on the key supreme court decisions of 2013. we will be joined by mark tushnet, harvard university law professor. capitol christmas tree. phone opening up our lines for you. you want to know who you think that person is and why he or she deserves the title. phone lines are open. democrats -- if you are outside the u.s. --

catch up with us on all your favorite social media pages on facebook or twitter or e-mail us. you.y good morning to thank you for joining us on this christmas morning. talking about your political heroes for 2013. the question is up on the facebook page. we will also be reading your tweets this morning. this question posted on the facebook page last night. already over 1200 response to it. allen writes in on the facebook page, elizabeth warren is the best senator we have up there. taking on the big tanks and student loan debt crisis. says--low that tony

a few other heroes being pointed says ted cruzle or rand paul is her hero. the phone lines are open. we will be taking your calls on the subject. edward snowden, the subject of plenty of news of late. here is the piece by amy goodman in the albuquerque journal this morning. calling snowden an amendment hero. also, some news on edward .nowden, and i'm the ap yesterday edward snowden will speak directly to britain and

the televised christmas message today stressing the importance of privacy and urging an end to government surveillance. the television channel said tuesday the pre-recorded would be the first television broadcast since he arrived in moscow. we will be talking about this with you in the first 45 minutes. your pick for your political hero of 2014. tell us who it is and why. starting with bill in cleveland, ohio. caller: good morning. i am picking joe delisle sheol. i think he is the brush of fresh air. i think we need a different focus. a little bit more

inclusive, not only economy but society. is goinge direction he in. at least what he wants to go in. host: did you know more about him before 2013? caller: no, i did not. host: what specifically did you like about him? is populism. i think it is the way the country should go. for the callou from cleveland, ohio. jessica up next from misery on the line for republicans. good morning. i have two heroes. i chose rand paul because of the emphasis on civil liberty. i love all the 9/11 conspiracy callers on your show. either and whyt

you are electing them as your hero. caller: both because of the civil liberties act. i feel like the 9/11 guys are drying -- drawing attention to you. that is why i am such a strong republican. thank you for calling in this christmas morning. taking your comments in the first 45 minutes on the subject. talking about political heroes. this call from rasmussen. thought was your most influential person in 2013. edward snowden getting eight percent. hope france's leading with 23%. the president below the pope at 21%.

david from sarasota. morning.ood my political hero would be very sanders. sanders. the second choice would be elizabeth warren. hopefully more people both democratic in the next election. talk about very sanders -- barry sanders. how did he first come to your attention? caller: i has been a lot about him in the news and have read about him in the paper. always seems to be protecting american workers and social security, which i think is important. host: what would you like to see in 2014? what theyeep on doing are doing. i would like for him to run for

higher office but i did not think there is an equal like or house ofsenate representatives to really get things done. vote for more democrats. higheralking about office. elizabeth warren, you do not think she would run? she would help hillary clinton leaned more left and get some more policies going that way. you for calling him this morning. appreciate it. twitter post coming in on this subject. carroll writes in phil robertson for speaking truth. vivian writes in that bernie sanders is my political hero because everything he does is for the people. looking at the twitter pages as

we talk about this. phone lines are open. back on our facebook page, christopher green right in benjamin carson is his political hero for speaking truth to left this racism. benjamin carson this morning. he wrote a piece in today's "wa shington times." then carson has a front-page piece in the commentary section on the feeling behind merry christmas. i wish of good cheer is not is his piece.d

nick in fairview, tennessee. caller: the man who stood out to me was ted cruz. he substantiated the tea party people. the status republicans are for big government. me. gentleman tobe a stand up to all but destroyed that romney. he was a good man. whatderstands politics, should is just a form of marxism. i call it the anti-american corruption act. various other aspects.

carson is a good one. these men are for freedom and cannotleft thesies understand that. they are people that create wealth by their own principles and abilities. host: we just showed a bit of filibuster.m his we are also interested in your thoughts on your political heroes and what you think the future will be. culpeper virginia on the line for democrats. good morning. good morning. why, he pushed this health-care law through for people that do not have health care in the country. republicans do not mind if you lived or died. he pushed health care through

for people who do not have health care. it is all about the heart. this man did things for the american people who did not have health care. job, and you go to the hospital and die, it is what you get. you have a choice. you can apply for health care for life and no one can take it from you. have a good holiday. a lot of assessments of the president past year coming out in reports this past week. --t: obamas approved mel approval rating matches all-time

low that he fell to last month. does this approval rating remains unchanged at 56%, an all-time high. theou want to read more on survey, it is from cnn politic or blog. a lot of assessments of the president in the paper. here is the new zealand herald from earlier this week. a column, the land of the free end state of change. despite a resounding 2012 reelection victory, obama had a guy your year.

that is a piece in the new zealand herald from december 21 if you want to read that. we are talking political heroes this morning. getting your thoughts and comments. james on the line for democrats. good morning. i am a democrat. i think they should try to do what they can do. people need the insurance. the republicans do not want to do nothing about it. they could have done better than they have done. they do not let nothing go through. the democrats are trying to do what they can do.

host: look ahead to 2014. what do you want to see out of the president? caller: i am retired. people. for the without the poor, you cannot make the rich. that is what president kennedy always said. are the onesns that have messed things up in the country. continue on doing what they have to do. i wish you all the best. a call from delaware this morning. a few other comments from the facebook page. moeller.of justin

lunday writes in any who kisses off the republican party. we will look at your tweets and facebook post this morning. taking your calls. kathleen is up next. good morning. people have said so many great things about bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. saying a elizabeth warren runs, was -- pushing hillary clinton -- ibly into apologizing just want to call the political decision to vote for the iraq war resolution. maybe we will still get an apology out of or -- her. my two favorite heroes are hillary mann leverett in flint leverett.

both in the bush administration. a both stood against the invasion of iraq. hillary has negotiated directly with a ron -- iran. former middle east analyst. they have a website. best ate tried their reforming the american public of the facts. are they both here now? caller: i think he teaches at the university of pennsylvania. their website, they stand against any kind of military action based on facts. informing the american public about the fact that they have a right to enrich uranium.

think they have done so much work on trying to let the american public know about the facts. hearings -- euros to me. they are republicans or were republicans. they are standing up against another unnecessary action. you brought hillary clinton up. what her prospects might be in 2014 and beyond. here is the iowa democrats. 55 point eight percentage points according to real clear politics. our stations with them a credit

officials in iowa reveal not all takeem hope she will another shot at the white house, just as eager to explore whether the options reveal themselves. what do you think the other options are out there besides hillary clinton? warren i think elizabeth , the fact that she will i and will bed up economically supported by wall street. i think she gives us a real option on pushing hillary a little bit more to the left. more towards being right. standing up on special interest. issues, hillary is a real humanitarian without giving away things for free. findreign-policy issues, i

a very serious war monger. very aggressive. i do not think we will get much -- much difference between her and cheney. foreign policy i think she is far too aggressive. i think if chris christie runs, i think there would be democrats that would go in that way. host: richard rogers again on twitter -- taking your comments all morning. aubrey in to concorde, new hampshire. good morning.

caller: my political hero for 2013 is barack obama for bringing us health care. i am 62, and i am telling you it is a great thing. he inherited a mess and stuck to principles. he said he would try to make changes. political climate, economic climate. he has been fighting that principle. when you talk about 15% of the population, back in the 30s living under poverty versus the same number today, three times as many people living poorly.

it is even higher than that now. , one ofthe health care the gentlemen called and said it will take away the freedom. accident inortunate canada. i was in the canadian hospital for over a month. i did a lot of business in canada and can tell you from experience that the health care enjoy helps their -- them their system. there you have it. thank you very much. fish and sam writes in -- facebook, melvin campbell writes 0--

that is melvin campbell on the facebook page this morning. i want to point out a few other headlines as we continue to take your calls on the subject of political heroes. one of the stories leading the toers today is the u.n. set boost force in south sudan. the situation in south sudan and have the community is reacting. the u.n. security council voted unanimously tuesday to nearly double the number of these keepers to more than 1400. thatng swift action threatens to become a full-blown civil war. that is the washington post take

on it. here is the new york times on the same subject. we will keep an eye on that situation for you. for about the next 25 minutes or so we are asking you about your

political hero of 20. phone lines are open. waiting.evans caller: thank you for taking my call. it is political stretching it a little bit, but basically the king of the vatican and the head bishop. i would have to say the new pope has a new philosophy of things. i have great expert patients if the mafia does not knock him off .r someone else i am not even roman catholic. in a sense i am catholic but have a lot of comments on the negative side. shortd like to make a comment of almost the reverse. a lot of promise. ,n new jersey we had a man here

a lady just a few collars back made a comment about christie. some of the things he says and does i shake my head. in many ways we could have chris christie as the new president. then we could have a obama being the vice president. then we could sell off america. the 13 colonies could go back to england. new york city going back to amsterdam. florida, puerto rico back to spain. california, nevada. basically chris christie some people think he is the star.

