levey with them "los angeles times" and julie rovner with under under join npr join us for discussion with the healthcare law as some americans are set to as early asrage january 1. "washington journal" is next. host: officials here in this country are watching the situation in russia very closely. there's been another reported attack.bombing this one at a trolley bus, the same city as yesterday's suicide bombing at a crowded railroad southern russia. many more people have been killed. this is just several weeks arere the winter olympics set to begin in russia. u.s. officials are saying they're more concerned about security in russia during these upcoming games than any other olympics since 2004 in athens,

greece. some of the other headlines this morning, a surge in healthcare coverage signups innups, 1.1 million enroll this initial period. the "washington times" reports report bybenghazi "the new york times" may be to benefit hillary clinton for president. and "the new york times" reports about the democrats and how they're look at the 2014 elections. they are turning to the minimum wage as a strategy to help win elections. the question for you these first next-to-last this day of 2013 -- who was the biggest political loser this year? who had a rough year in your view? who lost ground or lost support? to hear some names from you and some explanations as to why you think someone was the loser politically this year. you'll remember we did the winners a short while ago. the phone numbers.

over 1,500 facebook postings at this point just 7:00 in the morning eastern time. a few about the biggest political loser of 2013. that's have i i can't facebook. and if not by phone, you can via facebook, also twitter. journal@c-span.org for a good old-fashioned e-mail. recently aboutps political winners and losers for 2013. here's one of them, "usa today," in politics. they start with the jersey boys

here, chris christie on the and thee governor, newest senator, cory booker gave republican and democratic garden statethe something to cheer about in 2013, two rising stars to track things.er that's one opinion there. president obama they have here loser of thetical year. began with great promise, they write, as he laid out a vision for gay rights, climate change, acceptance of immigrants, and an improved economy in his second inaugural address. and then they do talk about healthcare. they're putting him as a loser for 2013. a winner, according to "usa today," the women of the senate, the ultimate men's club now has a record 20 female members. they made an impact like never before. on to talk about losers. they say new york's tabloid in 2013. losers on the left here is anthony former congressman who ran unsuccessfully for

and eliot spitzer who we know quite a bit about. voters rebuff the former and ex-governor, spitzer, as they sought redemption after sex scandals. they destined to be known forever as the disgraced democrats? just some of the reported and losers politically 2013. year we would love to get your viewpoint on things. forward to your phone calls, your postings via facebook and twitter. otherdo just a couple headlines before we start getting calls in this. this is the front page of "usa today." 13 states are to bump up hourly wages. strikes thatrker swept the nation in 2013 did not move congress to raise the minimum wage, but a growing of states are taking action. will they remind us that the minimum wage will rise in 13 this week and as many as 11 states in washington, d.c. are expected to consider in 2014, according to

the national employment law project. likely in more than nelp policy11, says analyst jack temple. that's in "usa today." back to that story we mentioned show, beginning of the democrats are turning to the minimum wage as a strategy for elections for 2014. jonathan martin and michael scheer -- shear write that democratic party leaders bruised attacks on the new healthcare program have found an issue that they believe can lift fortunes in 2014, an increase in the minimum wage. this effort to take advantage of voters inpulism among both parties is being coordinated by officials from the white house, labor unions, liberal advocacy groups. the "new york times" this monday morning. looking for some of your calls to come in. we'll get to this them in a -- a sec.them in we'll check twitter as well this

it morning. one viewer writes, i can't just pick one political loser. we a whole government from which to choose and everyone is just a candidate. "usa today" has a winner. ryan, 2013, the congressman, the 2012 republican slidnominee could have into legislative obscurity in his quest for a budget that machete toa spending, erase red ink, and dramatically overhaul such asent programs medicare and social security. "usa today" also has the it's losers this year. boehner's -- let's hear what john has to say in pennsylvania. independent. good morning you. caller: good morning, paul. whoree with the person tweeted that the american people

were the losers. every day that neither the democrats nor the republicans with just a few could give a darn about what the american people want. boehner says the american people all the time, but that's a small percentage. host: what do the american people want out of their leaders this coming year? caller: well, start with minimum wage. that's ridiculous. there's like an 85% favorable to get that up there. put a dent in this recession. thing would be background checks on guns. that., it's 85% to 90% on most people are in the pockets n.r.a. that's basically our main problem. the politicians are in the corporations, individuals, big money, and we're basically screwed. from that was john pennsylvania. diane is from arkansas, republican. who's the biggest political year?of this it

caller: i'd say the whole united states, our country. host: how come? caller: well, we've just -- we're losing our freedoms in way you can think of. the president is a king, wants and is acting. i'll be 80 years old next year, and i'm glad i'm young. country.ing our host: thanks, diane. how about teresa in south river, jersey. teresa is a democrat. hi there. caller: good morning. the biggest political loser of this year? caller: i would have to say all that worktory people there, that own factories. they all went overseas. and we've lost everything. host: whose fault is that? caller: well, i really don't know. i'll tell you what's happening right now. the president tries to pass a bill and the republicans won't him.with so there's where it is.

host: ok. calling.r james, stafford, kansas. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what would you like to say, first? voted for president obama. .one it twice disappointment i've ever made in my life. liar. plain and simple. host: about what? caller: everything. healthcare. quits.r else you want to add? that caller is gone. tedlyn writes via facebook, cruz clearly is the political of moreom 2013, one to 1,6000 close comments we've received via

facebook so far this monday morning. "usa today," a few names to with you. ted cruz, they say, is a winner this past year. texas' favorite it's party being lite may be getting fits to democrats and some in this his theparty while stoking fervor of the conservative grassroots. that's exactly why the freshman this list of winners. as a loser, virginia governor mcdonnell. mondayll was touted as a v.p. pick in 2012. he chaired the r.g.a., republican governor's and was an example of how leaders in his party could transform state government, but he will leave office in january under an write.cloud, they the feds are probing whether he gave special treatment to a political donor who helped underwrite the wedding reception of the governor's daughter. more from "usa today" there. jim, staten island, new york, independent. political loser this year, who is it?

caller: hi. host: go ahead, jim. caller: hello? host: you're on the air. ahead. caller: ok. yeah. s arenk the political loser harry reid. and host: how come? caller: they blame the on congress.utdown they're not the ones who shut it down. they don't want to budge. compromise.ant to that's the way i feel. host: ok. from a republican caller in ohio. don?st political loser, caller: good morning. the biggest political losers are those americans that didn't get two-partyte in the system. god bless america. for coffee cup politics in 2014.

thank you. host: that was don from ohio. "tampa bayory in the times" recently. loserrubio is a political and rick scott is the winner. the year's political loser, the toice was easy, according the "times." marco rubio, his diminishment over the past 12 months has been so dramatic it's easy to forget he began the year consistently g.o.p. polls of preferred 2016 presidential nominees, still widely viewed as the gop's future. that's the opinion of the "tampa week.mes" this we're taking your calls and questions -- comments via twitter about who you think the biggest political loser of 2013 is. your calls. more of but first, if you haven't heard, there's been a surge, a reported in health coverage signups. this is the lead story in the "the washington post" this morning. 1.1 million people enroll in the , writing that

more than 1.1 million americans an insurance plan through the federal healthcare marketplace during its initial with more thanod 975,000 enrolling in december .lone this from the obama administration on sunday. a healthcare round table a little bit later in the program. there's the headline. than 1.1 million americans enrolled through healthcare.gov by december 24. we'll be talking at 8:30 this morning, if you want to hang on, about an hour and 15 minutes now, talking with noam levey of the "los angeles times" julie rovner of national public radio. a full update on where things new healthcare law, january 1, of course, being the first day folks can benefit. are. find out where things florida.ehigh acres, independent. caller: i was watching msnbc the , and -- the first

cannot predict when the bubble will burst. this is a falsehood. used to be an investment analyst for goldman sachs, wrote many books, made many accurate predictions. greenspany did what said could not be done in one of his books. wasnspan also said there nothing leading up to the bust in 2008 going wrong. also false hoods. when bubbles occur, busts are inevitable. others statedany on the senate floor that the busts was going to. could. up because iis think it's important to alanstand that people like greenspan are frauds. greenspan was actually fired in his boss said that he gave the client whatever they wanted, it was artificial, not actual. so his behavior, pattern. in his timentinued at the federal reserve.

and the reason people like him appointed who don't understand the economy near as well as -- or they're not honest the economy and lack penetration as well is because like john talbot who do and are honest do not give wall street what they want. moneytreet makes a lot of in the short-term for themselves. they make huge profits from the bubbles, the bubbles that greenspan created. host: thanks, kevin. we get the point. othero get some viewpoints in. we're asking who you think the biggest political loser is of lost the most ground or just has had a rough year, in your view. again, we did the winners a short while ago, so we thought we would ask folks who has lost most ground in 2013. we would like to hear you name explain why. the neocons-- all are losers and other warmongers who want war with iran at any to americans and america. that's via twitter.

and steve from haymarket, up on theyou're republican line. hey there. caller: yes, good morning. loser, ofe biggest course, is barack obama because projectsan doing two which would return 110% actuallyt and would work, he wastes time putting out cars that have lithium, which is deadly, and windmill that cannot work. two projects that would work are conductive plastic which replace metallic power grid with plastic. and the other would be the north poweran water and project, which would, in fact, entire west -- everything west of the .ississippi river we would be a breadbasket and be every human being on the planet.

host: all right. let's hear from keith, fargo, north dakota. think the biggest -- who do think the biggest political loser is this past year? caller: to me, i feel like the devil.cans are like a i'm sorry. all they ever do, they're always democrats. it's like just this last time gave us an increase in our check. on social security disability. we've been sitting back for a money me with very little money, no increase. this time i got an increase in security check but stamps. my food the republicans are the ones started the war in the .irst place with iraq

caused the ones that kuwait, causing this country all kinds of money when money could have went for jobs and all of that kind of stuff. host: all right, keith. thanks for calling. a little more specific about republicans here in his twilter message -- twitter message. the mainstream republicans, he writes, were the largest losers. outlets. no media it's all it's party outlets. facebookh writes via this morning, the american public is always the loser because we have no real representation in d.c. unti. until the public wakes up and over parties,g realizes they are both corrupt to the core and we will continue mire.stuck in the dave is on the line now from grand rapids, michigan. independent. hey, dave. caller: hi. the biggest loser is the .merican middle class it doesn't matter if you're a

republican or a democrat, wealthy are still going to benefit. stillhey consider poor is going to benefit. the american people are still going to take care of them, but the middle class, everybody's going to pay for it. and i beg the american people to progressive is. they are the people that are destroying our political system right now. and there are progressives both republican and the democratic party. thank you. host: thanks for calling. alley, north carolina, republican. biggest political loser this year? caller: i think it's barack obama. he's just like the guy from said, he's a liar. makejust go up there and that theynd pass them think we won't. i think we need to vote -- like the healthcare. the american people should have voted on the

care.hcare, this obama we are a free country, but we're getting all of our freedom, it is being taken away from us. alley from north carolina. troy agrees that it has to be barack obama. writes via facebook he got nothing done. but when you scroll down a thele bit, maximus writes whole republican bunch, the whole republican bunch are the 2013.cal losers of bryce at twitter writes the losers are the people at the bottom. there is no top in terms of income, yet there's always a way the 99%. that's from brice. william on the line now from democrat. hey there. caller: hello? host: yes, william. you're on the air. do think is the biggest political loser this year? caller: the republicans. particular? in caller: all of them because they they thought --

because we got a black president. from dawn nowar in florida. biggesti think the political loser is the people at the bottom, but i take issue "tampa bay times" and the biggest political winner being rick scott. are really here discouraged. the recession -- we are still in thecession compared to northeast. there's no jobs. there's more poverty. he's the biggest political loser in 2014. host: well, hang on. read more from the story. they call rick scott the biggest winner. yearads into a re-election presiding over the lowest unemployment rate florida has years, 6.4%, they write. makeoversnt image have done little or nothing to improve his appeal, yes, his leadershipcampaign have become messy, but the bottom line is he no longer looks like the dead man walking did a year ago. any thoughts?

