, talking to a lot of democrats, there are concerns. i think bill clinton was correct when he said make a commitment, you honor your commitment. host: where are the votes? you are the leadership. guest: let's say tomorrow, but i will say there will probably be some number of democrats that will say honor the commitment -- host: and go for it. what you think the number of democrats it at this time? guest: i can tell you, i've talked to both conservatives and liberal democrats and there are some people that are questioning this. the bottom line is that the president went on tv in the public and said you are going to keep your insurance, you are going to keep your insurance, you are going to keep your insurance, and then it doesn't happen. whether he did not know or whatever the case is, you make that type of statement over and over in public, again, it is a

commitment, and you should honor your commitment. host: the front page of the "wall street journal" this morning says obama is open to health care changes in the law and they say the magnitude of democratic support for legislative solution will become clear on friday when the house hit the bow. that vote may push mr. obama to move before friday to offer his own administrative remedy or embrace a senator mary landrieu's bill in the senate. what do you think he should do? administrative fix or support senator landrieu's bill? guest: if he does not do a legislative fix, that is wrong. this is why i see what is happening in congress -- on one side you have for public and i want to repeal the whole health- care law. that is wrong. and on the other side, you have got some democrats who do not want to change one single word and imply that the bill is perfect -- it is not. any time you pass a bill like this, and it does not have to be health care, it can be anything, you have got to go ahead and sign to that legislation. in this case, there are some

cases that we have to do it because if you have the two extremes, repeal the whole thing, do not change one single word -- those two extreme or not the right way. i do not think that is what the american public expects us to do. they want to fix something that is good. the health-care law is good, but it has been having a few problems with the implementation without a doubt. host: we will talk about immigration reform as well here this morning, but first, let's go to mike who is in florida, democratic caller. hi, mike. caller: how are you doing? my situation is -- the only thing i can see obamacare is doing is to line the pockets of the insurance companies and the .edical industry the medical industry needed a raise, so instead of -- they want to be insurance companies. instead of turning around -- instead of ensuring half of the population of another have to answer all the appalachian, and they're going to turn around and get more money and more money and more money. if they want to solve the

problems, let's take the flawed -- the fraud out of the medical industry. there are some eight times the you got doctors groups, hospital groups, they are just sending it build and they're getting paid and it is a fraudulent deal. if they want to save money, control the fraud, then you can turn around and bring the insurance down so people can afford it. organic farmer. i can turn around and teach people how to eat healthy so they can -- so they do not have to go to the doctors. is nowdo not understand we are being forced to turn around and buy insurance. let medicaid -- if people cannot afford it -- let medicaid takeover and adjust the medicaid problem to turn around and self people that don't have insurance. host: congress meant? -- congressman? guest: i thank you very much and i appreciate the farmers. i represent a lot of ag areas,

and i appreciate your good work. first of all, he says medicare. people, the for seniors, who need that assistance. medicaid is the area where you have got lower income individuals. the insurance we are talking about, you got employee or-based type of insurance. here we are talking about the individual type of insurance. the issue you brought up about fraud and waste, under the health-care law, there actually are provisions about doing more auditing, going after those folks. in fact, in my area, i've heard doctors and health-care providers are complaining that their audits are pretty tough, but we have got to make sure that whatever expense is reasonable and necessary to the patient, of course, to the health-care provider. so some of you are right -- we have got to go after that waste. there are more audits and more work going after those people. host: next, lafayette new jersey, the public and caller.

-- next, lafayette, new jersey, republican caller. caller: congressman, last time you were on this program and you are asked about building seven and the freefall of 9/11, you alluded the question. can you please -- you eluted the question. can you please -- wet: congressman cuellar, have a group of people out there that distrust the analysis that was done on 9/11, and they have organized and are calling into our show to get members of congress and other people to talk about the issue. all, i think she probably meant something else because i do not remove are being asked that particular question jordan -- question. to answer that question, 9/11 is one of the things that have been investigated. and a lot of analysis has been done, a lot of investigations thethat, but again, we know war got started because of 9/11,

so i think that work has been done. if there is any new evidence, of course certainly defense will be interested in that. host: caller: good morning. the affordable care act. we had leaders in this country, they would have looked at every country and made up a good health care. scheme them by the insurance company and our representatives and the president. this guy is going to talk it over. this is nothing but a takeover of our insurance companies. greedy ofzi scheme this country. beverly on twitter --

if the president has made changes by himself already, why can't he make another administrative change when it comes to folks who have lost coverage? guest: i agree with that. i have always said that the health care should apply to everybody. there should be no exceptions. i am one of the democrats who feel that we should have been careful about making exceptions on that. it depends on what sort of change you want to make. there are some things he can make that are implied under the law, there are some things that might be a little harder. if there is no administrative change that he can honestly make , then i think it should be a legislative change. host: valerie is a democrat. caller: my comment is that the president and these people could

have done a better job leading us to this rollout of the affordable care act. why would you give people who are against it something to latch onto from the beginning? if it wanted to say that was made clear in the beginning that if you do not have insurance because of many different reasons, then this law is for you. the statement that the president made that if you like your insurance you can keep it, that is true for about 95% of people. host: is it true for 95% of the people? to -- ite is referring is estimated that about 5% of people would have to change insurances. she is correct about that. she is also correct about -- if you look at the health-care law, there are already things coming

into place that are helping individuals. we might have to tweak or make changes to it. the health-care law was something that we needed to do. if you are a woman, they cannot discriminate against you anymore in the insurance premiums. if your child has pre-existing illnesses, they can't discriminate against that child and adults too. free preventive care for our seniors. a lot of changes have come in, including that you can keep your child up to the age of 26 years. a lot of things that the health- care law has done already that can help individuals. the only thing right now is the exchange. this exchange -- once it works well, it provides more choice and more competition. ofmy state, and the state texas, there are only two insurance companies that used to run the whole show. we want to add more insurance companies that can come in and

compete, lower the prices, and give the consumer more choices. competition and choice. host: the key is the website functioning well. the chief technology officer up oversight house committee yesterday. i want to show you the exchange he had. >> you have to tell us when it will be in good shape. is the end of the month realistic? >> the team is working very hard to hit that goal. as a former web developer, that is what i was telling clients when we were going to miss the deadline. we are working real hard to meet it. i am a former web developer. scale,ly nothing to this but with $600 million are probably could've put together a team to do it and do a better job. host: what is your confidence level that they will meet that deadline?

guest: he is right in asking that type of question. they give a hard line of november 30 saying they're going to have it done. i think they should've provided flexibility. i think it was a mistake to say it would be done by november 30 because if it is not, it is a double whammy. that. it is not only not only the government employees are working on this. -- iabout this contractor believe it is a canadian company coming in -- you are talking about millions of dollars for something that is not working. if you are going to pay millions of dollars, you had better have a product that works well. journale wall street reports that someone said that

north of $600 million had been ofnt through the end september. we covered that hearing yesterday, if you're interested, go to c-span.org. rocky in texas. republican color. -- caller. caller: i have a lot of respect for you, but tell the people of texas how you can sign up and vote for a bill that you did not read and now it is coming back to understand that the only way i can avoid going on obamacare is by joining in. do you understand my point? i have to join a union. you mentioned the laredo. i have a lot of friends down there. the 36% of the folks down in laredo that you say do not have insurance, would any of those be illegal immigrants?

thank you for your call. we will talk about immigration reform in a few minutes and some of the myths that are out there. this law does not apply to anybody who is not a u.s. citizen. you can't go in and allow any immigrants -- in my area of populatione hispanic in the state of texas is changing. people are there legally. i did read the bill. one thing i learned through law school is that you read the legislation. itself.ad the bill and a lot of the ideas came in from the heritage foundation which i'm sure you know. even under the richard nixon

time about personal responsibility, about taking over personal responsibility. it takes ideas from that and from mitt romney. they took a lot of ideas from the republican conservative groups and now we are trying to get a health-care law that works. unfortunately, the implementation has not been worked out. the $600 million you pay a contractor -- they should have had this right, otherwise you want to get that money back from that contractor. from our guest is a bs georgetown. jd and phd. in ohio.to wayne independent caller. caller: good morning. the wife is in a nursing home at

present under medicaid. we were told to remove her it would cost or $1600. ago weeks ago -- two weeks i went on the website. i went on, did all that, the second was posted be up for referral. -- supposed to be up for referral. the only thing it came up with is processing. i checked that for a week. -- period. at the end of this, i called on friday. i called the phone number. they told me that everything was right, it was in processing, and it would take 2-6 weeks before they would even be able to show me any type of coverage. that will pass way past the deadline for signing up of december. here we are.