some of the things, i am kind of wondering is that the way we really want to go jacob do you consider that a political position, where would that be more of a religious position? in my office base by saying the pope? interested in who your political figure could be and how you define it. here is the story from usa today. a shift create a template for u.s. politics. hope transit since the election in march. has made quite the/. unfunded -- unfettered capitalism and saying that his place to pass judgment on -- on gays. the story if you want to read

more of it. thecent piece from " huffington post." that is by nancy codding. that is in the huffington post if you want to read more of her piece. we have about the even if left

to take your thoughts on your political hero. harold on the line for democrats. good morning. good morning. i wanted to say something about the poll numbers. president obama is my hero. he holds his temper. . when i was in the army, i was taught to respect the uniform. have shown so little respect and regard for this man that people all over the world are starting to have no confidence and respect in him. what about the hypocrisy of that? the man is under attack 24 hours a day. sunday morning program are filled -- no one black ever on the programs to speak up for

him. the rest of the people always find ways to find fault with him. how is that fair? host: what do you think the president could in can accomplish in his last year in office? he should stop trying to be nice to these guys who do not respect him. they are not going to help him, they are going to undermine him. he will be the last black president. this country is on the road to failure. if this guy does not step forward and up for the poor and stop trying to kowtow to these people, he is not the guy i voted for. host: harold from st. louis, missouri, this morning as we

talk about your thoughts on your political hero of 2014 ash 2013. we will go to the republican slime now. george waiting from florida. good morning to you. good morning. my hero was a state legislature here in lord of. he is the one that wrote stand your ground. when people say that was a racial bill, it has nothing to do with that. so many black people voted for it also. they also want to be protect did. i would like to say one thing, , butlease don't cut me off it seems to me from watching c- span over the past 20 years, and especially over the past five, i .ee adulation's from color i am really scared of that. there is so much power in the inner cities.

if you took away that part of the poll, i think obama would be down in the 20s. i do not see people voting with sensibled or creating decisions. i see them voting for color. to turn it around now and do the same thing by using discrimination of color, to me, it seems frustrating. i know him, a good man, responsible man. that is all i have to say. florida.rge from on the twitter feed today, gary wright in my heroes are the syrians willing to be free of tyranny as we creep to more andrnment and control

intrusion, they fight for freedom. gary on the twitter page this morning. living with no limits rigwrites- we have about 10 minutes left in this segment to talk about your heroes the morning. the postal service has been cleared to raise state prices to offset the recession. " the washington post." the cost available right at three cents. the largest rate hike in 11 years. the stamp price increase of $.49 will be in effect for two years, agency ae struggling

temporary infusion of extra revenue intended to recoup losses suffered during the economic downturn the between 2008-2011. much more on that in the days, we, and months. we're are talking about your political hero of 2013. todd from davenport, iowa. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for being on life. bradley manning has to be on the list for 2013. thomas drake, the whistleblower from the nsa should also be on the list for 2013. i first started watching season

in when he made a phenomenal i encourageh everyone to search for thomas drake at the national press club . a very gripping, chilling survey of what the situation is. before snowden, there was drake. snowden.pired drake exposed the nsa trailblazer program. going through additional challenge -- channels. he did. he did try to report it through official channels to no avail. chelsea manning. i am hopeful manning will see the light of day of freedom. one other comment i would like to make -- the woman who approached the topic of the conspiracy theorists who call in, i applaud her bringing that up. i know many of your folks that

post the shows are sensitive about that topic. i would encourage producers to think about having their architects and engineers for truth on as guests regarding the fact that they have done this and so forth. i think it is a topic that should be discussed. people to check out the architects and engineers for truth. a balanced view that you probably will not hear. thank you for your comments. todd brings up the whistleblower even. you can check that out in the archives. there is a clip of it. we have a few minutes left to take your calls on your political heroes for 2014. a few more notes from the facebook page. but theres strange

are so many responses. seems america has finally awoken . ted cruz and likely are the heroes for trying to save us. forsays mitt romney predicting the mess. join the conversation at facebook. on twitter jd writes -- a little bit of news regarding nelson mandela. this is from politico. noting the senate majority leader and harry reid and nancy pelosi the have filmed tributes for the new movie, long walks of freedom. in her piece, she says very few people existed in the history of world to measure up to his

standard. in the video for the mandela foundation. in a spiritual way he made strong political change and affected the lives of people in a very positive light. that is nancy pelosi for the " mandela, the long walk to freedom." -- letter from the editor talking about politicians no longer with us. the time of the 50th anniversary, the assassination of john f. kennedy. the seacoast online. the u.s. needs a political hero like john f. kennedy. he did in two and a half years what many fail to do in eight years. inspired al optimism nation that at the time on waysf in a funk, in many

not quite unlike today. today america needs a kennedy and the veil of leadership he offered as president. in this era of seemingly unstoppable gridlock, america needs unification. that is a letter to the editor. sandra is up next from new york, new york. on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: merry christmas. .bama is my hero i am talking as a nurse in new york where we are losing nursing homes. they can build cornell college. we are very upset.

the nurses union does not have a contract. i have many family members in iraq. boys, --he american stick with your political hero. the president, what are you expecting from the president and 2014 and beyond? i thought the plan he did was very good. it was excellent. i am a retired nurse. i think the plan was excellent because it brought the seniors out of hiding in their houses to find there is something for them. i think obama has woken up the

sleeping dead. we needed to find someone out there that would support us. host: i did not mean to cut you off there. i thought you were done. calling in talking about president obama as her hero. politicals in as his hero, snowden, snowden, and snowden, and also snowden. edward snowden the subject of an editorial. the editorial.

the piece on edward snowden in " the washington informer" this week. nick on the independent line. good morning. merry christmas. thank you for c-span. i am calling in for pope francis. i think he definitely is the most important figure politically not just for the united states but globally. i am not a christian, religious person. entrepreneurssman, , but i recognize the importance of charity. mirror to theup a religious right and showing them

this is what is important. read the bible on the look what jesus did. wash someone's feet. go to a soup kitchen. we have become a country that overips money and guns people and humanity. francis providing a real service in broadcasting .hat message to the world i think it is resonating even with folks like itself. host: paul on the line for republicans. good morning. good morning. merry christmas. my political bureau would be tom cole clark of california. the waste book he just put out. billionsbillion's and

of dollars of fraud, waste, and abuse. the sad point is we have neither a president, nor a legislature and up of democrats republicans who are unwilling to do anything about it. oversight. effective no attempt to reform the government so we can get rid of the fraud, waste, and abuse. fundraisingore time than they do governing board legislating. i think that is sad. i think the state of our politicians today is also sad. those are my comments. thank you for calling. that will do it for the first segment. we will revisit the question of who your political hero is in the last half-hour. if you did not get your call in, stick around. we will come back to this at the

end of the show. up next, politicos health care editor joins us for a discussion on the health-care law and what is ahead and 2014. later, the professor joins us to discuss his latest book on the supreme court and provide a year in review for the judicial branch. first, the president this week offered up his christmas greeting. want to play you a bit of what the president and first lady had to say. hello, everybody, and happy holidays. >> you know how busy this time of year is for everyone so we will not take much of your time, but we did want to take time to wish you a merry christmas from our family to yours. >> this is the season for millions of family to be together and to show their gratitude to those we love. along the way, some of us might even watch a little basketball or eat christmas cookies, to.

>> here at the white house we have had about 70,000 people from all across the country come visit and look at the holiday decorations. this year's theme was gather round. in every room of the house he tried to tell the story about who we are as americans and how we celebrate the holidays together. we have made certain to highlight some of the most powerful stories we know him at the stories about ending troops, veterans, and military families sacrifice or our country. in themen and women military are serving so the rest of us can enjoy the holidays. that means many are far away from home and families. are setting up video chat so they can watch as presidents are opened. today we want all of the troops to know you are in our thoughts and prayers this holiday season.

here is the good news, for many of the troops and newest veterans, this might be the first time in years they have been with their families on christmas. with the iraq war over, transition in afghanistan, few works of the men and women in afghanistan are in harm's way then in any point in the last decade. >> that is something we can all be thankful for. with more and more of her troop back here at home, it is our turn to serve and our turn to show gratitude for the military families that have given us so much. that is why jill biden and i started the initiative to rally americans to support military families in ways large and small. we have been overwhelmed i the response we have gotten as a folks -- as folks from across the country have found new ways to get back all's, businesses and houses of worship. >> the same spirit of giving that connects all of us during

the holidays. so many oral across the country are helping out at soup kitchens , by and for folks in need work organizing clothing drives. or families like ours, that service is a chance to celebrate the birth of christ and lived out what he taught us come to love the neighbors as ourselves, the the hungry and look after the sick. americans,us as those are values that can drive us to be better parents and friends, better neighbors and citizens. >> so as we look to the new year, let's plant ourselves to living out the values by reaching out and lifting up those in our community that could use a hand up. >> merry christmas, everyone. from the two of us, as well as malia and sasha and bow and americae wish you all

smith and happy holidays. >> merry christmas and god bless. > host: coming up, we will play you a bit from the speakers holiday message. right now we are joined by sue keenan for a discussion on what has turned out to be a news the holiday week when it comes to implementing the new health-care law. walk us through what took place over the past 48 hours and it comes to health care enrollment. millions of people came to the website of the past few days. it did not crash. it did something called cueing. if too many people are on, it puts them on a list. so there were times where there were so many people that they did a waiting room. those people could have back.

they did not get the purple air we wereerror messages seeing in october. it worked pretty well. why is becausen they were big deadlines this week. guest: yes. last night was the deadline for most people. you can still get health care coverage all the way through march but if you want it on january 1, last night was the deadline, except they put out an announcement that if you were genuinely stuck on the website, had tried to make the deadline, there will be a know it chronic footprint of whether you were there or not and you got ,verwhelmed by the website which was not the world's best website, then you have more time and will work if you. idea.not have an

somewhat case-by-case. we do not know how many millions of people ended up having a problem. how does the process work? guest: the call center is off today. 10,000 old working until midnight tonight. the call center does give christmas day off. tomorrow it will be back. if you had a problem, you can call the website. just announced this yesterday. they put a post on the website it self. they sent out an announcement. the do not have all of the mechanics. the insurance industry people we talked to yesterday that it is not a wide open door. it is for people that got caught up on the website, but i do not know what that number is. stats about the number of people that have visited the website this week.