caller: well, the unemployment but there is low, no such thing as a living wage down here. everybody's working two and three jobs. no such thing as a sick day or a benefit. business.or big there's no small business down here. unless you're a fat cat or one businesses, you can't make a living down here. people want to move. they just can't afford to do that anymore either. host: thanks for calling. as we ask for your thoughts losers, "time" has the biggest political winners and losers this year. they, too, point to the new jersey governor chris christie who won a re-election. combustible christy cruised to re-election with 60% of the vote. open question whether his drawling style will translate beyond trenton, there. nationally john kerry, they have here, as the biggest political winner, one of them. u.s. secretary of state, of course. they write that hillary clinton is a tough act to follow, but stint in foggy bottom

has been marked by a string of surprising successes. they point to the rekindling of the middle east peace talks, the deal with nuclear iran, and an agreement with russia that averted unpopular military strikes against the syrian regime. "time."om they also point to harry reid here as one of the biggest the year.winners of they say he's a soft-spoken leader. why he's considered the chamber's top tactician. fiscalaneuvered the cliff deal that opened the year, tapped patty murray as a lieutenant, has successfully negotiated the budget deal that ended it, and pounded the gop for the shutdown in between. that time "time" -- that from "time." terry is on the line from michigan. go ahead, sir. you're on the line for democrats. who's the biggest political year?this caller: i think it's house boehner.

?ost: john boehner caller: john boehner and mitch mcconnell of kentucky, california, comes up with all of these scandals, phony scandals on the president. true.f it's they are just losing for the american people. american people cannot win for these guys. the first caller you had, he right. 80%, 90% of the people want wage, they want some type of gun control where get guns.ples can't and they all against it. if you got 90% of the peoples these guysing and steady voting against it, you know, they don't work with this him tont, they want lose. that's my opinion. via: one of the opinions individual,till an says the unemployment are the biggest losers. they were tossed overboard when extended left

employment -- or unemployment out of the budget deal. rockford,lling from illinois. independent caller. hey, mike. caller: hey. good morning. morning.d caller: the biggest losers are the voters. aen corporations can back candidate, number one. number two, when congress is tax incentives for corporations to move overseas, it should be a crime. number three, the illegal thats with all the aid we're giving them, bilingual teachers, you name it, we're to them. they care more about the illegals and the corporations .oving and, yes, we are losing. thank you. host: thanks. mike.as we have paris, france, on the line, john is calling, independent. john.orning, caller: good morning. i'm phoning because i've been following a little bit your conversations, your callers. the unemployed and the voters are the big losers.

but i'm thinking more from the stage and scene. the u.s. asnk that a whole is the big loser simply because of the weak role that it is areas. in so many in the middle east, in particular, where i have lived and been very often, in egypt in particular but also in the peace israel --een poil and palestine and israel. that secretary kerry has been making huge efforts, but odds aretely the against a peaceful settlement the uneven balance between information coming out .f palestine and out of israel host: what are you looking for? what are you expecting from the united states moving forward? -- first would expect

of all that there should be better information flow from the occupied territories to the u.s. and from the palestinians u.s. so where to the ththat the voice of the palestinians could be better the u.s. therefore, if it that were possible, then secretary kerry line with a firmer israel in terms of things like, well, all kinds of rights that denied in that region in of -- well, everything, land, air, water are the three things but also things like political rights. so those rights are difficult to uphold when the palestinians' is not being heard, i would say, by the american and, therefore, it's not being supported by the administration in its talks with the different partners in the east. host: thanks for checking in, paris,alling from

france. that international story from here is the bbc version of it. a new deadly blast, if you has hitheard, volgograd. yesterday there was one blast. monday, there was another one. and the headline says or the lead says at least 14 people suiciden killed in this bus.ng of a trolley bus i 17 people were killed yesterday. security has been tightened at airportstations and across russia. they write here that moscow is concerned militant groups could violence in the runup to the 2014 winter games sochi. the olympic venue is close to north caulk caucus region. "the new york times" piece is u.s. officialsid are more concerned about security in russia than at any other olympics since 2014 in athens, greece. passage there in the

"new york times" piece today. this coming from current and american law enforcement intelligence officials. they were talking sunday about all of this. call, larry, sterling heights, michigan, republican. the biggest political loser this larry? caller: good morning. first, i'm going to tell you, america in whole is a loser, like 95% democrats, they are brainwashed. are brainwashed. ,n whole, when you look at it all america is loser because they don't do nothing, neither thecrats, neither republicans. i hope in 2014 they going to to the common sense and to do the stuff, what's good for america. you guys have a happy new year. -- i hope weeat

can get it straight in 2014. thank you very much. larry there from michigan. to virginia now, to jim. from?are you calling or is it george? go ahead, george. caller: thank you. calling from richlands, virginia. say thatike to unfortunately the losers are the american people, the true the democratic party. and also the republican party. the talking points that consistently come across -- and i think you, this morning, are a good example. not once has it been mentioned the communists or socialists, so-called progressives. it's always it's party and so forth. and the communists and progressives have commanded, democraticd, the party. and the american people are losing by this. the people know more about the rules of football, basketball, and golf than they do the .onstitution and their country has been

terribly, terribly undermined as result of this overriding and over arching experience with the denigration of our educational system. host: all right. we will do this for about 10 or minutes. i want to hear your thoughts on who you think the biggest was.ical loser of 2013 at 7:45 eastern we'll talk about housing and the prospects for 2014. that healthcare round table coming up at 8:30 eastern time. "time."the website of the biggest political winners haveosers of 2013, they rand paul as a winner. they say he had his missteps , including plagiarize numbers were -- his stumbles were outnumbered by his successes. partnership with mitch mcconnell that destowed establishment credibility, edged the unbalance of

lattable elements of non-interventionist foreign policy, and made a series of speeches to court minority voters. points out that barack obama, in their view, is loser.ical they say that second-term presidents have about a year to re-election capital on ambitious political initiatives. obama's honeymoon period was rockier than most. his push for gun control after new continue to went nowhere, stalled, andeform his syrian strategy was a jumble thatlse starts from "time." jim calling. morning. caller: good morning. i would say the american people are the biggest loser. and right now it's all because in chief.mander usingof people get queasy the word lying so we'll say his untruth about healthcare and the people that were going to be on their programs that suddenly found themselves without insurance. and then everybody else is being forced to. we all know it was a debacle on

the rollout. the governmentat is not telling us the truth about the numbers about who is signing up. the majority of the people that signing up, are signing up for the medicaid and that is a fact. american people. and i'm going to urge all the people that if you really don't want to get hung with this law around your neck, call your them tomen now and urge pass a bill that says there will be absolutely no bailout for any insurance companies. host: from jim over to dale, in albuquerque, new mexico, republican caller. dale. caller: how's it going? mcconnell, losers is isa and boehner. host: why? caller: why? guys have made america look foolish, ok. silly as heck for a long period time. and these are the republican leaders. just like that last guy that called, hey, absolutely no

problem the republicans not obamacare.for ridiculous. these have given people a chance, a chance to have some of healthcare. the people that are being kicked off their plans are the richer the society that can afford to buy private insurance in the first place. attention. to pay because people like yourself that have a good job, you can to pay just a little bit more to help the poor and the want that --o not don't think of it as paying for think of it as for your mother or grandmother's healthcare. that's what we're talking about. you. host: ted cruz make morgue news this morning. he'su haven't heard, telling others that he's hired lawyers to renounce his canadian citizenship. from the "dallas morning news." the junior senator is still a canadian but working on it, eh.

senator cruz was unaware of his dual nationality until the morning news explored the issue in august. since then he has retained counsel that is preparing the paperwork to renounce that citizenship. paper.in the dallas the hill reports on his appearance on one of the sunday talk shows yesterday. he defended the decision to force the government shutdown. he already defended the decision to have a government shutdown. you've got conservatives that said let's stop the train wreck that is obama care. notlamed democrats for negotiating before or during the shutdown. hill this from the morning. george, baltimore, democrat. loser. political who was it? >> republicans. ted cruz, mitch mcconnell, all of them. healthcare for all. the government. and john boehner went inside for healthcare. come on. like [indiscernible].

republicans, democrats. 2014 is our time.i host: thank you. california now. sharon's been waiting. republican caller. caller: hello. call.you for taking my i have been listening to about this, this subject about who's the biggest loser. i believe that the american people are the biggest losers. and theof what obama democrats are doing. and i don't believe that every republican is doing the right thing as well. but we people are really, really hurting. rippedstitution is being apart right before our eyes. oure losing everything that forefathers fought for.

from that was sharon california. we have patrick via facebook this morning writing the biggest political loser is john boehner, speaker of the house, that shutdown. government duane responds by saying actually it was the democratic shutdown,t forced the but thanks for playing. republican, luis. morning.ood the biggest losers is the press. host: how so? caller: they haven't been asking any questions. they never challenged the president. allowed the president to censor the news coming out of allowing house by not press conferences, photo opportunities. they've just been onboard. and now they're losing. let the president censor reporters' phones.

