scholar will also talk about the aca when the new congress begins and what a possible repeal could mean for health [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ host: good morning everyone. 2016.friday, december 30, a kit for tact has become -- a tat has started with russia. obama's president actions on thursday. all part of escalating tensions over russia's interference in the 2016 presidential elections. we will begin this morning with this news and your thoughts on the relationship going forward. republicans, (202) 737-0002

democrats, (202) 737-0001 and independents, (202) 628-0205. phone lines are open so start dialing in. let us begin with the reaction from donald trump. he issued a statement yesterday after president obama expelled the russian diplomats as well as closing two compounds in the u.s. saying it is time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. but in the interest of our country, i will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts. from capitol hill, the chairman of the armed services committee, john mccain saying that the white house sanctions are long overdue but a small price for russia to pay for this reason attack on u.s. democracy. senator mccain promising tougher

action against russia. leader, the top democrat in the senate says -- strongly support the obama administration work to fight back against russia's interference in our election system. and the top democrat on the foreign affairs committee, senator ben cardin sing the white house sanctions are good but not sufficient. congress should now complement and strengthen these new executive sanctions. that senator wanting an independent commission to look into the hacking by russians. with that, what do you think about what happened? the presidents actions yesterday? paul ryan also issuing a statement saying -- while today's actions by the administration is -- are overdue, it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed

policy with russia. that is what the speaker of the house had to say yesterday. the foreign minister of russia, mr. live rob was on russia today recently, moments ago. and this is what he had to say. >> therefore, the russian or in ministry along with our colleagues have proposed to diplomats. we have suggested these americans will be prohibited from using their country houses in moscow. we hope this will be reviewed as quickly as possible. host: that was russia today's coverage of the back and forth between the united states and russia over this election hacking. what are your thoughts on this?

front page of usa today on this -- obama sanctions russian officials. david jackson reporting that the administration will soon be providing a report to congress in the coming days about russia's efforts to interfere in our elections as well as malicious cyber activity in previous elections. it goes on to say that this report will likely classified. -- will likely be classified. what is your reaction to this? the new york times reports that the expulsion of the 35 russians and their families was in response to the harassment of american diplomats in russia. it is unclear if they were involved in the hacking. there are other issues involved here as well.

the wall street journal from page this morning -- the showdown poses a challenge for donald trump. central promise of president-elect donald trump's foreign policy is that he will forge a working partnership with russia turning an adversary into an ally. wants to renew ties with russia, he will inherit a bilateral relationship indelibly shaped by mr. obamas move on thursday to punish russia for their attempts to influence the election. he may not have the freehand that he envisioned. from his own party endorsed the actions from president obama. senator mccain says he will push for even harsher measures. potentially tipping u.s. public opinion more decisively against

russian leadership. let us go to ted in flushing, new york. an independent. good morning. waser: as you know, i insisting on working with russia before. russia, it comes to hacking and doing some bad things with our diplomats, we should stand with obama. this time, obama is 100% right. russia should not be underestimated. -- this isongress against our national interest. vladimir should not play this game. he is not our dictator. he will not do whatever he wants. donald trump also -- he will be

checked. i am for it, 100%. host: you do not think that donald trump should undo this executive order. caller: he cannot. the republicans and the democrats -- they are not saying that vladimir putin should do whatever he wants in the united eights. we are a democracy. we need to respect this. might increase problems. host: listen to this analysis by the wall street journal. donald trump is not entirely boxed in. senior obama administration

officials says that the new president could undo these sanctions. article itin the says a dealmaker to the core, mr. trump could offer to ease the sanctions as a carrot to win more cooperation with the russians in the battle against islamic state. he could also threaten to escalate the conflict even further. carl in oxford, massachusetts, a democrat. good morning to you. start, iight from the used to have admiration for john mccain. honest to god, i think he is losing it. everyone in the government, republicans and democrats. it is not the soviet union anymore. it is russia. they are trying to survive and we are acting our -- and we are

into theur noses politics of different nations. we have some nerve to a allegedly -- they allegedly hacked, they have no proof. they are trying to get us into a war. they want war. our government wants more. host: let us listen to let -- senator lindsey graham. this was before the announcement from the white house though the white house had said this action was coming. here is the senator from south carolina. >> what will you do if he does not change his tune on russia? >> there are 100 u.s. senators. we have a democrat from minnesota. i would say that 99 of us believe the russians did this and we are going to do something about this along with senator mccain.

we will have the hearings. we will put together sanctions that will hit vladimir putin as an individual and his inner circle for interfering in our election. they are doing it all over the world. estonia is hit all of the time. they are hitting democratic nations all over the world. point made bylast the senator, take a look at the financial times this morning. bundestag hack fears russian targeting of german polls. last years of assault on the bundestag computer network was also carried out by russian backed hackers seeking ammunition for electoral meddling. angela merkel warned there were signs of internet-based campaigns that could play a role in the election campaign. the government has reacted with a complete overhaul of the parliaments computer system. it is also throwing its weight

into defense against cyber warfare in response to the rising number of attacks. from bentonville, arkansas, a republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. that russia was just doing what an adversary does. anytime they find an open or unsecured terminal, they will hack it. that is what the united states does also. we have a whole building of people at langley that does these things. i think that obama should take a 30 day vacation right now since there are only 20 days left in his term. and john mccain should retire

because he does not know whether he is a democrat, a republican, or nothing. that is about all i have to say. richard is in turlock, california. a democrat up early. welcome. caller: good morning. people say they are hacking. -- that the hacking of the dnc did not affect the election. but when bernie's people found out they were trying to get hillary in there, they stayed home and that made a big difference in the election. and the republicans, my goodness, do not even call yourself u.s. citizens anymore. is in cahoots with vladimir and if you cannot see that, my goodness -- that is why you have donald trump. i am done. host: richard, the wall street

journal editorial says the obama that theation has said u.s. must maintain dominance over russia and that is why obama's steps were so timid. attackers have been emboldened to metal in the u.s. political process. only a u.s. president willing to exercise power will get the kremlin to stop. the wall street journal editorial goes on to write that -- lord knows, what the president elect means by his earlier statement that the country must move on but it seems to extend his strange habit of making excuses for latin america. on thursday, the transition released a more considerate statement from mr. trump thing it is time to move on but in the interest of our country, he would meet with u.s. intelligence officials next week in order to be updated on the

facts of the situation. he is wise to do so. south river, new jersey, a democrat. caller: good morning. i would like to know what hillary clinton is going to do about this mess. she lost the election because of vladimir putin. what are you going to do, hillary? host: what do you think she should do, teresa? caller: she should try to win back her status. host: hildegard is in georgetown, south carolina. a republican. what are your thoughts this morning on this news? russia was thing, if spying on america, america has do noting it since i know how long. and barack obama, he has never been a good president. he has never had any backbone.

he is a crybaby because he lost the votes. why would we have a crypt and their? -- why would we have a crook in there? reverses thisrump action by president obama yesterday, you would agree with that? caller: definitely. host: why? you cannot want to go to war with each country on this earth. say things about countries that you are not at war with. the democrats missed of. they are putting everything on to -- on vladimir putin. host: from the wall street

journal, the administration's actions on thursday appears to have been the largest expulsion of officials when george w. bush ordered 51 democrat -- 51 russians to leave. that was fromer president ronald reagan ordered 65 soviet diplomats to leave the country. what is your reaction to that? everything is normal. all over the world, they do this in other countries. everyone wants to be the biggest but america goes into every country and tells them what to do. we have got to go back down to the basics. and be at peace with everybody and help everyone like israel. host: that is hildegard. in bellevue,to bob

nebraska. a democrat. good morning. caller: i would hope that senator graham and mccain and others interested in this should laws so thatwrite mandates in u.s. elections. with having paper backup for everything, every election that we have. host: and they would be counted at the same time as we do electronic voting? just make sure you have a paper or a non-net backup. it seems like that is what we are going to have to do. we have opened the door to not only russia but other countries to come in and do this. it seems like a simple solution. the american people are going to pay for donald trump, believe me.

there will be people who will probably be parents of children who are killed because of donald trump. this is something. specific we can solve. host: bob, i want to show something to you from last week. vladimir putin did his annual year and news conference or she takes questions from reporters in russia for hours. this one lasted three hours and 53 minutes. a have gone five hours in the past. reporterked by a bbc about these allegations of meddling in the was a lecture. i want to say. this was a week ago. listen to his answer. i want to have you respond. tampering anded my conversation with president obama. you may have noticed that i never review the contents of our

conversations, one on one. you mentioned tampering. mentioned to your colleague from the united states wayssers always look for to accuse someone else. they should look at themselves first. and they always forget the most important thing. the most important thing i think is let us say some hackers hacked a democratic party emails. some hackers did it. ok. --e the president-elect said who knows who those hackers were? maybe they were not in russia but in some other countries or maybe it is just some guy lying on his sofa. it is easy to blame it on another country.

that is not the most important thing. the most important thing was what was revealed. like they invented something. or that they came up with some information. true information was revealed. truth came out as was evidenced i the fact that after they revealed how the democratic party has been manipulating public opinion in favor of one candidate over another, against , the head of the democratic part of leadership resigned and that indicates this was actually true. this was instead of apologizing and promising never to do it again, what they did was they started looking for people who hacked into their emails.

that is not really important, right? host: that was a week ago, president vladimir putin's annual year and news conference. if you want to watch more of that, you can go to our website thomas c-span.org. you, a democrat in nebraska. what do you make of his argument? what came out was truth and voters reacted to that. caller: using that kind of logic is interesting but not very factual. when people compete in the u.s., when organizations compete, they have some degree of secrecy. a company that is selling soda pop against coca-cola is not expected to have all of their information made public so everything is on the table. there is a degree in sports where coaching and playbooks and

things like that are not made available to the other teams. so, i do not dispute the fact that if he wants to talk about a party that lost, there is a party that lost. but we are not talking about that. here is why. the people who are championing this are republicans. .ccain is championing this the people who brought this to the forefront are separate actors including the cia and the fbi. they are not democratic operatives. it does not really make a lot of sense. all i am saying is that i think this is something that is obviously coming and we need to do more safeguards. do not think donald trump has us -- this is not something he wants to worry about. we have never done the correct investigation of donald trump to find out what kind of ties he has to russia.

apparently, the american public is not interested in this. i will admit, the american the rules we play by, donald trump won this election. they outplayedse the weaker opponent. however, that does not make any difference with regard to the future of what we will be looking at. some of myy for republican friends. if they have children in the military and their kids and of getting killed, i will feel badly for them even though they voted for donald trump. host: to the point you are making, kearney, the spokesperson for obama in his first term tweeted this out -- the 20 underneath it is from george w. bush's campaign manager.