centers for medicare and medicaid services put out an announcement that as of monday, 850,000 visits. visits overn site the weekend. do we know what this translates to in terms of the number of ?eople signing up ya guest: we will not know for a while that way how many people signed up. we know the numbers have gone up. thatdent obama did say at point it was roughly over a million. plus a couple of millions and medicaid exchanges. that was last friday. we know we had millions of people. that is just the federal

exchange. that includes new york and california. they have given up this in pieces of numbers. new york had 25,000 in one day. i do not remember all the numbers. i may be rattling off numbers from memory. you may want to check. there are hundreds of thousands that have signed up. getting into serious numbers. host: the goals before the website, the administration looking for over 3 million sign- ups? something like that. the big numbers in march looking for 7 million. that is a member of that basically came out of the budget cost. this was a budget number. we think this many people will do this and will cost us this

much. it became the policy goal. the white house had to wiggle a little bit recently. from a political view on the they are stuck with that number. this look shaky. could they get them, yes. host: if you want to talk about the health care act, give us a call. the phone lines are open. we actually have a special line for this segment for those that are recently enrolled. we want to hear about your experience on the website, especially if you went through the process or try to go through the process this week or last week when we are talking about the large volume of all. also some of the state exchanges.

if you are recently enrolled, --t number -- 202 -- 583 5883. we talked about pushing back the deadlines a little bit this month on the 15th to the 23rd to the 20 fourth. what is the multiple push backs of the deadline doing for the insurer who had to make this happen on the back end? thought you got up early on christmas morning, i would not want to work for an insurance company. bureaucratic red tape. sure you aremake on the list of people that should have the insurance card by january one. there are lots of lands and insurers. the website was having trouble.

these are the companies you are familiar with that are in the exchanges. headache. that is why they cannot make the deadline. that is why they originally wanted this number 15 to straighten this out. host: do they get a say in the deadline? did they say we can still make this happen? guest: i think they are saying we are doing the best we can to make this happen and not promising january 1 will be a completely flawless state. talk about the insurance and when it starts. there is a difference between signing up and paying your first payment, reich? guest: there is a little wiggle room there, too. if you signed up at midnight last night, you are covered

january 1. there are variations on state deadlines. you need to check your own states. basically they are asking insurers. they have to do invoicing and mapping of. it is complicated. giving most people until january 10 to pay. check with your carrier. later, some are earlier. yesterday,ed up coverage is january 1 and have until january 10 to pay. talking with joanne keenan, politicos health care editor. one of several pieces that you wrote yesterday, this one early in the morning, final countdown

to midnight. there has been a couple of more pieces that you have written since then. to take your calls and questions on the affordable care act implementation effort that has been going on. we have a line set up specific before folks that were recently enrolled. bruce. line waiting is he is an independent. thank you for joining us. thank you very much. i wanted to make read comments. i tried to sign up one of program first opened. i decided to wait and give the to fixr people a chance it. i am rolled yesterday and spent a lot of time, but most of the time was shopping for a plan, not signing up.

looking at the dental part was not but i will do that later. i said i did not have a computer so i will sign you up. overall, i think it was a good experience. host: how many hours would you say you spent on it this week? yesterday i started at 9:30 and data on until -- stayed on until 9:00. i was also doing other things. i was working and having to stop and go to things. it was really hard. i was probably on the site for five hours.

i took an insurance course in college so i was very keen on what i wanted. i went over every plan benefit. a lot of time was spent doing that. then when i started doing my sister-in-law and her husband, i of there's.nd probably an hour. does the same like a normal amount of time that people using the system are on it for? guest: i do not know what a normal amount of time is but we do know the error rate -- it sounds like a normal consumer, sounds like he knew what he needed and would check the bronze and silver. there are different kinds of health care plans. those of us who get insurance through our jobs on my have three choices and i have trouble figuring out which is the best

choice for my family. and you get on the computer with the new options, particularly for people who did not have insurance before, the insurance market has changed. it is not a simple shopping experience. do you mind telling us, were you someone who had your plan canceled? were you insured before, did you get a better deal on the site? caller: i had a major health care -- i do not know if i should use their name on the air but -- guest: you had a plan. caller: my wife and i bought it. -- oh,a high-deductible shoot. guest: catastrophic plan? yes, and our deductible is $5,000. we paid into it for 20 years but

never used it. as we age, the cost kept going higher and higher, pushing $1000 a month. about two years ago we said the heck with this we will pay for our own health care, so we just dropped it. not having health care as you age gets more scary, so i chose yesterday the silver plan in the middle, the high-deductible silver plan, and that seems to be -- it is simple. people will look at that. it is a very simple plan. you pay your deductible and you do not have to worry about coinsurance and this and that and the other. i did not like the bronze plans. they lift -- they left a little much to the imagination to me. the silver plan seemed better. host: we don't know anything about the silver, bronze. i should explain that. silvercover the least, -

covers more, bronze covers the least. most people did what this caller did, and we do not have enough numbers, from enough states, to know if that is going to hold up when we get the final numbers. but we have hints that that is the one that people like. host: appreciate you sharing your experience. we have the special line folks who have used the website and enrolled or tried to enroll recently on the website. the website also has been giving updates through its own twitter page. page ands own twitter talks about the changes and .eadlines noting in one of the tweet yesterday, those who could not get through but started their application would have help and be allowed to continue their work -- like with medicaid and

medicare, there is a system for people who try to enroll but could not, considered on a case-by-case basis, talking about some of the work that might continue after the december 24 deadline. and january 1 is -- if you get on tomorrow, you get covered. if you get on in mid-january, that is until february. then you can get on and get covered in march, get covered through april. the deadline for someone who did not get insurance, that did not go away. the january 1 deadline went away. people have three more months, and the government will be getting people -- trying very hard to get people to sign up by then because there are not enough right now. line forald, all our republicans, good morning. you are on the "washington journal." caller: thanks.

i don't mean to be bashing anybody in particular on christmas day. merry christmas, everybody. but where was the press the past three years and prior to the election echo it seems like you guys were not doing your job in any way whatsoever, figuring this thing out, when reporting to the people of this country what this whole thing was about. how it was going to affect us. we still don't know. i get my insurance through my employer and i am hearing about all kinds of things about what is going to happen to us. you are unaffected. if you get insurance through your employer, you are pretty much unaffected. the vast majority of people who get insurance through their are pretty much unaffected. if it is an iffy plan, you may season changes. if your insurance went up this year -- mine has gone up just about every year for the last 20

years. so you cannot say my insurance went up this year because -- insurance prices have been rising since there has been insurance. lessyears more, some years . in the 1990's it slowed down a little bit, in the 2000's it went way out of control. but basically the people who are getting insurance on the job, the changes you are going to see should not be that traumatic -- that dramatic. you may pay more, but that is a decision your employer will make, and you may end up paying less. workplaceends in the post 2014 are not that different. you get more preventive care, if you have a 25-year-old, they can stay on your plan. it is very hard to tease out what prices or cost shifts

because of the decisions employers make and what is happening because of care costs have been going up. host: do you want to respond to the comments that donald has made about the press? i did not expect the cancellation numbers to be as big as they were, but we wrote many many stories about essential benefits and how plans had to meet certain requirements. i think that the last few months, because the website -- six people got through on day one. it was a disaster. what were the stories the last two muncy echo a complete -- of the last two months? a complete catechism. then the plan cancellations. a the website was just wonderful consumer experience and you get a letter from your insurance saying this product will not be available and you can go to the website -- 40% to

50% of people who got plan cancellations are eligible for subsidies. some of those people are better off. some of them are worse off. some of them got a cancellation letter but your insurance said i can offer you this. some prices went up. if you get a subsidy, your price probably went down. i have spoken to people whose prices went way, way up, but there are also people who were paying a lot of money for a pretty skimpy plan, and they will be better off. ,ost: a question from twitter living no limits. "what other parts of the health-care law have to be implemented or have not been fully implemented at this point?" almost all of the information on january 1. the cadillac plans, which are sort of a comprehensive expensive plan that most of us don't have, that is either 2017

or 2018. pretty much everything else will be implemented a week from today. some of it, things like preventive care -- some of the benefits people are getting they do not even realize that. if you take a kid to the doctor and something for then to that used to pay 20 bucks for is now free, i don't know if people are connecting that -- that is part of the health law. seniors have been getting help with drug costs. this is going to be a bumpy year, and 2015 may be a be year, too. i was not prepared -- i was not prepared for millions of cancellation plans. the cbo was not. they saw a 2 million net shrinkage of the private, individual market. host: projection, not partisan. 10st: it does not tell me people went out, eight people

lived in. we still do not really know how big it was because there is no central repository of every health plan has to write a letter to me saying i canceled 300 people this week. they are estimates and they are across-the-board. they go from a few hundred thousand to 14 million. january 1, was of this will be a demented. -- will be implemented. guest: some new conditions will get added. the a ceo's, which people do not understand -- accountable care organizations. co's. >> it will be interesting to watch, the favorable/unfavorable ratings of the affordable care act.