we are hung up to dry. i am on v.a.. \ tha that is my insurance. v.a., if you are on the you have your health care. it is a pretty good health care. you said your wife was on medicare? there is no need for her to change if she is on medicare. going back to the issue of taking a long time to go into the website, i agree. there is a problem with the website. paid 600 million dollars for product, they ought to get their money back if it is not working. they cannot use the excuse that we did not know how many people would come in. like one 800 flowers -- 1- should'ves. they expected people to come in on valentine's day. you better get a good product for six and did billion dollars

-- $600 million. host: let talk about immigration reform. john boehner is ruling out a push on comprehensive immigration reform. the white house is intensifying their push, meeting with religious leaders, trying to put ,he pressure on conservative republican groups that are pro- immigration. what is the strategy? it is sad that we will not get to immigration reform. we keep missing the window of opportunities. we asked the president to push for immigration reform because there is a window. in 2009, we had a window. after that you would have the 2010 elections and the 2012 presidential elections. the window closed. it was not done at that time. we have a window this year. itwe do not do it this year, is going to be -- the window is

going to close. republican said we will do this next year. with a 2014 election and 2016 election, the window is -- i would not say it is shut, but it is getting smaller and smaller to get this done. immigration reform is not going to change -- it is not going to go away, i mean. we need to do it. i hope that we get to do it. it is going to be difficult. it is unfortunate. i want to see comprehension -- copperheads of immigration reform. it is good for security and economy. host: "the new york times" reporting. the bill could be used as a trojan horse.

here is a piece from "the washington times" this morning. the federal government is approving -- guest: keep in mind that under the legislation we are looking at, it does not call for amnesty. 1986 under president ronald reagan, that was amnesty. here it is and earned pathway to citizenship. said -- atwould've least let's legalize those people, get them out of the shadows, so they can provide more taxes and provide productivity to our economy. even going back to the border

security, there is a good piece of legislation that i support. saying, butlly given analysis, let's see what we need for the border, and then add the resources, it instead of just throwing candy at the border, what i call these extra resources. .t is going to be hard even in that type of bill. if you have border security, then what else do you do? you still need to deal with the interior security. keep in mind, i live on the border. my brother is a border sheriff down there. we are familiar with the border. i have lived there all my life. becameer came across and a legal resident and became a u.s. citizen. and her border and immigration. 40% of the people who were here illegally came through a legal

hermit or visa. -- permit or visa. if you do not do interior security, that is a problem. host: from what this article is saying, the agencies are not capable of doing it adequately. there losing track of people who come here. guest: that is an issue. if you have 40% of the 12 million who are here because they got lost in the system, it is a problem. homeland security needs to do a much better job at doing this. no if's or butts about it. the second sequester comes in. if we cut more of those resources for homeland security, then you are going to have less border patrol, customs agents securing our border. about sequester, that is going to hurt homeland security also. host: what is going on at the

dhs that they have yet to comply with senate requests for the border security plans? according to senator mccain, he is refusing to vote for president obama's pick for the homeland security department because while he was trying to write the immigration bill from earlier this year, the department wouldn't tell him what resources were needed to get to a point where they were stopping 90% of illegal border crossings. they still about provided that information. guest: i agree with the senator. i was in homeland security for six years. -- now i am on the appropriations for homeland security. he is absolutely right. they do a good job, but there are a couple of things wrong. there are voids in management positions, leadership positions that have been filled. plan, asay they have a master strategy for the border, they do not. i know that for a fact. --you do not have a strategy

and we have been pushing for it know what is your border strategy? how did the court may? -- coordinate? how do they coordinate? host: margaret, a republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would love to go back. as far as the health care and affordable health care act, i think it is interesting again particularicans, in ted cruz, a lot of people are vilifying republicans, but i folks how thise bill was put through. it was not a republican vote. what did it pass by 7 votes in the house?

67% of americans were against having mandated health care. on into immigration, i am an uninsured person who is married to an immigrant who worked in social services. i work with persons who have disabilities. they have come to all of us and said, how does a government program, how well does it work? i have a client who has not gotten his medicaid in five months. we are going to turn over yet another great big row graham -- program to the government -- they can't get done what they need to do now. we already have laws in place for immigration? my husband and i had to go through every simple step. he cannot get a job. you made a very good point. but the men and women who come here and their visas expire. we had to get a lawyer and we couldn't afford a lawyer. we have a lawyer who gave us advice. i worked three jobs. my husband worked six nights and seven days for eight years. we had to pay for our application and then ins lost

our application. in the shadows, breaking up this family -- this drama that they are talking about. i work in stores were self florida where no one speaks english and the backroom. my husband thought he was lucky to come here. we were fortunate to get married, to have jobs to raise our children. the one and only time we ever took public assistance is when my husband fell. we have never had insurance. we have paid for everything. this idea that the federal government can solve everything -- and i appreciate you and your hard work -- they ought to get you up there. anyone who doesn't understand it should be out of the line. thank you for your time. guest: first of all, thank you so much. as you were telling me your story, it reminded me of the story of my parents also. my parents' families come from

mexico. my father became a legal resident and then a naturalized citizen. it took a while to go through the system. it is a long process to go through and follow the rules. my father was a gardener. he was a migrant worker. i mother was a migrant worker. i am the oldest of eight kids. going to said we are work hard, we don't need the assistance. we will do everything by working hard. there are a lot of people who were working very hard. the story she was telling me in so many ways reminded me of my parents. for all of those hard-working individuals like yourself and your husband, my parents also and so many other people, we really appreciate what you do. governmente federal or any government should only have a limited role. we are not here to fix everybody's problems. we're not here to make the guarantees.

it is a limited role of government. -- it ise should be not know government versus big government. is auestion should be smaller government, more efficient government as opposed to know government that all. host: teresa on twitter -- guest: i think we ought to win for -- enforce the laws we have here. there might be changes we need to make. the says. visas.ys -- people come in and get their phd in engineering, science, technology and then there are jobs here for them because there is nobody you can fill them up. instead of sending them people back -- those people back to their countries, we out to be smarter on using those brains

that are highly intelligent individuals to come work here after we educate them. is that we ought to enforce the law right now. host: we are talking with congressman henry cuellar am a democrat of texas. michael and tennessee. democratic caller. caller: good morning. about the system being shut down and it will take a while to get it back up. there are three young men on the and itat went online went down in three minutes later they had it right back up. i don't understand why it is taking the government so long to get their system backup. the health care problem -- the hospitals, i was in the hospital and i had for blood clots. i was in the hospital for five days.

i was in there about an hour. listed there for five days. -- i stayed there for five days. -- thank you very much. i endorse this man. guest: thank you so much. i will go back to the point. if the reports are right that $600 million were spent on the way ie -- and by the understand the country -- company got contracts after this -- that the federal government paid $600 million for this work done, i think they should be asking for this money back. you say you were going to do not, youhings, if should get your refund back. whoever needs to go into that and i think the administration should be the first one to say, we have a problem here.