let us be clear, you are not in american patriot and you do not respect the constitution if you believe vladimir putin more than our president. christian in louisiana, a republican. caller: good morning. that everyone had a merry christmas. i would like to extend a safe and happy new year going into 2017. real quick, one question. has been question that asked over and over again. where is the proof, the factual proof that russia had any type of hand in manipulating our elections or having any type of control over the outcome of our elections and furthermore, now, we are starting to hear that angela merkel is starting to say

-- vladimir putin is interfering in germany's elections. where is the proof of this? julian assange came out and said that vladimir putin had nothing to do with the wikileaks documents against the democratic party. host: have you looked at the coverage since the news broke yesterday afternoon? that theh a fact she white house sent out, they sent there is no -- direct evidence according to a newspaper that ties in this report that they sent out russia to-- that ties this. another report will be coming but it will be classified. there is this report that the

fbi sent out from the white house yesterday. they call it grizzly steps. they have a summary here. the also have a graphic depicting how this happened. how the russian cyber hackers were able to do this. you are saying -- you do not believe the government and the intelligence services. with an approval rating of lower than 10%, but government needs to be taken with a grain of salt because everything is politicized. we are getting a lot of political crying from the losing side blaming everything on their loss of this election other than the candidate herself. she did not get the numbers that previous democrat candidates received in presidential elections. she was a flawed to candidate.

there was no chance of her winning. they thought -- oh my gosh, she is going against donald trump. it will be an easy walk in. you even had magazines stumping for hillary clinton, already printing their november 9 additions of modern president. heir arrogance and political stumping for one candidate got ahead of where the election really was. we were all talking about fake news and library, now, the president just signed a bill to repeal some of the first amendment. of all of this is coming off fake news, quite simply.

you wantt do republicans in congress who control both chambers and president-elect donald trump to do? caller: i want president-elect donald trump to do what he has already begun to do and that is ring companies back to the u.s. host: specifically on this hacking issue. proof thatthere is all of these so-called intelligence agencies, and keep this in mind, these are the same intelligence agencies that told the american people that there were met -- that there were weapons of mass distraction in iraq and we had to take out lions king. where were those weapons of mass destruction? where now, i say again, is the proof that russia had anything to do with the hack of

our election. and i use that term hike loosely. it was not a hack. it was more of a leap of information. host: we believed your thoughts there. looking at the new york times editorial. paul ryan called the sanctions yesterday appropriate. led anindsey graham effort to share. elizabeth in ocean city, new jersey. you are an independent. caller: good morning. lost that caller. our apologies. glenn in franklin, new jersey. a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning and thank

you brian lamb. trump is thedonald maturing candidate. hillary beat herself. and i think mccain is acting like a baby. host: why? explain. caller: which part? host: start with the last part. -- it is think mccain time to go. acting like a child. he has not been right about anything for quite a while. he is stuck in herat. rut. -- he is stuck in a host: the prime minister of russia tweeting this -- it is regrettable that the obama administration which it turns out that by restoring our ties its term in an

anti-russia agony. on cnn lastnway was night. she reacted to president obama's actions. here is what she had to say. >> i will tell you that even those that are sympathetic with president on most issues are saying that part of the reason he did this today was to box in president-elect donald trump. that would be there he and fortunate. but we cannot help but think that is not true. the way that peaceful transitions of administrations work in our great democracy. >> these are actions that president obama took today including sanctioning foreign

intelligence services. did he do this just to box in donald trump? >> i was quoting the new york times. could also behis an attempt to box in president elect donald trump. if the new york times report is true and credible, that would be an unfortunate rationale here. it is unprecedented. at the height of the cold war, i do not think this country expelled that many operatives. i know the president is looking tough in his last couple of weeks. i would call them sanctions against israel over the weekend and now, sanctions against russia. we will see if this has teeth. that was kellyanne conway

on cnn last night responding to president obama's actions by expelling 35 diplomats. the state department calling officers.ligence as well as closing down to compounds here by the russians. one of them near merryfield. russiansompound for are caught up in history's echoes. that is what the new york times says. one senior american official working inoup washington and san francisco makes up about one third of the officers operating in the u.s. under diplomatic cover. of those expelled, it only makes up a third. -- you can see more on what that looks like. marry in north

attleboro, massachusetts. hello, mary. caller: good morning. i used to be a democrat until 2010. let me begin, let me preface my statement by reminding us that one of the first acts this administration does is to declare christians that transition. .nyone that did not conform mr. assange has stated that his contacts were not from russia but from a disgruntled dnc member who happen to be a supporter of bernie sanders. how i have been looking at this is that i am not surprised that

the president would react hostility. to thestions directed administration have been very clear. provide evidence to the people. be honest with us. you were awareif of this a while ago, did you not disclosed it before the election. why did you not prosecute these illegal acts. why did you not prosecute the dnc because of what they did. the leader is not supposed to be in collusion between the media and the candidates. violatedident has numerous federal laws. constitutional laws, over and over again. he has had nothing but contempt for our rights and freedoms. this was the leaking of a disgruntled dnc staffer.

his party revealing information. why are you so upset that criminal activities by the dnc was exposed? this is the u.s. citizenry. the owners of our government. by whatts were violated hillary clinton and the dnc did in their collusion. ist: while you were talking, was looking for this in the new york times this morning. they report that several states reported the scanning of their voter database during the there is no evidence that american official said that could manipulate voter rolls. to releaseecided not sanctions earlier. some of the aides believe that now was a mistake.

the president made clear that he planned to respond and he did so yesterday. hello, rose and welcome to the conversation. isn't anyone addressing the antivirus software. every single american computer skyt has copper ski -- kaper is based in moscow. host: more investigation into that. caller: why didn't that happen before the election? david, in flint michigan, a democrat. caller: good morning and hope you had a happy christmas. and a blessed new year. thank you. you do a good job. upset that the republicans are calling his supporting

vladimir putin and the commonest's. i know people want to win but i love america first. if the democrats had won by using communist russia, i would not be calling in reporting that. that is wrong. and it is a killer. a murderous killer. i cannot believe the republicans of the united states are supporting a communist killer. you have a nice day. thoughtsse are david's in flint, michigan. by the way, here is a story from 2015, bloomberg. ersky lab has not

looked aggressively at russia. in case you are interested in following up on what that fewer had to say. i also want to show your reaction from the russian embassy yesterday out of the u.k. and the tweet they sent out. president obama expelled 35 diplomats. everyone including the american people will be glad to see the last of this hapless administration. dock with --e of a of a duck with the word "lame" written over a. good morning, earl. caller: i am a veteran. donald trump has not yet taken office. we better worry about china and is the onlye russia ally we will have in that area. and you know the democrats know

as well as i do, that they are sitting on their hands and letting north korea and china of use us and do whatever they want. donald trump needs an ally and so does the united states. caller: people need to get off the butts of the russians. ourselves concern about china and north korea because as long as we are debating about russia, china and north korea are getting stronger and stronger. girl in milton, florida. barbara is in california. you are next. good morning and happy

new year and all of that good stuff. donald trump does not know what he is doing. when you say democrat -- republicans, your mom is right. i see days -- i see deja vu and world war iii with russia, the muslims, and everyone else. this man knows nothing. i don't know how we got here. as an american, i hope his presidency fails because he is no good. god bless america and make 2017 better. news, about to be the senior senator from nevada tweeting out yesterday, my family and i have put much thought and prayer in considering the best way to serve the state that we love. he included a link to his facebook page where he said that he has decided not to run for

governor of nevada in 2018. he will seek reelection that year. that is the best way as the senior senator from that date that he can best serve nevada people. also in politics this is a story about the race of dnc chair, -- he is running for the top spot much like a campaign traveling all over the country talking to people. group of that it is a only 437 members who will decide on a new leader but allison and his four rivals are campaigning across the country and appearing in forums from the huffington

post. -- this little ideological difference. harrison.lina's jamie the your calendars because voting will take place february 23 through the 26. ellison is taking an inside outside approach to this election. usa today with the headlines -- syrian truth could hasten the war and. a truce was brokered with russia and turkey. the u.s. was left out of this but some opposition groups are already saying that they will

not agree to it. what usa today put together about this civil war. 450,000 is the estimated number of syrians killed since the war began in 2011. 4.8 million is the number of syrians that have fled the country. 6.3 million are the people displaced in syria. 6150, the average number of people displaced per day. in one million people living collective shelters, camps, or makeshift settlements. 13.5 million people who are requiring humanitarian aid. and then thousand refugees have been accepted by the u.s. npr thisll coming from morning. vladimir putin says russia will not expel diplomats in response to u.s. sanctions. that is the latest out of russia

as we continue to talk to all this morning about president obama's actions. dwight in newport, florida. go ahead. caller: i think the u.s. should put tougher sanctions on russia. i think that it is unacceptable for a foreign government to interfere with any kind of institution here in the united states. that has -- there has been a series in history of russian thinking into banking institutions. -- thecorporate scary are nothy the russians expelling our diplomats is that they got caught. they got caught with their hands in the cookie jar and they do not want to make things worse because they know that the united states people, democrats and republicans, we are not

going to allow a foreign dictator to interfere with our democracy in the process of election. i think that if mr. trump wants to be considered a real president, he will go ahead and enforce tougher sanctions. i know that vladimir putin putin is one of his heroes. needs tonited states be united. host: let me get your response to this npr article. this says that the russian president said he will not be as hisng u.s. diplomats foreign suggested earlier today. he says he would consider donald trump's actions as he considered how to move forward. that?o you make of

caller: if you caught your spouse cheating, and then they decide that they are not going to divorce you. you are not doing them a failed -- a favor. may buffer the actions of congress against russia. that will not work. if donald trump want to keep his base, he will do the right thing. i am an act's military man. if you what's to keep his base, he is going to have to show us that he is tough on russia. earlierwith the caller on china and korea but right now, russia is the one who interfered with our elections. they have to be dealt with. should the president elect wait until next week until he says something? he said in his statement that he would get intelligence briefings next week.

caller: i think that is a mistake on his part. i have been looking at it over the last couple of weeks. you have not been to any foreign updates and waiting until next week -- this cannot be put on hold. this is something that has to be addressed now. if you are the incoming president, and you are crowing about bringing jobs back and taking credit prior to you being elected, you need to face reality and deal with this issue today. host: did you vote for donald trump? caller: no, i abstained from voting. wasd not feel that hillary presidential material. she was a liar. alsoonald trump is a liar but he did say he was going to

make america stronger and military and make our opponents respect us. and that is what i am expecting out of him. this is what he had to say yesterday. it is time for our country to move on to bigger and better things. nevertheless, i will need to with leaders from the intelligence community week to be updated on the facts of this situation. rene in starkville, mississippi, independent. hello and go ahead. caller: good morning. happy new year. -- thisant to say temper tantrum by the administration is in response to being iced out of the middle east. you read a short while ago about turkey, russia, and iran making peace in syria. for eight years, this administration has had a failed

policy in the middle east. this is the final outcry. of anyal rejection common sense in the middle east. you can look at netanyahu you -- you can look at net yahoo! -- netanyahu. this is where this leak comes from even though it was presented from another person. leak is anom, the israeli operation. host: what evidence do you have of that? just look it up on the internet.