here is kaiser stanley foundation's polling on favorable/unfavorable ratings. the orange line that has been rising over that has year is the unfavorable rating, ended in december. act viewedble care favorably is the other line. waiting now on the phone is dead from new albany, indiana, on our line for folks -- waiting now on the phone is ed from new albany, indiana. thank you for c-span. i watch it quite frequently. to set the stage, my wife and i are both 62 years old presently, and i am at work -- i am a retired chemical engineer. because ofn 2008 some medical problems. i have a bad heart, i am diabetic, and my wife is a polio

survivor. in 2008 we signed up for what was called the healthy indiana plan in the state of indiana. excellent plan will stop your premiums were based on your ability to pay. in some regards, this is what the health-care program that mr. is supposed toed reflect. somewhat it does. however, because we are going on to social security and because mike pence, our governor, decided to cut back on requirements for the health-care indiana plan, we were going to have to enroll in the new national healthcare program. indiana, we have to go through the national healthcare exchange will stop i started that process on october 13, and i got into some sort of loop that made it

almost -- it was impossible for me to get out of. the people at healthcare.gov did work with me, but a lot of it was out of their control, too. i wrote an appeal letter to try to explain my situation and what i thought was causing the problem. either, sonot help finally on november 13, i called -- i'm sorry, on december 13, i called and said today i have got to get health care, i have to get signed up or else. i have to find another that my wifelan and i can be a part of, which i had found one in humana in louisville, kentucky. it is only about five miles from where we live, and their bronze plan will cost me, out of the marketplace, probably $500 more

in the most expensive silver plan would in the marketplace. anyhow, the people at healthcare.gov worked with me and got me to a point where i was signed up. they submitted the information to and from, which, by the way, was the only health-care company that was offered in indiana. -- in foy county, indiana. there was no competition in our state. some -- anthem had the only policy. host: are you set to be covered on january 1? caller: on december 13 i was to give all the information. as said by christmas i would have a packet of information from the insurance company, but i have yet to receive that packet of information. we are starting to get to a

point here where i do need coverage january 1, but i am still sitting here -- i think i am covered but i am not sure. i am hoping that we will be. guest: i think you should call anthem. tellingwhat the hhs is people. if you have enrolled and you have not gotten your call yet -- your card yet, i would start tomorrow. they are answering today. if you have documentation and the e-mails and you paid, you're probably in their records. you have to get the information from healthcare.gov to the insurer. it is not a flawless process. you may be in the system and it is going to come in the mail tomorrow, but you have medical thes and i would call carrier, the insurer, and see that you are in their bank.

your comments about the lack of competition, it varies across the country. we looked at it state-by-state, and we have also seen some studies by various think tanks. states that have a lot of competition out are having a fair amount of competition. more rural areas that did not have a lot of competition, they tend to still be -- the government is trying to do something to create multistate so that there will be an alternative in every state. they will not be in every state the first year. i don't remember whether indiana is or not. they should spread so you will have more alternatives in the future, although you may have found something that is going to work for you very well and you will not need in advance. midland, texas, on our line for independents. your online with joanne kenen.

president obama symbolically signed up with the washington, d.c., plan. that wasbroad plan $400 a month. i was really stunned. about 1000 employees. we have insurance. my monthly premium is like $100, about $125 per month. ishospitalization deductible -- the one thing about our plan, we do not have maternity because 10% of our employees are women. i am just wondering, with the new health-care plan, we will probably have to take on maternity. that will probably cause our rates to go up. how is thatndering

type of situation going to affect certain company like ours , a freight company, who does not have a lot of female employees and now we will have to probably take on maternity. cause the other 90% house rates to go up. if taking on maternity causes your rates to go up, it will not cause them to go up that much. there will have to be more mental health coverage for people. and you cover more -- i don't know if your company covers spouses or just a worker, but if it is family coverage as an option, there are people who -- you have a mostly male workforce, if their spouses are covered, there may be more people needing that than they need. you may be thinking i don't want

to have to cover a 30-year-old having a baby, but they will also be covering a 60-year-old with cancer. that is what insurance is about, having a people -- a pool of people who are covered. younger people subsidize older people, and that is the way it works. what are you going to go from $100 a month to $400 a month because of maternity? i would be stunned if that happens. host: the president signed up this week for -- guest: somebody signed him up, yeah. host: cbs news reported that president obama could not use the website to sign up for obamacare. they did not let us watch. they did not let the press watch. there was no photo up, i just said by the way he did it. his personal information is not kept in the databanks, the normal databanks that the d.c. exchange and the federal

government would have. if you or i signed up -- so they cannot process the president like they process you or me. secondly, he is not supposed to be -- he is not going to fit into the normal checkboxes. he is the president. care. other health it was a symbolic thing. he has plenty of health care. he has white house physicians, he can go to walter reed. yes, he did it as a symbolic thing. he said back in 2010 he would do it as a symbolic thing. i don't know that we can -- whoever was on the call line or the ipad or who at -- or however they did it, i would guess they -- that thishe six is 1600 pennsylvania avenue. bob from fayetteville, tennessee, on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning.

i have a question. i was wondering if the people going onto medicaid are aware that they could possibly lose , -- assets is coming in and out, so i cannot hear the question entirely, but if you're --ing for tests for medicaid i am guessing what you're asking. dedicate is the program that the federal government does for the poor. the asset question comes in when people are older and needing nursing health care, and there are certain assets that do not count. if you got $3 million in the bank, they will not pay for your

nursing on this. or other kinds of long-term care. there is a spend down requirements. that is not new to the health law, and that is not specific. there are variations of those rules state to state. there are variations of the protected assets and there are variations in how the states enforce it, but it is not new. medicaid is meant for low income people. if you're talking about the spends down that exists in terms of getting into medicaid now, it is all income based and i am not sure of all the asset rules, but it is not meant for health -- for wealthy people. you can get a subsidy. if you own a nice house and you are a middle-class class person but you still have an income, below a certain level you can get a subsidy in the private exchanges now, in the health care private lands -- private plans. i apologize if i am not answering exactly what you wanted to know because i cannot hear it perfectly. host: bob, did that answer your

question? caller: the reason i am asking this is because it was reported there was a lady in wisconsin that had a health plan that was canceled. when she went in to check on the new health plan, because of her income, she was pushed into medicaid. so i just don't think that's right. guest: wisconsin had a medicaid plan that was actually -- i don't know if this is an individual case -- wisconsin, medicaid is for people with low income. wisconsin did not expand medicaid, which they had an option of doing. everybody --aw, the subsidies are available for the lower working middle-class

people. about half the states did not go for that option, and once the sticker in court -- once the supreme court made it optional -- they did their own solution, which they are taking some of the federal money, taking some of the people over the poverty line, putting them in the exchanges where they can get federal subsidies. if you are too poor for a federal subsidy, then the law does not allow subsidies over -- below a certain income. it allows medicaid. she can either pay for insurance herself if she wants -- no one is forced to go into medicaid -- there are strategy -- there are for catastrophic options people who have the money, or she can go into medicaid. -- there'sthing from nothing stopping her from buying a plan on her own. if she wants to subsidize the plan, her choice will be medicaid. florida is waiting in this morning.

line, ofndent on the people who enrolled or are trying to enroll in the of care.gov exchange. good morning to you. caller: good morning. she just hit on a good point there. it took them about three weeks on the website, so it is a task. , in theet enrolled silver plan. he could barely pay to his premium site, and the did not bubbles are like six grand. playll not even be able to -- to pay his the dockable's. that is the problem. i know nobody wants to talk about medicaid, but in florida they accepted federal money. so you have hundreds of thousands of people around here that the website just may tell theyo go to medicare, and do not even have the money for medicare. we are looking at hundreds of thousands of people that this program was supposed to help.

the rich do not need it. they have the gold plan, it but what are we going to do? how are we going to make these states take the money and get the poor health insurance? like you said, they can get a premium on insurance policies if they want to. they do not have the money to pay for it. that is my question. guest: yes, it is medicaid that is optional. medicare remains for ever one over 65. medicaid was originally in the law passed in 2010. the supreme court said optional for the states, and he pointed out that florida is not that florida is one of the states that did not expand medicaid. florida governor scott is a republican and supported it. he is a very strong critic of the health law and does not like obamacare, but he actually said there is federal money for me to cover poor people in the state and i want to take it. the state legislature did not agree. there are a few republican governors -- seven or eight of -- , not even a few anymore

kasich, brewer, and scott wanted to. i do not member the exact number of people in florida who fell into the gap where they are too poor for the exchanges or to get a subsidy. too much a little bit money to get into the old medicaid. it is mostly for families with kids. it is very limited. there is this gap of people who are really quite poor and are not getting anything when people who are less poor are getting something. it seems like a million people. in florida, it is about 4 million. it may be too high for florida. i am not that far off. states can still decide to change that. many of them will do that until after the 2014

elections. virginia might because they just had a democrat elected. host: how many states are we talking about that have not? believe the number was 24 that had not, but -- like iowa just decided, so they might be 25. tennessee is still considering it. virginia thinks will now that mcauliffe was elected. pennsylvania is talking about it. host: american hero joe writes in -- guest: medicaid is free for most populations. some of the borderline people on the higher end of the income scale, they do not have monthly premiums. some of the states you have to pay a small amount for your medication. someof the states have --

of it is discretionary to states to help pay for some things that differ from states. you do not have to pay to get assetedicaid, and the test comes usually in the long-term care setting. from simi valley, california, on our lines for republicans. caller: good morning. merry christmas. i have two points. i am a small business owner, and i cover about five families. i pay the premiums 100%. forced of the law, i am to pay for three people that are between the ages of 21 and 26, and i have to pay for them 100%, even though they are in the workforce with other jobs. i am actually subsidizing other businesses. about the 5stion is

million people that have been dropped from coverage, whatever the number is. you would have to assume some percentage of those people are in a hospital right now being covered by a doctor, and what happens to them on january 1 if the hospital they are in or the doctors they are being covered by is no longer in their plan? guest: that is two separate and really good questions. if you are a small business owner, under the law with five employees, you do not have to do anything. -- the exchange for individuals, there is a thing called shop, the small business exchange. first year, there is not much there. go through a broker. some of the features that would make it more attractive, letting workers have more choices on their plans etc. of -- instead