.hen they go after them if they disagree with the policies. they informants or whatever you guys call them in the business reveal where they get their information from. host: sources, mm-hmm. caller: and the biggest thing is just the fact that "the new york times," when they came out over weekend saying, you know, can't paint part after tack in benghazi. "the new york times," it's such a disgrace. sir.day, host: thanks for calling. julius, greensboro, north carolina, democrat. julius. julius, are you there? let's try mike in albany, new york. mike, are you there? caller: good morning. i think the biggest losers are publico be the american because the other biggest losers, wall street and washington.

we need blue-collar jobs. now they're advertising a 30-year anniversary but all the jobs are gone. we let thatine why happen. and the other regard, on these russia, i'mr in looking -- i hope russia gets as isgh as we think russia overse we're namby-pamby here, trying to figure out why people are doing it. hopefully russia can do their and take care of the situation. host: that was mike. will we'll take a few more calls but wanted to let you know about story. political co-writes this morning that harold simmons died. a a gop megadonor. $10 billionh according to "forbes." they write that harold simmons died saturday in dallas. was 82. he and his wife contributed almost $31 million to conservative causes during the 2012 election cycle this according to the center for public integrity.

the majority of it went to american crossroads, a super pac by former george w. bush strategist karl rove. that in politico this morning. rick from ohio. morning. caller: yeah. if you look at the biggest ther, it is the freedom of press. it's the constitution. past 30 years the function of our media has been and divide and conquer along with the wealth.bution of if you look at this "duck guy -- the dow's at the00 but all the news is "duck hunter "o guy. clearchannele radio and time warner come out of the state of texas and georgia. now, that's 80%, 90% of all tv and radio. percentage, the other part of it, comes out of wall

street. look atknow, when you createde of texas, it 800,000 jobs last year. detroit went bankrupt. have literally four g.e., timetions, warner, clear channel, and fox. and if you look at the constitution, it's the freedom of the press to protect us from politicians. it's not the freedom of the politician to keep us protected the corrupt press. you can actually start breaking thing down into rogue states. is wargot texas, which in oil, in illegal labor, in nafta. got wall street, which is, you know -- you have the banking industry. and in connecticut you have military contractors, insurance. have five or six

rogue states that are controlled three or four, literally corporations -- general electric to the -- cnbc, that's the stock channel. so, again, when you look at -- book out there. it's called "taking back the att belt," one radio station a time. that there was 1, was 1,500 clear channel radio stations, that's 30 per state! so they control -- clear channel controls hip-hop, all the sports, fox sports. so you've got these -- literally you've got four or five from texas, georgia city wallnd new york street that manipulates the news. in if was growing up

detroit -- in detroit, the democratic party, there was union workers. general motors had a million workers. host: all right. point.et the we're just about out of time. and mary writes at twitter, another big loser, the dysfunctional and therefore increasingly irrelevant u.s. house of .epresentatives one last call on this topic for now. maryland,enna, democrat. caller: good afternoon. good morning. yes, i am over here on the eastern shore. i am a great politician. my mother were during the roosevelt time. eisenhower,ring which i thought was a great president for the things he did country. now i'm looking at the people we elected to go up there, and all they doing is fighting among each other. nothing about our country, country t all about our

country. all we talk about is the it's party. and i just wonder why they don't do like the history say the it's beginning.t the go to the shipyards. that's coming over here, going to our wal-marts, back over like the it's party started and not have them each other and trying to tear down our president. host: all right. howard from vienna, maryland. to everybody for your participation in this first 45 minutes of the program. short break. guests that are coming up later, fact,fact next -- in next, include lawrence yun of the national association of realtors to talk to us about the housing the u.s. market, prospects for the year ahead. and our healthcare round table later, noam levey of the "los angeles times" and julie rovner public radio will be here to give us an update on where things stand with the affordable care act, how things shaping up for the year ahead.

and plenty of time to take your be right back. >> he says what he thinks no is.er what it and sometimes i would get after him. think you have to be political in a certain way. honest, and you have to say the same things but still you have to cater to people sometimes, i think, and tow what they want and need be able to influence them to vote for you. it's not being dishonest. it's just finding out what they know howletting them you're going to help them with those problems, things that they want.

>> first ladies influence & image season two. lady bird johnson to rosalyn carter. and on wednesday, highlights season. second week nights 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> things are moving extremely fast. my indication expires after five to 10 years and everything is new. the cloud is new, facebook is new, twitter is new, google is new. languages.ming historically what we've done is sliced human life into basically slices.ces or five one is the play phase the first five years, the learn phase the phase, years, the work and a kind of resting phase afterwards and eventually dying. should bek we interweave these phases and have them at the same time, play, work, rest at the same time because the world moves so fast today, we can't afford a single identification anymore. we have to stay up to date. c-span,ear's day on just before 1:00 p.m. p p.m.

eastern and throughout the c.e.o.'s of udacity, twitter and others on the future higher education. tv,"span 2 "book unflinching courage, kay bailey hutchison. and on c-span3, american history daughters of civil rights leaders share their memories of 8:30.vil rights era at >> c-span, we bring public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings, and conferences, and gavel-to-gavelte coverage of the u.s. house all as a public service of private industry. we're c-span, created by the cable tv industry 34 years ago local cabley your or satellite provider. h.d.ow you can watch us in

>> "washington journal" continues. host: at the table now, lawrence yun, chief economist and senior president at the national association of realtors here to talk to us about housing, how ended, prospects for 2014. good morning. guest: good morning. me.ks for inviting host: we wake up to this headline, home prices back at peaks in some areas. remains uneven as cities spared in bust soar but struggle.s do agree? guest: all real estate is local, so certainly we see the variation in different parts of the country. alongn see that broadly, the middle of america, from the state of texas, oklahoma, denv denver, north dakota, they're already at new peaks in terms of home prices. some areas they're still in a recovery mode. phoenix is recovering very fast, but they are still down 30% from the peak levels. host: let's look at some of the organization.our we can put them on the screen.

key stats from 2013 in the housing sector. existing home sales, 5.1 million homes were sold. overall.es rose 12% and the median existing price for a home in november of this year, $196,000. anything else about those about? you want to talk guest: very respectable recovery. this is the second consecutive year of recovery. accumulatively over a two-year time span home sales have risen 20%, home values have risen roughly 20% which has lifted the people who have been to above water status. at the worst possible case a few had 13 million homeowners under water status. half the number. so rising home values is helping families'e american finances and broadly helping the economy as people feel more wealthier and feel more comfortable going out and spending. host: phone numbers on the ourom of the screen for guest, lawrence yun, with the

national association of realtors. he's the chief economist and v.p.r separate lines for the eastern part of the country, so eastern zone and outime west, mountain and pacific. just two numbers for this particular segment. foreclosure about trends in this country heading into 2014. doing? we guest: the worst of the foreclosure has passed. we still have some, but these assets from the bad lending condition back in years, 2006, still going through the system. but the recently originated three years, past these are one of the most outstandingly performing very,ges with absolutely very little default. one thing that is helping lower default situation is job creation and also rising home values. home, they see a the home values rise. they do not default. so this has been a nice reducingon in terms of the number of new defaults. but we still have some need toures that still go through the pipeline from the

past lending mistakes. host: how about lending itself. give us an update on home lending. we read a lot that it's really a good loan these days. can you plug that piece of it into the picture here? guest: it's extremely stringent conditions. regrettably. and the reason why i say regrettably is because the homeownership has been key to middle class reaching the they feelstatus where very comfortable. but what has happened is because underwritingight standards, we have buyers coming transactions the are all cash. they are not able to obtain mortgages, so they're coming in cash. many investors are coming in. and they are participating in this home price wealth creation, wealth growth situation. but homeownership rate has now 64%.om 69% to and that is leading to the traditionallye where we have viewed a solid

middle class participating in now we wealth, well, have fewer people participating in the wealth recovery. wider, unequale wealth distribution in the country. host: what does that mean to the economy? guest: from the economy perspective, from the society point of view, we want to have a class.lid middle and right now because of the excessively tight underwriting thedards, maybe it's due to excessive regulations that is preventing lenders from lending, to so manyis due lawsuits against lenders. because if there's lawsuits, abouts are very hesitant lending. so it's a combination of many factors. is the bottom line excessively tight underwriting renterds is leading to population rising, homeowner population not rising. host: let's turn the corner to your forecast for 2014. again, our guest is with the national association of realtors, lawrence yun. we'll have your calls in a moment. but what is the overall forecast for 2014?

guest: home prices have risen much faster than people's income. affordability has taken a hit. it's coming down. it's at a five-year low levels. begin to hinder some of the home wi buying momentum t experienced. we hope that the underwriting standards begin to be relaxed modestly. back to thet to go bubble years, clearly. but from the stringent to back normal conditions and bring more buyers into the market. but because of the falling conditions, i don't anticipate the home sales to rise much next year. home prices, we still have some housing shortage conditions in many parts of the country. so home values are expected to digits the mid-single next year. host: and we'll put those forecasts on the screen as well can talk a little bit more about them. as our guest said, he expects basically stay the same, prices to rise about 6%. mortgage rates.

5.4%. about saying they're now 4.16%. the all-more than mortgage interest rate. fed hass of what the recently done and what you think that's going to mean for home later.e interest rates guest: we have had the ultraloose monitoring policy with zero interest rate on the short-term borrowing. plus the quantitative easing, which is essentially printing of bring downin hope to the bond yields which then helps the mortgage rates remain low. printing of the money cannot continue forever. and the fed has announced their tapering, which means they will slow the pace of quantitative easing which clearly means that the long-term bond yield will be rising, .ortgage rates will be rising so that will be the anticipation regarding the interest rate .utlook host: numbers to call --

two separate lines here, eastern mountain andthen pacific for our guest, lawrence yun. hero via twitter wants to know, you can please explain how housing is getting more explain how or housing getting more expensive is good. in price ising up good? guest: it's good news and bad news. .ad news for potential buyers they don't want to pay higher prices. but it's good news in terms of bringing wealth to the homeowner population. we have roughly 75 million families who are homeowners. and the wealth recovery has been of $4 trillion from the low point. and that is lifting people who aboveeen under water to water and also people who own their home outright. there is an increase of overall wealth, which means they feel more comfortable about going out and spending money, whether it is for furniture or even sending

their kids to college. so that helps on the overall front.c host: we have john, our first call, from leehigh acres, florida. welcome to the program. with lawrence yun. good morning. john, are you there? caller: yes. can you hear me? host: yes. thank you. caller: hi. question. but before the question, i'd like to state something. there has been various opinions bust.t led to the housing elizabeth warren was on cnbc, in a debate with a businessman on cnbc. fact thatt up the repealed, and was this was the primy cause of the boom and bust, the mortgage crisis. censored. she was not allowed -- her statement was not permitted on national television. so my question for mr. yun is, that deregulation,

primarily the repeal of class-stiegel led to the boom and bust? was this deliberately done by lobbyistst corporate in an attempt to legitimize deflawed the american -- defraud the american consumers? thank you. guest: thanks for the question. the act which separated the banking and -- investment banking, was repealed 1998. and the reasoning for that was that many of the global centers whether singapore, london, they already had integration between investment and the conventional bankings, so u.s. wanted to compete in that space. as to the reason for the housing market bubble and subsequent bust, i think there are many factors. certainly wall street got wild. they saw the relaxation regarding regulation, so they chased after any potential yields. prime mortgages would be

a good way. the rating agency, these are the poors and moody's, gave a.a.a. top rating for the sub prime mortgages which led to the many mutual funds and investors purchasing. had, at the same time, we the government getting involved. regardinge regulation fannie and freddie to e encourae veryy more mortgages from low-income neighborhoods. in hindsight we see that not successfuln be homeowners, but a mandate to purchase a certain number of a low-income neighborhood i think also excessived to the mortgage lending conditions. so there were a lot of mistakes involved. now we are healing from the process. but i think as with any market and bust, we are over correcting the underwriting standard is clearly excessive tight. and even though we are seeing a reasonable housing market recovery, it is still hindered

because of the excessivively underwriting standards. host: so the over correcting that you speak of, how long to last? expect that guest: we have new regulation going into effect in january consumer finance protection agency regarding new mortgage rules. solve we have to see how much tightening or what kind of clarity so whether lenders can lend more or whether they will hold back. one aspect that i do not like about the new regulation is the potential lawsuits. they are saying any small mistake there will be a lawsuit against lenders. the is not something that lenders want to have hanging over their head. hinder.nk that may but we have to wait and see. host: are there fewer lenders out there now than there were the crisis began? guest: there's clearly more consolidation in the lending industry. we have the large banks, the big chase, bank of americas. and then we have many of the smaller lenders. smalleraspect of the

lenders is that we have housing shortage. we need more new-home more inventory to come online. traditionally many home builders are small size, local home builders relying loans from the local community banks. but because of the excessively burdensome regulation, at least hear it, host: does congress play a role in that piece of the puzzle? guest: there is good aspect of the legislation. we do not want a repeat. on there is overcorrection making it too tight and it is hindering the recovery. host: let's hear from joe from north carolina. most of all of your sales are on housing already built and investors. you do not have permits eating drawn for new construction. you have permits being drawn for

repair. so your quotes are wrong. plus, tell the people what shadow banking is. on the first point, you have made this point that there are a lot of investors that are the most active right now. been veryestors have active and there is a new set up raising him in buying homes along the neighborhood with hope of getting the rental income yield. then you have the small investors. the housing permits situation, the housing start, we are roughly at one million. that is well below historical normal. normal should be below 1.5 million. housing shortage, we should be at least racked a 1.5 million and that is not the case. we are going back to home. small local homebuilders are having an excessively difficult time obtaining the loans.