, that theyead that got some other contracts from other agencies. if that is right, that is wrong. host: do you think somebody should be fired over this? guest: if they didn't do their job. host: secretary sebelius? guest: i don't know. let's see where it falls. without a doubt, those contractors that got a lot of dollars -- ifyers you say were going to produce a product. otherwise there should be a refund back. host: mark, independent caller. you are on the air. mark, you are breaking up. i will put you on hold. in lakeville, illinois. republican. my comment is about the

obamacare. right now, we are talking about -- are you there? host: we are listening. caller: we are talking about people on the individual market losing their insurance. supposedly just 5%. these people on the individual market have been accustomed to onthing a check each m for their insurance. i think the bigger story is when more and more employers start kicking their employees to their exchanges -- to the exchanges. these people are not accustomed to cutting a personal check each month for their insurance. my question is what happens, what is the plan because it is most definitely going to happen when many do not pay their premiums? what will be the solution? my guess is that the government solution will come in because

this will be a major problem and i have a feeling they will say, let's get rid of the middle guy and let us do it and you will have people say it is not a big deal. now we are just going to do it. now there will be obamacare. which will lead to the one payer system. i am in medical billing. i do appeals, i do claims, i post payments. appealu have to do an within a commercial insurance versus medicaid or medicare, you have a much better chance of getting that claim paid or getting somewhere. if it is medicaid, forget it. it is what it does, you are not getting paid. medicare, you have very little ways to appeal. the doctor is not getting paid. host: i will have to leave it there. guest: you covered a lot of things. anybody who is in medical

billing, if you look under the system itself right now am a insurance companies are going to find ways not to pay you and then they appeal and appeal and work something out with the doctors. doctors are always left waiting. at least with medical billing, you do everything, you code everything correctly, you get paid a certain amount. i know doctors want to get reimbursed a little bit more. with the insurance it is always been a struggle. i know there are things we need to work out. it's a good thing about it is a lot of patient protections. no discrimination against women. children with pre-existing illnesses. there are a lot of things there that are good. as a go back, the two extremes, republicans want to repeal the whole thing. democrats want to change the whole thing -- one or two things. they are wrong as well.

house was up on capitol hill yesterday meeting with congressional democrats. were you in the room? guest: i was not. i have been on phone calls with the chief of staff and with other folks. they know there is a vote coming up tomorrow. they're trying to answer the questions. i do understand it got a little heated. i have been some of those meetings with some of the democrats. democrats -- there are some questions. i go back to bill clinton. if you make the commitment, you honor your commitment. houseapparently the white staff will be back up on capitol hill meeting with senate democrats today including the chief of staff. inwill go to market campbell, california. independent caller. longtime fan of c-span. i respect all of the members of the house, right, left, it really does not matter.

said, i have had catastrophic care all my life. now i can afford to write the check if something happens. my cost going onto the exchange more than tripled. my cousin on the other hand, hers doubled from 12,000 year to for her family. costs are skyrocketing. it that inly, why is this nation of all we have something where the government is coming in and telling us and mandating that we do this? i'm not right, i am not left. i vote democrat, i vote republican. thank you very much. thank you so much. government should not be telling people what they ought to be doing. this issue about the mandate.

it was seen under the mitt romney health care. it is a heritage foundation idea . richard nixon talked about this. it is an idea that has been around for a while. about taking personal responsibility. -- i can't speak about the exchange in california. california probably had the largest numbers of people to sign up from all of the states. a lot of it depends. there are different plans out there. i couldn't tell you what your particular situation is. i can't go into some of the specifics. it is one of those things -- i am one of those, you look in the legislation, you see what works, you need to tweak or make some changes -- you make those changes. instead of saying no changes at all. that is wrong. the other extreme about appealing -- repealing the whole thing is wrong. journal"e wall street

reporting that the house bill, keep your plan act of 2013, will come up for an up or down vote on the floor without any opportunity for lawmakers to offer amendments. guest: it goes to this where what is wrong with congress is when somebody wants to pass a bill and not take any input from democrats, that is wrong. i wish they would have sat down with the democrat leadership and said, here is a passive leadership we want to pass, can we work this out? there was no talking between the democrats and republicans. the republican majority decided to do it. there is one key word there that may. insurance companies may. it is not a mandatory. it is permissive language. that keyword is may. even if you pass this legislation, insurance companies could say, no we are not going

to continue this on that. the word is made. look at the legislation. the word is may. host: the senate legislation is must. it is mandatory. guest: there is a big difference. host: do you think the white house gets behind this legislation and makes the insurance companies keep their coverage? guest: that is the discussion the white house needs to get away from. we are not going to change a single word. that is what we up to get away from the republicans. the republicans are saying we are going to do it our way or the highway. nobody is talking to each other in congress to find a solution. the american public wants to see a solution to this issue. we're talking about health care and soon we will be talking about sequester and the budget. that is something we need to be talking soon. right now, the topic of the day is health care and we are to be talking to each other, including the white house should be talking to us instead of saying that nobody is going to make any

changes and the republicans are not taking input from the democrats. that is wrong. host: glenda in louisiana. it democrat. caller: i am too small businesses in louisiana. i had a bad back. i went to the state with their insurance. applet $1000 a month. blue cross took me a $569. this year it is $792. next year it will be $1000 a month. i cannot afford it. if i can get off of my pain medicine -- i have two herniated discs. i have an employee who went to the emergency room three times last year and does not have insurance. her husband does not have insurance. we are paying for that. these people who did not want to get insurance, they are going to go to the emergency room and we are going to pay for it. i think everybody should have insurance. kudos for obama for standing up

for what he believes in and shame on mary landry who says it is all about politics. were insurance companies dropping people, they are dropping them because they cannot make the kind of money that they are making under the new law. i looked at those insurance companies. there is no way i would take one of them. yourpay $100 per day for hospital. that is not even to change your sheets. -- youi don't know mentioned blue cross blue shield. keep in mind in some states, a lot of times insurance companies -- one insurance company controls the whole market. in the past, they could pretty much raise their insurance premiums. now there are patient protections that are out there under this health care. thatf them is making sure there is no lifetime holds on that. you mentioned you are a small businessperson. i have been a small business

person before. if you're a small business person there are tax credits up to 35% of whatever premiums you pay. starting january of next year, up to 50% of the premiums, if you have less than 10 employees. there are a lot of circumstances you have to look at. , i was a small- business owner, i appreciate how hard it is to start a business. that is what makes america best, the entrepreneurship that people like you have. cuellar.gressman henry and member of texas as well. thank you very much for talking to our viewers. we're going to talk to a member of leadership in the senate side for the republican senator john barrasso will be here from wyoming. later, we will discuss gridlock in washington and how the american people can help lay a role in ending it.

first a news update from c-span radio. the aircraft carrier uss george washington and its strikeforce have arrived in the philippines. the sets 21 helicopters to the search of some of the most inaccessible areas of the typhoon devastated region. he u.s. has pledged one million dollars in emergency shelter, food, water, and other supplies to the philippines. the defense department's specific command is helping s.stribute the supplies here russia's foreign minister is commenting on the talks. world powers got ever so close to a deal with iran. accepted a u.s. draft proposal. last-minute amendments blocked an accord. his accounts fit with comments from iran and world powers. he did not mention which country

got in the way, but others say france had raised some concerns. an update on the situation in egypt. the foreign minister says that cairo is not trying to replace the united states as its key ally, despite speculation generated by a rare top-level russian visit today. cairo would like to boost ties with moscow. a majort indicative of policy shift. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. i never saw anything like it when i landed. there was broken equipment, there was bodies all over the place. they had and yet buried anyone. i did the japanese or the americans. there were bodies without arms, without heads, completely eviscerated. there is a smell that you never get over, to this day when i

drive by a cemetery, especially if they're using recycled water i really think i can smell the dead bodies. >> one of the reasons they took -- they had to fly 1000 miles to get to tokyo and go over iwo jima. they also had pursuit planes there that could shoot down the b-29s when they were returning. it got so bad that a friend of , he told me there that they had submarines almost every 50 miles between tokyo and saipan. >> the battle for iwo jima, told by the men who were there. saturday at 5:00 eastern, part of american history tv on c-span 3. >"washington journal" continues.

host: we want to welcome the senator john barrasso, the chairman of the republican policy committee. member of the leadership and former orthopedic surgeon. guest: thank you for having me back. host: let's get your reaction to the headlines about the numbers of people who have enrolled in the federal health care exchange. what is your reaction? guest: shockingly low. the number of people who are able to register and that federal exchanges or fewer than a have at a good weekend at football game in wyoming. they were hoping to have 500,000 in the month of october. there are about 100,000. the real problem is of course that over 4 million people have gotten letters canceling their insurance. the president has made his promise. if you like what you have, you can keep it -- period.