of using them all. they could not pull it together. statesappening in some -- not in too many. you may find that on the small business exchange next year, there is more in it for you. will not be you penalized if some of your employers -- some of your employees end up that you are doing more than required by law and more than small business owners. if you have to cover more people, it is going to go up. whether you are required to oner them, it depends whether you are grandfathered or not. it is a technical issue. if they have another job offer, you have to check with your broker or however you get your health care. in a grandfathered plan versus a non-grandfathered n --i went through this with

my employer -- do they have to continue covering or not? atdepends on the option work, and yes, i am still covered. you may decide that you want to cover 95% said of 100% because of the additional costs. you may talk to your workers about let's change the plan a little bit. you have more flexibility as a small-business owner because you are not mandated. if you have under 50 people you're doing it because you want to do it. probably the one reason you have loyal workers if they stick with you, it is probably how you compensate your workforce, at is why they work their bank. host: steve in florida, an independent on that line that we set up for folks who recently enrolled or tried to enroll. caller: merry christmas to everybody. first of all, i was going to

talk about my plan, but then i jean say medicaid is free. -- medicare is free. guest: medicare is not. medicare you pay editable. -- you pay a deductible. caller: medicaid is not free, ma'am. we are talking about does an individual have to pay to get in. the federal government and the state government pays. caller: we can understand it is not free. it costs money. we are putting millions of people more on it. you do not say that. the coverage of this obamacare has been horrible. you are sticking up for mr. youa with his big lie that

can keep your insurance come you can keep your doctor. many of us cannot, and now that we do not have insurance, we cannot get on that line out and when we do get on that line, my primus was $6,000. my deductible -- my premium was $6,000 -- my deductible, i'm sorry. that was up $3000. this is not affordable, and i cannot stand the press sticking up for this plan. instead of being a repeater, you should be a reporter. you sound like you were -- caller, joanne kenen works for politico. you can check out all the work they have done on this subject at politico.com. you can follow joanne kenen on twitter. #joannekenen. had a plan canceled

and the prices went way up. the government announced the other day you have some new options and you may want to look into catastrophic. it will not be available on every county and it may not help you personally. i have talked to other families like yours that had their the constables -- their delectables and premiums go up and they are not happy. from 3000 to $13,000. they are very unhappy. there are people finding this to not help them. there are other people who are finding things that they could not afford before. there are definitely winners and losers here. medicare is a whole different issue. medicare is more solvent now than it was a number of years ago. right.st fund -- you are the trust fund has a few more years. congress has been completely unable to solve this problem. on the other hand, medicare spending is still going on but at the lowest rate in 50 years, and it has been that way for

three years straight. that weartisan things have agreed on on medicare. some health law provisions, some trends in health care delivered and how they spend their money in a recession. the rate of growth has gone down. it is not a solved problem. nobody in washington or the country thinks it is a solved problem, but that is different from what happened in the exchanges. those who had canceled plans and it went through the roof such as this caller, you should check into this catastrophic option is available in your area. it is a high deductible plan. he covers preventive care and gives you a few free primary care visits a year, and it costs less. but not everybody is happy with this law. host: let's get a quick call in in texas.n an independent caller. job, i have issues

on my job. i get paid every two weeks. it is the idea of helping other people. when i amre than that just out doing crazy things. the bad part about it is the different people that want to and keep other people them from having health care. it is a shame where we would rather have people be without health care than pete will -- then care for the people who cannot have health care. people that have good health they might be in a position where they need health care. the same thing they fight against they are going to need one day. that is what i called in about.

amazed the money people make that they throw away , and they could put that money to good use. guest: i think what has been upsetting people about this law, the irritant particularly from day one, is the mandate. people being told they have to do something by the government. that has been controversial. the democrats don't like that. you are saying you feel like it is part of my social obligation. i may need it some day. people would rather do it through a charity, and they do not want the government to tell them to buy a health plan and what it is going to cost. that is why this has been this hot button that is not going away for years. you also raised a point where people get sick and they do not know when, and the rest of us subsidize that. a -- ourd up on insurance is as high as it is because part of what we pay,

those of us who are insured, a portion that we pay every year is going to the hospitals. so we are already paying in ways we may not see. one of the other callers asked a really good question. the question about what if you are in the hospital right now and you are sick and have a different plan on generate one. if you have a chronic disease, if you are sick right now, some people who have to change doctors are not happy about that. the insurance industry often make some kind of accommodation when you're changing from plan a to plan b. if i am in the hospital today and my health insurance changes tomorrow, are they going to kick me out of the hospital tackle apparently the industry has ways of working through this. this willink necessarily be perfect for every person in the world who has to change doctors, but the administration did ask insurers to get them their current prescription through the month

of january. insurers do not have to do that. it is voluntary. some will, some won't. it takes time. you are trying to find a new doctor, they can appointment, and it is not something you can necessarily do overnight. if your insurance changes on january 1, i think they have some way of -- i would hope they have some way of accommodating. you are still insured. some people will end up not being very happy with the bill they get. host: joanne kenen, the health journalist from politico. yesterday, speaker john boehner tweeted holiday greetings, sending out a merry christmas picture of the capital. he sent out a christmas message that he shared his holiday wishes on. i want to play you a bit of that now. [video clip] >> if they are going to take me the time -- if they are going to

take the time to send me a card, i will take the time to read them. every year there are great pictures and some really sweet notes. continuehe good job, the fight. i'm praying for you. have of these cards stories about their family and how the kids are doing. christmas, we celebrate the birth of christ first and foremost. year a blessed time of the and i think a good time to count our blessings. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 -- c-span. we bring public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings, our

princes, and offering complete gavel-to-gavel coverage of the u.s. house, all as a public service of private industry. we are c-span, created by the cable tv industry 34 years ago, funded by your local cable, or satellite provider. now you can watch us in hd. washington journal continues. host: we are joined now by scholar of all things supreme court mark tushnet. what are the two forces that are in the balance in this book? guest: the easiest way to describe them is they are divided now between five appointees of republican presidents who are quite conservative and four appointees of democratic presidents who are more liberal. and the balance is between those

two, and in particular the future of the court depends on what the next appointment is going to be. in the book you talk about the difference between the roberts court and a kagan court. explain that. guest: usually we talk about the chief justice, but the chief justice is not always the leader of the court. brennan, under all warren, was probably the leader of the court in terms of organizing the thinking of the court and writing the most important opinions. a chance if the next appointee is a democratic appointee that justice kagan will emerge as the court's

leader, displacing chief justice , leaving a more or less liberal majority against the conservative majority he is leaving. you write in your book that the future of the court will be shaped by not only the nominations that obama and his successors will make, but the competition between roberts and kagan for the intellectual leadership of the court, as each forcefully articulates differing views about the balance between law and politics. when the justices are looking at cases, how much are they taking the long view, the competing balances you are talking about, and how much our cases decided in a vacuum? thet: each justice comes to court with a relatively well shaped judicial philosophy or ideology that he or she deploys in a particular case. of course each case presents

different issues, and those issues are legal and limited to particular problems. so in some cases, every case is a combination of applying your theral legal philosophy to particular problem at hand. the balance will shift depending on how significant the case is, whether it is a question of interpreting federal statute, where the judicial philosophy will have a relatively smaller part as compared to an issue like the constitutionality of a major federal statute where the judicial philosophy will have a much larger role. with markre talking tushnet, the william lawson cromwell professor at harvard law school, who divides his time d.c. n boston and

if you want to talk about all things supreme court or his book "in the balance," our phone lines are open. for republicans, 202-585-3881. 202-585-3880. , 202-5ependents 85-3882." how long have you been studying the supreme court? have been teaching for 42 years. before i started teaching, i was a law clerk for justice thurgood saw how the court operated inside the court. things have changed a lot in the way the court operates, but i have been paying attention to the supreme court basically for my entire professional career. host: you say things have changed.

the 2012-2013 term of the supreme court -- how demonstrated is the balance between law and politics? guest: i actually think the dates of decisions begin to blur and you have been studying the court as long as i have, but obviously the decision in the affordable care act or obamacare case was a central feature of the court's most recent recordns, and there the -- the court divided oddly in a many issued case, ultimately upholding the constitutionality of the affordable care act, but really structuring it in a way that contributes to some of the problems we have been seeing as it is coming into force. the five justices held the constitution did not allow congress to enact a statute under its power to regulate interstate commerce, but five

justices did say that congress had the power to do this as an exercise of its power to tax, so we have an individual mandate coming into effect over the next couple of weeks. in addition, there is the decision last term in the united , a lateral but important issue in connection with the issue of gay marriage. a decision striking down an important provision of the voting rights act of 1965. all of these are changes where the traditional philosophies of liberals and conservatives divide them and lead to different outcomes, lead to the divisions that we see in the court's interpretation of the constitution. host: you write in your book

that some of the 2013 cases from this past summer might demonstrate that the court is still justice kennedy's court. explain that. right now justice kennedy is what everybody would describe as the swing justice. now, he is quite conservative, but he is not consistently conservative or does not go along with all aspects of what the current conservative ideology is. he has been on the court for a relatively long time. he was appointed when conservatives were somewhat different from what it is now will stop and he has a libertarian streak that comes out particularly in gay rights cases. the alignment is right, when the issues are ones that particularly appeal to his distinctive way of being a

conservative, he will be the dispositive vote." that will not last forever. there will be new appointees, and justice kennedy may not be, as the political science calls them, the median justice in the middle of the court. for more than a few more years. host: we are talking about the supreme court with mark tushnet. scholar of all things supreme court. if you have questions for him, comments and phone lines are open some of the books that you have written -- we will start with randy from citrus heights, california, on our line for republicans. randy, good morning. good morning. i would like to dispute's your .uest's assertion

that justice roberts is the strong conservative leader of the court. i would disagree. i would say just as thomas is the intellectual leader of the group. if not him, maybe scalia. but i understand the inclination an any harvard academia --they want to basically prop up roberts as a hero because of his vote on the health care law, each, in my opinion and the opinion of millions of us, is a stain on his tenure. tushnetet's let mr. krishna explained that. guest: i don't want to dispute the claim that justice scalia and justice thomas are powerful

influences on the conservative side. justice scalia has articulated a philosophy or judicial approach of interpreting the constitution according to its original understanding. estes thomas is even more so unoriginal honest -- an originalist. but leadership on the court involves a combination of intellectual chops, the ability of -- the ability to articulate a visionnd forcefully of the constitution, a combination of that with kind of a marshaling of the forces, ,eing able to go along with you and justice thomas in particular is largely -- he is not all

that interested in making sure that he puts things in ways that other people will be able to sign on to. does haveice roberts this sort of -- i would call it a sort of social facility, and being the leader -- not nearly intellectually, but in combination with the sort of social skills that allow him to assemble a majority. bill king writes in on twitter -- guest: i think it is quite unlikely that any of the current justices will depart the court voluntarily before the next presidential election. i put it that way because several of the justices are getting up there in years, and you never can predict things about health issues.

