our panelists for me. [applause] tomorrow on c-span, jeff sessions will testify before the senate judiciary committee. by that 10:00 a.m. eastern. tonight, president trump outlining his position on rewriting the tax code, hosted by the heritage foundation and washington, d.c. live at 7:30 eastern. live.n stream in half an hour, live coverage of president trump's news conference with the prime minister of greece. it is scheduled to start at 1:30 eastern. you'll take a look at some of today's "washington journal." s> betsy mccaughey is new york' former lieutenant governor. she is the author of the 2010 book.

on friday, she penned a column for the new york post. betsy mccaughey, what is health care freedom? guest: according to my column, i was explaining the purpose of last thursday's executive order byte president trump. the executive order, you can call it free at last, free at last, it enables millions of people who currently do not have insurance to buy much more affordable insurance. they are sent between a rock and a hard place. they do not get their insurance at work like most americans do. they cannot afford the hefty obama care premiums. last thursday, the executive orders that you have the freedom array ofwider policies, including the policies offering fewer benefits and lower cost. is opening the way for

millions of people who are currently paying a penalty for not having obamacare compliant insurance or have gotten hardship exemptions between the two of those, 90 million peoples. many will be able to buy the short-term policies that cost about less than half of what obamacare's cheapest bronze plan costs. host: what will it cost federal government? guest: the changes on friday are different from the changes last thursday. let's distinguish. change offered americans the freedom to buy a wide a range of health plans and allowed insurers to offer those plans. wasay's announcement different. it addressed a constitutional issue. whether the president alone can continue to fund what are called cash subsidies for obama care

plans in an absence of an appropriation from congress. host: what happens moving forward with thursday and friday? is it something congress can turn into law? should they turn it into law? is it something the president can continue to do on his own? s authoritypresident' is limited by this document -- the u.s. prosecution. he can change regulations. he cannot change the law, including affordable care act. act, whichible care -- the affordable care act, isch i have on my lap, pages. thursday's executive orders -- the obama admission should put into place in 2014. what happened is this -- the obamacare exchanges opened in 2013. quite a few people did not want

to pay for the cost of the obamacare plan. up.cost has gone the premiums have doubled since the end of 2013. they are expected to rise another 25 to 35%. there are quite a few people, 8out 19 million people, who million are incurring a tax penalty for not signing up for obamacare compliant insurance. another million have card ships exemptions. these are people who do not get insurance at work the way 155 million people do. they look at the premiums and said, i cannot get a subsidy. i am not eligible. i cannot pay these high premiums. thursday's announcement was a regulation. it was rolling out and obama air of regulation -- obama-era

regulation. the obama administration some people not signing up. they wanted the short term plans offering fewer benefits. if you are too old to have children, you do not have to sign up for maternity care. if you do not have juvenile, children,have forget signing up for pediatric plans. they are bare-bones plans. they are much more affordable. they are attracted to young people who are starting out and have car payments or mortgage payments. plead thee started to obamacare exchanges, the obama administration slammed the door on the exit ramp. saying, no, we will not let you that the cheaper plans. we insist you by the obamacare compliance plans. president trump on thursday rolled back the obama era

regulation. you can have the choices, the more affordable choices. that was what there's a was about. host: 20 of criticism from democrats on -- plenty of criticism from democrats. senator chris murphy of connecticut is a member of the health education, labor come and pensions committee. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> he is setting the entire health care system on fire because the president's upset the united states congress will not pass a repeal bill supported by 70% of the american public. these subsidies help very low income people afford insurance. without the subsidies, there will be many people who will not be able to provide insurance and afforded. -- and afford it. the other set of subsidies will increase. the deficit goes up.

the amount of money we spend overall on the horrible care act goes up. what happens -- of the affordable care act goes up. the president is trying to sabotage the american health care system, trying to put a gun to the head of our constituents by taking away their health care or raising their cost to force us to repeal a bill the american public does not want us to repeal. host: sabotaging the american -- guest: i am so glad you played that clip. i am eager to address it. what chris murphy is saying this qualifies him from running for rom president. he is talked about as a likely presidential candidate. he is arguing president trump continues to spend money that congress i has not appropriated.