now over 4 million people have gotten letters that they have lost their insurance. republicans will be on the floor of the senate today reading from those letters. you see this high anxiety with the democrats now, greta. that is the headlines as well because members of the house and senate of both parties are hearing from people at home that said, hey, wait a second, the president promised me, if i liked my insurance i could keep it. how am finding that i have lost the coverage, my doctor may not be on the exchange, we don't know if we will be able to go to our same hospital. i can't even go and shop in the exchange to try to buy something. those who have been getting on, many are saying it is a lot more expensive than the thought. host: if republicans are genuinely concerned about those who have lost their coverage, then should house republicans their language for the vote act ofw, keep your plan 2013, change it from insurance companies may continue with

those current plans to must continue to cover those people with those plans? guest: i don't believe the president wants that to happen easier -- either. ae president's plan is making lot of healthy young people buy insurance, more than they need, more than they want, more than they will ever use, more than they can afford, making them by o cover older, less healthy individuals. i'm not sure the president even supports that. i want to make the president's words the truth. if you like what you have, you can keep it. those are the issues that we are facing right now is a nation. the president needs to come the fact that he was selected based on competence and trust. now what majority of the people believe he actually intentionally deceived them with his pledge and they are saying massive incompetence and

mismanagement by this administration. the president keeps talking about his team. this is the team that fumbles the ball, trips over themselves, and really ought to be sent back to the minor leagues. and: as a former doctor someone who has looked into this law and health insurance, do you believe insurance companies will are really going to pick up those people that they dropped? guest: i think they would like to. the law is out there. it is a matter of what you can do to allow them to do that. allow people -- to to buy the insurance that they like that has been canceled. these companies have known for a long time that they were going to have to cancel this. we went to the senate floor three years ago as republicans and said, mr. president, look at the law that we passed. but the regulations that have come out. people are not going to be able to keep their -- we had a vote on it. on the senate floor. to allow people to keep their coverage three years ago, before

the insurance had to change all of the plants. ,very democrat in lockstep regrettably, voted against it, otherwise we would not be in the fix we are in today. every one of those democrats who is running for cover today, and i understand why because they are hearing from angry constituents at home, they had a chance three years ago and they said no. the president said none of this would happen. they believed him, rather than believing what was written in the federal register. host: if the president comes up with an administrative fix, you would support that? if the president says, i am behind senator mary landrieu's legislation that would mandate these insurance companies pick up the people that was lost, you are yes but on that -- yes vote on that? the president has continued to it more this law any time he thought it was convenient. he tried over the fourth of july break last time when people were

paying attention to other things said am a we are not going to put forth the mandate that employers provide insurance this year. we're just going to push that off for a year. he said we are not going to makey if people actually how much money they say they make. we are going to send out all of these subsidies to people. forget about what the law says. pay no attention. the president ought to respect the law that he had passed, that he had made promises on. for any change, he should come to congress and ask for changes. he ought to come to congress with those and not just do more waivers, which he has done for unions, business, for members of congress. it is wrong. people understand that. this is why the health-care law is even more unpopular today than it was when it was passed. host: ron. democratic caller. florida. caller: good morning, sir. vet, i will take a

small live from this president than a big lie from my previous president that took us into two ,ars that were lied about totally and completely, from day one. that were taken unfunded on a credit card. forre going to be paying those. i heard an apology for my president now. my were president, i never heard in the press -- my war president, i never heard an apology from him or from anybody else that lied about weapons of mass destruction or where a billion dollars went -- $8 went.n

i would rather have health care and save american lives here at home then send friends and relatives over there to die for a lie. i would rather have an apology forome for a misstatement 5% of the country, then ruin a whole country over a complete myth, lie. thank you for your service to our country. my dad was a veteran of world war ii. he was in the battle of the bulge. my wife's father was in the battle of the bulge and in korea. we honor all of our veterans and are very grateful for your service. wyoming is an incredibly patriotic state with high numbers of those who served. once again, this year on thanksgiving, i will be with our troops overseas thanking them

for the incredible commitment continue to make to keep us safe. about thealked president apologizing. the president did so in an interview. without enough? tickets alsot problem for the 4 million individuals who gotten letters of rejection that they no longer have their insurance. what is he going to do about it? that they poll said don't think it was a sincere apology. they think of was him for political purposes. we want real solutions. i am a doctor. i know that the health-care system was broken and we needed to deal with health care reform. neither party has done a good job of that. that should have been addressed. it should have been addressed prior to this and i saw that is one of the reasons i got involved first as a state senator and the today -- and then as they u.s. senator. so in a people wanted to do health care form -- reform

because of the cost. the president did not focus on that. he focused on covering more people. under his plan, 10 years from now 30 million people will not have coverage. the president keeps using the word coverage, which is not the same as care. just become you give -- because you give somebody a card and say you have coverage, something like medicaid, many doctors are not able to take that many patients on medicaid because the reimbursement is so low it does not even cover the expenses of running an office. i really want to focus on care and the cost of care and high- quality care, not empty coverage , which is what a lot of people are getting from the president. host: a tweet -- guest: companies change

products, what they sell year after year. i saw that when i was in the wyoming state senate. no one can actually make a company sell something. companies can vote with their feet and say we are out of this business. we have seen that happen. more have happened as a result of the regulations and the increasing mandates that are coming out of the health-care law. the problem is that people who have what they like are losing that. i have a letter from a lady in newcastle, wyoming. we will go to the floor of the senate and i hope people will stay soon -- turned to cease have to and -- tuned to c-span. she says we are ranchers, we buy our own health insurance. we currently pay $650 a month 80/20 policy. she says we don't carry maternity insurance as we have completed our family. i'm 45 years old and i have had a hysterectomy.

canceled ands been the reason is that she does not have -- is that it does not include what the president mandates -- maternity coverage. she says, i don't need that. i have had a hysterectomy. but she still needs to pay for that so that the rates for -- they'repolicies going to be $1300 a month. she says we cannot afford that. they pay the rent bills. they are a ranching family. a hard-working family and wyoming. because of the law, she cannot buy the insurance she wants or needs that is right for her, right for her family. she has to buy something that the president, who thinks he might be smarter than this ranch lady, what he says she needs to buy, not what she needs to buy for herself. host: steve in cincinnati. republican. caller: there is overwhelming evidence that this is not about politics.

it is about facing scientific reality and finding out what really happened. would you support a new investigation of building seven's distraction on 9/11? give you a little context. there is a group out there that does not believe that the government did an adequate job investigating what really happened on 9/11 and that they are organized your it they call into shows like ours expressing their first amendment right and challenging members of congress like yourself to answer the investigation. the you think it was thorough enough? guest: yes, i do. host: let's move on. independent caller in texas. independent because i like to view these things through a lens that if i disagree with a republican policy, i can do it. if i disagree with democratic policy, i can do the same. one of the questions i do the same -- i have on this whole

rollout and the technology is that i was the manager of acquisitions of products and services for large corporation for years. i don't understand the government in this case the democrats, going ahead without a aocess of selecting technological firm that was going to roll out one of the history of the country. i understand that there were 10 companies that were prequalified that the democrats selected their top one, cgi out of canada. who were the other nine? messed it up bad. here is a canadian firm. i used of that people very closely before even had them. . even after the bid i would that the process even closer. canada a firm out of

that had been fired by the canadian government for messing directory program when they were $46 million into the program and 14 months behind. that would have disqualified them immediately for me as far as i was concerned. evidently, it did not. furthermore, when you are qualifying a from, you look for the best and the brightest. you're in america -- here in america -- i would like to know -- i missed the cgi hearings. i did see the highlights afterwards. -- all we have to do is look at ebay, amazon, google -- all of these are huge companies that went through a process and have great technological knowledge as to who set up their websites. i don't even know if they were contacted. i wonder if you have any other background on this and i will listen off the air. thank you. guest: thank you for your call.