but at the moment all of them appeared to be perfectly healthy and likely to stay on through , because it ison a good job and they like what they are doing. host: how much is the idea of who takes over there see important to justices when they look at the timing of their from twitter -- there are some scholarly studies about the timing of departures from the court, and reasons a sort of modest that you can see for justices to to stealhe court, and a president from the arty whose

president appointed then controls the presidency. it is a modest tendency, not universally true. on,e is some of that going or some of that affects some of the way the justices think. and sort of understandably so. justice scalia has said he does not want to leave the court, preventing an opportunity for -- presenting an opportunity for a them a credit president that would undo all the work justice scalia has been doing over the course of his career. that three ofting the conservative justices are , as supremeoung court ages go. kennedy arelia and the most senior in age, but they

have expressed no interest in leaving not just -- well, justice scalia because he does not want to see his work undone. justice kennedy, because he likes being the focus of attention as the median justice. host: we are talking to mark previously he georgetown law university. he is here to take your questions and comments. herb is up next from springville, new york, on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: yes, good morning, professor. my question relates to a subject that, as far as i know, has never been heard or considered by the supreme court. let's go back just a little bit in history. in 1945, as you well know, we

were a signatory to the united nations charter. in fact, we were a charter member, you might say. as at only signed signatory to the united nations charter, but it was then ratified, as you also well know, by our senate. that, to me, makes it the law of the land. the united nations codifies international law. hasn't, sincewhy it has been the law of the land, why hasn't the united states been required to follow international law as codified by the united nations charter? the constitution does say that treaties that the united states find are the law of the

land, the supreme law of the land, and the u.s. is required to follow international law, the supreme court has said so and has enforced some aspect of international law, even cases that get to the court. now, a lot of issues involving international law, those get to the supreme court or to the federal courts at all, partly because they are largely political issues. but it is also partly because the court has developed a series of doctrines that screen out the , these doctrines including the idea that the person bringing a constitutional talent has to be injured by the illegality that is alleged. the issue cannot be, as the court puts it, a political question which is left to the

congress or the president to resolve. those devices keep a fair number of important issues of international law away from the supreme court. host: john is from owings, maryland, on our line for independents this morning. you are on with mark tushnet. gentlemen.d morning, i have a question about comparing and contrasting juryial activism, nullification, and the role of the supreme court in these issues. guest: ok, so -- i am pausing because i want to make sure i can get the analogy correct. i guess the idea is that when a jury engages in jury nullification, it is setting its judgment about what is right against or over the judgment of

the legislature with an active statute, there being -- and the analogy is that the supreme court, when it finds a statute unconstitutional, is also setting its judgment against what the legislature did when it enacted the statute. i think there is a certain kind of parallel, but it is worth emphasizing that when juries nullify, they don't have to use plain what they are doing. whereas when the supreme court the statuted unconstitutional, they have the right an opinion of explaining why in their judgment the statute is inconsistent with the constitution as properly construed. is just a maybe this professional interest of mine as a law professor, but i think there is a difference between

actions that are made, that are explanation, and those that come accompanied with an next donation. although there is some parallel -- i don't want to deny that -- i think the president host: talking about the all supreme court with professor tushnet. the case before the court. ifonder if we'll ever know roberts was threatened over the obamacare and what made him change the law to a tax? a chapter in the book about the affordable care act. i take the position that nobody agrees with, i think as i put he there were stories that changed his mind sometime

between the time when of the case was argued and the time it came down. outset, he said he thought it was unconstitutional. he ended up -- as a couple of yours have suggested, upholding the statute on one ground while striking on a mother. in between, he changed his mind. my own view is that he actually did not change his mind -- he made up his mind on issues he had not thought very much about. given the attention on whether congress has the power to require people to buy insurance because of his power to regulate interstate commerce.

the chief justice said, no, the congress does not have the power. they been thinking about this. once they had a majority saying it was unconstitutional on grounds, he had to see if it was unconstitutional or not on whether to impose taxes. i do not think he devoted a lot attention to that before hand. when he sat down and tried to write out an opinion, he concluded that given other aspects of his judicial philosophy the statute was constitutionally permissible as a tax. colleagues but it is important to understand the processes. they hear the arguments and they gather for a conference which is an hour or two discussion, but there are nine of them. the affordable care act had a

lot of issues involved. my guess is if the conference is , ite -- vaguely indicated was probably unconstitutional and not focus in on a particular issue about the tax aspect and he ended up having to write about. , nobody agrees with me, conservatives inc. he was threatened in some way. there were comments after the oral argument about a vice president biden and senator reid and president obama about their expectations that the court would do the right thing. justice think a chief would be intimidated by that. there records of the conference that you talk about that we might see that might prove one way or another your thoughts here? will not include me.

there are records. the justices keynotes. i can say that congress is closed to outsiders, just the justices. one of the traditions is if it's a message that has to be out, somebody knocks on the door and a junior justice gets up. i guess justice kagan and goes to the door and opens it and get the message and brings it back in and gives it to have her messages for. no cell phones. no conversations thousand records. -- outside of the courts. it will be really improper to answer a message. they are taking notes. they will going to their files. now, 70 years from somebody will be able to see what thosesay. host: justice roberts famously

said he had the job -- his job was to be like an umpire calling balls and strikes without did the affordable care act the decision go with that philosophy that he outlined? emphasize, heto said people have probably made too much of the metaphor. he may have emphasized it too much because it does suggest a kind of mechanical aspects of judging which nobody really agree is there. i do think, as i put in the book, if you wanted to apply the did sort ofhor, he call of one strike and one ball. know note -- i do not which is the striker which is the bald. one way it was unconstitutional at it was constitutional.

result not ofas a a neutral umpire but in the the chiefn that justice brought to the job. -- the realr tragedy is judges bring their political ideology to the court. hard -- ass very justice thompson put it in his confirmation hearing, stripped down like a runner and approach every case as if you have never thought about the underlying issues for the deep issues that are implicated in the case. after all, these people have been experienced lawyers and have handledey cases. they have thought about these issues. it seems to me, it is a

realistic to expect they will simply discarded them once they get to the court. in addition, they are chosen, partated, and confirmed in because of some sense of the parts of the president of how they are going to approach cases. i have tried to characterize as judicial philosophy. it is not realistic to think that judges cannot -- will not have these views and that they bring on specific cases. oe on the line for republicans. you are on with professor tushnet, the author of the book "in the balance." goldberg said of the constitution is not a suicide pact. i think the problem -- in the

opposite direction from where -- the supreme court justices think very little -- have very little working knowledge of technological bomb waske atomic developed during world war ii. one man lost his security clearance. there is lots more. there are genetically modified foods, technology, and other technology that the court is simply unprepared to deal with. it shows over and over like this tax issue. justice roberts opinion that it was a tax, if god don't any scenario work -- he is not doing any scenario work. these things move around.

with regard to technology issues, what about peer-reviewed , qualified technologists for supreme court justices? and polygraph examiners on live tv to see if that been improperly influenced? make twowant to points. act, onceable care you characterize it as a tax, there are other issues that arise. several of them are continuing to be litigated in the lower carts. so far, none of them have advanced very far. still rattling around. the issue about technological change, he is clearly right. justice kagan, the court heard a

case about regulation of violent video games. she made a comment about how amusing it was to see the talking abouterks how you play a videogame. of a combination of two things. appointedes are toward life terms. or forced totire leave the bench because of illness or death. they are there for a long time. in combination, there is rapid technological change. inebody was appointed now 2017 a let's say will be facing issues in 2057 that we cannot imagine. i do not know -- we have to go to science fiction to be robots

to sit that have constitutional rights. i do not know what the issues will be. whenbly reasonably clear justice kennedy was appointed in the mid-1980's, i do not think anybody would've expected him to have any knowledge about genetic technology and patents on human genes. these have come to the court during his tenure. i have a colleague who suggested that one way to deal with these issues as to get away with the idea that all of the justices and every one of them can only be a lawyer. maybe he said, there should be people with other specialties. people with backgrounds in engineering, for example. host: technological changes comic. your thoughts on putting cameras in the courtroom.

guest: this is an issue i do not have any influence on. their minds have unfairly stacked against it at this point. i do not think their fear that if they express are realistic. i think it would be a benefit for the court and the public more importantly to see and for people to think to see what is going on during these arguments. right now, we have the sketch artist who puts up snippets and -- excerptho accept snippets. releasedsions are within the week of the argument. host: same-day audio now. guest: on important cases like the affordable care act.