it is a violation of the document. every senator dixon both to uphold this document. and president both uphold this document. it is for subsidies of the premiums themselves. they are in place because congress appropriated the $44 billion, giving the president the authority to spend it. when you sign up for obamacare in november or december, you will find your eligible for a subsidy and you will get it. there was a second kind of subsidy about a billion dollars a year intended to help low income people with their out-of-pocket expenses. their deductibles and co-pays. congress is not appropriating the money for the subsidies. court judge ruled the

president is not supposed to be spending that money. president obama illegally spent that money. he was told congress had in appropriated -- had not approved -- had appropriated the money. the obamacare system is a faltering system. president trump continued the payments for over six months, hoping congress would act. they did not. he said, at some point, i have to do what the constitution says -- spend money congress has appropriated. the ball is in congress' court. for chris murphy to say this action by the president is health care arson is preposterous. no president should be spending that money until congress appropriates it. host: betsy mccaughey with us

until nine :00 this morning. she is the author of the 2010 book.the obamacare taking your calls as we talk about the future of health care, especially in the wake of the present's actions -- the president's actions last week. we should say the lines. --democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. joanne in illinois, the line for democrats. go ahead. caller: i want to let the viewers know what this lady is saying is untrue. for seven years, the republicans starved president obama's health care plan because they did not

want to help the american people who need health care. what they did was decided not to fund it. the parts of obamacare that really need help, they would not work with the democrats to try to change it. they do not want the american people to have good health care. for the republicans to continuously say, obamacare is falling on its own weight. it is collapsing. it is debt. those are all lies. host: betsy mccaughey? guest: thank you for your call. ity point out two things -- is true republicans controlled both houses of congress. they were elected to the offices. it is up to congress to appropriate the money for the obama health care law. whenever congress decides not to appropriate the money, the

president does not have the authority to spend the money. that is what the issue we covered before. has beenis obamacare funded each year. most of the funding contained in the original act. arecost-sharing subsidy we discussing this morning and the one that chris murphy understood were not funded. it is the root issue -- real issue. host: from oregon, douglas is a republican. caller: good morning. i want you to know, you are a hero to many of us for your continuos -- your continuous fight to bring the truth of what is going on. in my opinion, president trump is all we have got standing between us and single-payer. i have two questions -- after the original obamacare

myislation was passed, it is understanding there have been thousands of more pages written by health and human services -- or whoever is doing it -- to have never gone through congress and is government regulation on top of government regulation. second -- who is really being hurt by obamacare? we hear about the 6 million people or however many it is that may be affected by this change. who is being hurt? who is being crushed? my opinion is the middle class. it has been devastated. guest: oh yes. thank you for both of the questions. the first question is simple to answer. as i pointed out before, there are pages in this law. 40,000 pages of regulations have been written by the secretary of

human services. host: it would be harder to have it in your lap this morning? guest: that is right. problem in our entire government. there is so much of the rulemaking delegated from congress to unelected bureaucrats. americans feel as if they do not have a representative government. that is a big problem in our system. too much rulemaking by unelected bureaucrats. the second issue -- this is an important one. yes, the uninsured in the country are the middle class. you will see, the next year, several million newly uninsured people. because of the soaring cost of obamacare. we have 155 very people who get their coverage on their jobs.

we have 74 million people covered by medicaid, which has been expanded under this law. it is a social safety net for low income people. 55 million people who are 65 and older and are covered by medicare. unfortunately, in the individual market, which is 20 million people, many of them cannot afford the premiums. million million, 13 people are ineligible for government subsidies -. as premiums rise, they are throwing up their hands and saying, we cannot pay anymore. it is like paying a mortgage. of our budget. we are seeing we are paying bigger and figure premiums. because -- bigger and bigger premiums. because of the high deductibles, we are not getting anything back. dear still painful price for the

doctors. drop out,f people incurring a penalty, but saying we cannot afford these plans anymore. it is one of the issues president talked about addressing last thursday in his executive order. he was reaching out to those people who do not get a government subsidy, connecticut coverage at work, the forgotten middle class. they work for small businesses. they need help. host: our viewers have been seeing a special line on their screen for those who get their insurance through the affordable care act. it is(202) 748-8003. we are talking with the former lieutenant governor of new york. betsy mccaughey will be with us for the next 15 to 20 minutes. we will have this conversation -- a question for you -- do you think those with pre-existing conditions should pay more for their insurance or pay the same as everyone else? guest: this is a very important

question. i believe people with pre-existing conditions should get help, so they have the same access to insurance and are not out of pocket for the additional cost. here's the difference between the republicans and democrats -- there is a consensus, in both parties, people with pre-existing conditions need help. under the obamacare system, the for thosering with pre-existing conditions is imposed entirely on those unfortunate enough to be in the individual insurance market. it is tiny, less than 20 million people overall. under the obamacare system, everyone is asked to pay the same premium. paying the high premiums have a high deductible.