been additional reports about ties between this company and members of the administration. you may want to go into it. you make a couple of key points. daysresident, just a few before the rollout and the opening of the website, the president was with bill clinton in new york and he told the american people that this was going to be easier to use than amazon. that people were going to have rates cheaper than their cell phone bill and if you like what you have you will keep it. this is been a huge debacle. just the issue of security and identity theft has been huge to the point that it was a front page story in "the new york times" on sunday morning. the administration knew it and ignored it and they still went forward. the website is just the tip of the iceberg. there are fundamental flaws with this health-care law that go to the fact that people are losing

their coverage. it is being canceled. the sticker shock of the premiums that are going up so high compared to what people have paid previously. the issues of fraud, higher co- ,ays out of people's pockets more money in terms of higher deductibles, as we heard from this woman who has written to me from newcastle, wyoming. there are all of these issues that are out there which are going to continue to unfold and i will tell you that the cancellation letters, they will continue and accelerate next mandate, the employer the one that the president unilaterally delayed for one year, when those mandates come in, i think we will see businesses from all across the country say, it is easier and cheaper to pay the fine then it is to try to pay these very insurance rates for all of these folks. you will have more folks lose their coverage under this

health-care law. this number that is now over 4 million, that will more than double between now and a year from now, if not even greater than that. huge numbers of people impacted. i think the democrats who are now finally seeing the damage that has been done to their constituents as a result of this health-care law, we now have across the country many, many basically individuals who are that dems of the law. -- victims of the law. it is worse for them. the website debacle will ultimately at some point be fixed. but the underlying flaws of this are going to continue. "investors business daily" i found that article that you were referencing.

behind another website flawed. a campaign donor for obama. let's go to organ. -- oregon. caller: we had a catastrophic insurance and it was junk insurance and my husband got cancer and our bills were karen this. -- horrendous. tuesday.n cover oregon we are going to get great insurance. it was very co-pay comparable to the junk insurance that was canceled on us as of january 1.

we had to get insurance. these cancellations of insurance , a lot of them were just plain junk insurance and that is what was about.re is that you would not have junk insurance that would not cover certain things. it was of great benefit to us. i am so glad that oregon was on top of this and that cover oregon is doing a great job. to the senator from oregon yesterday about what we can do to help people with chronic conditions in a way that really helps folks. obviously, this is gotten a successful outcome. but for every one of those, there are others that are not in that same situation. there is a woman who has written and been interviewed -- a cancer

patient, stage four cancer come a losing her coverage now. paidnsurance company has over $1.2 million for her. issues in california. her family physicians are in san diego. she goes to stanford for her cancer care. it has all been covered. now that is lost. under the exchanges, she is not able to continue with her doctor or the cancer coverage. it used to be state-by-state, now it is county by county in terms of what she can get covered and what you cannot. -- she cannot. there are people like colette where there are improvements. but there are many, many cases -- the problem right now is that for every one person who has been able to sign up, as we saw on the numbers that have come also through the states, for every one person that has been able to sign up, we know that about 42 people have gotten letters of cancellation. this anxiety, as well

as a lot of anger by these folks who are saying, we can go to the website, we can't shop around, it is not working, and yet we are canceled and come december if ourt do wewe cannot find out current doctor is going to be able to care for us and what it will cost us. if the deadline is not until march, is it fair to be critical now? people have weeks and months to shop and decide what to purchase. some people have not hit send or signed the dotted line yet because guest: they are weighing their options. guest:let's make sure we are talking about the same thing. the march issue has to do with when people will be penalized. the mandate that says you have to prove to the irs, the federal government, to the enforcers of the health-care law that you have insurance. that is correct. but what if your insurance company has written to you and .aid, your insurance ends

we are done at the end of this year. you want to be insured. you want to have something to help you and your family. you want to be insured. you are not worried about the fact that you have to pay the fine or not come april 1. you want insurance now. i will tell you as a doctor, and having talked to doctors around the country, able getting these notices that they are going to lose insurance -- they have a doctor they like, a hospital they like -- there is an onslaught of patients calling doctors now to say you know that shoulder pain or the knee pain or the hip pain, i had better get a cared for now when i have insurance with a doctor i like that i know it will be covered and i know what my deductible is going to be. they are not worried about a $95 fine. they are worried about finding insurance that they can afford. that is a bigger threat to the theth and concern and

anxiety of people all across the country. host: from one of our viewers, "how many people do you represent that you -- that are uninsured?" we work closely to lower those numbers with a high risk pool. people get care in wyoming. how do you deal with the uninsured, and how do you lower insurance premiums in ways that people can get insurance? aserage is not the same care, and the president continues to interchange those words. just giving folks medicaid cards, which was the president's plan, does not mean they are going to get across the country the kind of quality care you would like for all americans. host: here is a story from november, 2011, about the health insurance law going into effect will stop it says that, "the law halve the number of

uninsured in wyoming between now and 2016." from kentucky, republican caller. caller: thanks for taking my call. is quiten on this bizarre. my son has insurance. i am on disability, and i am really feeling sorry for the that are getting their insurance taking away from them -- that are getting their insurance taken away from them. it is all going to come back. companies,urance they are not going to want to take the fall for this. it is going toward the doctors and the insurance companies. the other insurance companies -- does the president really think that the insurance companies are going to take a loss like that?

know, they are not going to take a loss. that means a doctor who goes to school for years. you are actually trying to lower the cost of care for people so people can buy insurance. you are on disability. i worry about people with printed -- with pre-existing conditions. my wife is a breast cancer survivor, has had three operations, been through two full rounds of chemotherapy. as a doctor as well as a husband, i know the impact of pre-existing conditions on people. we have to have a solution for folks with pre-existing conditions. in wyoming we have a high risk pool weather is subsidy to help , and thosepremiums with pre-existing conditions pay a higher rate. you have a combination of

patient contribution as well as government contribution. but with the health-care law we have now, with what is called thecommunity rating, youngest, healthiest, most fit individual, they can only be ofrged a third at the most what the older, sicker individual would be charged. as a result, the only way this works is if they make a lot of healthy young people pay more than they would normally have to pay for the same product and biological or insurance than they would need or use or want by a lot of insurance that they would need or use or want. -- "i do notmail get to buy what is right for my family. i am forced to use what my husband's company thinks is right.

what a choice that is." a perfect world you should have portability and people should make their own decisions on insurance. one of the better ways to do that is for each of those people to have choices. but there is a tax differential in the way people are treated, whether they get insurance through work or buy it individually. i have a whole framework of different things we could do much better in a step-by-step way rather than this massive government approach. one of those is to level the playing field so that people like allison, if they decide to buy their insurance and not get it through work but get it individual, that they would be treated fairly and have the same tax advantages that people get if they get their insurance through work. so there are absolutely good solutions to a lot of these problems that i think the president has made worse through bill withve 2700 page

20,000 pages of regulations. an independent in whitehall, arkansas. caller: thank you for taking my call. now, let's start this thing at the beginning. here is my opinion. before barack obama could even sit down in the oval office, the republican party made it very clear that they were not going to work with this president on anything. so much at one point, they were called the party of no. they said no to everything -- health care, the whole nine yards. i am for criticism, but i am for positive criticism, not destructive criticism. if the republicans really want to make things work, why don't they say to the president or to the white house or whomever,

let's put some amendments in place to make this thing work. since we all agree that everyone in the country needs health insurance, why don't we put forth some amendments to make this thing work? and then when they shut the government down, they never articulate how much and how many people were affected healthwise -- hospitals, veterans, people in all kinds of sick situations -- that it costs. i want to hear them articulate how much it cost the government for the time they shut the government down. would say we had a roundtable discussion at the white house three years ago or so, at which i was a participant, along with the president. we came forward with a number of different proposals. the president rejected all of

them on the floor -- the president rejected all of them. on the floor of the senate, we came forward with dozens of dozens of amendments. the president and the democrats rejected all of them. they were aimed from the standpoint of a doctor, to help people get more affordable care, it wasle care, and patient centered care rather than government centered care. this law was passed on strict partyline vote basis because the president rejected all of the amendments and the proposals that the republicans brought. now we are in a situation where the president and certainly democrats in congress and in the senate are seeing and hearing from folks back home saying this was not what you promised us. this was not what you told us, and we do not like it. what can you do for us now?