>> you mentioned earlier the rate went down. is there a number out there considered good just for the overall health of the economy? >> the number would be good if potential buyers stayed within their budget and became potential homeowners. clearly, some of the young people, in the 20's, the traditional rental population, i do not think they want to settle down. renters many of the aspire to be homeowners, even after the bubble. 90% still indicate 80% to eventually want to become homeowners. regarding what is the right i think 65 and 66% in the current demographics would be ideal. we are over correcting downward. in 2000 14, even

with additional housing market recovery, that the homeownership rate may continue to fall because we have the household formation coming from rental population. tothe last caller wanted know what shadow banking is. >> many people have different definitions of it. it goes back to the first caller's question. you have the traditional where people make deposits and banks use the deposits to lend it out. large banks,arly are able to raise funds differently. then they can have their additional subsidiaries. different ways to describe it, but clearly, money is around in many places. >> on twitter, they want to know, what is the next bubble to be concerned about? >> clearly, things are out of line with the fundamentals.

regarding the sectors, i am not sure what that would be. regarding housing, housing is not a new basel -- bubble. we are back to a historical number. home price is back to a historical number. withiny so far has been fundamentals paired we do not want to see two fast increases. people's income needs to rise. for hanging on. you are on the line. caller: good morning. i have a question. several, really. you are talking about how rental properties are doing ok technically.

they can go into negative income. then we have schedule a, only use.op 10% of homeowners the wealthiest of schedule a. to take the home mortgage and property tax off. not having a good outcome of all of this, the average homeowner does not get to take any further investment of a depreciated house. 100% of homeowners, the individuals that live in that home should be allowed to take mortgage and property tax deduction because it is an investment. we should all be able to take a write off for any investment expenditures we taken that includes homeowners. i will listen to you explain all of this. those are two biggies she is talking about. that is currently the irs

tax code for homeowners. because we have the standard, some home owners prefer to go to the standard and taking the property tax reduction separately. that has to be the key to encouraging homeownership in america. many people have utilized it. many young families because they have a much larger mortgage, because they are at the early stages of homeownership. foras been very helpful many traditional average homeowners. then you have investors. today, we have many institutional investors coming in and they are looking at every aspect of the tax code to their advantage. >> let's hear from john in michigan. good morning. i figured a way out of the bubble. i got caught up in it and started holding solar energy , very hard to get

financing. i lost that one. what i did now is i bought a rundown property, fixed it up, do it cash. stay away from the bankers. nails.rself a hammer and if you are not familiar how to, ,here are places around community colleges, that will show you how to build your own houses and stay away from the financing and you sleep a lot better at night. thank you. guest: busy you. that is good advice. today, we have many investors going in all cash and the reason is some voluntary decision like you have explained but the other are having investors a very difficult time obtaining mortgages or the additional property purchase. because of

that, they are also still coming in all cash. >> let's hear from josh in florida. mr. yun meet a few comments. one was the regulation that. frankel entered the economy. i agree. -- that. frank -- that doodfra dodd-frank will enter the economy. i agree. all -- the whole act was complex. london was the first to their institution with

investment banking. some people feel hesitant. today's controversy over the rule, how much of the bank clientbe remitted to use funds for proprietary trading? though that is an ongoing debate still unsettled here. that is part of the new dodd frank legislation to see what aspect of the repeal that was is taken. excess >> one of the many housing headlines this morning. -- remind me to ask you again to review the country as a whole. which areas will do the best and which will be the most flat when it comes to prices moving forward? the florida market, there is still room to grow. foreign by cash buyers. people from latin america are going to miami.

are going to orlando. now chinese according to tampa for rental income potential. we see the recovery occurring faster along the state of utah, idaho. colorado. they are applying for further growth. the areas that are more sluggish is areas where they still have inventory and this will be in the new england states, new jersey, new york, all the way to maine. it may be more sluggish. >> chris, good morning to you. hello. i have not heard anyone bring this up and i think it is very important we talk about this recently. if you can talk about what i'm about to say. for probably 200 years in this werery, property rights

paramount. also, state laws all around the country stipulated you could never step the late -- stipulate the notes and the mortgage itself, from each other. the two documents must remain together. what has happened in the last decade is that we have had thanks create a ponzi scheme on the american public where they have basically taken our stockges and used like certificates on the open market. tax have cut out the local collector, the people that keep records of property sales transactions of every market in the country. they have separated the documents and sold it off. to the investors. they have bought these documents. what has happened is there is no record now of who owns it.

there could be thousands of people investing in one piece of property. one house. yet, our politicians do not want to talk about that. you, as the vice president of american realtors association, have not brought that up. it has not been fixed. what are we going to do about that. why are we not talking to the american people about that? go and checko local documents and see what has andened to their mortgage see if the document has been recorded and what has happened initially.s recorded if they bought a house in the last 11 or 12 years, i guarantee you the local property tax collector has been cut out of the process. mortgage electronic registration system to supposedly handle that and did not do it. i agree with the caller

on the importance of the property rights. the connection between the note and the property is that, to deepen the additional funding or mortgages, securities came about in order to attract many of the global capital. in the process, it has been sliced and diced and as a result, regarding the was madere process, it very difficult to identify what fraction of the notes are being held by whom. i think this is the clear byproduct of the downturn we experienced because we need to have a clear connection between the ownership and the notes. i would say one third of all mortgages are home owned, held as portfolio. and hold thatland

in-house. they do not sell that to wall street. the majority are sold off to wall street or the fannie and freddie. that is tofor attract global capital and sell off those securities. process is that because we are able to attract global capital, you keep the interest rate lower than what it could be. when there is a foreclosure crisis, it will take a long time to identify who will make the decision. host: on twitter -- guest: the price values are determined by sellers and buyers. there are no governmental officials involved in the transactions. the transactions occur and the subsequent transactions at higher prices, and from the

you, they when of have said they will take a certain percentage of property value to fund the local government service. is not a government authority trying to elevate the price. just the homebuyers and sellers. will the year bring anything from the hill in terms of housing prices? one legislation our organization has advocated strongly is for people still underwater and have to sell their homes for various reasons, the debt between the mortgage they canto the value obtain from selling their home, it may be negative. from the irs point of view, they want to tax that forgiveness as an income. someone whoicking is down. it clearly does not make sense. we hope there is legislation

that is not a taxable income for the forgiveness. host: let's hear from florida. you think the reverse mortgages will work out in the state authority e -- authority? difficulty are because it is very expensive for consumers. it benefits some seniors. they have wealth tied to their home and need cash. they are doing the reverse mortgages. we have found it is very costly for consumers. leading to some problems down the line. for the market to determine how this gets resolved right now, the reverse mortgages appears to be excessively high for consumers. some homeowners are benefiting,

but, personally, i would not ,ecommend reverse mortgages for for example, my parents. >> lehigh acres florida. what part of the state? caller: southwest. i would like to read an excerpt from an amazon at about one of his books. thoughtfully advises earners to liquidate in a hurry, raising the stakes from his previous bestseller. housing prices will plummet by as much as 50% in the next 5-7 years. i think that will be felt on an international level. it was just stated there is no way to predict when the bubble will burst. my question is do you think mr.

fort's stand was a plate reasons of wrongdoing? do you think perhaps there is corruption that caused the housing bust and how would this be prevented in the future? there are many players involved related to the bubble and let's hope we never experienced that. regarding how to prevent it, we need to be sure people who can become successful homeowners are ones able to obtain mortgages. right now, it appears to be the excessively stringent underwriting standards. we look at the credit stores -- scores of those 10 years ago, and the credit scores are much higher, which means a good middle class, a good segment, have been denied mortgages to obtain their dream of american homeownership. ow do we prevent it? we need to be sure mortgages go

to people who have the ability to repay. joyce, one more call from florida. we are talking about housing. two questions. the first one is, and this has been advice from years ago from an attorney to my mother and it isved her well, the question as it relates to baby boomers. do you think baby boomers will continue to be homeowners if they are currently homeowners, and do you think they will turn into renters as they get older? the second one is as it relates to a condo. in a foreclosure for three years now, it has been in foreclosure. what is concerning me is the title company is also part of the foreclosure, along with the homeowner and the condominium itself. banks, which i cannot recall which bank it is, and that is my second question. what is it involved and in a

condo. thank you. boomers aftery they retire may downsize. we have seen a shift for the condominium units or adult living community. baby boomers may downshift. a majority like their home and want to stay and it. for thanksgiving and christmas, invite their kids over. we do not see baby boomers downsizing that we have some movement for a slight preference of going into condominiums in the future for baby boomers. i do not see baby boomers becoming renters. it is rarely the case a successful homeowner decides to give up ownership and become renters. condos, i do not know all the details involved. sometimes, it is very funny in the downturn. you have a case where lenders would say they will foreclose on

the whole condominium because some homeowners association fees are being late. you look at the detail of who is late and it is the lenders not hang. but you have all of this chaotic situation out there. i think this is the legacy impact. >> a reminder of what is put out there for the year 2014. they say home sales will be at levels from this past year, roughly 5.1 million homes sold. you are saying most of those aren't this thing homes. homes and new starts. home prices will rise the present. the rise this current year was double that, 12%. mortgage rates will start climbing to about 5.4%, now about 4.16%. callerst is our -- our is from georgia. caller: good morning.

our home in 1992 coming out of retirement from the military. purchased our home and never had a new roof, never refinanced on our home. 2007, we was picking things off of the walls. they were foreclosing on our home. know, could not even answer why. what happened? what is going on? we faced the judge. nothing. to see that wer could make payments. nothing. never refinanced. -- we would never refinanced on our homes. money,our hard earned

2006.994, to host: a question for our guest? what washat happened? the problem? that we had to move out of our home. you tell me. i do not know. someone who would purchase their home in the mid- they would clearly not be in the underwater status. it does not seem right regarding what she is explaining. i do not know all of the specifics involved. people in trouble were people who bought their home in 2005 and 2006 and there are still people who may have purchased earlier who took out a large cash out refinance and went -- and they went to underwater status and combined that with job losses.