democrat-clinton interference in the israeli election. israel claimsat -- host: the u.s. intelligence agencies say it was russia and they have put out a report. you do not leave them? -- you do not believe them? caller: i do not because this is the same intelligence that gave us the iraq lies. host: hello. caller: i wanted to remind people that there was a time when democrats were investigated for being communist sympathizers.

now, it is clear they are sympathizing with the russians. gavin from burlington, vermont. he is independent. what do you say? caller: i am commenting regarding to previous callers. the gentleman that said donald has not received a briefing since being elected. that is too simplistic. it is the manipulation by the media. , the thought that russia changed our elections. we cannot be that week of a people. look at those that said obama interfered in the israeli election. that is quite true.

the bigger problem is why wasn't the american government more diligent in protecting our documents and our security. thank you. is how the news is playing out on the west coast. san francisco chronicle -- u.s. retaliates for russian hacking. and this from the oregonian with the headline -- u.s. retaliates for russia hacking. outlining the argument. also, from the west coast this morning, the los angeles times, cuba withobama slaps

sanctions. good morning. we are assuming russia did this. there has been no proof of that. it is probably not the case, we all know that. the united states, you are innocent until proven guilty. services sayigence they have that evidence. caller: well, if they have evidence, then so be it. then there is no problem. host: what do you think donald trump should do? well, i look at the big picture on everything.

who is to benefit from hillary being said? iran -- being elected? iran. who is hillary's boss? obama. the whole middle east is on fire and the free world is being this isis armies. the way i am looking added is that we do need an ally. russia is russia. there is no question about that. , isis and iran are infiltrating the free world including the middle east and africa. it is pathetic what is going on. host: david, st. louis,

missouri. hello david. i would like to give my opinion first. i truly believe that donald trump is unfit to hold police power. i believe this to be self-evident. as far as the hacking situation , we have to have proof, absolute 100% proof. i believe we have reasonable totion warranting a belief take the actions that obama has this probably would not have come about if donald trump and his supporters had not emails.o vicious over

you cannot prove and email from anything. it is electronic hearsay. you do not know who typed it or anything about it. it was a bunch of hot air and donald trump took advantage of it and he incited his supporters with false news, false allegations. that provesthing that donald trump is unfit to hold police power. host: those are david's thoughts in missouri. the remaining calls in a few minutes. i want to show your reaction from this internationally. this is currently from the gulf news. there is also this from the

guardian, russia brokers syria cease-fire and the u.s. is sidelined. below that, russia expels russia over cyber attacks. and from canada, the toronto newspaper, the hamilton spectator, u.s. punishes russia. have been diplomats ordered to leave the united states within 72 hours. ray from pennsylvania. caller: good morning. i am having a good old time. it is hilarious listening to these donald trump sycophants explaining anything but the truth. if donald trump wanted

to know the truth, he did not have to wait until a week from today to pick up the phone, call the intelligence community and say -- come on over here and explain things to me, show me the truth. up he had to do with spec the phone and call them. this is fun to watch. these people are so crazy. jack in whitesburg, kentucky, a democrat. good morning, jack. caller: good morning. i just wanted to comment on the obama administration. i live in kentucky and obama campaigned against the whole business. and the candidate that he

supported thereafter, he also campaigned on leaving the whole business out. sure the people would know this would cause a big job loss. neither of them ever showed any concern about trying to create jobs. hillary was never a fit candidate to run for office. and have facts against her they refused to look at them. the fbi says she is cleared but nobody ever wanted to pursue it. is jack in kentucky. we are going to take a quick break. when we come back we will continue with a key issue facing the trump administration, something we have been looking .t

for the next two hours, focused on the issue of health care. of viewget two points on this. moore, anditlin .ater, joe antos we'll be right back. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this holiday weekend on c-span, here are some of our featured programs. 7:00 p.m. eastern, librarian of congress carla david scored and, secretary of the smithsonian institution on the preservation of our national treasures. >> he wrote that he wanted the institution to be oriented

towards what he called the increase and diffusion of knowledge. >> at 9:00 p.m. eastern, the inaugural women's leadership summit for the next generation of young women at the ronald reagan library. griffithjudges thomas and patricia millett from the d.c. circuit and andrea yates of the first circuit talk about the impact of the bill of rights. >> applying those words to the very factual circumstances and disputes that confront the country over the course of more than 200 years is challenging. >> on sunday, author jane epstein, law professor richard epstein and the cato institute discuss u.s. involvement in foreign wars. >> it is always a difficult question.

judgments come in the central portion in the way we have to start. do you stall with the framework? that is when the real calamities will happen. >> at 9:00 p.m., public affairs council convention with remarks by california democratic congressman javier becerra, actor george to k and cnn, and are van jones. >> what we are trying to do is to highlight the values of the constitution of the united states. the values of freedom of speech. freedom of religion. equal dignity. of law and duen process of law. those values are challenged today. >> watch on c-span and c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app.

>> washington journal continues. host: we are back and at our table this morning is claire mcandrew with families usa private insurance programs director. the future of health care and the affordable care act. republicans and donald have said that they would repeal and replace right away. as an advocate for the act, where do you see compromise with the republicans? >> compromises a tough question because as we have heard during the election and as we were before the election, they have put on the table that they are looking to repeal the law as fast as possible whereas millions across the country are still in rolling faster than even last year. we're hoping to see -- we are very concerned that is not what we're going to see. this is why we are organizing to stand up for the coverage than millions have. >> tell us some policy errors

where you think republicans may agree with democrats and vice versa. >> although we have heard certain areas of the law where they say "we will keep this bit" that is not what we are hearing for as early as january. we are hearing they're going to move ahead with a bill to repeal essential parts of the law. what we are standing up for is saying that we do not want to see any repeal on the table unless we have a simultaneous plan to replace the law with as much coverage or -- for as many people at the same quality. we want to see that plan on the table but there is not a unified plan among republicans in congress or with the president-elect. host: let's talk about what you are hearing. what action a republican saying they are going to take? guest: we have heard various things over time. at first we heard january 20 there will be a bill and now we ,re hearing it might be delayed

in terms of how long that coverage will stay for people. will it stay for a year? is guaranteeing to the american people their coverage will month away at all. we want to see a replacement plan stapled to the bill that goes forward. we know the people are in rolling a faster rate than they ever did before and we think that shows the value of coverage and the value of people health care and the safety of their pocketbooks to guarantee that they are not going to face enormous bills every time they go to the doctor or certainly an emergency. >> what essential part of the affordable care act do you believe they want to get rid of right away that would impact peoples health care? >> while we don't have a bill on the table yet, we have something that is going to give us a hint of what might be in store and that is actually a budget

reconciliation bill that congress passed in 2015, a bill the president vetoed but included repeal elements that could be instructed for now and that includes a repeal of the medicaid expansion, a repeal of the tax credit that made coverage of affordable in the marketplace, a repeal of the individual mandate and the employer mandate and a repeal of the financing mechanism for coverage. if your appeal would pay for coverage it makes it hard to imagine how americans will get the insurance they need. host: let's listen to what republicans have said about what they might replace it with, the better way forward plan. back in october, here is congressman tom price who has for tasked to head up hhs president donald trump. he uses address in october to talk about their plans for health care.

>> our first priority is to put you, the patient, in charge, not washington bureaucrats so we repeal the individual mandate and we say that you should be free to take whatever insurance plan meets your needs, not one washington forces you to buy. we give you real protection so you never have to worry about being turned away because of your age or your income or your health status. we also clear up the bureaucracy so our researchers can develop more lifesaving treatments. save, strengthen and secure medicare so it is there for today's seniors and future generations and we reform medicaid so that states have the flexibility to offer the kind of coverage that best serves the community. before going into public service, i practiced orthopedic surgery for 20 years. that first-hand experience taught me there is nothing more sacred in health care than the doctor-patient relationship. our better way plan respects and protects the doctor-patient relationship.

it is the plan that america needs and it is how we can turn things around. a bold vision to bring america's health care system into the 21st century. house republicans are offering a clean break with the past, a plan to repeal obamacare and start over with real patient centered solutions that puts patients and families and doctors in charge, not washington, d.c. host: your response? guest: i would say that representative tom price speaks mentioninghat he is -- there is not a united plan across the republican party. you have republicans who would got the affordable care act and move forward with pretty much nothing. you have others that would recommend something like the better way, and you have folks looking forward to redesigning medicare and medicaid. there is not one plan they can put on the table and say open this is what we would bring forward."

elements, you mentioned medicare. tom price has been a long proponent of policies that would cause shifts to beneficiaries, he has put forward plans to cut medicaid and he has been an outspoken proponent of revealing the act. these are grave concerns to our affords usa who want to coverage to everyone regardless of income or employment status or if you are in between jobs. we don't want people also worrying about health care so we are very concerned about these policies but we would also remind folks that there is not a plan on the table. the plan right now is not this down and later decide what to do about it and we find that incredibly risky and we are very concerned about it. host: more details about the better way by the republicans.

for those without access to employer coverage, a refundable tax credit to help buy insurance on the individual market. it also promotes the expansion of health savings accounts. tax breaks on employer-based premiums, allowing insurance sales across state lines, coverage for every american regard as of health status, allowing dependence to stay on their parents plan, allows states to provide medicaid programs, and this is prohibiting federal dollars for abortion services and strengthening and repealing most damaging medicare provisions in the aca. let's get a call. gina is up first in georgia, democrat. caller: good morning. i was going to comment about my son having to get the insurance, which i appreciate him getting it, but he tried to use it yesterday and had a problem even finding a provider that would see him.

decent but to pay is if the republicans were going to why some type of interest, would they do it -- why didn't they do it before? i'm afraid they're going to cut it out totally and that he is going to be without insurance again. that worries me. and because of the problems that he has -- if he is goingow to even have it after trump gets into office. guest: thank you so much for calling in. i think your concerns are right along where my concerns are. we know there are improvements to be made to the affordable care act and the health care system overall so while we want to work on where we are now, we want to make sure that provider networks are improved, we want

to make sure out-of-pocket costs are improved so they are more affordable. we want to build on what we have now but we don't want to knock down that we have so that we are right back where he started where people can't even get insurance in the first place. if you are at a house and your windows weren't in the right conditions so instead of fixing them you decided you had to knock down your house. it seems like the most illogical path forward. i thank you for your call and we are working to try to get a path forward. host: barry in houston, texas, independent. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i admire the decision to fix the medicare system but i am a student of history and one of the reasons why i think there is going to be an instrumental task is just like before the stock market crash in 1929, our country had just recovered from a recession.