because we are in a worse situation. you ask people across the country, under this health-care law, you think you're going to pay more or less for your care? people will tell you they think they are going to pay more. you ask them if they think the quality of their care is going to get better or worse, they think it will get worse. nobody wants to pay more and get less, but that is what people across the country are seeing, which is why the democrats are in this state of high anxiety. >> paul is next, republican from pennsylvania. caller: you touched on this a little bit recently. since i started dialing a half an hour ago. the affordable care act is not properly named. the affordable insurance act. you are not really buying of care. i am not sure the health is any more affordable. i will give you my example of

where i think it should be going. -- she hurtughter her ankle earlier this year. i walked in and i asked them for a price list and they gave it to me. it listed what part of the area they would x-ray, what the prices were. so i said yes. came inroken, so they with a boot to put on her foot and explained that it was broken . i started asking questions, and i asked them how much the boot cost and they could not tell me. the doctor could not tell me. andink he got into a half walked out and said take off the boot. i asked the nurse and she was able to tell me. people do not ask how much their health care costs. they just think insurance is going to pay for it. i'm sorry, i am going to pay for

it because it is a deductible. i have coverage through my employer. i am covered, but that does not mean i am not paying for it. guest: paul, you are absolutely right. when people use auto insurance, they stand -- they think about it not from just when they are filling up the gas, but when they have major issues. folks use health insurance pretty much all the time when they have health concerns. the more people who ask questions like you did, i think that would be better if that happened all the time and there was transparency and people could see what things were costing. when people think about it as their own money, i think people are really smart consumers that way. many people think the government is paying, the insurance company right, it-- you are is all ultimately either coming from your insurance premiums, tax dollars, paying that way. what most people focus on what is coming out of their own

wallet or pocketbook or purse. i think people, when they think about what is deductible and whether they have met their deductible or co-pays for the year, a lot of folks go into the end of the year with free operation because they have met their co-pay because they are smart consumers. what you're talking about is patients being better informed consumers and using health care , that young like that are purchasing rather than somebody else is paying for and do not worry about it. ,ost: nelsonville, ohio independent caller. can you make it quick? caller: yes. the first thing i want to ask is, how did we as americans get to here? the government says you choose this plan or that plan or you

will be fine. what does that sound like to you? you will take this or that or that and we will fine you? to me it sounds constitutional because the supreme court said you have the right to do that. i was on the other side of that. i don't think the government has the right to say you have to buy this approved product. obviously i voted against it and supported efforts to try to find it unconstitutional. that is the major question -- can the government do that? the court says yes, they can. towill continue to try repeal this health-care law and replace it with a step-by-step approach that helps people get the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower cost, things that are not happening now. host: senator john barrasso, thank you, sir. we will keep taking your phone

calls about the affordable care act, and those numbers released by the white house yesterday on healthcare.gov. first a quick news update from c-span radio, and we will be right back. 9:14 a.m. eastern time. the number of people applying for an implement benefits dipped by 2000 last week. applications, which are a proxy for layoffs, are back near pre- recession layoffs -- pre- recession levels. the commerce department says the u.s. trade deficit widened while exports slipped. to $42icit increased billion, up eight percent from august. it was the largest trade gap since may. so far this year, the deficit is running 12% below the pace of 2012. president obama talked about the economy today in ohio.

he is likely to address the status of the health-care loss after you -- health-care law after yesterday's news on enrollment numbers. you can watch it today on c- span3. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> if you are a middle or high school student, c-span student camp video competition wants to know what is the most important issue congress should address next year? for a five-minute video your chance at prizes. the deadline is january 20. get more info at studentcam.org . c-span. we bring public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room for hearings, white house events, briefings, conferences, and offer complete gavel-to-gavel coverage of the u.s. house, all as a service.

c-span -- funded by your local cable or satellite provider. now you can watch us in hd. "washington journal" continues. host: we are back and our conversation continues about the first month of healthcare.gov. 106,185ers are out -- are signed up for both federal and state health care exchanges. when you break that number down, according to "usa today" and others, only 26,794 signed up through the federal website healthcare.gov. " --headline from "usa today "a shocking shortfall." we want to get your thoughts on that. host: you can also send us a

tweet or post your thoughts on facebook.com/c-span. that is on the front page of "usa today." on the front page of "the washington journal" -- "in the preferredwhite house administration remedies to the officialre coming, but suggested wednesday that president obama was open to a bill that would require insurers to require insurers to continuing offering plans that were in existence this year, even if it meant reinstating ones that had been canceled because they did not meet the health standards. the magnitude will become clear friday when the house is set to vote on a separate republican plan to let insurance companies to continue to offer policies canceled recently. that vote may push mr. obama to

move friday to offer his own administrative remedy or more landrieu'sce mary bill." white house chief of staff denis sendough, talking to democrats today about what is next. the house vote tomorrow is expected to come to an up or down vote with no opportunity for lawmakers to offer amendments. also from yesterday's hearing before the house oversight government and reform committee about the technical glitches with healthcare.gov -- here is the headline in "the washington journal." white house aides grilled on website woes. to ourmissed that, go website, c-span.org. "the wall street journal" healthcare.gov has cost north of $6 million, spent so far. patrick in have revealed --

patrick in have revealed, massachusetts. what do you think of the numbers? caller: everyone needs to call him down. let the exchanges work. it will all come down in the end. take massachusetts. the same thing happened in massachusetts. that littlebout bit. people are saying when massachusetts rolled out their exchange, the first month the numbers were very low as well. caller: yeah, extremely. it is going to take a long time back in traction on everything to get it to roll. it is going to be a long time. it is not going to be smooth. host: did the numbers pick up in massachusetts, then? caller: well, everyone is insured at this point.

98.5% orething like something like that. host: "the wall street journal" said the site in california had people picking private health plans. 2, 30 5000, 364. 35,364. -- ugh tuesday art in clearwater, kansas. republican caller. caller: hello. i actually have three comments on the aca, and one of just a reminder of the beginning of it. being calledlicans the party of no. however, the aca was passed

without prior examination of content and without bipartisan debate and carefully adjusting. long wayhat was a very to implement a new law. , myove on beyond that spouse has a plan that is being terminated at the end of june because that is the end of the plan year. the memo comes from her employer, saying that this is being terminated at that time because of the aca, and it was actually a very good plan. so i am not real happy with that. a christian program is another one that you can get into, and it is exempted and specifically in the aca, so that is just another alternative. i apologize for my voice. host: all right.

darrell, maryland, independent color. theer: i am calling about gentleman from texas about the affordable care act. cuellar.s, congressman caller: all the medical insurance is so expensive, we all know that. i am 73. of all the people coming in and children, they are not going to be paying more taxes. we don't have them -- god bless them, they don't have it. they used to come in legally, but now there are more illegals than legals. "is itave on twitter --

possible that this health-care thatill convince everyone health insurance should not be a for-profit business?" david? caller: more people have visited the website than the 106000 and have been successful. half a million people have visited and found health care that they wanted, they just have not signed up for a particular one just yet. askew.bers look kind of i guess that testament to perhaps our society taking too much of the strawman debate and taking it literally, like it is the truth or what have you. notes in theiry" piece that kathleen sebelius noted in her talents conference call with reporters that more than one million people have

made it through the application process. "even with the issues we have had, the marketplace is working and people are enrolling. as more people shop and talk things over with their families, we expect these numbers to rise." silvan, republican line. typical democrat crap. all these obama voters are calling in every day on c-span. they must not be calling in to get their obamacare. they must be stupid or lazy to sign up. host: joe, jacksonville, florida. caller: how are you?