they never get any of their money back. their whole premium goes to care for the very sick. people with pre-existing conditions used 10 times as much health care as a healthy person those. on does.o instead of imposing the entire let's have everyone in the nation chip in. we are a country with over 23 million people. let these general tax revenues -- let's use general tax revenues -- with those with pre-existing conditions. we used to do it state-by-state with high resolution systems. some people fell through the crack's. -- the cracks. the obama administration had a temporary pull that did this.

the repeal and replace bills due it. -- bills do it. it is an unfair tax on the small number of people who have to pay for their own insurance as they do not get it at work. it is unfair. host: the president's executive order from thursday shrinks the individual market. it gets more people out. does it create a larger burden? guest: will not happen. -- it will not happen. i have heard that accusation, people will drop out of obamacare by these newly acceptable affordable plans. that is not what is going to happen. onis a percent of the people the exchange get a subsidy. they will not leave their subsidized plans, something the

government is paying most of the cost, to go to a system where they had to pay it all themselves. the president's is a give order was not designed to lower people out of the obama exchanges. it was designed to help people who are in obamacare exchanges as they cannot afford it. they are not eligible for a subsidy. people will sign up for the short term, flexible plans. there are people who are uninsured. it will reduce the number of uninsured people in the country. it is a goal republicans and democrats share. host: barbara is weak on our line for independence in florida -- is waiting on our line for independents in florida. barbara? chris is on the line for those who get their insurance from the formal care act. -- from the affordable care act. caller: my husband and i are on

aca. people think it is affordable, but our premiums are $1300 a month combined. our deductibles are $4500 a year each. our out-of-pocket is about $26,000 a year. but id it -- we pay it, do not consider it affordable. guest: i do not either. it is not affordable. att is why i explained -- least two or 3 million people are going to drop out this year. we will see an increase in the uninsured. of uninsuredlass afford it.s cannot that is why president trump made his executive order. let me explain the principle behind this. it used to be, insurance is regulated state-by-state.

many states gave consumers a lot of flexibility about what kind of insurance they want you to buy, if any. the obama and ministration pass this law, which says everyone must have the one-size-fits-all -- the obama administration passed this law, which says everyone must have the one-size-fits-all. people buy what they want. let them buy more affordable coverage if that is what they can afford. let subsidize people with on-existing conditions general revenues instead of imposing the entire burden on you, the healthy consumer who happens to be on the individual market. you see premiums come down when it happens. host: is the affordable care act marketplace in a spiral? guest: yes.

for the reason you just heard, our caller explain. fewer and fewer people deem this affordable insurance. aree with healthy lives going to start to leave the affordable care act. the enrollment is far below what the congressional budget office predicted it would be. leaving behind only those who are too sick to be a out of obamacare. it will increase the cost per subscriber. ultimately, the cost to consumers who are still enrolling in the system. it is the definition of a death sprial. host: on the line for independence, good morning. caller: i think reduction and regulation is needed. i am wondering when the

conversation about the cost of health care is going to take place. responsiblyblame or for payments on -- response ability for payments or -- or responsibility for payments -- it is moving the water around in the balloon. when is the conversation? guest: health are here -- health care consumes a big part of our economy. essential -- it is expensive. hand, health care is more expensive in the united states than most countries. on the other hand, we are the source of a large percentage of medical innovation. for example -- a list of the nobel prize winners in medicine

and physiology. since the end of world war ii, the united states has won more noble prizes in medicine and physiology than the rest of the world combined. it is important if you have someone in your family who has what is considered as an incurable illness. this is the nation of hope. we do not want to impede the continuous innovation. on the hand, we do not want to make sure -- we want to make sure people with illnesses get care. if you look at the cancer survival rate, they are far higher in the united states than most parts of the world. a woman diagnosed with breast cancer here has a 90% chance of surviving. in europe, her chances are less than 80%. she is twice as likely to die. a man diagnosed with prostate cancer -- in this country, it is not a death sentence. in europe, one out of four men

dies from it. we want to make sure as we attempt to control cost, we innovate and create diseases like cancer rapidly and aggressively. host: a lot of calls in a little bit of time. chris, new york, mine for democrats. -- line for democrats. caller: yes comments get one thing straight. yes,ealth care plan -- let's get one thing straight. the health care plan was put up by the health care -- by the heritage corporation. it was a republican plan to begin with. by the way, what are you referring it as obamacare? president trump said it is dead. care.start calling it trump