we had elected warren harding, a very rich man and a republican. the republicans also controlled both houses of congress and not long after that, the market crashed. to happen when republicans control houses of congress. i think, because republicans did such a great job of making medicare look like something that is a handout and not something that you actually paid into that they managed to vilify get something the houseshrough all of congress, especially considering the party that we have. not necessarily the party but the actors that we have. they want to expend their type of money in their elite, rich class. host: what is your perspective on that? caller: the one thing republicans have to keep in mind is that now that they are in

power anything they do, they own so they do have to answer to the voters. if they break it they buy it. they do know that the onus is on them to keep people healthy and secure so they do have that in mind as they take action this january. host: the wall street journal editorial agreeing this morning that the gop's obamacare moment -- this is from wednesday -- they say that that won't relieve the gop of the obligation to pass a replacement that provides more certainty as quickly as possible. political capital each day beyond january 20, gop leaders will have to maintain the resolve against the status quo. the rank and file may have to vote for some form of subsidy to avoid the spectacle of millions losing their insurance. if republicans blow this they will set up the next democratic government for single-payer. now is the chance to show they can reform the entitlement

solutions that have improved the daily lives of americans. what do you make of that? guest: that is exactly right. it was a lot easier to be in opposition to approving health care and to vote to repeal the affordable care act many times symbolic and it wasn't actually affecting millions of people's lives. i think that they are going to have to decide if they can really act on something that is actually benefiting people or whether they will have to change course. i hope for the health of millions americans that they do slow down and change course. host: in utah, a democrat. caller: good morning. say iof all, i want to would like to compliment you on the great job that you do but , isone question i have is health care a right or a privilege?

that is the one question that has not been answered, if it is or get ridep the act of it and bring in single-payer. but if not, sorry, you're out of luck. guest: that is a good question that our society in the united states has not answered yet. and i think that the applications of that question have a lot of financial fallout for our country. they have public health fallout and that is something you have capital asut in our we struggle to determine the fate of the affordable care act and the fate of medicare and medicaid. certainly, we know that american values -- americans value the coverage they have, and that outpaced that has enrollment last year so i think it might not be something we can

out right answer so much as what the republicans do next will sort of tell us the answer. if they take this step forward and lose the next election, that will tell us what the answer is. host: the wall street journal writes that the first entitlement in u.s. history has failed. the number of plans on the exchanges are already low end plunged 16% for 2017. why? what happened? what mistakes were made that this is now happening? guest: i really take issue with this comment that the affordable care act has failed. let's keep in mind that it was fully implemented two years ago so our health care system, this massive entity, trillions of dollars, trying to reform it in two years and we want to give up on this policy. this was an ambitious policy to reform the biggest sector of our

economy and we gave it two years and we want to turn our back on it? if we want to do this again it is going to take 50-100 years. that would be the biggest mistake. it just baffles me that people expect it -- we want to judge two years and we already heard from s&p that premiums are settling and we want to say we give up on it because two years. host: what do you think could be a fix for what the wall street journal says, that in 30% of counties blue cross and blue shield alone are the sole insurer. how can we fix this situation where companies are saying this is not what we told -- what we were told would happen. we are not seeing healthier people in these exchanges. and that is why we have to raise premiums. guest: we are talking about the individual market. the vast majority of americans get their coverage from their

employers. which is still a very important market. we care deeply about employers providing coverage on their own. seeing market, we are that premiums are settling for the future. i would go back to the same statement, that we need to stabilize that market for future years. majority ofast consumers in that market do have a choice of multiple issuers. the markets that tend to struggle our rural markets that are challenging to build because there is not a lot of providers on contract with. we do have signs that it is getting better. to back away from this and go to where we started where we heard say they werelers scared they don't have coverage that just baffles me. host: in a rural, -- in aurora colorado, independent. the morning. aller: i think we are on

delayed broadcast. host: why do you say that? and therewas talking was also talking the same time. i thought there was a difference in time here -- there is, isn't there? host: joe, you've just have to listen through your phone and talk through your phone so you're not confused by the television. rates really jumped on obamacare. my children, who are 40 now, they can't afford it anywhere since it went in. let me ask one thing. vote for?u would you mind telling me? and what do you think of the health care repeal?

we acknowledge there are concerns with premium increases and there have always been concerns of premium increases. it has been a long-standing problem with health care for many years. i want to see premiums increase and that is something we have been working on pre-election and it is something we want to work on postelection but if we see the affordable care act fall, we won't have increases to work on for many people because they won't have health insurance. primary focus will turn again to getting them a source of care, worrying about getting them into a free clinic which is a world i don't want to go back to. i can't disclose who i vote for because i work for a nonpartisan nonprofit organization and i don't have the kind of expertise cuba health care in because i am focused on the american health care system. host: matthew, republican.

caller: good morning. -- you have made comments about not being able to have any coverage. to don't we simply go back the same way the health care system ran prior to the law being passed? one thing this is not is affordable. .y rates have almost tripled my friends rates have tripled. everybody's rates have tripled. all we are doing, right now, all this is is taking money from one group of people and giving it to another group of people. host: let's have claire respond to that. formal care act

passed, we have had an increase in coverage for many, many people. we have now 22 more people who have insurance than we did before. that is a huge jump. if the affordable care act is repealed, by 2019, 30 million people will lose coverage. i understand that folks are concerned about their affordability of coverage and that concerns me as well. i also, having worked in this field for over 10 years have taken calls about the affordability of coverage every day, even before the law passed. the afford ability of coverage is something i want to be working on for a long time and i think i did get these calls before the law passed. that does not negate the concerned about affordability, however i think worrying about that for an additional 30 million people would be very concerning. that is why we don't want to go back to where we were where people couldn't get coverage

because of their pre-existing people hador when lifetime paths on their coverage, even if they had covered through their jobs. ensures could say "we artie spent a million dollars we don't have to pay any more." john in beaverton, oregon, democrat. what is your question or comment? caller: i am willing to say, i have experienced a lot of the issues with health care in terms for a federally qualified health center, medicaid. a risk pool,n which i understand is part of plan -- creating this risk pool that is very expensive. i also spent a year and a half rattling blue cross, blue shield.

where is a republican plan going re,be fitting in the because medicaid serves the poor and the high deductibles quote access,s, and universal how can you afford it? guest: thank you so much for that. i think you hit the nail on the head that a lot of the same issues republicans are attacking the act for, they are perpetuating through their own plans. high risk pools are a venue to into all the sick people one insurance plan, which naturally would cause very high rates because when you ar -- when you ensure only sick people it gets very expensive. medicaid is an essential lifeline to the most vulnerable of our citizens. it is one of the first items up for repeal if history repeats

itself in terms of the reconciliation bill that republicans passed in 2015. we are likely to see not any solution out of these plans the -- butations continuations of the problems and a loss of what we had gained. host: on medicaid, this is the washington times. it says "mr. trump initially said he would not cut medicaid but later expressed the idea pushed by years that push for years my republican congress, sending fixed amounts to the state in the form of block grants." critics say these cuts would follow guest:. that is absolutely right in terms of the cut. there are different ideas being tossed about about medicaid. flexibility is a fancy word for cut. you have a situation where the federal government pays a percentage for the medicaid

program. what is being proposed by various republicans are options where states will get a flat amount in terms of a block grant or a flat amount per person for the medicaid program. what that equals is a cut to states and ultimately a cut to a cut to eligibility in the medicaid program. it is not sustainable for consumers. host: mark is next in california, an independent. , and i yes, good morning hope this will lead us towards a good future for the coming year. the biggest problem with our health care system is a lack of integrity by the folks in congress. both parties have betrayed us and i am a veteran. you can't get quite the health care you were supposed to. upset, i am a threat

somehow. really, the lack of integrity by the democrats and republicans and their need for money so they can stay there, there are a lot of smart people back there but i don't want the smartest people. i want the people with the most integrity and they are not democrats and republicans anymore and all you people who have college degrees think you're so smart. -- weren't smart to vote in host: we lost mark. claire, let's compare what mr. trump said he would like to do with health care versus the better way that we showed viewers earlier. mr. trump health care plan includes repealing the afford will care act, modifying an existing law that inhibits insurance across state lines, allows individuals to fully ,educt across tax returns allowing individuals to use health savings accounts,

requiring price transparency, block grant medicaid to states we talked about and remove barriers to the free market for drug providers. what do you like from this list and what do you make of the difference? are there differences between what mr. trump would like to do and what republicans in congress would like to do? we did here him talking about reining in drug prices. guest: you heard him earlier in the campaign, more interest in preserving parts of the health care law. i would stress that it is really hard to save little pieces because the health care law fits together as a package. you have different legs of it holding it together. you heard a willingness to explore and then you had appointments like representative hhsprice to secretary of and it became clear that it was solidifying a position of opposition to the affordable care act. but i would hope that there would be a willingness to listen a little bit to how the afford

will care act is benefiting constituents across the country and it is not just some of these big issues that we talked about but there are also aspects that don't come up. it is these benefits in medicaid that helps us deal with the opioid academic -- opioid epidemic ravaging states from ohio to alaska. it is the benefits that the whole country gets. before the afford will care act towas hard for coal workers receive black lung benefits because there were not adequate protections for those workers and in west virginia that has been very beneficial. thinking about all the aspects of this law, i hope the president-elect will think about that. instead of taking a wrecking ball to it, he should take a scalpel. before we were set on this course of looking for repeal we were actively at work looking at how plans can be designed to be

deductible? we well on our way to that and we were at a remarkable place because we couldn't look at cost payment because for years our nation had been so focused on just getting coverage. we finally have the opportunity to work on the next step in health care. now we are back to square one, just focusing on the basics because of where congress is sending us. host: pete is in warren, massachusetts, republican. are you with us? caller: yes. was -- i have a friend whose company pays to have insurance. he was unable to use it along with several friends in the same situation. if anybody has any questions about the afford will care act,

obviously keep your own doctor and this and that, but what is just one of the many lectures that he had given -- this is the same -- this lady is a democrat because she just sits there nine her head, yeah, yeah, it is wonderful, but i'm just wondering out of the 20 million people who have insurance that wouldn't have had it, are any of these people legals host:? host:claire can you answer that? guest: the afford will care act requires that you have to be in the country legally in order to get coverage to the law. you can't even use your own money to buy coverage on the affordable care act if you are not in the country privately, which for many of us is actually concerning. no one is in the country illegally if they have coverage through the afford will care act. of how stories every day this law is helping people throughout the country.