few more calls for our guest. florida. laura has been waiting. hi. >> yes, hello? hi. i am calling because i have a question regarding a statement made earlier about the bubble. i understand banks were previously giving out high bonuses for people and that was responsible for driving the bubble and how we got to where we are during that time. but now, we have tons of empty homes sitting around and the banks are choosing to let the homes sit and deteriorate and to auction them at incredibly low prices. i have been watching the auctions. they are selling these homes for $40,000 and cash only and people are coming in six and buying who have the money to do that. all of the people across the country who are trying to take

credit cannot finance a home and cannot qualify. we have all of these people left without being able to purchase homes and tons of homes are sitting around empty and vacant very banks will lose money on homes home it will take construction companies to come in and repair the homes. would rather leave them empty then show them to people who can afford to make payments. ofeasonable cost instead auctioning them, some of them, taking many of these homes a long time for that to even happen, we could sell at a more reasonable cost to someone who can afford them. i understand the overqualified people before. but now, it is near impossible to get a bank loan. i was reading online. to an online advertisement from washington journal. 640, it isf

difficult for people to get along. isis a definite -- it ridiculous. it will really impact our economy if people cannot own -- own homes. that is my question for you. the historyoks at of america, because we have population increases, every year, there is one million additional homeowners. the past eight years, we have not seen an increase in the number of homeowners. there is a tremendous amount of potential tent up demand for buying, as the caller is mentioning. people want to buy but cannot obtain mortgages. the underwriting standard is excessively tight. one has to go into why that is the case. hinderingregulation but the bottom line is there is a large potential buyers who can enter the market but are being

denied mortgages. >> one last call from lancaster, pennsylvania. he spoke about a reverse mortgage a while ago. we had a business and sold our business and incurred loans. i was wondering, this reverse mortgage, you said it was a disadvantage. can you please explain that? >> it is clearly helpful for some people who have used it property -- properly. they have paid mortgages for the past 30 years. they have owned their home outright. they now need additional monthly income. they want to use their home as a cash flow and if they do it right -- in terms of getting reverse mortgages, the fee they are mortgagesget reverse tend to be very high. as a result, the equity amount,

cuts right away from the very start. at some point, they have to repay. some people run into problems. personals upon circumstances. some people are benefiting from runhile other people have into trouble. >> what else are you looking out it is clearly on the supply side and not the demand. we want more buyers to come in because that is helping to build the middle class. they are bringing new home housing starts to the economy. it isnstruction alone, very difficult, and we hope the lending begins to open up. realtor.org is the website. ,ur guest has been lawrence yun

chief economist and senior vice president of that organization. we have about an hour and half left of this monday edition of "washington journal." when we come back, we will talk health care and talk about how things are going with the affordable care act and where things are headed. our guest will be noam levey of the new york times and julie rovner. plenty of time for your calls. we will be right back. in the meantime, news from c- span radio. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] obama administration says the website has seen a surge in sign-ups, pushing the enrollment passed the one million mark. combined with numbers, that should put the entire -- the total enrollment to about 2 million people by the end of the year. britain makes adjustments to the national healthcare law. the government is saying today migrants an international tourist will have to start paying for medical care in the country, including emergency

care treatment. one official says the change is to make sure the health system is fair to the hard-working british taxpayers who fund it. no one will be turned away from medical treatment but will be expected to pay for it. more on health care is coming up next. entitled "2014, the year to go small. he writes lawmakers had already lost appetite to go big this year, leading reforms like immigration and guns and the tax code slip away in the face of good luck and dysfunction. there is a new problem now. lawmakers are reluctant to rely on the federal government to get anything done. a consequence of obamacare's watched rollout. there are things even a divided congress should pass. appropriation to keep the government from shutting down again are already lined up for action. that story is from politico's

darren samelson. you can watch congress in action when they return next week. the senate reconvenes on monday january 6. watch live house coverage on c- span. those are some of the latest headlines on seized and radio. class that is what he thinks and sometimes i would get after him. i think you have to be political in a certain way. you have to be honest and say the right things, but still, you have to cater to people and know what they need to be able to influence and for them to vote for you. it is not being dishonest. it is finding out what they want and letting them know how you will help them with the problems and things that they want. >> "first lady's" season two.

this week, lady bird johnson to carter. on wednesday, highlights from our second season, weeknights at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> i have been involved in politics for four years one way or another. i worked as administration for a year. effect of the matter is i have quotingen so many eagle and waving around the declaration of independence and the constitution. many of you 10 years ago, you never gave it a second thought. now, i bet is that -- it is at the front of your minds. is, tensof the matter of millions of us love the country and we do not want it fundamentally transformed. we have to get to as many other people as we can and wake them up and educate them. i am not trying to pat myself on the back. it is the purpose of this book. i consider it part of the .urpose of my radio program

it is why we are under attack all the time. these utopian statists. click sunday, the best-selling author mark levin will take your calls and questions in depth live for three hours starting at noon eastern. the first sunday of every month on c-span two. "washington journal" continues. for the next hour, we will talk about the affordable care act and how things are going and where they are going in 2014. .ur guests, julie rovner we are also talking with noam levey. thank you for joining us. here are one of the headlines over the weekend.

home of one million enrolled on the exchange this month. this came out from the administration yesterday, still , but the larger question, going? things going e -- >> it is much better than it had been. everyone recalls the rollout of healthcare.gov. the administration was only able to unroll a few thousand people in the oeste month. by that measure, it is doing a lot that are, as the headline indicates. still short of where they need to be. another three months to enroll people. if momentum continues, perhaps they will get a few more million by the end of the enrollment time. coming thisant date week. what will make a successful january 1 for the administration? >> what they are most worried about is all those people for the the last week, if

you take the numbers apart, it looks like own -- almost half a -- and people enrolled they extended again to christmas eve, to make sure people who signed up for a plan actually have insurance. they are all the people who want insurance then. if you keep signing up now, you will have insurance, let the people who signed up were really are to have insurance starting on the first of the year. it is an orton for the people who think they sign up for a plan actually have a plan. it is not just the front end of their website that works but the back end, which means all of those get translated to all the insurance companies and the companies are able to follow through with the people who signed up, to make sure the people who signed up aid their premium. that is how you actually finish the process. they extended that deadline as well. that two 2006 when the

last big one of these rollouts, they rolled out the medicare description drug plan on january 1. a lot of people went to the pharmacy and discovered they did not have the cover -- coverage they thought they had. that is the big worry. press phone numbers on the screen for our guests and viewers to call into our guest. lines for republicans and democrats and independents. we are talking about the health law and where things are headed not only this week but for the rest of 2014 and beyond. we look forward to your percent -- to -- participation. we make sure we are reading those and getting as much information on the table as possible. to the insurers, are they ready ready? guest: more so than they were. the timeframe between now and when people are supposed to get insurance is very tight.

many insurance companies have been scrambling to ensure the people who they think are coming are the right people, the people that signed up think they signed up are actually on their roles. folks in the insurance industry i talked to are optimistic they will get things worked out. be a few were probably more bumps along the way as well as people begin showing up in trying to use the insurance. us more about the potential problems hanging over january 1. they get enrolled properly. most people think it will not be the same types of problems there were with the medicare part d, was people obviously get prescription drugs pretty much every month. it is not like everybody will 1ow up to the doctor january and january 2. the people who really want

insurance to start january 1 are mostly considered people who think they will need insurance going forward. people keep talking about how important the demographic mix is , that you want the healthy and the sick and the good mix, they will probably not have that right. and of march. people whoare the think they will need health insurance. will they show up at the doctor in the first week? about we not dare there is probably more of a grace time here to get this straightened out. it will not be as bad as everyone on the pharmacy in the first few days. the sign-up iss, october 1. the sign-up by december 24 to see the coverage beginning at the beginning of the week. the final sign up date is march 31 of 2014. more insight on those days and where things are headed?

guest: one thing hospitals and doctors and pharmacies are thinking about is while the numbers are relatively small, and we are still talking about a couple of million people, a good portion of the people may not have much experience using health insurance before. health insurance is complicated, even for those of us who write about it. understanding the way networks and deductibles work, we may see a little bit of confusion on the part of consumers who think the health plan they selected includes this are that drug and perhaps it does not and they need to adjust. we will see a little bit of that. the other thing is, as it has been happening in the market for a number of years, and deductibles are still rising in a lot of health plans being sold in the marketplace is. consumers who think they are paying their monthly premium, and now they have to pay $2000

before they get any health insurance coverage, that will be an adjustment. speaking of consumers and people, i want to point out this tracking poll, to give you a sense of what folks out there are thinking. holding steady in november levels is the latest we are seeing here. you can see three lines here. the redline has 48% of people viewing the aca as unfavorable. interview,st below 34%. in this line, they are just not sure. they do not know. any more insight into the numbers? class it was not a good autumn for the affordable care act. the website failing to launch and people getting policies canceled because it did not meet the new requirements, there was just a lot of the publicity and that was reflected in all of the polls across the board.

>> let's hear from michael on the democrats line. >> good morning. i'm calling because i just want to know why people keep going around telling people not to buy into this president posses insurance. are cap dese are telling other people out there not to buy insurance. it is so unfair. they can afford some sort of insurance. i am not saying insurance is perfect. it is not. at least it is a hope. it is a hope for people out there who can afford to get some sort of insurance. mom the years, i watched my insurance month for

as she was only making $6,000 a year. monthd to pay $800 every just to get insurance. that was not top-of-the-line insurance for her. when she got sick and went to the hospital, she did not even nurse there. for all that money for what? people have got to wake up and understand there are people out there telling you not to buy the insurance and they are in short. me there waslling a republican senator who was elected the other day and came in and started asking about his they tell him his insurance will not kick in until one month after he is on the job

and he is raising hell. thank you for calling from maryland. any thoughts? guest: buying health insurance is a personal decision. some people do not want the protection that comes with the insurance. the law establishes now a penalty for people in many cases if they choose not to do that very on the other hand, i think many people look at health insurance and they will make a decision it is something they want to invest in and the law make that available and it is important to keep in mind before the law was passed, buying health insurance was not an option for many people as you are sick and would not have an easy time getting it. there is a concerted effort by opponents of the law to make it fail and encourage particularly younger and healthier people to not buy health insurance and pay the

fine instead. there are people who suggested bad thing foris a the law but it may be a bad thing for people who do not buy insurance. for many people in the early years, it will be cheaper to pay the fine band to have insurance. but if something happens to you, you do not have health insurance. stories inumber of the paper today, even on a quiet day like this, they write -- any reaction to that headline? guest: if you already paid your deductible for the year, you do not have to start over again in january. another reason is because of flexible spending accounts a lot of people have, where you put money aside tax-free, and it

used to be if you did not spend that money before the end of the year, you lose it. the treasury department has changed his will that you can roll over some of the money. a lot of companies are not allowing that for this year. for many, it will start next year. octaves and tend to have a lot of specialties. a lot of people buy glasses at the end of the year so they can use that money. you mentioned, in some cases, it is not just these plans under the affordable care act, but a lot of employer plans andtightening up networks putting hospitals and specialists out of their network. a triple whammy about people trying to fit things in at the end of the year. >> the story speaks to something the caller alluded to, which is the affordable care act is a huge law. it is making major changes to the health-care system. for some people, the changes will be positive and for some people, the health plan will be more expensive or the network

may be smaller. mind whento keep in reading headlines and thinking about the news about the affordable care act is that, like anything that changes the system as dramatically as this law does, there will be people for whom it is better and worse. smallerple may have a network than before. some people may pay a higher deductible. other people may get health insurance for the first time and never had it before. or, they may end up paying less. that is an important perspective to keep in mind. host: a republican caller named al. me a few minutes here. i want to tell you first off, about two months ago, i got notice from an insurance company and was thinking about getting additional insurance, just major medical. let me tell you this. i have got medicare. i am 71. when i was his the five, i never used it.