sounds like you're battling between everybody this morning. the whole problem boils down to is that we sat quietly and allowed our leaders in congress to pass a bill without having read it. if they would have just read the bill, they could have seen all these things were wrong with it and said wait a minute, we need to look at this better. pushed through on a straight party line. to address that, and now they are all about let's fix it. you know what? let's start from scratch and fix it the right way. host: so start over? right. these people are sitting in their bank pushing -- sitting in there pushing all kinds of

things through. you have to have a bipartisan approach. if you do not, you are never going to get a consensus in the country. host: all right, joe. up on capitol hill today starting at 10:00 a.m., in about a half an hour, the senate banking committee will hold its confirmation hearing for janet yellen to become the next federal reserve chairman. we will have coverage of that at .0:00 a.m. on c-span3 tune in if you are interested in what she has to say about the economy and what her policies asl be if she is confirmed the next federal reserve chairman. "the wall street journal" headline says that janet yellen is expected to say from testimony that was released yesterday that the economy still needs federal aid. the u.s. preview -- continues to recover from recession, but unemployment at

gh." is still too hi tune in at 10:00 a.m. on c-span3 . yesterday on capitol hill, the house and senate budget countries got together before their mid december deadline. "the washington times" headline is that the ceo who testified before the committee gives the budget negotiators an earful, saying that though he encouraged a short-term solution over doing nothing, he left no question that long-term reforms are needed eventually, especially to manage social security and medicaid costs. congress has three choices -- cut entitlements, increase revenue, or cut other programs. you don't have a choice about doing at least one of those things. you can do one or two or three if you choose to, what at least one of those things will have to change. the ceo put forth several

options in which they could save money, ranging from social security reform to increasing taxes on cigarettes to canceling the navy's plans to acquire more holistic missile submarines -- more ballistic missile submarines. some that would save the most include reducing the size of the imposing a $25 tax per metric ton on greenhouse gases." also, secretary of state john kerry was on capitol hill meeting with numbers of congress behind closed doors about talks in geneva to convince air and -- to convince iran to give up its nuclear arsenal. asking to hold -- asking the secretary of state to hold off on more sanctions to give the geneva talks more time. the israeli prime minister has publicly come out against the

deal being worked out so far. los angeles, democratic caller. what do you make of the aca numbers for healthcare.gov? caller: i think that we need to kind of just call him down -- to calm down and allow the law to actually start working. i in california have had no problem with signing up. i got my health-care coverage and was able to get everything taken care of with no problem. i think that if we can get our government to work together to help this law actually work instead of vilifying it so much and vilifying the people who created it in a way that forward aso go americans who all need health- care coverage, and get health line you will see down the

that there will be great benefits. host: chuck in texas, republican caller. caller: good morning. ok, yes, ma'am. 47-year career agent here in texas. texas has laws to deal with insurance and the agents that sell it. i am telling you that if barack obama was an agent in texas, his license would be revoked. he would be severely fined and possibly get some jail time. why? because he has lied about the product that he is selling in texas. the next thing is texas has to border with-mile the country of mexico. the federal government refuses to enforce the laws of that border and this nation.

therefore, we have people running across this border to get whatever. and when they do and they wind up in the emergency room, you and i have to pay for their care. host: ok, chuck. an e-mail -- "people who are going to lose their health care are the same people who benefit from insurance companies that discriminated against sick people by not covering them or dropped when they did get sick or co. springfield, missouri, high, doug. what are your thoughts this morning? for yourhank you services. i watched c-span a lot. i watched the debates over the health-care bill on c-span. not one time was there ever a republican alternative. all the amendments the sender --tioned earlier that was on i got on late and missed it --

but i wanted to ask him -- he said the amendments that they but toced were nothing be funded or for the insurance companies. i watched the whole debate. i just want to know what their alternative is to this point rather than vote 43 times in the house. front page of "the wall street journal" has a business story that might be of interest to you about startups. many of you heard about the twitter ipo last week. this from "the wall street journal." in the size -- in the sign of the fervor rising up once again, the ceo of a 2 --year-old a $3ny has rejected billion buyout offer. cofounderincorporated

spurned an all cash offer from facebook for close to $3 billion, according to the people briefed on the matter. the financial times this morning has this story about fannie and freddie. funds pushed $50 billion deals forward and two quasi-government agencies. pitching away for the u.s. government to wind down the fort in -- the mortgage finance group. and have already encountered skepticism in washington. group of hedge funds and private equity company's has drawn up a proposal to create to private sector firms to take over the job of ensuring trillions of dollars of u.s. mortgages, in return for restoring value to fannie and freddie's preferred shares that were wiped out after the bailout of 2008." to speed housing finance reform there remains bogged down in

congress, while also allowing politicians to say that they have killed fannie and freddie. the senate banking committee highlighted several political challenges, including the fact that the unpopular hedge fund sectors behind the idea, and treasury secretary officials, scoffed at the proposal. we are talking about the affordable care act and the new numbers released by the white house yesterday. of those that enrolled in healthcare.gov, earl, and florida, democratic caller. number you think of the enrolled in federal and state exchanges? caller: at least somebody if they get sick can go to the hospital. but i want to give you a personal story this morning about people who do not have health insurance. a member of my family was 35 years old and had a job, and he

got laid off. hegot found out that when was working he became a diabetic. he lost insurance, and when he lost insurance, he could not afford to go. his job and worked on his job a little part-time job, and he could walk around the could not even see how to walk around the park. , thehe went to the doctor doctor found that he was getetic, and he could not medical care for over a year. his kidneys failed and he had become partially blind. i want to tell all the young people in america, if you do not think this can happen to you, you have another story. .e's 35 years old

he has got to go on disability and he has a wife and kids that he has to look out for. headlines for you. "the washington post" reports on flyers screening of actions is criticized. to decide who is a risk, a problem. the gao is recommending congress stop funding the program, which costs over 870 $8 million since its launch in 2007. also on the front page of "the washington post," the secret service in the headlines. "secret service agents have been removed from obama detail. the agent in charge of his detail has gotten into some trouble in washington," so that is on the front page of that newspaper.

on gay marriage -- activists rally. "today same-sex marriage is legal. knowing afterelin government -- governor pat quinn, will sign the bill. that makes 16 states plus the district of columbia where two men or two women may legally wed. we told you earlier that the front page of the newspaper this morning, "the washington times," house speaker john boehner has put the brakes on comprehensive immigration reform while president obama met with religious leaders yesterday at the white house, aiming to intensify his push for immigration reform on capitol hill. , real quick,andy in brooksville, kentucky, republican caller. what are your thoughts on the health-care numbers? >> it is nice to finally get through and be able to speak my

voice. host: we are listening, sandy. go ahead. caller: i have been watching this from day one, before the implementation of the so-called law to the present. has been in effect all this time. my health care, i have had two back surgeries and i need another one. i will not go there. i don't have the time to do the time. bite on my have a foot that i am having to go in and out of the hospital to get antibiotics because my foot may come off. i am worried about sepsis, which is lead poisoning. i cannot get any -- which is blood poisoning. the doctor prescribed me antibiotics. host: what do you want to

happen? we are running out of time here. caller: i want these politicians -- and it is political, not a racial issue, it is political. the ones who have health care are -- you want to have health care, we are getting it taken away from us. my representative from my state of kentucky, i want him to come to us and ask us what is going on because we are the ones on hold here. ones like the veterans, being shut out. host: that doesn't it for our conversation about the new numbers on the affordable care act. we want to spend the last 20 minutes of today's "washington journal" talking about gridlock in washington and other issues, and how the american people can play a role in ending it. that coming up next after this quick rate. break.r this quick

>> here is a poem that comes directly out of my boyhood in detroit called "those winter sundays." sundays, two, my father got up early and put his clothing on in the blue-black cold. no one ever thanked him. i would wake and hear the cold splintering breaking. isrobert hayden, i think,

one of the major poets of our time. if you like reading poetry, i take down his looks and open them again and again. his poetry principally, but also his prose. one of the attractive features is all of his poems are written in different styles, in different voices, in different forms and techniques. he was very deliberate about this from the very beginning. well, but theye write essentially the same poem over and over again. but robert hayden was determined to make every poem unique, as unique as it could be. so he writes historical poems, personal poems, comic poems, he writes very exotic and dramatic poems. so he is a fascinating figure because he represents the world

of early detroit in the teens of the 20th century, all the way through the depression, the war, the aftermath of the war. the way that people lived in the 1950's and in 1960's. he is a chronicler of the civil rights movement. there are so many areas where he has written beautifully and compellingly. i am delighted that there is attention being paid to him at his centennial. robertlife of poet hayden this weekend as booktv and american history tv look at the life of ann arbor, michigan. "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with steven kull, founder of voice of the

people. he is here to talk about gridlock in washington. welcome. let me show our viewers with the latest polls show about gridlock and the impact of it. "why americans disapprove of congress' job performance." 59% say it is because of ineffective and partisan gridlock. 19% say performance on certain issues. pour ethics and behavior, 15% other. voting for incumbents, 60% of americans would completely replace all their members of congress, and 35% we keep a selected few. what is going on here? why are people so frustrated with gridlock in washington? of gridlock is quite vivid with the shutdown and all the problems congress is facing. they see that what is behind this is there are special