there are people calling us right now saying that they have received this coverage and it is something that is a matter of life and death. without this coverage, they will lose this health care, they will potentially lose their life and i have received calls from people worried about losing their life and that they will die and leave their family in debt. it is a very scary situation. this is not about politics, but about what people have gained and i really don't want to see people put out in this situation. host: steve is next. an independent caller. about, i have a question talking earlier, about the -- ncing nutritional discussion

is being put forward into this as a basis for health care? host: are you following, claire mcandrew? guest: can you say that one more time? caller: the question was, based on the finance, the affordable care act, where it is going with that and clarifying that with science -- my question is how much do you put forward with the and imposingfforts those into the health care system? host: imposing them? implementing them so they are more discussed. host: what sort of nutritional -- caller: nutritional guidelines on an individual basis for a doctor to stick to for each patient as they come in the door

with each doctor and patient in the care system. guest: the affordable care act did include different models to improve the way care is delivered but it didn't get too specific in terms of the doctor-patient relationship and how care is delivered. is about how a doctor would deliver recommendations around nutrition but it did include different pilot programs for how we improve the way care is delivered, different funding mechanisms to improve care delivery and improve quality so we wouldn't want to see those things lost either for innovation which has really helped improve the way we deliver pay for care qualities. i would go back to the point that the law really has a diverse way of improving our health care system. these parts are discussed over and over again but there is a broad array of improvements in that law and it is a great

ifmple of what would happen we rushed through a repeal with no replacement plan to cover as many people with as high quality coverage. host: in melrose massachusetts, a democrat. caller: i just wanted to bring up something that has always bothered me of the health care system. than anymore money other country on insurance. it seems like we take a lot of insurance we never get to use and cover the differences between europe and canada. if iton't have to worry happens on the job or in the home or in the car. the insurance companies spend a lot of money trying to not take claims -- workmen's compensation is incredibly expensive to business. not one politician has ever mentioned it limited workmen's comp..

that is a lot of money that can going to the health care system. we pay $8,400 per capita in our country. we has $6,400 per capita for health care. guest: i think we are on such a tod road to continuing reform our health care system and that is exactly why we wanted to keep this movement in motion, that we were working on reforms, working on getting costs under control, set up to move on to the next iraq of cost containment but if we go back to where we started, we are back at square one, really headed backwards to where we were 10 years ago. host: james in texas, a republican. caller: ask ms. claire if she has the affordable care act? host: do you have it?

guest: we all have the affordable care act because there are many benefits to employer sponsored coverage. there are many that we are going to lose. act is not ae care thing. it is rules that apply to insurance. rules that we are all going to lose if this law is repealed. if you get coverage from your job there are protections i am scared of losing. before, your insurance company could say "i am only going to pay out a million dollars." there were people with hemophilia and leukemia who had a million-dollar lifetime limit. at no cost,rvices whether it is cancer screenings are contraception's, those would be gone.

the requirement that your insurance company has to spend a set amount on your coverage and no more than the next set amount on profits and salaries, all of , for yourfits dependents, these things all apply to employer-sponsored coverage and will be gone with the repeal of the act. caller: in 1998, i broke my leg. i had insurance through my employer. . had quit a job i had for operations on my leg and i did not go broke because i was unemployed for almost two years. i made a mortgage payment. i paid my utility bills, i've paid for a car, so the affordable care act was sold on false premises that everybody would go broke if they had a health problem.

i didn't go broke. host: claire mcandrew? guest: i didn't follow. because you had insurance or because you didn't have insurance? host: we will move on to ernest in chicago, a democrat. >> good morning. i think the whole discussion has to be centered around the idea of economy, physical economy and the fact that we are not producing, as a nation. people are unemployed and underemployed and unpaid. the solution to this ties into the solution to the health care theation, the solution to physical economy is tied to reinstatement of a law called glass-steagall, which i wish c-span would do more discussion on. but the question i have for what i want to talk about is that

, before richard nixon was sold on this hmo, we had a standard and the standard was ill burden. ill burden was something and lamented in 1946, something that franklin delano roosevelt supported. what ill burden did was allow federal, state, county, municipal and private sales care -- health care providers to just pick a guy off the street and taken to the hospital and fix him and then work out how you pay. is richard nixon sold on the idea that there is a lot of money to be made in health care. hmo.is how we got we have to get back to, like donald said, what made america great. thank you.

>> let's hear from kurt, in new york. caller: hello, claire. i am a white lower middle-class person. i am paying $12,000 a year now. i used to pay 5000 that my employer pays also. last year we had a startup two years ago. lost health insurance through the if ford will care act because no doctor would take them. guest: we understand that there are many ways that the affordable care act needs to be improved and there is always many ways that health care needs to be improved. however, we are very concerned about going to a place where there is not just no doctor willing to take the insurance but no insurance at all. that means that if you go to the

hospital, you have no coverage in an emergency. you have no in network coverage or out-of-network coverage. you are fully on the hook for a bill that is tens of thousands of dollars and we are very concerned right now that we are in a place where we don't have anything to improve upon. have, rushing forward, a repeal of medicaid subsidies that people can use to afford coverage. this is on the table right now. with it, we have no responsible plans that will tell us what is going in place of the medicaid expansion and the subsidies. this is rushing forward, potentially through congress in january. you have people all over the country. i know it is not working perfectly for everyone that for up to 30 million people to lose their insurance, this is a very devastating time. we want to see a replacement plan on the table sooner rather than later. definitely before the repeal

vote goes forward. >> what will you do to stop the repeal? caller: we, and many of our partners throughout the country and partners in the coalition are working together right now. we have been talking to members of congress, hearing from people all over the country at the national level, to let them know what people have gained from this law. we are hearing from people who are scared they are going to die because they are going to lose their health coverage. if you look in papers around the country from pittsburgh to the daily news in maine and west virginia and charleston, there have been rallies going on with people writing to their local papers, because they are very scared about this rushed, irresponsible plan to repeal this law. are going to continue and people are raising their voices because they do not want to lose something that has already had value. host: you can learn more about them was usa.org.

claire mcandrew with that program, the director there, thank you very much. next, a different perspective. , a scholar of the american enterprise institute will talk about efforts to repeal the act and the future of health care. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this holiday weekend on c-span twos booktv, saturday night at 10:00 eastern on afterwards, wall street journal editor joanne loveland looks at top women leaders in corporate america. and at 11:00, cnn's political contributors talk about journalist thomas lake's book "unprecedented -- the election that changed everything." and a look back at the campaign.

sunday afternoon after 5:00, past blanche wise and cook -- blanche weisen cook talks about her eleanor roosevelt series. on then author s l price decline of the seal -- the steel industry in his book, "playing through the whistle." for a schedule go to booktv.org. q&a, -- ar's night on >> while people were starving, van buren was having these fancy parties in the white house. it was part of the image making where harrison was the candidate for the poor people and here was this rich man in washington sneering at the poor people. thousands of acres and an estate so he was actually very wealthy but he was portrayed as the champion of the poor. women came to the parades and they waved handkerchiefs. some gave speeches. some wrote pamphlets and it was

very shocking. they were criticized by the democrats saying these women should be homemaking putting. ronald schaffer, talking about how the rollicking campaign of tippecanoe changed presidential elections forever. sunday night on c-span's q&a. washington journal continues. we are back. antos at our table. what is the consensus for about if they repeal the affordable care act, what they would replace it with? >> this is a problem for republicans. there is a schism between the people who are more on the extreme right and those who are more moderate. the extreme right people are basically saying they want to repeal obama care and they don't want to replace it.

i think that is really unrealistic and obviously i am more of a moderate i think i am more realistic as a politician. republicans run in the off year election or run in the next presidential election with the tag "they took 25 million people off of health insurance" is not a winning political argument. host: what do they need to do? the editorial we read says republicans may have to vote for some form of tax credit subsidy to avoid the spectacle of millions of people losing their insurance. >> that is exactly right. the fact is that if you are going to have what the guaranteed call issue, which means no matter what your condition is you can get insurance if you want, in order to have that work it is going to cost money. there are no two ways around it.

low income people don't have the money to buy insurance that could cost $115,000. so if you are not going to provide support, the offer of guaranteed issue is pretty hollow and you lose millions of people her coverage and generally people who need help. host: how would this work? caller: the most likely scenario immediate, at the end of february early march, repeal of many of the financial aspect of the affordable care act. not everything, but many of them and in particular, they are thatng about using a bill was vetoed by the president earlier this year, which foraled the tax credits people to buy insurance, repealed bunch of other things that had to do with the budget.

however, they knew that president obama was going to repeal that. now that they have a republican or will have a republican in the white house, they will have to come to grips with the fact that they will need to finance a subsidy, a subsidy that will but effect in several years in between time, in the transitions, they will have to maintain some sort of subsidy, some sort of help for low income people to continue to buy coverage for two reasons. one is humanitarian but the other is you need a stable insurance market going into 2018. if you don't do that that won't happen. host: what if they don't do that? caller: we have already seen many large insurance companies dropped out of many of the health insurance exchange markets where they were losing the most money for this year, the 2017 plan year. counties 15 or 20% of

in this country know who only have one insurer. possibility. the consequence of simply saying we will repeal and think about in maybe it sometime not 2017 but 2018 or 2019, that is a recipe for disaster because it means the big insurers will continue to drop out. the other insurers that have done well will find -- if we are going to get all the sick people -- they believe they have to substantially raise their premiums. host: i want to get your reaction to john yarmuth of kentucky, the incoming budget committee ranking member. here's what he had to say about repealing the affordable care act. >> repealing the afford will care act is not going to be nearly as easy as they think it is.

a number ofto people recently, when we put the affordable care act together in 2009 or 2010 there were 7500 lobbyists in washington trying to affect that bill in some way. those lobbyists have not disappeared. they still exist. when you talk about taking revenue streams away from hospitals and insurance companies and medical equipment manufacturers and hospice and it, health care, you name you are going to get a lot of resistance from a lot of quarters. earlier this week the american hospital association chimed in saying "this may have adverse consequences for us." same with the insurance lobby. there is a lot of pressure on them to at least not repeal it without telling people -- for them to have a say in what is

coming afterwards. guest: he is right. if you receive a subsidy you don't want to lose it. people don't like change, especially if there is money involved. on the other hand change is necessary. it is clear that the affordable care act hasn't worked. the exchanges were not made unstable by republicans. they remain unstable by the affordable care act. republicans were not in charge when major insurers dropped out for 2017. the republicans problem is that they can't afford politically or any other way to make them more -- host: ideally, what do you want to see from republicans? guest: it seems to me that the sensible thing is to go ahead and repeal major aspects of the aca that you can repeal through this so-called reconciliation process.

it means you would repeal some of the financial aspects of the aca. however, it shouldn't take effect immediately. there should be a transition period. i would say three years. during that. -- during that it doesn't mean that republicans should take three years to decide what they will do. they need to come up with a solid plan very quickly. beenly, they haven't working on this as hard as the democrats were working on it eight years ago. to come upy need with a plan and they need a plan this spring. at least one that is credible so that insurers can say they are seeing some prospect that this could be a viable market. so we will put in our bids for premiums, which we have had to do by april or may in order to go into the 2018 market. it doesn't mean they will stay

because they can drop out in september, 2017. that puts pressure on republicans, i think, to come up with a plausible plan in negotiation with people and also put up with solvent language and set up the political infrastructure necessary to get it to pass in the senate. i think they need to do all of this in 2017. host: let's hear from joseph in florida, a democrat, you are up first. caller: good morning. i would like to mention i am a veteran. my three brothers are veterans. we served in three different war periods. one thing that caused me great shame is this health care system that we have. we defeated italy and we defeated germany and we defeated japan. we did not cross them. we helped them.