[laughter] guest: the fewer labels we use, the better. i will for -- i will refer to it as the affordable care act. the point is not who originated it. the point is -- if it is not working, let's make sure we deliver affordable health coverage to those unfortunate not get it at work. once people have coverage, they can go to the doctor and get the care they need. you look at these insurance plans. the deductibles are so high, who for overmebody the money are hesitating to go to the doctor -- who forked over the money are hesitating to go to the doctor. host: shelley, good morning. caller: good morning. i am a senior citizen who has

benefited by the affordable care act. i do not qualify for medicaid because my income is too high. what is going to happen to people like me who have been kept healthy all along and i am afraid they are going to make america sick again. where do i stand on this? guest: as i understand it, he said you are a senior. are a senior. you are you 65 and older? host: the caller hung up. that is my understanding as well. guest: medicare is the program for seniors. i would like to make sure medicare is protected. i am alarmed when i hear bernie sanders call for medicare for all. the fact is -- when seniors have to compete with younger people for health care, they are always

pushed to the back of the line. you see it in the british national health service. ockers. are called bl they are facing a huge debt crisis right now. it is limiting access to give replacements and knee replacements. summary people in your region -- some people in your region who have had a hip replacement, you have to wait. people are waiting weeks for care considered not elective, but urgently needed. protectedrned we medicare. it is not to make it medicare for all, but it is for seniors. it should be kept for seniors. host: republicans.ne for caller: might concern is lack of concernncern is lack of

of -- user is a lack of pricing. concern is a lack of pricing. you get sent to a specialist and working your means and budget. if you check out out of a motel, when they give you an itemized statement on your bill, i do not understand why the hospital cannot do the same thing. before you leave the hospital, so you can dispute any disagreement you have. that is what my concern is. guest: this is a smart caller. [laughter] guest: you are really smart. those are terrific suggestions. frankly, when congress does get around to help reform, they should encourage people and enable to shop around and make decisions based on cost.

it is not true under the obama health system. people who sign up for obamacare are stuck in networks. maybe only one or two hospitals they can use in their home region. they do not have the liberty to shop around and get the best prices. if we get consumers more power, we could draw down prices. you're absolutely right. host: why do you think just been taken happened in its own bill? why cant congress move it separately? why has it not happen yet? caller: taken happened with in -- -- guest: it can happen with in the confines of the company. , the insurers create very narrow networks in order to keep the prices lower than they otherwise would be. they are still high. lower than they otherwise would be. if you sign upt

in los angeles for an obamacare plan you will find you aren't limited to one or two hospitals. you can go to some of the other stages academic medical centers in los angeles. go have to drive by them and to the one hospital designated by that plan. of thebs consumers choices and ability to get the best price. we talked about the presidents host: were you critical under whenbama administration obama used executive orders to make things happen that he couldn't move through legislatively through congress? guest: i was critical in the ,resident, when president obama used executive orders that violated the constitution. executive orders are not meant to steal away congress'authority under article one of the

constitution. they are meant to supplement the law using the powers given under the constitution to the president. the powers to issue regulations, to implement the law, but not the powers to change the law. if you go back and look at the executive orders that president obama issued pertaining to the affordable care act, they changed the letter of the law. the effective date when parts of the law went into effect. they changed the enrollment periods. they changed many of the provisions regarding what would be in an insurance plan. that was against the law. that is what i objected to. even when his intentions were good, and i don't question him, his intentions were good but he was ignoring our system of government where the congress makes the law and that president implements the law. host: the former government of

new york, her book on the obama health care law is, the obama health law and how to overturn its sequel. always appreciate your time on the washington journal. guest: thank you. >> live at the white house rose garden, president trump posting a joint news conference with the prime minister of greece, alexis tsipras. a working lunch to discuss bilateral and regional issues including defense cooperation and economic convention. this is president trump's 17th joint press conference. you're watching live coverage on c-span. the two leaders are expected to appear in the rose garden shortly.

>> live in the rose garden of the white house, president trump will be hosting a joint news conference with the prime minister of greece, alexis tsipras. they held a working lunch economics,discuss defense and the strong ties between the countries. 17this president trump's joint is conference with a foreign leader. well we wait for the leaders to arrive here in the rose garden we take a look at our discussion from today's washington journal. toure 50 capitals continues with the c-span bus spending the day in jefferson city. we are pleased to have secretary usstate, j ashcroft, joining on the bus, talking about voting security in his state. secretary ashcroft, what does a secretary of state do? guest: let me thank you for

having me on. in missouri, the secretary of state's office has many duties. business administrations, licenses, you cc filings, they all go through that office. security regulation, state --hives, the keep of though the keep of the historical documents go through that office. probably the thing that most people are interested in these days are i and the chief election authority of the state so i work with the local election authorities, the county clerks and the board of elections, the 116 of them across the state to make sure that elections are run smoothly and that we have partisan candidates and nonpartisan administration of elections. host: what kind of voting is used in missouri? every election authority gets to decide which of voting system they use.