i do not see what the loss would be of having cameras in there. checkif viewers want to out more about these bands work on cameras in the courtroom, you can check out that at www.c- span.org. up next on the phone is larry from mississippi on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning, repressor. professor, -- good morning, professor. professor, they voted foolishly. i just do not understand. this is interesting fact that i want to mention. how -- fromt to say

an overall perspective. the perspective as a lawyer, the blitz. decision is a not significant or constitutional law, but there are two cases that are always mentioned when i give talks about the court. one is bush versus gore. the reason for the latter is the view not unrealistic that an important reason for the presidency of george w. bush was the vote of the supreme court. a very close election. a lot of people voted for george w. bush. are thes that matter five votes on the supreme court that resolved the controversy. from a constitutional point of

, bush versus gore is not that interesting. from somebody interested and constitutional politics, the fact that the supreme court had a decisive role in making george w. bush president is extremely important. it is not something that i, at the constitutional lawyer, would think very much about. twitter, it was the worst ruling of our time and that includes the bush versus gore will link which we all regret. we are taking comments on twitter and facebook page is open. our phone lines are open. robert daniels had a trivia question. what is the shortest supreme court decision? some areell -- extremely short. there are these things called

procuring opinions that were issued by the court. of anypically dispose did not a very brief order narrowly -- order narrowly way. y- order near he -- ordinaril way. i do not know what the candidates would be. deadlinesuced under of 24 hours. maybe that would be a candidate. i would want to look. brown versus board of education was seven or eight pages long. not a long opinion. that's the shortest really important decision. i do not know. i would have to look. next on thes up

line for independence. your own. -- you are on. caller: good morning. -- i considery all day talking with a constitutional lawyer. i want to get your opinion, a lot of people in d.c. do not follow the constitution is money taken old. i like to ask you -- even though they took an oath. you, what gives obama the 40 to remove a private -- to remove a private industry ceo? and was a lot has been made in the past and is signed by him, that he cannot change and congress can only make amendments to the loss -- laws? i believe obama has overreached

his authority much too much. an ideology of progressivism. he said he stands for change because that is what has taken over the party. thank you, professor. guest: i am not entirely sure about the removal of ceos, i think it has to do with the powers under recent financial reform legislation, the dodd frank statute. the other issue is the suspension of various provisions of the law. in both of those instances, the say -- his actions lawyers say it is authorized by provisions or general authority of the executive branch to make

decisions about what issues to pursue through enforcement actions called discretion. everybody agrees that the not have to use -- theyatute to the have discretion. let's give this one a pass. it is not important to devote the energy and well more important antiterrorist issues. everybody agrees there is that type of discretion. there is an argument that presidents do not have the power to exempt matters by category from enforcement. there is litigation going on now. it is very hard distinction between ordinary not to enforce a law and larger ones that the

president has been engaged in. we will eventually weigh in on that issue. my view will become insignificant. host: cases moving through now. what your out about the new challenges to the affordable care act which would've been talking about a lot this morning? what are going to be the things to watch in the coming year? guest: the supreme court had already granted review with a contraceptive mandate. the issue there is whether private for-profit operations whose owners have religious objection to providing access to contraceptives for insurance tons can be required purchase those plans for their employees. that issue is going to turn not on the constitution but on a

federal statute called the religious freedom act that said congress cannot impose substantial burdens on a religious exercise of individuals unless there's a substantial justification for it. whetherhe issues is these private conversation -- corporations are covered by the constitution or the religious restoration act with respect to religious conscience. ofre is resonance of united what people are saying. the opponents and supporters of the mandate are saying, how can corporations have religious conscience if they support speech but conscience is something internal to their head? the court will decided that by the end of this year. the other issue that is still in the lower courts is a competent

question about whether there can be subsidies for people who purchase insurance on the federal exchange and states over the states have not put out the exchanges. gethe texas, if you want to , purchase insurance, you have to go to the federal exchange. that itute is written provides subsidies to people who .uy them all state exchanges it is not clear it will provide subsidies to people who buy them on the federal exchanges. there is litigation about that going on in the lower court. on the latter when i would expect it eventually the federal changes will get the subsidies as well. host: victor is next on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. merry christmas.

i have two questions. is the -- the one that -- [indiscernible] me, it says that corporations being a person is an instrument by attorneys and makes them dots basically.- gods i do know that there has been a case or situation and the supreme court with a person with the oldest or the longest on the in the courts automatically placed --

[indiscernible] and "-- opened up -- [indiscernible] guest: on the first question is important to emphasize that asking the question, are corporations people or persons is probably not the right way to frame the question. i want to emphasize from a constitutional lore yours point of view. there are prosecutions for engaging. -- constitutional lawyer's point of view. rightsve constitutional to a fair trial whether prosecuted for unlawful pollution. the real question is, do corporations have constitutional force in a specific

setting? and the contraceptive mandate, the issue is does a corporation have a right of freedom of conscience? was doesn'the issue have a right to free -- does it have a right to free speech? the answer will vary. underlyingn what the constitutional issue is. i should say that -- i have a chapter on united in the book as well and i say the bro problem is not as the corporation are persons part, straightforward to explain why corporations actually do have rights of freedom of expression. rather than the supreme court doctrine that makes it extremely hard to limit the expenditures by anybody.

if you're concerned about campaigns, the finance issues, that is the place to focus not on corporations. the court doctrine saying that again, it is really hard to justify restrictions on campaign expenditures. on seniority issue, the chief justice as nominated for the particular position. not to the seniormost member of the court. there are constitutional courts around the world that the chief justice is basically the most senior justice. therestem is one in which is a difference between the age of the chief justice and the most senior justice on the court. host: you talk about how justice roberts was originally going to be nominated with the intent of moving into the chief justice spot. if you do talk about the history. guest: what happened was chief

rehnquist was quite ill, had a certain kind of throat cancer. knew he was going to leave the court relatively soon. court.ed to stay on the justice o'connor had a husband who was quite ill and she wanted to leave the court, so that she could be with him and take care of him. she went to chief justice rehnquist and asked -- none of wanted to be two vacancies at the same time. they try to tame and dash time of their departures -- time their departures. she asked if he planned to retire in in the coming year.

he said, no, he planned to stay on. she announced her retirement. justice roberts was the on the court of appeals and was nominated initially to fill justice o'connor's position. justiceat, chief rehnquist passed away from his illness. that left two vacancies. been whenad always chief rehnquist left, roberts promotionme chief by or as it turned out directly. his nomination for her seat was withdrawn and resubmitted for the seat of the chief justice. justice alito was nominated to fill the vacant

o'connor seat. host: some discussion on twitter on the subject of the cameras in the court. video coverage would expose the justices and their questions and competence to being judged of by the public and they do not want to that. we have time for one more question. vida is waiting. you are on with mark tushnet author of the book "in the balance." guest: yes, good morning. what a wonderful time for me to say the decision by john roberts absolutely floored me. i never thought he was fitted to be a supreme court justice at all. to think you can tax the american people and to let the like bk gp --e on

the kgb, i no longer have faith in the court. this the absolute worst thing that is ever occurred. i saw earlier something on their that somebody sent in on twitter. or one of those. was justice roberts threatened? i have wondered that exact same thing. we have lost faith. anyone could make that type of decision and think it is ok. millions of people are against it. we wanted it repealed. that comes from a person who comes left or right. right now, i am leaning up. i do not know which way. think the only thing we can say in response to that , thevation is that

constitutional issues which is all i am concerned about about whether congress can impose a tax this year is like $95 on people who do not purchase issue --surance, that that constitution issue is relatively straightforward. judgmentters from that , they did not express a view on the constitutional question. what they said was that it was unreasonable to interpret the statute to impose a tax rather than be a regulatory mandate which is punished by failure to mandate is a punished by a financial exaction. chief justice roberts had a view about interpreting statutes to make, constitutional.

said, you can. he said it not the most natural reason statute. if you look at it carefully and , it has a lot of the characteristics of things we call it taxes. the statute does impose a tax and once you are over that hurdle from a constitutional lawyer point of view, imposing a is of not doing something fine. there are taxes -- there used to be, there was a court case about of peoplethe statues who do not register as gamblers or register as people who sell unlawful drugs.

they do not register. and the supreme court said that is fine. course, there is substantial disagreement with the affordable care act. we will see how it is working out as a matter of politics which is basically the way i system ought to work anyway. host: if you want to read more on his views, you could pick up the book that is "in the balance ." thank you so much for joining us this morning. oft is it for this segment "washington journal," and will be right back. this question of your political hero of 2013. we'll be right back.