we helped them rewrite their constitutions. those constitutions pretty much guarantee health care. why in the world couldn't we do something for our own people? is a document, a bill they introduced in congress years before we began all this debate about obamacare and everything. it is a 30 page bill. "medicare for all." please comment on that. guest: first of all, nobody guarantees health care. what you could guarantee and what european countries often .uarantee is insurance there is a big difference between financial coverage and actual treatment. you still need access to services. you still need access to doctors and hospitals. so one of the things that i think is often overlooked in all of this debate is that the delivery system in the united

states needs an overhaul. we are incredibly inefficient. we spend more money per patient in this country than any other country in the world. partly, it is because we are ising people the best there at the standard american line. the other part is we are incredibly inefficient. we have a lot of excess testing, we have people whose first recourse is not to look within i do to keephat myself healthy, but rather "now i am sick so somebody should heal me." nature, of course, but nobody is talking about guaranteeing access to appropriate services and appropriate times. now, medicare for all -- they're , if they can afford it, sure but it medicare is an incredible program. it is a program that assumes

that the government can call the shots. a is true that there is advantage to choose a private plan instead of a traditional program. the people who support medicare for all would abolish all plan choices. should goverybody through medicare and everything would be ok because the taxpayers will pay for it. well, the taxpayers happen to be your children and grandchildren and they will have trouble paying for education and roads and bridges. they are going to have trouble. host: steven in jensen beach, florida, republican, you are next. caller: my background is that i am a physician. iran many health plans -- i ran many health plans. the company would bring patients and doctors together to improve decision-making because the cost

of health care is not specifically related to how much you spend for a particular procedure or a particular .peration it is the sum over time of what determines the cost of care. health insurance is not the issue here. we have many people with coverage but not getting health care. there is no measure of what is being provided. we have to look at this whole issue. it is the quality of medical care. host: you're breaking up a little bit but i hear your point. guest: he is singing my song. he is singing the song of most serious policy analysts. until we get the health delivery system to work better and until we get people -- don't think of them as patients -- until we get people to behave in their own self-interest to get a more

efficient way, and until we get a system where doctors actually talk to patients, we are not going to solve this problem. host: how do you do it? guest: you can't do it from washington. if you think about the great health systems that many people talk about in the united states, the geisinger health plan in central pennsylvania medical professionals in the private sector on their own. the government didn't tell them what to do and the other aspect do they are learning how to it everyday and it changes as because not only does the science change, the nature of the patients change, profile also

changes. unfortunately for us. ut also, our understanding of how to do a better job and what really constitutes getting changing and is improving, but that doesn't happen universally. f you are talking about medicare for all, fee for service medicare is then tithe organized health plan. we have to have organized health plan. you advocating for block grants to the states for medicaid? , the problemdicaid or medicaid, we guarantee a percentage runs from 50% minimum 80% or so, around maybe 78% right now for the state. income we guarantee a federal subsidy of is that percentage whatever bill the state says for patients. now that might sound equitable to some people, the problem, it things es states to do very efficient.

one example of that is that with the expansion of medicaid under aca, i think 31 states expanded medicaid, so a lot more eople in the states are covered, that is great, however, the average cost per medicaid went ub substantially and the reason is, being paid cost and so, the cost, i'll put in quotation that wasn't the cost before, the cost went up. why? easier when it doesn't cost you anything to say, sure, we'll pay more. is a problem. we need to put, have states incentive, same incentive we as individuals have to watch so way we spend our money that we're spending efficiently and not spending too much. trs that say, i'll

get reimbursed 100%, here is the cost? think the hospitals, hospitals tend to be organized. obviously medicaid patients, their doctor is the emergency room. arguing the t hospitals shouldn't get paid the medicaid program, 100%what i'm saying is that payment not only made it possible financially, but it politically for states to say, sure, go ahead tis not costing anything. reaction to that and the states that did that ecause it is going to be their money on the line down the road. host: go to alana, in scottsdale, arizona, independent. i've been watching the earlier lady on here and and ning to this gentleman they both throw figures around 30 million, would lose

health insurance. my been doing research on own and i'm a working person, 've retired, i've always had medical, good medical and i've always paid to have medical, some people can afford to pay for medical, but they choose not to and i just -- what is the figure of people that would medicare -- not medicare, but their insurance if repealed? y understanding is 14,000 people on obamacare are or 14 sorry, are medicaid welfare recipients, is that true? well, on me number -- medicaid, it is a little hard to they receive ther

assistance of cash assistance ayments, but probably some number like 14 million. host: we can show the census numbers for 2015, u.s. health insurance employer based 156 million. direct purchase 52 million. medicaid, about 63 million. 52 million ut americans about 29 million uninsured people. is 2015 numbers, according to the census bureau. guest: oh, well, but the numbers useful.ery what this lady was really saying was what is the impact of repealing the aca. medicare number includes probably 10 million -- i mean 50 illion people eligible for medicaid and have been on medicaid or about that number on -- caid well before the host: okay. guest: and the same thing is true, the numbers don't tell you what the differential is. this lady wants to know what the

real number is. of course we don't know for sure, it depends n what the other actions are, it depends on what republicans to do abouts decide whatever happens in the next two months. we don't know that yet. but i'm fairly confident that survival, not l talking about goodwill here. 'm talking about political survival and democrats will be running for office, especially 10 or 12 d be i think unning for the senate and they want to get their seats back. somewhat optimistic that everyone will see their own self doing something that could be in the nation's self interest. michigan, , kathy in democrat, welcome to the conversation, go ahead. morning, greta and

joseph. i have a friend who is on and medicaid and her -- she's a very intelligent, woman, her deep concern able to not going to be receive medical services because stipend is -- i don't, have to be a big stipend to cover the cost of her medications alone, then you have your office visits. away the medicaid for people in northern michigan, is rural, what you do, you burden the hospital with a debt that they have to treat peep when he will they come to the emergency room, it doesn't matter what they are reating for, they have to absorb the cost of that and it is called charity. has helped in keeping y

hospitals viable in this part of the state. the government needs to watch its moneys better. i don't want to be charged for that i didn't receive. i don't want to be overcharged. the overnment should adopt same attitude. his ripping off of gouging of medication prices reimbursements for whatever services that monitored, should be standard pricess. those comments. guest: this is about a million questions, really. we've been debating this and thinking about this in decades.on for certainly on the point about rural hospitals and medicaid, is probably their most important payer, no doubt about that. owever, the reality is that hospitals do not in quotes costs. hospitals, the popular term is

shift costs, i'm not sure that term, but the reality is that private payers medicaid, medicare more than medicaid, basically the statistics are that roughly speaking medicare 60% ospital services pays what the average private plan ays and medicaid on average of what the % avera average -- pays. there are variations medicaid patients may be sicker than a little hard to say. know, rsus 100%, you chances are there is what people call cost shifting and what it means is that middle class are picking up the cost of through taxes and picking up the cost of medicaid hrough their health insurance premiums and through copay. a moral statement

about that, it is a fact, that is the way this system happens work. are we concerned that should we be concerned that hospitals will of business? in very rural areas that, is an issue. ost parts of the country, hospitals will not go out of business, but nobody will get a that, has year probably been true for some time. m rural areas, huge problem, hospitals are where they shouldn't be. we would be far more cost and probably more p ther put cally, if people who are severely ill were airlifted out of rural areas to where the facilities are and wecialists really are and if ordinaryedicine to get things dealt with in the community, this has been tried works, it has been ried on some native american facilities because they are

extremely rural areas, it really people of the community can learn how to do it with assistance and with telemedicine, it is quite feasible. you can identify who is really do, and then what do you that is really critically important. keith watching there, republican. caller: good morning, i hope everybody has a happy and safe new year. host: same to you, keith. caller: funny thing real quick, 1967, my sixth birthday, had german measles, last time i comes to my ctor house. i believe it is starting to come ack, doctors going to the house. you almost said it, the biggest medical thing that will happen, medicare is ty and actually -- in the next eneration with smaller, so healthcare costs are going to explode here in the next 10 to 10,000 retiring in a day. i question is, as much as believe in states rights and

things, i do not understand why individual state has these insurance committees that set up plans for what is required in the health insurance state.for their i don't understand why there is not one federal guideline on states can't sell in between states over state thes like they brought down car insurance in homeowners nsurance when they started selling across state lines. host: keith, we'll take your points. aca did create benefit package that is i think pretty generous minimum package that must be sold by all nsurance companies, except medicare , the program. medicare for all.

part of it is that there is a what is called catastrophic cap, out of pocket cost a patient can ay in a year, that doesn't apply to the medicare program. there is some iron neall of this. he insurance commissioners, keith is right, there is one in every state. hey have been around probably for the last 70, 80 years, maybe -- life cause they insurance existed before health insurance, probably more like years ago. you could argue that it is an isifact of history, which it in a sense. however, there is another which is that under the aca, insurance commissioners premium requests in the individual market, aca market.in the and the reason for that, the the closernd that is you are to the market, the more you recognize what the financial conditions are and we saw this

as i think r 2017, many people know, many of the dropped out sort of by april or rocess so of this year. some, in may in some cases. ome of the plans actually failed. the so-called co-op plans failed during this year. so, those people who would have been customers of those plans be reallocated and tended to be sicker patients. states, the insurance commissioners raised the rates because otherwise they lost more insurers. so you do need some local some local knowledge of what is going on in the market. this is rguing extremely efficient system, but i'm arguing if you don't pay market, n to the local you will get it wrong most of

the time. host: questions on twitter. aca gone, cost will be shifted to private insurance, premiums for those with skyrocket like before the aca. aca 2017ell, so for the plan, on average, went up 25%, that seems pretty steep to me, you are a if low-income person. yes, the administration says, if receiving the maximum subsidy, you didn't actually pay nything more, that is true because taxpayers paid it. 25% is 25%. the concern about rising healthcare cost and the concern rising premiums is a real issue. this is a challenge republicans essence, democrats had t easy, the theme was not affordable, but insurance, insurance coverage. so, the outgoing administration

promoting time people signing up for coverage. that is a very social goal. affordability took a back seat and it obviously showed up this with premium because it wasn't affordable. to now find the key to affordability, not something you wake up in the say, here it is, this is going to be tough. host: don. false, i haveue or insurance from my employer, i for the um and i pay subsidy for the aca again as a taxpayer. true.: how much does he pay is always the question, on his income. absolutely. live in the system pay percentage of our

adjusted gross income, so if he's relatively high income person, he's paying higher taxes. i think one could argue that is equitable. host: steve on twit wer this countries ration are, is that how we will get cost down? guest: all care is rationed. somebody makes a decision about hether you should get a treatment or a test. rationing goes on in every doctor's office everyday. ideally, they know something about your insurance before medicare had a drug benefit, for example, we know for sure, that senior citizens were being prescribed drugs, being prescribed generics primarily aware of s were very the cost. medicare part d came along, actually the rate of generic thenribing went up because there were organized drug plans in a more this aggressive way and actually made patient lear to the that this made sense to them personally because their opayment was very low or oftentimes zero.

so in fact, we've, you know, go on.is sort of thing host: what was impact of medicare part d on the taxpayer? everything medicare costs taxpayer money. is that part d is beneficiaries b, ay premium roughly 25% of the cost. and there's a little fuzz in there about other money that floats around, but, you know, somewhere around 75% of the cost picked up by the taxpayer. think you could argue that people who are elderly and limited nd who have incomes should not be expected pay exorbitant amount of money. came in, so did related premiums for part

b. so senior citizens who are high earners or have high incomes are paying very, very high premiums up to 75% of the cost of the program. host: clarksburg, west virginia, frank, independent. you r: yes, greta, how are today? host: morning, frank. caller: happy new year. know, you're talking about lobbyists, they're not lobbying people who are making on medicaid, i mean, that is not happening. companies, or the middle man, okay, literally enied coverage to people who have catastrophic conditions who inevitably file bankruptcy. medicaid person on medicaid had paying y, they would be for insurance and that is a fact. the united at in states healthcare is a privilege for the rich and a right for the poor? i mean, what is happening here? your response?,

guest: that is a little extreme statement, i would say. went a ue that the aca long way toward resolving problems of this gentleman raises. certainly the guaranteed issue of it, the idea of having refused re or be because you either have an active health conditions or had one sometime in the last 10 years, i think most people would say that was unjust and unreasonable and have to find to make that still work as a business proposition. that operates ry on market principles and that system.s the health so in fact, his statement that medicaid bies for beneficiaries is not true at all. he hospitals are very well organized and they're constantly ushing for better

reimbursements for low income people because those are the are the bad debts they are having to deal with. they would rather not be cost drifters, much rather not be the bad guy in all this, who wants to be. same thing for physicians, they are not as well organized a lot of ey are still physicians who are independent not ices and the ama is quite the organization that the american hospital association is that he fact medicaid has active lobbies, the association ctors is very concerned about this alance of state costs, federal costs, providing services. host: okay, baltimore, michigan, patric patricia, democratic caller. good morning. caller: good morning. to say that the affordable healthcare act, first of all, did help to save my life. i to pay a premium, i think one work is because

everyone did not join f. had one had joined like it been intended to to, it would have worked. are not hy people joining, the young people are not joining. the thing that bothers me, healthcare should not be something that we should be discussing on who can afford it who can't. i'm sure this gentleman here has olden parachute health insurance for him and his whole family and probably for the rest of his life, but if we can to have two wars and we can always find that money to go fight, we should also be ble to afford for everyone to have health insurance. host: patricia, mr. santos, her comments, she talks about this was supposed to work because more people -- what why didn't people join? guest: that is a fair criticism. the aca.the design in hat insurance companies would like is a balanced risk pool, in

share ords, you get your of sicker people who need active of the t, you get sort average middle-age person ideally who isn't too sick, but for routine octor things. what you would like is to get people, e of young especially think about young guys, as a young guy myself, we never fwing to get sick or be in an accident and if e are, it will be a sports injury and somehow that will be taken care of. those exactly are the people who up.'t sign they didn't sign up for a couple of reasons. is aps the biggest reason that if you're under 26, under parent's tay with your plan. now that was a stop to middle class parents, but a dumb thing and people who put that in knew it was stupid. taking the bulk of the saying, people and

don't bother. don't join with the risk pool more s going to be problematic risk pool. indeed they did exactly that. the ermore, these are people who, i had teenagers, or 20-year-old guys actually in my family and they didn't buy insurance right out college. i bought it. i was protecting myself. they weren't going to waste that, they had other bills to pay. those are people who would have they reat customers and were off by the aca. that is a problem. the other problem is that if to have a mandate, you better mean it and this weakest as one of the the ocean. the contrast is switzerland, where if you move somewhere, the first question that the local government asks you, they ask you is, show me your insurance coverage. you have to be covered.

n switzerland, you have to be covered, it is more market-oriented system, you in switzerland without insurance and the local overnment checks on you every year. okay. have here? with the aca, there was a penalty, a very limited penalty and in 2014, nobody knew there penalty because how do you know anything in this country? you ask your neighbor. a neighbor who was penalized. the fact is, nobody knew there was a penalty. following year, there could have been a penalty, but 14 ways exempt, including the best way, which is any other way we didn't think of. the i.r.s. didn't didn't it and they 15, first en in 20 year they vehicled enforced it, i believe they didn't collect year, either there is regulatory process that goes through, you can appeal the result, we haven't seen penalty tis a very weak

penalty. really not was designed to bring, draw into the people who would be fwd customers. host: republicans get rid of the mandate, what do they replace it with? guest: good question. of the uldn't get rid individual mandate, at least not right away. political practical, reason, if they get rid of the ndividual mandate, then the problems that will inevitably occur for 2018, there will be problems, no avoiding them. reduced or made worse by whatever republicans do. there will be problems f. they rid of the mandate, everybody will say, they got rid is why it ate, that failed. that is not why it failed. it failed because the epublicans are working off a design that just didn't work in the first place and they are building maybe for years down the road to something i hope will be a more workable more sensible plan that will

actually bring people to coverage. florida, in tampa, republican. hi, mark. kwaukt morning.ood my question at the end of the day, how much profit is there at insurance with the companies and big pharma? other statement, i work with telemedici retired, ne, i'm ow-paid nurse, and excellent way to access patients and patients re to those who are either unable to come to the doctor's office or are too away. guest: absolutely right on the telemedicine point. seniornology goes and as citizens have their children teach them about how to do these things, they'll be able to get preliminary home visits, in a sense, telephonically, that

will really help, especially for seniors who have a tough time know that is o we going to work. as far as profit in the insurance industry, i think that is sort of his question, it a very profitability industry, it.question about i'm not sure what he means by he high end, but it is certainly true that ceo's make a lot of money in the insurance they have tremendous responsibility, and they have to and they can't be fired and have been fired. ost: mark is next, in tampa, florida, a republican. caller: yeah, again, the a stion, the v.a. system is socialist system and works well, i don't understand why we don't have medicare for everyone. i think we talked to mark. rich in north carolina, hi, rich. caller: hi.

of them mments and one anyone talk about sorry, how it would help company fist they went to single payer system, they wouldn't have o pay all this money out to cover their employees and would just be simple tax, less than paying out now with the way premiums are done going up.y they keep also, my girlfriend, she's been on edicaid and medicare and disability and we ain't never had a problem getting her the needs for her she situations and she was just in days, just for 12 bed stay was $30,000, something to be done about reign nothing cost. you can call one physician, they this, another physician

charges double that. here is a lot of different aspects to this whole system that needs to be reigned in and controlled. okay. okay, rich, mr. santos. guest: right. of ink the critical aspect this, how is care delivered, how are medical decisions made? involved actively with their physicians in a way sensible for their health and sensible for their pocketbooks? you don't know you are paying anything and don't care about though y aspect, even paying, if ou are your doctor is too pressed for time, then you'll have trouble. i'm impressed that he reports a good experience with the medicaid program. i've talked to physicians in private practice and specialist necessary particular, whose to medicaid is yeah, we'll see medicaid patients, but with paying, if your doctor is too the immediat

emergency and then we will refer to someone who specializes in the medicaid clinic, that may be a may be a hospital, that may be independent provider and may ll be fine providers, but the to is that it is difficult get specialist treatments and if ou have a good doctor, good primary care doctor, you know, they will call around to make of that you get the kind treatment you need, but if you don't have somebody helping you medicaid program is just financing program, does not guarantee care at all. if you want to learn more from joseph antos go to aei's eb aei.org, policy scholar there. you for the conversation. guest: thank you. host: we'll continue talking of youealthcare with all

up, what you have learn third degree morning from joe santos, and claire mcandrew. how would you change the healthcare system? fu are insured, 202-748-8000. uninsured, 202-748-8001. in just a our calls minute. >> sunday in depth will feature presidency of barack obama. calls, tweetshone e-mails during the program. april ryan white house correspondence, author of the block and white," an upclose view of the president and race in america. princeton author of "democracy n black, how enslaves the american soul," and journalist, inas, author of story," watch the

on sunday on book t.v. on c-span2. >> the presidential nomination of donald trump is friday, january 20, c-span will have of all the days events and ceremonies. on c-span and c-span.org, and listen live on c-span radio app. >> c-span, history unfolds daily. c-span was created as a public service by america's and television companies is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. >> "washington journal"

continues. host: how would you change the united states? that is the conversation for the today's "washington journal." injured and uninsured, we want thoughts. let's listen to what the president-elect donald trump had days in november, few before the election, talking about the healthcare law when he florida.igning in >> with obamacare, getting back subject, almost waste of time talking about it, it, all we'll te do is say it was a bad experience for the american people. you know. premiums premiums are surging because of obamacare. companies are leaving, doctors are quitting and deductibles are going through the roof, some as as $15,000, some higher than that. et, hillary clinton wants to double down on obamacare, making it more expensive, going to make more expensive.

you know what they will do, going to show you and they don't care what it takes. they are going it show you that works. they are going to listen to trump, never give up. show you. okay. we don't want to be shown. you what, it is catastrophic. i'm asking for your vote so we repeal and replace obamacare and have healthcare for every family in florida and great healthcare. host: that was the president-elect a few days before the election talking about repealing and replacing the affordable care act. what changes would you make to healthcare system? an insured person, good morning what do you think? caller: i think one of the main in this country with the healthcare, people are used to living in repeal and ree nd have a reactive

system, where, you know, we live in a society that really kind of creates illness in our way of living the way we live. a reactive healthcare system, we treat ourselves with rugs, we get sick and have medication we take to get rid of that illness, which is reactive f. we empowered people like dieticians empower surgeons and other people, doctors and and medical industry, if dieticians and people who knew about proactive healthcare through diet, healthy educate d get society, children, you know, on how to ake care of themselves proactively, instead of hey, you have a cold, let's take this this tion made by corporation which wants to make this society, you know, teach them and schools are starting to do this, some not so much public

schools, but there are schools that are starting to educate gardening, healthy living, eating healthy and proactive mentality around healthcare, instead of let's keep living in this really sick system that we're physically, tally, emotionally ill society and culture that we're living in, to something healthy and conscious. host: okay. todd's thoughts in eugene, oregon. carl in new hampshire, go ahead, are on medicare, is that right? caller: yes. ost: how would you change the system? caller: first of all, i would take and open up the insurance make that, you know, nationwide, so you could buy and do urance anywhere the same with where you go for your treatment. i would do is submit what itals

they cost, what the cost would typical procedure, then provide and a list and if he decides to go some place that is cheap, then instead of paying 0% on his medicare bill, he pays 10%. if he goes some place more has to pay hen he 30%, that way the patient is inclined to shop around a little bit and once you ntroduce a little competition and that would bring down cost. host: okay. carl's thoughts. debra, westchester, ohio, insured. debra, good morning, it is your turn. to er: what i would do is look at the cost of nonconformance in terms of things like driving under the influence, which is their 35

billion, smoking related disease, $161 billion, all of add up to $500 billion per year. you divide by number of the united states, you are looking at approximately 1500 per person. so we should insurance is not designed to pay for high risk, high-cost choices. i would completely take that out the insurance building and i would create a tax. it would be like a payroll tax, account within the state. as a medical professional, you money to treat those specific issues because what we're really doing as make those when we choices, we are costing everyone else and i don't want to make there is a lot of important reason yes people make bad choices, but these unhealthy

choices raise the cost. rapes in the 00 united states alone, according website, that means with every incident like analysis e d.n.a. that has to be done. so many issues, but a high cost, put the behavior and choice together so that when people get their paycheck, they okay, my gosh, i'm spending this much money, then people be aware and have the bility to make policy changes that promote healthier choices. recognize we really can't afford to smoke. expensive. and if one state, like california, just as an example, put that on a e budget, the people in the state pay for their behavior if they have high-risk behavior and the people in are okay with that,

let the people of california pay tax.high host: okay. debra, you might be interested in this and other viewers, about cost of healthcare in this country versus other countries. cost, whenhealthcare you look at this chart. italy, per capt, eight dollars. and united states 9024. switzerland, after that, germany, sweden, canada, down to italy.st, which roger, tallahassee, florida, uninsured. oger, what would you do to change the health tlt care system? caller: yes, ma'am. feel like my answer might be a little more fwrafic, but i feel of people are avoiding exactly what is happening. bottom line is there are so welfare in this

country that automatically obama healthcare -- the bama care act forced it on get onand made everybody it. the same way in january, whenever the time comes, they this, they need to to it the right way where everybody is treated equal. you continue to allow people to make their own decisions, going to continue aving seven, eight, nine kids and forcing our economy to go broke because no way people like kids that i've raised with my own health to afford o be able these are the real poor people, the people out here barely having to that are work. are not poor,ople

they get everything they want. somewhere along the line, we'll have to penalize people and take more away from them so that they can equal out the amount of time it takes for other people to be able to afford the insurance that we are not poor,. okay. roger, the republicans are about, as you say, immediately acting in january, to repeal and replace the affordable care act. is way that could do that possibly by reconciliation, process. a busted earlier this month on newsmakers program, we talked to incoming ranking member, rom kentucky, talked about reconciliation process and what is being proposed. here is what he has to say. main thing we'll do on the committee is to try to make people american ramifications of repealing the affordable care act. a lot of people say 20 million is le lose coverage, that

one pretty serious consequence f repealing the act, but there are consequences for 150 americans who get insurance employer.heir there are repercussions for edicare beneficiarys and medicaid beneficiaries. repealing affordable care act million, ust affect 20 but every american and not a way. responsibility to make sure the american people understand that. you know, talking about what the republicans might do and whether hey can act with some kind of coalescence, they are already isputing or having a problem figuring out whether they want to repeal the affordable care ct and say, we will replace it with something three years down the road or so or whether they come up with replacement plan same time they repeal it. consensus among republicans to the timing of what they want to do. going toly if they are

repeal the affordable care act in he lion share of it january or early february, we're oing to make sure the american people understand the cost they action.y for that and just looking at the consequences, like saying, we want you to move out of your comfortable u're in, but maybe needs repairs and we'll give you a house two or down the road. it may be better, it may be worse, we'll not tell you what it is. most everybody who looked at the if youo understands that repeal the affordable care act with nothing to replace it with, then yoou you've created chaos. companies will rein fact their best interest, to withdraw from the market, if is coming know what at them in the wake of repeal, hen they are going to be at

risk, particularly with regard to the insurance policies they various ugh the exchanges under the affordable care act. going to be a very, very disruptive thing. democrat was the top on the budget committee and will budget the incoming committee top democrat and 115th congress talking about to replace --orts get this, get rid of the affordable care act and else.e it with something there we go. your thoughts this morning on changing ideas are for the healthcare system in this country. texas, rockwall, uninsured. go ahead. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. you bet. caller: i would like to take a step back. the hospitals working for the

american people and originated churches, the catholic churches had their hospitals, the methodist had hospitals, the baptist churches had hospitals 80/20 insurance, fee for service insurance. whole, our american medical system was much more stabilized than what it is right now. we have so many managed care progra programs. we can't purchase insurance across state lines and i just think if we go back and simplify the entire process that we will steps needed those we all have that healthcare.

host: beth, why are you uninsured? caller: no, i am insured. host: you are? okay. caller: i'm speaking as an insured individual, whose insurance, by the way, since 005, has gone up about 100% through blue cross/blue shield. work? you get it through caller: no, i'll self-employed. small business owner. host: okay. all right. beth's thoughts in texas. this is tennessee, insurance through medicare. mario, how would you change it? caller: i would change it by irst of all making all nonprofit. each state see the hospital kept they should and should be nonprofit. actually you will be nonprofit. a lot of time in europe, if italy spend $3000 and we their 9000 here per erson, that is where we should go and that we have a better team for everybody. tennessee. mario in take a look at the projections spending.l healthcare

years, mproved over the compared to the 2010 projections healthcare spending would be in 2015 and going forward. 2016 projection is lower than they thought it would be pack in twept10, but climbing as share of the economy. in carthage, missouri, you are on the air, uninsured. caller: yes, right now i am. the biggest problem i had, when retired in en i june, it was going real good hen i got through the marketplace. and maybe that is the wrong thing to do, but that is the way i can get it without going to obamacare. going real good until october and november and high er, they hit me with premium that i could not pay with income i'm bringing home.

and i think the people that's been talking here, listening to on to talk to, that one person said about smoking and being obese and all that, that mental problem. when i was smoking, i got off by i had my little girl in the hospital, she was a had no problem with my insurance until this year. having problems because they went and said if payment, takes 13 to 14 days to process it. discontinue my health insurance, that is wrong because only get paid at the first of the month, like some people today when they are retired, have a problem paying payments because they want it right then and there. or my insurance is telling me send my bill late, when

they send it late or early, i can't pay it until the first of month. i've told them that, well, they'll have to discontinue it late on use you'll be your payment. that is the problem i have. host: okay. douglas in carthage, missouri. coming up, what you would do to fix the healthcare system in this country. this utes or less in conversation. want to follow-up on an earlier conversation with all of you talking about president obama's actions 35 nst russia saying the mats need to leave country. it was previously reported that the foreign minister of russia suggested that the president a similar action by expelling the same amount of iplomats from moscow and closing down two facilities, two u.s. facilities in moscow. russia today reporting earlier statement by the vladamir putin on what

he plans to to. top story today, president putin put the brakes rowel t could have been with the u.s., slapping new sanctions over claims of hacking election. the russian leader says it is time for such retaliation, even though such response would be warranted. we reserve the right for it-for-tat measures, we will plan next steps to restore russian u.s. relation based on olicy, the new administration of donald trump will pursue. we won't create hurdles for diplomats, won't expel anyone, won't bound children and place ofom using usual rest during the holiday season. i invite all the children of diplomats to new year and christmas party in the kremlin. host: reporting on vladamir putin's statement in reaction yesterday.bama

back to calls about healthcare. moses in akron, ohio, on medicare. go ahead.ng, caller: thank you, greta, for taking my call. can you hear me? we can, we're listening. caller: i want to make something talking ar when i was when i first got in. to i want the americans understa understand, that to be able to system, we ealthcare have to start from the forget privilege, healthcare should be a right. lived for 45 years in europe in eight different countrys and ll those countries i was a permanent resident and never worried about getting sick. reason is that the consumption tax policies that have give them enough money to cover the issue and then the they don't is that

put a lot of money into the military. now, let's take america f. we would cut that military budget in half, there would be a lot of people smiling in this country, greta. the problem, we spend too much on the military, we don't really to attack y is going us. yeah, terrorists, but no major power, this money t all into the military when if we it, that money, a lot of put it into the healthcare system and jobs, the country would be great. that is my comment. host: okay, moses, go to ann, in insured., hi, ann. caller: hi. agree that healthcare should not be for profit. when you are sick and have to go going doctor, you are not to go shopping around, you know, doctor to see the because something is wrong. a business it like that you can shop around and look for prices, you don't know are, you don't

know what the cost is. i think it is unrealistic to that.t i think it should be single payer, we've got medicare, just everyone.r i'm sure the insurance companies would not want that. ann, david why , are you uninsured? caller: probably because i haven't paid since i got into obamacare. it's like it is crazy. they are spending so much to insurance when they are not talking about pharmaceuticals and how to pay innovation, the treat ailments without having to pay ransom for every respiratory infection we get we the school or wherever get it, we need to come together and i wonder when we'll come as a nation and implement some kind of national tax to facilitate the community, along

with transportation. okay, all right. david. matt in missouri, insured. you are on the air, matt. caller: yes, ma'am, doing good, thank you. help an idea how to insurance and also there would be over dlt throw the government of hey try to get rid medicare. it is obviously what people want. the insurance, i think, they need to start lowering the age on medicare. 60, here were more, even ass number of people leave staying for o are insurance. down, morent would go good jobs for everybody and the goal of the country to help everybody is to gradually get the number go from 60 to 65 and get the country insured instead taking on the whole pie at ne time and again, i want to

say, if politician came on and medicare, et rid of socialized medicine, you win an election anywhere. it is proven it is a good deal. i've taken up too much time, is what i want to say. host: all right. matt. jim, who has insurance, it is your turn. caller: hello, how are you today? host: doing well, sir. what do you think about changing healthcare in this country to make it better? our r: well, i think biggest problem in this country is our federal government, the of our federal government in every direction, including insurance. get the federal government under control and you will solve 90% problems in this country, especially with money, because they don't know how to handle in government, they just waste it. they have any

money is because they take tax people.rom the and the people in washington, heir only problem with money, they have too much of it. get the government under control problems ve other under control. enterprise will settle and sustain our culture, culture right now that is leaning more and more and more toward government. you see on the television is more and more government. that is the biggest problem, the government. going to come in a pro forma session in just minute, lawmakers are not in town over this holiday break, have not ill be, they adjourned for this break. pro forma session in both chambers. bring you to the house

before they gavel in. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. december 30, 2016. i hereby appoint the honorable luke messer to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives . the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain, reverend michael wilker, from the