i am a decorated veteran. i have v.a. insurance. me woman first -- first call and gave me a spiel about how you got this and it will not cost me anything. it will not cost me a dime. as i got into it, i found out you have to pay for this and that and this. i do not want anything to do with it. i have plenty of insurance and do not need more. day before yesterday, i got two packages and are now. not one but two of the same package for my insurance. they enrolled me and i will call someone. have 375 pages of insurance in the packages. it is disgusting. so much for birth control. i am 71 years old. i will tell you what this program is primarily for peer for the minorities. a lawrs ago, they passed

where you have to take care of people going to hospitals. it is what happened. these people cap going to --rgency room's so hospitals cost of insurance went up for everyone else. you michael's mother was making $70,000 a year. she probably had a family. what is wrong with her paying for that when everyone else has to? >> let's hear from our guest. any response? >> if you are on medicare, you are not allowed to enroll with the affordable care act. let's start there. for people uponly to age 65. right there, i do not know what kind of plan he was enrolled in, but it is not for people on medicare. if you are on medicare, you can get supplemental insurance, but you cannot get an affordable care act plan. is calling from new hampshire, independent caller. hey, there. are you there? affordable care act.

i would have preferred a single payer but i'm excited about having health care for all americans. if one wants to see what a free market health care world looks like, i suggest viewing the dvd, "as i lay dying." it is positively grim. i suggest all republicans and young people watch it. thank you. >> let's hear from salt lake city, democrat. hi, there. >> yes, good morning. [indiscernible] i am really happy for this on c- span, objectively. i want to make more comments about health care. this has been a problem in america for as long as we can remember.

[indiscernible] there are sets of problems related to the formal health care act. number one, [indiscernible] late in his first campaign, and to makesequent efforts the legislation go through , from different stakeholders. i think obama made a mistake because theynning , so it so difficult difficult, that it was not easy to explain and it has lost all of its weight because it has been gutted during the conservative and other stakeholders -- [indiscernible]

it was almost bare bone. the easiest thing was to keep the public option. that was the basis for the whole program. liberals are known to be inconsistent. they do not stand for anything. everyones they see else's digging the heels, then they start changing. [indiscernible] conservatives are those people who do not like from day one and [indiscernible] big government is becoming

involved in our daily lives and a big section of the economy. thank you for calling their a lot of points. let's hear from our guest. very complicated. a process of a long and arduous legislative ross as i do not think anybody would say was perfection. the president may have noted that one point that the only perfect law was handed down on mount sinai. hase is no question the law a lot of flaws. under normal circumstances, some been andaws might have might still be addressed. it is very difficult because the law has been polarizing as it has been over the last 3.5 years. it has been very difficult to make the kinds of adjustments one would normally at from a piece of legislation this size. it is part of the reason we are where we are. an editorial cartoon

showing the president with a bunch of contraptions generally called obamacare and he says, he does not want to return this and he just wants it repackaged. what do you think he is trying to say here? of the difficulties, he has laid a very complicated and laidre system something even more complicated on top of it any wonder why people do not understand it or why it is difficult for health supporters to explain it. to make it more calm gated, you have a polarized congress who cannot even do the smallest fixes to it. it is not even imagine -- matter of repackaging. there are a lot of small things both sides would like fixed and they have not been able to because congress is so gridlock. one of the things congress -- one of the things mentioned about the gridlock, they could have gone with a public option. one of the things we are really seeing around the country is

that the prices really differ depending on your family size and age on how much you earn because there are subsidies. we are also seeing the prices differ markedly depending on where you live because of just how much insurance costs and how much competition there is. it is turning out to be kind of a luck of the draw. in some places, people are saving a lot of money because they happen to be lucky enough to live in a sweet spot for the insurance agency and in new hampshire, where there is one insurance policy, they tend to be expensive. >> a tweet asking how taxing insurance plans lowers the cost of insurance. guest: it does not. by a number ofed different mechanisms, including a couple of new taxes. that was in part driven by a desire to ensure it would not

add to the deficit. expensive to extend coverage to millions of people. one of the taxes is a new tax put on the insurance plan to help offset the cost of coverage. there was rationalization that the insurance industry stood to gain a lot of new customers and they could make a contribution. but i do not think anybody believes if you add a tax on to insurance that that will not be passed on. >> moving on to pennsylvania, a republican, high. hi. caller: hi. i know 90 million people will lose insurance for -- applying for the insurance is too expensive and the only other

recourse is medical assistance. i am wondering how many other people have been transferred and are now going to be stuck applying for medical assistance, something that i would never want to do and i want to know how many other people do it. the second question is, in regard to taxes, i understand a tax, 3.8%, can you please explain and i will listen after i hang up. >> i do not think there is a 3.8% tax on rental spear there is a tax for high income people, a number of taxes, that you have to make more than a quarter of a million dollars for most of those taxes to kick in. not a lot of good numbers about how many people lost their insurance. is onlyemember this within the individual market this year about people whose policies were canceled because they did not meet the requirement. the majority of those

people got other insurance. many of them got cheaper insurance and we are mostly hearing from people who did not because those are the people complaining, or they were getting subsidies. there are a number of people looking or there will be some people who end up hanging more. it depends on where you live and how much insurance costs. that is still sorting itself out. >> the story was found there it ceou.s. government named for obamacare. coming under increasing pressure. the chief executive to run the federal marketplace and to lay the concerns of insurers after a rocky rollout. guest: the white house heard some of the criticism. after the botched rollout, the essentially ad rapid response rescue man to

come in and take it over and he stepped aside now and the former executive from microsoft agreed to step in to take over oversight of the further implementation of healthcare.gov. it is not clear whether or how long he will stay. he pledged only to stay within next year. there is discussion about whether he may stay longer. clearly, one of the real weaknesses of the implementation of healthcare.gov and the enrollment process was a lack of clear leadership in the obama administration. it is a fairly broad consensus having someone who has strong leadership and particularly private sector experience is not such a bad thing. click yes. i think generally all the senators calling for somebody to head this, were happy with last week. roanoke, virginia. good morning. >> good morning. ask, i have not done

anything about the affordable health care act yet. as i go through the process, are to haveired identification? guest: yes. generally, when you go through the process, you are required to have a number of things, proof of citizenship, some proof of the website, or if you do not want to go to the website, you can find someone to help you in person, they will go through the things you actually need to have in order to actually apply for health insurance. why are you asking for id echo -- id? why do you have to have id in order to get insurance? why do you have to have

identification for insurance that you can vote and you do not need identification? host: do you want to take a crack at that? caller most things know is that you need identification. this makes millions of dollars of insurance available to those with low or moderate incomes. there's obviously an interested in trying to ensure the people are who they say they are. there's no medical condition involved because there's no existing addition, but there's a lot of concern about fraud, and that this program is only available here in the u.s. legally, so they want to make sure that you are who you say you are. host: how do you think the

politics change after january 1 with health care here in washington, and around the country? here's one headline -- approach at gop's this point, where have they been, and where the going -- they are going. on thethey have been repeal, or the delay, and i think those things are probably going to have to evolve if you will, because it is going to be once you get several million people -- one of the things we should go back to his talking people who areon signed up in the states. they're not quite as far off as saying, they are guessing it is about 800,000. there aren't about 2 million people have signed up for the plan, and somewhere over 4

million people have now gone coverage through medicaid and the children's health insurance programs. we're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 million people who are going to have coverage starting generate first. if you're going to repeal the law, you're going to take insurance away from 6 million people. that is something for the republicans to think about. now they are talking about delaying the mandate. it is the next things coming down the pipe. really march 31, if you do not have insurance, you have to pay this fine. or the employer mandate that to put off a year. they're looking at things that have not taken effect yet. you'd expect those types of arguments. or a wholesale revision of the law, but i think we are kind of past repeal point because once having insurance and having it were, then it becomes harder to take it away. , delaying theey mandate, what effect would this

have on the overall process? guest: people are gay but i how much these plans operated through obamacare actually cost. if not enough healthy people show up because there is no penalty if you do not get health insurance, does that change the , thatool, as it is called makes it more spent seven 2014 -- expensive and 2014? i do not think that the law is danger of being repealed before president obama relieves office, but clearly, if there's a republican president in 2017, and the law is not working, if the premiums that the people are paying are too -- ther if the law employers decide to stop weering health coverage,

find a point when healthcare.gov was as disastrous as it was, would be public perception was that this thing cannot work. at that point, the republican critique of the law gave the a lot of steam. i think we might see a change in 2017. there until now republicans have not had an alternative, i just complained about the affordable care act. now there -- they will probably put something out there that is and seven 2014. it will be interesting to see what the republicans have as a comprehensive alternative. host: there is a tweet -- has that been a problem? guest: yes it has. there've been a fair number of aca websites. host: they ask for money, personal information, both? guest: all of the above.

places what to charge people to sign up, and that is not the way it is. tost: i just wanted to add our earlier conversation, the california republican party actually put up a fake website. failed really took it down, coming under a lot of stirred criticism. a call from mike. caller: i represent this. , shefe is 68 on medicare ingin a skilled nurse facility. she has been there for only 26 days, and because she is not showing recent progress, medicare is cutting off as of tomorrow. therefore the supplement is also discontinued.

entering a cancer study at the cancer center in georgetown. what can we do? can we get any kind of insurance to cover this? host: let's hear from our guests. guest: i believe the call over's clinical trials in some cases. you might want to explore that, and call medicare's 800-number and ask. the supplemental will not cover that-- those things medicare will not cover. host: david, you're on the air. caller: the problem with the portal care act is that it has never had the support of the iraqi people. the would -- majority of the

american people feel like they are being bullied into doing something they did not want to do, which is an unfortunate situation because the relationship between the people and the government that the founding fathers had in mind was that the sum that government should be subservient to the people, not the other way around. host: what does that all that mean then? law?the january 1 theer: the lady said republicans have a plan, and i am a republican. three steps you could have done. step number one, malpractice litigation reform to address the soaring malpractice insurance costs and defensive medicines that doctors not to practice. step number two, allow people to buy state insured policies

across state lines. as that number three, have a website that i shores, where people can go compare the various lands and caused, if they want to pay a little but more to keep their own doctors and hospitals, that would be their choice. instead of the government dictating what doctors they can choose from the what hospitals they can choose from, what lands they can choose from. host: thank you for calling. have we heard any of these plans before? guest: reforming the medical malpractice is a longtime birdie to the conservative health policy folks. as is deregulating health insurance and allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines. i think there is a general medicals that the malpractice system could use some changes by the problem is that it does not do all of the

things that some proponents of doing it claim. it may help reduce some of the unnecessary test that are done, and free doctors to practice in luba differently, but it does not solve the problem of tens of millions of people who do not have access to health insurance, it does not help change the incentives for practicing medicine one way or another. very briefly on selling health insurance across state lines, even health insurance regulators will say that that becomes very complicated. but if you buy a help lead in plan in iowa,th but you live in new york. what if you have a problem, who do the you go to? do you go to the regulator and i wasn't supposed to be responsible, or do you go to the federal government? -- is opening the door for even more federal involvement? guest: most of these plans, for

better or for worse, have networks that are pretty broad. it is impossible to buy a plan in iowa if the person lives in new york. worselants, for better or about are not national. there are national, multistate plans in the affordable care act. there are supposed to be more going forward. , think there in 33 states now and they are supposed to be in all 50 states by next year. today headline about mental health care. it still lags, and is a cry just cannot accept insurance -- many sick i just do not accept insurance. guest: missing a lot of what is going on.