interests competing him a holy on different sides of congress and that is creating this gridlock. they think congress is paying attention to the special interests, not the people, and they think if they listen to the people more, this kind of gridlock will not happen. piece recently a in the christian science monitor, "the founders believe that the sense of the people would naturally align with the common good and that when elected leaders got at loggerheads, the people who play the role of arbiter. what are you she just think? aret: what the people looking for and what we are looking for is to bring the people to the decisions -- to the table where the decisions are being made. my goal is to create a large relatives -- representative sample of the people. there are numbers in the congressional districts that are

briefed on the issues that hear the arguments are oh and con, and ultimately give their views of what congress should be doing so the congress can really hear from the people. the evidence is that the views of the people are not as paul rise to as congress and they are more apt to move through these impasses. you call them a citizen cabinet. how would it work? caller: pete -- -- peopleple would be would be gathered mathematically , and these people would be collected -- connected online. if they do not have online access, they would be given it. on a regular basis they would go through these processes, what we situations.aking everything about this would be vetted with members on both sides of the aisle -- with staffers, with experts, so that

everybody is sure the presentation is fair and balanced and that the arguments they here are the strongest arguments so that people have the experience just like a member of congress has when they get briefed and they go to the floor and make pro and con arguments and ultimately weigh in. host: how would you make sure it is not just the party bases that in these cabinet committees? with gerrymandering you have a conservative district. when the people want to get involved who would be involved -- wouldn't they be the people that that member already hear from and represents? guest: we asked people, if you were asked to be part of the ,abinet, would you do it i assuming it would be an hour a week. 78% said they would be willing to make that time commitment. americans want their voice heard. a large segment of the population want to be involved, not just the standard activists. they going to be

heard by a member of congress? guest: every member of congress is an example of their constituents. and the senators in their state. host: how would these people make informed decisions? guest: they would be given these briefings. of the situation around a bill or another issue would be presented to them. they may face a problem when dealing with the budget. if you ask do you want to cut the deficit, the majority says yes. do you want to increase taxes? no, i don't really want to increase taxes. do you want to cut spending? no, i don't want to cut spending. so it seems like the public is incoherent, but it turns out if here is people tools,

the discretionary budget broken out, here are the sources of revenue, and here is -- tell us how you want to balance this, how you want to deal with it. what do you think is the best budget we should have. people make decisions, getting constant feedback. when we did that with the representative sample of the public, they cut the deficit quite a lot, over $400 billion for just one year. that was just doing it with a discretionary budget. can deal with the social security shortfall. there is real evidence that when you give people the tools, they go into a problem-solving mode and they do not just look out for their own interests. incomeng we look for is tax rates -- do they favor their own income bracket? they did not. they were basically the same. people do naturally step back and think about the common good. but the decisions they make are

not necessarily in their self- interest. "specialm a viewer -- interests have controlled congress for decades. why is the public sentiment rising against that now?" as it happens, it is natural that the public become more marginalized. members -- you would think with the internet that all those people would have better means of communicating with their members, but it has just created a cacophony. really sort it out. so what you really need is a scientific approach will stop get a representative sample. the other part of it is a lot of the things that people say are andd on this information, they are expressing a concern about this, about that and not

looking at the whole big picture and making a recommendation. the people think and the founders thought that is really what the founders called the calm and deliberate of the community, the solutions that people come to when they have a chance to consider. that is what should be guiding government, and this is a means to create that voice. "politicians -- work for the corporations. bernie sanders said all laws written are for big business. we do not fall for the red/blue checkers." next caller. caller: i really appreciate what you are on to with this guest. don't know what we can expect from apathetic and ignorant voters that do not know the issues. i want you to comment on the

real bad gerrymandering that took lace in ohio -- that took place in ohio. we get all of these congressional representatives who are republicans, and i will hang up and listen to your comment. guest: gerrymandering is another thing that has happened that has reduced the representativeness and the competitiveness and the relevance of the public because it is driven by the party. we want to give the public as a whole a voice, not just the way that the party is going to have an impact by gerrymandering or getting money from special interests and trying to promote their candidates or their message. it is getting to the views of the people. .ost people are not so partisan when people are presented arguments pro and con on these issues, we have found that in most cases the majority finds

the pro-arguments convincing somewhat and the con arguments convincing somewhat. looking on both sides of the issue, they say there is something valuable on both sides, let's try to find a way to have both of those values integrated into what we make in terms of laws and policy. ,ost: steve is up next independent caller. caller: good morning. thanks goodness for c-span. i have two questions. see america kull today, as a democracy or a republic? my second question -- how do you todayhe american state of ? would we be better off as a democracy or a republic? founders. back to the the founders thought in terms of a republic with democratic

principles guiding it. we need leaders thinking in terms of excited -- of the common good guided by the sense of the people. that is why they start off with the phrase, "we the people." is what the founders thought should happen. leaders have more information and they need to make decisions. the american people agree with that. but they need to be guided by the people, by the values of the people and the founders said when they got to loggerheads, when they were having trouble making decisions, then the public could come in and play the role of arbiter's, thomas jefferson said. when that happens, they can help break the logjam. host: from california, republican caller. caller: about the gridlock, my view is that it would be caused by the lack of a budget.

by not having a federal budget, it allows both sides to stay apart. what should happen is they should come together and get a budget. there are going to be sticking points, and that is where the president has to step in and break the logjam. an example that would be the six -panel superpower for the sequester. 6. deadlocked at 6- president obama should have stepped in and made a decision on the two points going forward. but the lack of budget for the last six or seven years has allowed both sides to stay apart, and that is the primary cause for the gridlock. budget would be very valuable to find a common framework for how to move forward. this is another example where the public can play an important role. when people are given the budget, they are able to come together and find a coherent budget that makes sense, that

reduces the deficit. again the problem of polarization, and this is most likely rooted to a large extent in the special interests that have had an impact on members, encouraging them or demanding that they be more rigid. when there is that rigidity on both sides, it is hard to come together and find common ground and create something like a wedge it. -- like a budget. ofefully we will have a way creating a model for that and leading the way and encourage members on both sides to show similar flexibility and move toward common ground. host: sea of tranquility treats that the negative aspects of gridlock is ginned up by the press? more laws do not equal good laws, aca website? aest: sometimes it is

question of finding the kind of common sense about the issues that can guide with the policies that are made as well as the laws that are made and just the way that congress deals between the parties between congress and the executive branch. host: so the cabinet that you want to set up where people would let the members of congress know how they feel on certain big issues -- why not go ahead and just start that? why not work with a member of congress right now and say we want to set this up, you should help us do this? guest: it is funny that you should say that because that is what voice of the people is doing. you can read about it on our website. somee beginning to build cabinets in states and districts working with members interested in doing this, so we will begin

with foundation money to start building those cabinets one at a time. we ultimately see this as a public/private partnership, that the public needs to play a role, and thus we are looking for donations to help out toward the citizen cabinets. that is the purpose of the voice of the people organization. "the armory cause of gridlock is the absence of your marks." -- of earmarks." guest: i don't know that i would agree with that. earmarks are controversial. it would be constructive and help counter some of the effect of special interests through the earmarks. host: we go to sean next.

democratic caller. caller: good morning. hello, mr. kull. as the limits of congressional reform? do you ever foresee partial elimination of the house? if the original intention was to have the most responsive body of elected officials, do you think this could be replaced with something from federal or social media platform? do you think this would be more effective? it seems like elections have been decided based on scandals. in 2006 i think there were close to 20 congressional scandals in the house. people really are not voting based on issues, they are voting on gossip. host: all right. steven kull? think we will

have a complete transformation of the structure of congress. we have some trouble on the agreement of running the daily business of congress, the budget, and so on. but i do think there are reforms that have the potential for reducing the influence of money and for moving beyond polarization and giving the people of voice. host: for more information, you can go to vop.org. in house is about to gavel their morning session. president obama will address the issue of the affordable care act and those who have dropped 11:35 a.m. eastern time. go to c-span.org for more details. [captioning perfmed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]