we have a base criteria that any system must meet and they must be approved by our office to use. we have several different types of voting systems across the state. wheree some localities virtually everyone uses a paper ballot instead of -- except for individuals who need more equipment. then we have others where it is virtually all electronic and we have a numerous, a number of different manufacturers of those machines in the state. spread very distributed, out, almost a chaotic system if you will, if you are trying to inappropriately effect the changes in it. host: what are your major concerns if any about voting security? guest: obviously we are always when peoplene, that go to vote they can be sure if they are a legally registered voter in missouri, they will be able to vote. , it their vote will count

byl not be disenfranchised bad actors who are trying to hack the system and change the some sort of registration fraud to allow people to vote that shouldn't vote. is something we take seriously every day. the computer systems are separate from the rest of the states computer systems and our election systems are separate from those. we have pretty much every type of security you can think about from firewalls to intrusion detection systems, from regular auditing of systems and off-site distributed backups, we encrypt our data at rest and in motion. 116re dealing with different election officials across the state that have the equipment that you vote on in their possession. that it is not actually connected to the internet. host: missouri just came up with

a new voter id law, didn't they? yes we did. as of june 1, the missouri law was changed with regard to what id you can show to get your ballot. we are quite proud of that. before the law went into effect we had registered voters, they went to the polling place, showed up on the right day, went to vote and they were turned away because they didn't necessarily have the id that was required. we have moved to requesting that people use a government issued id but we have increased the safeguards to make sure that we can say with finality and total honesty that if you are a registered voter in the state, you can vote on election day. thatd 60 elections under law and we have had more than a handful of individuals that would not have been allowed to vote under the law but because of changes in the law to make sure we knew who was voting, those people were able to vote anyway. we admit it more safe to protect

against fraud but we have expanded access to make sure that every registered voter can vote. host: secretary state of missouri, jay ashcroft is our guest this morning. we are in jefferson city which sits along the missouri river in the middle of the state of missouri. if you want to participate in our conversation this morning. if you live in missouri and want to talk to your secretary of state, (202)-748-8001. the name and face might look familiar to you. he is the son of former missouri senator john ashcroft. , you did notcroft come into the family business in a typical manner did you? >> probably not. i grew up in politics and decided i wanted nothing to do with it. i went into engineering. , have a couple of degrees

practiced in the defense industry, was a professor of mechanical engineering for six years. i went over to the dark side. law school and became an attorney. a couple years ago i looked at who was running and said, we can do better. i jumped into the race and it was by the grace of the people of the state, they have allowed me the privilege of serving as their secretary of state and it is a wonderful privilege and i cannot thank them enough. host: what does it cost the state to put on an election? the national election in 2016? guest: the best numbers would be going back to the preference primary in 2016. the presidential preference primary that the state paid for in missouri, you're looking at $7.5 million that was paid for that election. we have been looking at the cost of that election, we believe we could probably drop that cost for the state by $1 million in the future and we will continue

to work on that. the presidential preference in 2016 was $7.5 million roughly. host: why did you decide to participate with the presidential voting integrity commission? the majority of states did not send their information. guest: i think what you're seeing is the majority of states are undergoing the process of sending information to that commission. for me it was a very easy answer under missouri statute, i am required to. we have what we refer to as a sunshine act. would think it analogous to the federal open records or the freedom of information act. under that law, any individual that requests voter registration data, it is limited as to what we give, names, date of birth, where they live, which elections they have gotten a ballot in. things like that. we do not about social security numbers or party affiliation.

we don't know that information. we can't give that out even if we were required to. to collect that under state law and to give that .ut to anyone that asks for it we are required to collect that under state law. if they use it for commercial purposes we turn it over to the attorney general to go after them. this is the exact same information that we have been giving out for years to newspapers, other news oranizations, citizen, resident that requests it as long as they pay the $35 fee. for me it was, i will follow the law. i swore an oath to the people of the state that i would be chewed to the constitution of the united states and of the state of missouri and it was very easy for me. host: let's hear from some of our viewers. neil from missouri. caller: hey, how are you?

guest: doing well. good to hear from you. caller: you just touched on a subject. you're not going to tell me it is a law for the state of missouri to give our information to the fed, number one. didn't bring this before the voters when it has been in front of the voters since 1970, every time that issue comes up, the republicans i would really like to understand why you are tracking the working people in this state down the tubes and making the right to work like the other southern states. it has worked out for them. we got the point. secretary ashcroft? guest: