we would have asked to keep our ,romises to the american people our principal promise being repeal obama care. just pass the legislation that the house republican and senate republicans passed that reveals obamacare that went to the president's desk and president barack obama the code. why not pass the exact same legislation and at that point, now that you don't have the democrats to repeal obamacare, rather they can vote on what constructive things ought to be done to improve our health care system. we could come up with a bipartisan solution. host: representative mo brooks, republican of alabama. let's go back downstairs. >> we can put congressman mo brooks firmly in the no column. 29 house of conservatives from the freedom caucus who say right now they cannot support this bill. the republican leadership in the house can only afford to lose 22 votes.

that is because they need to hundred 15 out of their 237 member caucus to vote yes. the number is 215 because democrat bobby rush will not be voting today because of a death in his family. magic number, 215. they can only lose 22 votes. the president, yesterday, according to politico, waging a last-ditch bid to avoid a health care disaster from the story at an oval office meeting with 18 house republicans, mostly opponents of the bill. the president invited steve king of iowa to sit next to him in a chair normally reserved for the vice president. one of his closest friends and politics. the president asked him why he couldn't vote for the bill and king said he didn't think it was lower insurance premiums enough. a potentialated deal, if the president would publicly back amending the bill

to deregulate the health-care care industry, king would change his vote. trump agreed and the speaker picked up the desperately needed vote. that happened yesterday. those republicans that are voting no, you can find them on the new york times website, cnn, politico, the hill, they have a list of the republicans that are so far, no votes. there are 29 of them, the white coupleicking up a yesterday. this story from politico, the coke network is planning to defend republicans who voted against this health care bill. kochs are setting up a reserve fund to protect opponents from political harm in 2018. craigsaid earlier, caplan, our congressional producer tweeting out that the vice president will be joining the president, the white house today to meet with these members once again, with more arm

twisting this morning at 11:30 a.m. eastern time. we are going to hear from the speaker of the house and get an update on where the vote stands this morning at 11:30 a.m. eastern time. and we will also hear from the minority leader, nancy pelosi, at around 10:45 a.m. eastern time. host: on top of that the house comes in at 9:00 a.m. this morning. the house rules committee could come in at 9:00 a.m. this morning as well. a lot going on today in washington. from the new york times to follow-up on what greta was saying, "even if mr. ryan manages to secure the bare minimum required, the bill that would pass the house would not become law. the senate expands significant changes, dragging out the process, deep into the spring if it can pass any version at all." back to your phone calls and voices, back to one he to --

juanita in nebraska. >> good morning. representative brooks just referenced rising premiums under the aca, and i would like to remind him and everyone that the recent rise in insurance premiums was directly caused when marco rubio undermined the aca with a law that eliminated -- that limited how much the government can spend to protect insurance companies against financial losses. when the republicans complain about rising premiums, i would say it is ridiculous because they caused it. host: how do you get insurance? are you insured? caller: my husband has insurance through his work. this newears old and bill would definitely affect us in a negative way. i would love to see insurance companies pulled completely out of the mix. i am for single-payer.

host: that was passed in juanita, nebraska. >> that is on the western side of nebraska. it is a wonderful little town. host: thanks so much. eddie in military, massachusetts. a republican. host: >> good morning. what hasn't been discussed is tax reform, like a bill of rights for doctors and nurses and hospitals. my wife just came out of a hysterectomy operation and the doctor charged 12,000, the anesthetist 8000. but do you know what a sterile operating room costs? $35,000. that is astounding. now, i have had previous experiences with the surgery and when they took the stitches out and took this apparatus, they through the instrument away. that was why the sterile operating room cost so much. they throw everything away.

get reform if we don't have a bill of rights for doctors, nurses, hospitals. the costs just go through the roof. i would even suggest once they get through reform, they could start off health care by giving every citizen a couple hundred dollars. you can go to your local pharmacy to get a flu shot. -- regina.is i would like to basically address the social, the philosophical, and the hip-hop or see that really undergirds not only this legislation but all legislation that comes out of this particular congress. in the long run, we are going to

people only 24 million who are going to lose coverage. but we are going to see that number disproportionately affect certain communities. when i speak about the ideological and social hypocrisy, i am talking about why republicans have historically and traditionally refused to address those things that negatively impact people's health. for example, gun control. if it is all about the money and it is all about helping big -- there gun control are still cigarettes being sold in communities, not even by the pack. teenagers can go in and buy loose cigarettes which is not only immoral but also illegal.

in addition to that there is somebody communities that don't have access to major growth resource -- roof restores. they are using -- grocery stores. ,hey're using food stamps suffering price counting in terms of the resources that these people have to spend on food. host: when you bring this to a conclusion? think therecally, i are some other things that you need to address. we need to dismiss this whole philosophical idea, held by particularly paul ryan that basically, people who are sick are in that situation by their own choices. host: that is regina in atlanta, georgia. greta, where are you? what have you got? >> while the house is focused on health care, across the capital they are in day for of the gorsuch nomination hearing, for

neil gorsuch to be nominated for the supreme court. politico has this story. immigrants are weighing a deal to let gorsuch through. everett reporting this, that a group of democrats is beginning to explore trying to extract concessions from republicans in return for allowing the a nominee to be confirmed. bemakers worry that he could confirmed whether democrats try to block them or not. democrats would be left with nothing to show for it. it would be a bitter pill after the gop blocks merrick garland for nearly a year. politico goes on to report that the deal democrats would be most likely to pursue would be to allow confirmation of gorsuch in exchange for a commitment from republicans not to kill the filibuster for a subsequent vacancy during president donald trump's term. the necktie court opening could also tip balance of the court. some democrats privately argue the fight would be far more consequential than the current one.

one conservative group saying there is no way republicans would agree to that kind of deal. board --pan. c-span.org or the c-span radio app if you're not able to two in -- tune into c-span3. it gets underway at 9:30 a.m. eastern time. >> the house-senate at 9:00 a.m. start the health care debate. house rules committee meeting done at the white house, some political persuasion is happening as well. lots going on and we have got about another 20 minutes before the house comes in the session, taking your calls and hearing your voice is on the houseboat today on the gop of affordable care act repeal and replace bill. a couple of tweaks have come in. this is somebody tweeting and saying open vote i am in the older age group and cannot afford the insurance we have now , going bankrupt to pay for it." jodi says "if everyone but

health insurance when they needed it our health insurance complex would fail miserably. single-payer works better." here is albert, who is addressing the president. "i voted for you and i do not support a plan that penalizes employers for giving good insurance." mike in pittsburgh, independent line. what do you think of the latest health care debate going on? >> how are you? question.ng to ask a i have heard bits and pieces over the last year during the campaign but i have not heard much recently about allowing insurance companies to cross state lines. i don't understand the consequences begin with. i was hoping you might have insight. host: unfortunately, mary agnes carey of kaiser is gone, she would have been the perfect person to have addressed that.

someday on thet washington journal in the near future that will be addressed again. it has been addressed several times but i am sure it will be addressed again. stockton, massachusetts, independent line. >> how is it going? calling in from pittsburgh, that guy had a question and i have a question for married but unfortunately she is gone. i couldn't think of anything is to bring up, but my question was going to be, regarding the numbers of people that experienced price premium raises and raises and their premiums, how many of those people -- my question was going to be -- how many of those people were in states that did not accept the medicaid expansion versus states that did accept the expansion? are premiums rising for people in the state that did accept the medicaid expansion? my question was going to be

that. that was what i was going to ask. host: how do you feel about the replacement bill being debated today? >> i am not really familiar with it. theoes seem like congressional budget office, i believe, said that by 2020, 20 4 million people will be without health care and about 10 million people over the next year or so, or year within passing the bill. that is quite alarming. i don't know too much about it. like the government from pittsburgh, i have always thought that based on supply and ,emand and simple economics anyone knows that if you increase supply, you of course are potentially creating competition like you would with purchasing insurance across state lines, so i would also be

interested in hearing more about how effective that would be to have purchasing of health insurance or even car insurance across state lines. because in massachusetts, the cost for car insurance is quite expensive. i used to have insurance in california. i was aware that the insurance in california was cheaper. this is car insurance, so health insurance could be completely different. that is the thing that really interests me. those are some of the thoughts i have. host: thanks for sharing that. earlier on wednesday, the administration had warned conservatives that there is no plan b if they reject the bill. sean spicer.aid still he said the president was confident he would live up to his reputation as the closer. optimistic in the sense of what they are seeing and the

trajectory of what is going and the number of votes flowing their way, not the other way. speaker ryan enticed representative lou barletta of columnvania into the yes by promising a vote on legislation to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving tax credits for health care coverage . as greta mentioned earlier, representative steve king also decided to back the plan according to the white house. carol in jonesboro, arkansas, republican line. what is your take? caller: well, there are so many different topics, but i am totally disabled and i am on medicare. he issue is the fact that passed a little issue on adults. they are allowed to stay on their parents insurance policies until the age of 26. i am going, really? no. those kids are able to get up,

get out, get a job. let them furnish their own insurance. my parents raised five children. we never stayed on our parents insurance. that is one issue. don't put that at the feet of the government or the taxpayers. because that is not the taxpayers. response ability. i am on medicare. insurance,ave regular insurance myself until i had become 29 years old. i didn't know what insurance was. i couldn't afford it. but when the government passed the amendment to those policies or whatever, for us to all have to have car insurance, before we were able to get in our cars, turn the ignition and start is when i knew what car insurance was.

but that is what we are going to have to have, that everybody needs to step back, let president trump do his job. that is what we put him in there for. because the last eight years has been -- excuse my expression, but hell on wheels. we need to let him straighten up this country or we are all going to be in some deep trouble. host: that is carol, in jonesboro arkansas. greta is monitoring the news. >> we have a news update for our viewers. the associated press reporting that the islamic state group says through its news agency that the london attacker yesterday in parliament was a "soldier of the islamic state." , this morning, giving a speech before parliament. she says that the london terror attack suspect tried to silence our democracy.

here is her speech. >> i can confirm that overnight the police have searched six addresses and made eight arrests in birmingham and london. mr. speaker, it is still believed that this attacker acted alone. and the police have no reason to believe there are imminent further attacks on the public. his identity is known to the police and mi5. operational considerations will allow him to be publicly identified. what i can confirm is that the man was british-born and that some years ago, he was once investigated by mi5 in relation to concerns about violent extremism. he was a peripheral figure. >> that from the london independent. if you want to watch her statement in full, you will find it on c-span.org later today. host: more breaking news. the gop conference we have been

telling you is going to start at 9:00 and it is being delayed. it is not known yet what time the conference will be meeting. the house is still scheduled at 9:00. the vote on the a hca is still scheduled to be debated and held today. one of those days in washington. a lot of moving parts. ,n rockford illinois, ann republican. >> i have some questions on health care. plus, a good book out there deals with all the subjects c-span has been talking about , "the endless question" by dr. david jeremiah. it gets into a lot of the stuff going on. in our area, when obamacare started there were 25 doctors that got together and decided they did not want to take

obamacare. there were dentists and doctors. ,hey require payment up front you had to a credit card or debit card. you had to pay up front on whatever the amount was. then you had to receive the reimbursement from obamacare. for most of the doctors and dentists in our area. they hated obamacare for a long time and if they don't have the primary physician you end up in the emergency room anyway. it costs much more money for the plan and what it really is. plan needs to be a better plan than what is in place because there are still a lot of uninsured people and there are still a lot of people that end up in the emergency room. thank you for letting me speak my comments. host: let's hear from deforest next in portsmouth, virginia. a democrat. caller: how are you doing this morning? host: how are you.

caller: i am just fine, thank you for having me. i think the affordable care act is essential. we would not be talking about health care and all of this irregularity if it wasn't for the affordable care act. it did not work in areas where government officials did not want it to work. that is why it was not successful in certain areas. insurance premiums were going up long before the affordable care act was born. the affordable care act was opposed, not because it was not a good policy but because, i am sorry to say, so many people hated obama for what he is. therefore, instead of tweaking a good policy they would want to get rid of it. that is where we got the name obamacare from. that is just being disrespectful to the president. also, if you look at it, why are all the another -- all of the

other industrialized countries covering their people? why are they wrong? and we are right and we do not cover people? we do just the opposite. take canada. their health care is cheaper. it is proactive. it is more effective than the united states. they have a long life expectancy. they are number 19 on the list. we are number 42. healthve the american care act is based on profit and not care. that is the default assay. -- that is pitiful to say. they talk about competition. competition produces price-fixing that we have had in other markets. i can see this happening. wrongstion is, what is with a plan like canada's? which is more cheaper and more effective? i also believe that employees would love not to deal with

health care like the other countries. therefore, it would produce more jobs in the united states and companies will come back across the water. >> that is the forest portsmouth, virginia. fox news is tweeting this out. "house gop postpones the meeting to discuss changes in the health care bill because no changes have been made yet." the next call is from michael in gerard, illinois. you are on the washington journal. caller: thank for taking my call. for the caller earlier, about the canadian health care system, it astounds me that we spend so much money without homeland security, and you're talking about $1 trillion worth spending on defense with 17 agencies and nobody knows who they are, and we still can't ensure everybody.

we want to buy drugs from canada and our congressman says we can't because they might not be good and they might be defective or faulty. this is coming from the same companies that american companies are shipping there. it makes no sense. it just seems no one even brings up cost control. i watch cnn every day. you don't see one person bringing up the facts. why don't we step into control the cost of prescription drugs? not one center congressman ever brings it up or asked the hard questions about cracking down on pharmaceutical companies. that is what is driving this cost. congress is only scheduled to work eight days in april for $176,000 a year. what are we doing? they are doing nothing. nothing is getting done. we should expect more. marching onot

washington? we much for everything, black men, immigrants, why are we not in washington demanding health care? host: host: this history from the wall street journal host:, house republicans voted nearly 90 times to repeal parts of president barack obama's 2010 health care law while he was in office. in gig harbor washington. good morning. >> a couple of quick comments on your previous callers. the 26-year-old rule that that lady mentioned, i agree with. cut it down to 21 and you would see a big difference. in regards to canada, canada has 30 million people in their country. we have 300 million more. huge difference when you're trying to cover that disparity with insurance. we should call this for what it is. it is not a health care bill. what they are doing is it is health insurance. it should be called health insurance bill.

three major types of insurance out there, medicare, medicaid and retail insurance. medicare is an entitlement but working.or it through most people, it comes out of their paychecks every week or every month. however you get paid. -- most people, it comes out of their paychecks every week or every month. and with retail insurance, the biggest problem with retail insurance is the government is just too involved and the patient is taken out of the whole process and the insurance company or the doctor, the insurance company is now the customer of the doctor and the doctor's note eight insurance of the customer. there is no facetime anymore with dr. and patient.

the doctor spends more time, has to hire more people to fill out all of the paperwork just because the government wants to get involved. >> you sound like you know quite a bit about this. are you involved in the medical field? >> yes and no. that, -- just learning what i learn reading and what i see on the news, it just comes down to common sense. host: let's get one more call in here before the house comes in. roy in texas, a democrat. caller: good morning, how are you? what i just want to say is i am on medicare. and also, i do have what they lis. the government pays for my prescriptions. my premium has already gone up.

up. this year, it went i got my cost-of-living increase through social security and i already lost it. law, theealth-care replacements, they didn't really think it through. they are doing is they are just trying to fill a campaign promise. host: last call, last voice, john harwood of cnbc is tweeting out that house leaders have delayed the planned conference on the health care act until after the freedom caucus members go to the white house this morning at 11:30. the house is coming into session in just a second. lots is going on. you will see that on all three networks on c-span, c-span2, and c-span3. thanks for being with us. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,