people complain that i lost my plan, now i have to buy these plans that have all of these things that i do not want to go or and will never need, but the institute of medicine was the one that went in and to send what these plans will have to cover. many of the things that people think they will never need may in fact be things that perhaps you will someday need, and mental health care is one of them. many people do mental health perhaps substance abuse treatment, and it is an issue that a lot of doctors who do not take insurance. sometimes you'll have a problem with difficulty in getting providers, and getting the cult -- difficult getting providers into networks. lock,ocess of picking the the health care system that we have is not a big one. there is a lot to still ironfire. -- there is still a lot to iron out. getting that balance

right is a challenge. with anything the government does the as this law is being and lamented, one of the things that we will have to keep an eye on is the degree to which that balance between the market doing the things that we want, and government regulating coverage of mental health. types of requirements for the government is placing on health insurance, or on doctors. that is going to be any volvo olving and evil thin balance. brad, independent caller, from iowa. caller: hello. that i havetime to a subcontractor individual plan. my plan was grandfathered, i'm not being forced to buy maternity coverage, and a bunch

of other stuff that you do not need to i'm a 51-year-old single man gave as far as insured costs across state lines, i have blue cross blue shield policy and i iowa, and my providers are nebraska. everything works just fine. let's go over some of the numbers. when they pass this law, they undershirtlion were there isred, and now 50 million uninsured, and 6.1 million individual policies have been canceled with an average of 1.7 people on each plan. so that is somewhere between 10 and 11 million people that have lost their insurance. communist takeover of our health insurance company. host: one opinion there from

brad, in iowa. a tweet here -- do we know that figure? guest: right now there are more people getting medicaid that are buying plans. it was always expected. remember, people keep talking about this 7 million that are expected to have private insurance but that is the projection. the first projection was always 9 million, so there was always the thought that would be door people getting medicaid the second year than signing up in the health exchanges. host: this opens the doors to medicaid coverage on its own terms. what is the story going on in iowa with medicaid coverage? guest: i forget exactly how iowa is doing, but half the states are expanding.

originally everyone was supposed thextend medicaid to underprivileged sector, but now it.y half are doing doing it not exactly as it was anticipated, doing it slightly differently. i forget exactly how iowa itided how to come in, but is not a straight expansion, they doing it with some strings attached. they are a handful of states that are negotiating with the federal government to funding. their federal we are also reading in "the new york times" that to save have the same lead

contractor to hold the online mark places and had summit problems and delayed that they withhold ninth of dollars in seeknts to the company and to recoup the funds. the contractor for healthcare.gov was the contractor in several state run mark places that have problems. thisnk hawaii may have had as well. not surprising that states would seek some redress. host: taylorsville, kentucky, you're on the line. network for in the kentucky.net, and she was a dutch my friend was just diagnosed with cancer and she works at a bowling alley. herthe boy do not notify that the employer did not notify her that she would no longer be

covered. somewhere sister with two they program to find her new insurance, and it was going to cost her $300 a month with a $6,700 deductible. that is not cheap about for someone who only works at a bowling alley. and then my other question is, does this employer have the right to do that, not let -- and that close to where it is time for her to sign up for the new programs? employers were under an obligation to notify their employees about the options for coverage through the marketplaces. i do not know about the significant -- specific scenario that the caller is referencing. more but: we would need the specifics of that.

that sounds about right for how much you have to pay, but depending on how much he earns you might be eligible for still more health. povertye under 250% of you're not only all jewel for help with your premiums, but your companies as well. host: karen, from arkansas. on the republican side -- line. caller: my main comment is that, with all of this health care being created, the people that are most important and all that were ignored, and those were the physicians. the physicians who have worked, some of them since middle school, to get where they are, are now being told what to do, what they cannot do, what they can charge what they cannot charge. i guess my, to the two guests is how would they feel if the government now says to them we are late going to let you make

five dollars hour, six dollars an hour, or $10 an hour? if yourd you feel personal work was now disgraced, your value is decreased by a government agency? how is this going to affect the patient's because i do not think the doctors were considered in this. you can evolve insurance you want, but one sheet -- until you have a doctor to take care of you, you're not going to get healthy again. majority ofat the the doctors in the country are going to boycott obamacare, and then what are we going to have but a bunch of nurses when you get really sick. i would like them to respond to how this is affecting the doctors, and how they were not considered in this. guest: a lot of people like nurses,bout so of ip -- so it might be good for some patients. most of the major medical

associations supported health reform, including the american medical association. there are a lot of positions that are feeling nervous if not outright angry about what the law is doing. they're made to be seen whether or not some of the regulations and requirements that the law put in place will be things that are beneficial or not for physicians. is to be said that there are a lot of positions that feel that some of the things that the laws doing to make it easier for physicians to care for patients in a more rational wealth, may help them manage them -- their diseases, is a positive development. we do not want them to have to take government money, have to pay for medicare patients, medicaid patients quit happened than about -- patients.

about 2 million people are on that. guest: and most of the expansions here are coming in private experience -- insurance. a lot of private insurance companies are trying to compete by either narrowing their network and having fewer doctors in their but to have the there to keep the prices competitive. host: here is a tweet -- guest: no very that is not part of it. host: let's go to a democrat in

tennessee. caller: good morning a lady, and gentlemen. a quick story, and then a question. i am retired. i had co-payso and out-of-pocket expenses on my retirement insurance. $70 atarted charging me month, and then this year they miraculously charged me $331 a month. i do not know this obamacare, or the greed of at&t. my question is, i've been on lou cross blue shield of illinois by and i worked -- if companies are people, how can they buy insurance across state lines?

that is a question that everyone needs to know. drafted, know who gets all all of the-- questions that people have. thank you. have a happy new year. host: noam levey? guest: a lot of issues raised there. issue first ofe cost. clearly the cost of health there -- health care in this country continues to rise. i pay a higher co-pay, a higher premium, i wish that were not the case. cost growth is slightly slower now than it used to be a few years ago, but it is still faster than inflation. so every year we are all paying a little more for health insurance. i do not think it is does their leave the case obamacare is responsible for that by it has been going on for many years. one of the things to keep in

mind about how expensive health care is come a that we all talk about, how can we do things to change that -- the government could regulate the prices, the government could set lower prices for everybody. as karen was just telling us, that is not something that a lot of doctors want either. there is this conundrum of what is the role of government convention government edict getting that we pay less money? i do not think that is the answer, and i do not think it but he knows yet. host: john, in illinois. caller: good morning. i have been a major defender of our president on this health care issue. recently, i've been disabled for about seven years to beingaughter, prior aged 19 was on medicaid here in illinois, and then they cut you

off at 19. so she is now 20 them and i went thinkingte and was that this was going to be great, the expanding medicaid that she would be able to get on. she is in college, lives at home, and we do not have a very good income here. we found out that because my wife has insurance, that she will not be able to be eligible for medicaid. but to put her on my wife's plan would cost more than $500 a month, and we didn't do that to begin with because we cannot afford it. so now after discussions in my allly and with my friends, lot of them on the opposite side of where i am, it is beginning to be a lot harder to defend this program when my own daughter is not going to be able to be on a program, and i cannot afford to pay for it. so i think there is a big problem with this, and i'm

hoping that it can be fixed, but it is getting harder to defend our president and this ada -- aca. host: is that story typical? guest: it is not typical, and it does get confusing, particularly in the situation of young adults and what they can do. expensive, but i do believe what some employers have said for this is a big problem called the family growth -- glitch, where they can have their insurance, but the cost of adding family members is difficult. why multistate employers have always been allowed to offer insurance to employees in multiple states, that is what the employment security act does. of employers that

have employees in many states, and they get to offer insurance across state lines. it is only few buying fully insured plans in one state. it is individuals who cannot i state -- insurance and other states. big corporations can always offer. >> it should be noted that to our earlier discussion, those health plans are regulated by the federal government. there's actually a right of the street from here, a very large up this -- very large office. if we're going to expand interstate health insurance, i would achieve that the office would have to get a little bigger. host: mention more about the functionalities of out the help exchanges in the states. guest: it depends on the state. storyline wasthe the healthcare.gov did not work with the states were doing great.

now -- now itlp is healthcare.gov is a great but the states are having some serious troubles. marilyn, you have a situation where the contractor did not do so what were they tried to move to a different contractor, and ended up suing each other. you have organ which never got its website launched they they have done everything on paper so far. hawaii has had some really serious problems. i think that the states that have done the best of although they have done -- had some york,m too -- new connecticut, kentucky, they have done really well. in colorado which started out really well has had some stumbles. kentucky has done really well, but they had started early and did a whole lot of work.

washington state has also done well, but they have had some -- and much everybody has had some issues. host: we have a couple of more calls. ictor,, a republican -- v a republican. caller: i'm just calling because i job leave that this health- care bill is going to benefit a large cross-section of the country like we have been told. i want to make a statement about dr. ben carson, but before i do you -- wesay that if were told that if you wanted to take -- keep your plan, you could. none of this stuff about it -- you're able to keep it because you are able to pay the increasing price, we were told this until just recently. i realize that there are a lot

of people out there without insurance, and people who are underinsured, and there could have been a way that we could get this hold thing fixed so that they are not underinsured and they are not without insurance. the other issue that is about to fall that all of us have been ignoring is the fact that we're that have 30 million plus is going to continuously increase the cost of medical care is country. he ben carson, i think that be someone that we ought to really look to, and people like health- help us in this care thing, because people are to dealing with this thing. once we get people

in office that are really looking out for us by the iraqi people, and i mean both sides of for us,tical aisle -- the american people, and i mean both sides of the political aisle, we'd better education in this country, and there's something not happening because we are allowing ourselves to be governed by a politician who really wants to control our lives. host: one less call. from southl, silvio bend, indiana. independent color. toward morning -- independent color. good morning. as of the end of the year, she is going to be canceled completely. -- is this example,

moving forward, the new death anal? he said his -- her coverage is canceled as of tomorrow. guest: she is a skilled nursing facility and they moved to a clinical trial. host: noam levey, what to look forward to in the next couple of days but with january 1 as a big deadline? guest: people are going to start resumable the evening -- using health insurance. do not think it will be people beating down the doors, it is relatively few people, relatively 300 million americans that are going to be getting all the insurance. orxpect we will have some glitches, will have more people showing up they can do things that they perhaps cannot do. maybe they do not have their health insurance art or so forth that card or phone forth.