>> what we know the founders at that work guys against the constitution were the religious conservatives of the day among the anti- federalist who included patrick henry. test. to have religious the founders were the cosmopolitans. most of them were believing christians. why did they take the approach they did and come down where madison came down? they believed no faith including their own was beyond faction. madison's prescription was a multiplicity of sects. >> there've been important development in the law over the last couple of decades in terms funding of public institutions. there were some real issues to work through and to figure out. the rules that govern this area

during the clinton years -- the early clinton years, they were different was doubt they changed over time. some people think it was a good thing as something was a bad thing. there are important issues that people fight about and fight about with legitimate disagreement. but today, current and former heads of faith-based offices of the separation of church and state at 12:30 p.m. eastern. joe sacco with an illustrated account of the great war at 5:00. fromerican history tv, 1967 follow bob hope as he travels across for his uso tour of southeast asian includes stops in vietnam. "washington journal" continues. host: we are back opening of the

question to you. we want to know your political hero of 2013. who would you nominate and why? our phone lines are open. democrats can call -- republicans -- independence -- u.s. --re outside the the conversation on this topic which we asked our viewers has been continuing on our facebook page. i will review a few of those. oaquim writes in a bernie sanders. working elected official in washington. above that, her political hero our activist who are relentless in exposing political corruption. are youat, hero?

serious? people who speak of hero and politics in the same breath are the reason why our country continue to flounder. we will read your comments and tweets as we talk about your political hero for 2013. one tweak from eugene says my political hero is a senator ted cruz for trying to stop obamacare from destroying the lives of americans. as our phone lines are open ready for you to call, the christmas themed stories in the papers today on christmas morning. valueddays of christmas at $27,000 is in "the washington times." up --ition of adding

if you want to read more, it is in "the washington times." we have 20 minutes left to talk by your political hero of 2013 and why. first calling from wisconsin. good morning. caller: good morning. -- my hero as president obama. to makeying very hard things right for the american people after the bush administration gave everything to the rich and lost jobs.

he wants everybody to have insurance. he is trying very hard. republicans keep try to stop him in every way. i make may he wrote because he he's trying even though they make life difficult for him in every way if they can. our: catherine is on independent line from new york. good morning. caller: good morning. to everybody. my hero is the united states of america. nothing else in the world is like -- do you hear me? freedom and democracy is the only country in the world. the most democratic country. i lived in many, many countries before will stop switzerland, italy, greece, and then the

united states. belief me, nobody else left. the united states -- [indiscernible] constitution and should go on and deleted the world of every body the best country in the world. host: after nominating everybody -- and the entire country as her political hero, we want to hear yours. why you nominated that person. charles is from fort worth, texas. thank you for calling. is the i think paul ryan hero of the year because he was able to negotiate with the very liberal democrats and get a budget passed for the first time in many years. because of the obstruction of the president in any kind of

bill that would pass, that would not allow it to, for a vote or the president would threaten to veto no matter what it was. whether it was good or bad. he was able to get a budget passed with all of that. that is because of course of obama's poll ratings have gone away down. even though the other lady said she now made obama, it is because most other people in the country do not approve of him. not just republicans. thank you. host: charles from texas this morning. we will show you some the headlines in of major papers today. we already read this morning from "the washington post," u.n. will boost forces in south sudan. that is the headline.

that is leading a lot of the major papers. overseas the news. here is from the post in the philippines city, afflicted christmas for -- conflicting christmas for typhoon victims. this story said it damaged about one million houses and left nearly 1800 people missing according to a report by the united nations. a few pictures showing this christmas tree made out of empty water bottles.

one of the pictures from the recovery in the philippines. back to your calls. everett is waiting from georgia on our line for democrats. who is your political hero? caller: president obama and the democratic party. we do not care about the polls. we are so proud of president obama and democrats are trying to stick up for everything, average am a working people. the bush administration wanted this country. we found out that snowden was brother george bush's who owns a company that is contracted. administration has had a had been messing up this country. thank you. host: that is eric from georgia. nominatesohio

senators not made by several viewers. senator elizabeth warren and senator sanders who put the public good and a will and ford -- informed citizenry first. larchmont, new york. jane, good morning. caller: bernie sanders is my political hero. i feel that he -- he is a -- heul person that has a is very much oriented to the well-being of the common good. speak andouraged to explained very clearly his point of view. i think for that reason he is extremely valuable. we are asking for your political heroes and bob is up next from indiana on our line for republicans. good morning. of the c-od morning span. merry christmas.

if i had to pick it would be c ruz. it is amazing how many people are calling today and are ready to accept socialism under a guy like bernie sanders. country.ly sad for our what the heck is going on now? everybody thinks they are going to get a free ride? and it -- host: go ahead. caller: you put on betsy mccoy and all these leftists for the health care thing, you have kaiser on their. -- on there. how fair is that? host: can i ask you about ted cruz and what he did it year that he drew you to him? think he takes a

stand and he sticks with it. unlike the president that will bend with everything. a red light means nothing to him. he has principle. father has that his taught him we are living under a social country is like -- what the living under a socialist country is like. host: what do you think he will do down the road? higher office? caller: i do not know if 2016 would be his time. who knows? i do not think -- they guess that hillary and i do not think anybody knows. a lot of things can happen in two years time. indiana thism morning talking about his political hero of 2013. another store in several of the papers. the associated press. denied by utah

federal court. the story notes that 300 gay couples have attained licenses since friday in salt lake county. subject into the front page of opposed the new indiana noticed -- -- indiana find it is not so easy to but gay marriage trend. --says

if you want to read more of that story, it is in "the new york times." talkve 10 minutes left to by your political heroes for 2013. jerry is from mississippi. he is a democrat. good morning. caller myry, are you there? caller: hero is president barack obama. he has brought hope to this country. mother andne what my father and grandfather and grandmother would say today that we have an african-american president. it is all over the world. we have hope here. there was a time in mississippi that there was not any hope. we were second-class human beings. thank god that we have a president that brought hope to this country and to mississippi

and to this nation. host: can i ask you before you go? we had a story on the poll numbers was that he is ending the year at an all-time polling a low according to the cnn poll. what did you think the president should and will be able to accomplish in his last couple of years in office? -- one of thek greatest achievements that the president would have -- that is health care. as an african-american, we have never had the opportunity to have health care. i think this is really going to be a milestone in his presidency. americans said african- have not had the ability. what do you mean by that? caller: i am a 68-year-old african-american male.

time, we were not able to go to the doctor and go to the hospital to get health care like what the president is trying to do. what of president is doing today. i am verye thing excited about. we can go now and have a first- class health care. it is just going to be amazing. -- our people are going to be able to have health care. tois not free, it is going be something that where the opportunity to get. host: jerry from mississippi nominating the president for his political hero of 2013. patrick is from south carolina of the line for independence. thank you for joining us. caller: my nominee is a bernie

sanders. he is the only person in washington standing up for the working people and to the hard- working people of america. he is definitely a hero. he is just great. he is fantastic. , not just is the hero this year, but every year he has been in congress. he is just a great guy. i am not really independent. i am a socialist. i like bernie sanders was because is a socialist. he does not make a bald about it. host: another vote for bernie sanders. garlandt time name, writes that his hero is senator harry reid. he stood up and stopped obstructionist bullets -- and believe in the senate. americans are the winners.

the christmas think stories to point out to you on the front page of the washington times, no land of misfits, toys have a congressional caucus. it is just one example of a unique cause for which members of congress banded together in their free time. that story has a chart on some of the most interesting congressional caucuses on capitol hill that goes with it including the urban caucus, motorcycle caucus, former mayors

caucus, ski and snowboarding, prayer caucus and civility caucus just to name a few. we have a few minutes left to take your thoughts are your political hero of 2013. to east orange, new jersey on the line for republicans. who is your political hero? caller: my political heroes cap cruise. hero is ted cruz. he stood to repeal obamacare. and people do not realize that -- [indiscernible] see 5 million, six my people without insurance.

the government should not be involved in health care. it is just crazy. what did you think ted cruz is going to do down the road? caller: i do not know what his plans are. that --o not realize with government comes in control , they think it's is fine if you do not have it. he is concerned for the people. there is no real concern for the determiningyou are what companies should be doing. this country stance on liberty and freedom. there is no liberty and freedom when they are being told what you have to do. host: east orange, new jersey. a few more tweets.

paul is the political he broke because he tells the truth about our finances and spite of the liberal establishment keeping abuse upon him. carson vote for dr. ben for the man who called obama out on his destructive ideas and perverse mindset. his nomination for his political hero of 2013. we have time for a few more calls this morning. roy is in brooklyn on our live for democrats. your own. go ahead. my hero is mr. chris christie from new jersey. when we had the hurricane. he got together with the president and joined as one. host: turn your tv down and go

ahead and speak. caller: he gets together with the president. he is a peoples person. he is concerned. about an agenda but people. ieat is why i think mr. christ is my hero of the year and i think he will go on as the president of the united states of america. roy for brooklyn, new york. clifton is up next from saint augustine on our line for independents. caller: good morning. happy holidays to all. stand above the word. frankly, personally, having gone to what we went through a month a world war ii vet, i'm going to give the one consistent answer. it will be set for christmas morning.

personally, none. zero. not one consistent answer. an ark fort built the lobbyist and ship it out and being replaced by different ones until we get a group of people who knew what is good for the country and people. that's all i have to say. merry christmas. host: clifton with the no votes for political heroes of 2013 this year. david is up next from new castle, indiana on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: as far as he rose, i i agree withes, the gentleman before me. i am thankful that we have african-american president. like billwas somebody cosby who promotes education and set of letting everybody out there -- a few control whatever.

david. that is all the time we have in today's edition of "washington journal." i appreciate you joining us. tune in tomorrow. come tomorrow and talk about divisions in the republican party. and the future of the democratic party. we will see you back here tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> what we know the founders at

guys that were against the constitution where the religious conservatives of the day, the anti-federalist who included patrick henry at the time. they wanted to have religious tests officeholding. the founders for the cosmopolitans. most of them were christians. why did they take the approach they did? why did they come that were medicine came down? they believed no faith was beyond -- medicines prescription was a multiplicity of sects. >> there been important development in the law of the last couple of decades in terms of government funding. i would say there were some real issues to work through and figure out. the rules that govern this area during the clinton years, the

early clinton years were different. they changed over time. some people think it was a good thing as some a bad thing. there are really important issues that people fight about and fight about with legitimate disagreement. >> today, on c-span, current and former heads of faith-based operations on the separation of church and state feature. , july 1,great war 1916. and, follow bob hope as he travels across the pacific for tour of southeast asia, including stops in vietnam. >> in the first and second world wars am a native american code talkers used tribal languages to