we get to the end of the open roman time when people can select health insurance. we will be watching that march 31 deadline to see how many people are actually signing up for help lands. not too long after that we're going to see what of the formal that's what the affordable care act will look like in 2014. the summer we'll will see how much our health insurance plans will be charging in 2015. how many of them will be able to stay in business because they did or did not get the customers they needed. that is going to be an important barometer. guest: we are going to see a fair number of sign-ups in january. athink that there's probably end up demand for people to get in in december, and you're going to sign up now for that february 1 start date.

i think we will see that little we will but i think also see fights about small businesses signing up that got delayed. they delayed the spanish- language website, because of things, line two and says we talked about there is a continuing fight in congress to decide whether there needs to be fixes or an overhaul. host: our guests have been julie rovner and noam levey, thank you for your time and expertise this morning. we will take a short timeout, and then come back to ask you more about who you think is the big lyrical loser in 2013 -- elliptical loser in 2014? political loser in 2013?

now to c-span radio. >> a russian city, 400 miles from bayberry's would your games is on high alert today following two suicide bombings in today's. authorities believe they were carried up in the same group. at least 14 people were killed in today's glass on an electric bus and volgograd. yesterday 70 people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a railway station. we'll keep an eye on the story and keep you updated. tomorrow's the last day of the year, and also the last day of work for a veteran journalist. about40 years at abc news ratner retires tomorrow. is a former war correspondent ben has been a capitol hill correspondent for abc news in recent years. approaches,ew year word today that the supreme court justice sonia will help ring in 2014 in new york city at 11:59 p.m. tonight -- tomorrow

eastern time. she will push the button that starts the time square ball to drop. she was appointed to this group record in 2009 -- to the supreme court in 2009. . those are some of the latest headlines from c-span radio. we are in the galley of the museum. we are looking at polar landscapes in art. the purpose of the exhibition is to highlight the rich cultural birdcage -- heritage of the alpine regions, the arctic and antarctica. this is a photograph of the greenland ice sheet dating from 2008. it is exhibited side-by-side

with a photograph by camille se aman, of east greenland. it is from her last iceberg series from 2006. many people understand the importance of eyes for the planet, it's reflective qualities that help regulate the climate, but many people are unaware that there is a collective hunch is this in western culture about these regions. and so it was important but within the context of climate change, to let people know that these regions are fundamental to our identity. >> there is more from the museum this weekend, as booktv and american history tv look at the history and literary life of allingham, washington. bellingham, washington. continues.on journal

next to last day of 2013, we wanted to get one of your comments -- more of your comments. who lost thesee most ground. winners several days ago, but who has lost the most ground politically? we will do this for the final 20 minutes of this morning's washington journal. today is one of the many publications that has abolished its own list of winners and losers for 2013. a begin with the jersey boys as winners, chris christie on the

left side of the screen, and the new u.s. senate member from new jersey. republicanhe loyalists something to cheer about. they point to president obama as a loser for 2013, as they've great promise, about health talk care. thele did anyone know that president was sentenced significant time in 2013 defending the health-care law. the usa today also has some winners and who is and who's down. the women of the senate, they point out that the ultimate men's club now has a record 20 female members, and they made an impact like never before. those pictured here are susan

collins, kiersten joel brand, claire mccaskill, eddie murray -- patty murray, winners, and view of in their the last year. twins,k's tabloid anthony weiner, and eliot spencer. think? you caller: i believe that the republicans have. memory, and if you go back to 2000 and look at where the economy was, look at the losses we made in those first eight years, as well as loss of life, and then look at the resurgence in business, especially in the past six years, there's is clear evidence that not everything is temporal

-- terrible in terms of the democratic administration and we are making improvements. we are increasing the distribution of income so that the economic engine has enough oil flowing through it so the county can really get going again. host: thank you. mike is on the independent line from stanford, connecticut. caller: it has to be the republicans. they do not have a leg to stand on. all they have been saying is that this is not going to work, that is not going to work. everything they say comes out not to be chu -- true. they come up with stuff, they say whatever they say, it does not make any sense at all. play14, i do not see them -- winning anything, losing more and more. host: is there anyone in particular you have your eye on? caller: boehner and all the way

down. even cruise, come on. what was he doing? there was no reason for these republicans to win another election for quite a long time. that is about it. host: thank you. democrat, what do you think? , as thethe republicans prior gentleman said, the shutdown of the government, just the way their attitudes have been, the fact that they have let the unemployment benefits run out. how cold and cruel is that? we'reot believe that still dealing with these type of people, and that the relationship that they have with their constituency is unbelievable. republican doing well, according to the u.s. a today is paul ryan.

former vice presidential head of the budget in the house. he has slid into obscurity in his push for the budget. most of hise opportunity, he set down like an murray,th senator patty and worked out that bipartisan deal that we have been covering. speaker boehner's tongue lashing -- the group such as the freedom works, senate conservatives fund, club -- have caused them to lose ground. caller: i was thinking that the

biggest losers this year were the republicans because of the nonsense that ted cruz and the rest of the tea party were yakking about. host: greg, from illinois. caller: when the democrats the biggestump -- losers of the democrats but especially the blacks. they worship obama, and what have they gotten for it? bad schools, bad education, high crime, low jobs. --obama's relieve really beyond the pale. -- has the guy who is only flubbed any policy has tried. we have syria, the civil war, turkey and reveille, he is to stop everyone including the israelis them and our allies. obama is just bad news date the

democrats are going to lose big -- time. d host: a couple of facebook posts. emanuel is hanging on, from maryland. caller: how are you doing. i think the biggest losers in this year is the republican party. not only did the economy get better, ted cruz shut down the democrats --the

obama stop the war in iraq and afghanistan. wouldk the republicans tries to fix the health care, and nothing to show for it. host: some tweets -- there.e of headlines out justice is going to leave the countdown to the to year, she's going back her hometown to lead one of the rituals.itional congress may refers that militarythe pension

cut. -- congress may reverse the military pension cut. they will get back to actual business this week, this week is just the ceremonial continuation. we will continually have this house coverage here. , on theeve republican line. caller: it was a american people. -- issues with have carol with health care really does

rewind the federal government should not be involved with this. they should in no way be involved in this. the reason that i say that the people are the biggest losers is because the executive branch has just taken liberties to change law and implement law. if this is not the way the constitution was designed. the government was not designed to operate in this way. that theake a case justification is always we are trying to provide health care for people, where trade to help, it is the right thing. the president obama's not going to be the president for forever. whoever wherever -- will be the president, and change whatever they want to, will be a very dangerous resident for the republic. i do not know why anybody is not challenging on them on this. i think the justification is that this is for the greater good when it is a distraction for the republic.

just like told answer the man who just got off the phone. it is ruining our republic, that is ridiculous. people have been striving for health care, even people who have health care. probably -- properly covered, but being cut off for some services. president obama finally did what we have been trying to do for 70 years. it might not be exactly what we need right now, and that is why time making changes, every he makes changes, listening to the people, trying to make it better and more affordable for people from a he gets railed for that too. the biggest losers other republicans, because all they voted away any type of helpful legislation he has tried to pass.

he has done a few good things thethe people, not for corporations, not for the rich people, but for the people that voted for him twice. twice we elected him overwhelmingly. babel is a is a big loser, and a liar, they're just upset because they lost the election twice. they need to get their own candidate that they could actually get elected, which i do not know that could possibly be, because all they have are people like ted cruz and rand paul. those people are a joke. host: we have a few minutes left in this program, and the cap friday -- tampa bay times ways in.- weighs

they say the biggest winner is governor rick scott. from cablescalling per, indiana. burg, indiana . politiesailed invested , loss of liberty, loss of privacy, i think that the people are waking up to what our government has been doing. try francine a and miami, florida. caller: i think the biggest

loser is the american people. ,hen you cannot work together it causes a big problem. therefore, they need to work together more. it appears that the perception of some of the people on the republican side, across as comes across as negative. that turns people away, and nothing gets done, and we, the people, suffer. good morning, and i appreciate your cap take my call that you taking my call. question?our askinge think -- we are

who was the biggest political loser in 2013? i strongly feel that the american people have lost much bailout, thehe wall street entities, billions of dollars when millions of americans lost their homes but it is unthinkable. for america to be going through this. the market people need to come to terms with three allergy -- the american people need to come to terms with reality at take back the country. veteranold vietnam era insurance,r radio, and the federal government for a time. i'm disabled, and i do not feel that we should be suffering this way.

we do need a republican candidate. . republican president in 201 7. businessman to get this country back on a road again. china has become a superpower, and it is america now that needs to lead the world. --have million of people millions of people unemployed, unemployed, trying to make ends meet. this is ridiculous, we should not have this in america. its ownme magazine has list of political winners and losers. the republican governor of regina, once touted as a fossil candidate, his

final year was solely by scandal scandal.d by bob donnell -- mcdonnell listed as a loser this year, as well as anthony weiner. part of the time magazine article. caller, arthur. caller: hi. the vast majority of the market people are the biggest losers in their made up of the registered voters that do not vote, people who are not registered by people who are registered as eithercans or democrats, one.

not independent and not people who do not pay attention. that is what forms the biggest group which is the biggest loser. host: and bill, from mobile alabama. you are our last call. caller: the biggest losers are congress, nots in congress as a whole, but the republicans in congress have been gradual of structures. a lot of obama's problems resided in the way the republicans have interacted with the democratic colleagues. if they had been more helpful, and more constructionist them and more willing to improve the affordable care act, if they had been part of the process, many of these problems would not have occurred. this was chooses the beginning of the obama administration.

peoplethe american realize that and things can get shifted in the coming election. happy new year. host: that was our last call. our last tweet -- in case you're waking up in little bit later this morning, this being the holiday time, there has been another suicide bombing in russia, just several weeks before the winter leagues -- all of these are supposed to take place. bus inle on an electric the southern russian city of volgograd during today's rush- hour. they're saying 30 or more people killed now in these twin

bombings. security is high and throughout russia, and we are reading in the new york times that current and former intelligence officials in this country are watching russia very closely. more aboutned russia's olympics than any other limbic since 2004 -- olympics since 2004. thank you for your calls and comments this morning. 80 of you on than various topics. we will see you back here tomorrow, happy new year. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

>> all this week, c-span is with hooks tv. the great dissent looks at the first amendment and how was interpreted in an early 20th- century supreme court case. and at 10:30 p.m., military prosecutions of terror suspects. span3 american history tv is in prime time. tonight, a look at george washington beginning at 8 p.m. eastern with a discussion of the president lifelong interest in

learning and education. followed with a look at his presidency. and at 10:25 p.m., a talk about washington's defeat at the battle of brandywine, a lesser- known battle that was fought an earlier stages of the american revolutionary war. >> he says what he thinks, no matter what it is. sometimes -- i think you have to be political in a certain way. i think you have to be honest and say the same things. still, you have to cater to people, sometimes, i think i'm a and know what they want and need -- i think, and know what they want and need in order to influence them to vote for you. it's not being dishonest. it's just finding out what they want and knowing -- letting them know how you can help them with that problem. >> first ladies, influence