>> production assistance for "inside washington" was provided by allbritton communications and politico, reporting on the legislative, executive, and political arena. >> what a night. thank you, illinois. >> this week on "inside washington," romney wins in illinois and receives a much saw after endorsement from juppe bush. -- jeb bush. >> the astonishment, t money, versus the people. >> they want medicare to wither

on the vine and died. >> if we operate our political fear, nothing is ever going to get done. >> the supreme court hears arguments on the obama health care law. >> it is the number one reason a barack obama should not be returned to office. >> the n comes down hard on bounty hunters. >> i don't know any other fraternity were somebody tries to knock out one of his brothers. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> is mitt romney finally closing the deal? he won a brick or we go on saturday and illinois -- won puerto rico on saturday and illinois. jeb bush clearly not in love

with the guy, but he finally endorsed him. conservative thathe nato m demint said it is pretty clear who the nominee will be. what should of been a terrific week for mitt romney took zero weird turn. when asked how romney would proceed if he won the nomination, communications directorric fehrnstrom said this. >> it is almost like an etch a sketch. you can shake it up and start over again. >> in a recent study, one of the most frequently used t negative words to describe mitt mneys "for proper." when you consider tha -- "flip- flopper." you wonder if, as roger simon does, romney is the date you do

not show for. >> you often find the guy is more interesting than you thought, and other times you look back at the guy, 15 or 20 years later, and think, thank god i did not show up. >> how does this man fire up the faithful, charles? >> he can't. [laughter] he has been trying for six years and has not succeeded. he won't. but the fact is, if and when he becomes the nominee, there is no alternative to it is him and obama. the conservatives, republicans, knowing they have one choice other than obama, will be fired up. not over romney, but the fact he is not obama. >> colby? >> i don't think so. we had truth spoken this week when the guy said romney is lighke an etch a sketch.

core is not there. he will try to move away from extreme positions, and when he does, the right will kill him for it. some republican pros will go along with it, b thease of the party will not let them drift like that. he will have problems in the general alexian if he is the nominee. what is romney going to do in arkansas, louisiana? >> he is a smart man. what does he have to do to generate the enthusiasm, mark? >> he has to win the nomination and be the alternative to barack obama. that is it. he is not going to generate passion, intensity. the problem with the etch a sketch -- quite frankly, eric

fehrnstrom was saying on television what people really do say in private. richard nixon, the most successful republican in the history of the party -- five times nominated for national office, four times he wanted -- says you run right to get the nomination and then-for the middle when you get it. -- then dash for the middle when you get it. romney has changed his business and on abortion, gun rights, and gay-rights. it is amount not unlike john kerry, where he said he voted against the $87 billion before he voted for it, and george bush standing at the checkout counter and looking at the scanner and saying, "my gosh, what is this," confirming the stereotype that he is out of touch and that kerry isn't consta. >> the problem is partly

numerical. i hate to be so data-driven. but what romney as a candidate has going for him is that the republican base loathes obama. but the only way he can win is to turn out that base. not just at that passively a vote or not vote. -- not just have it passively vote or not vote. it could be in states like ohio the critical difference between winning and losing. that is what karl rove found out between 2000 and 2004 treaty as a problem with that pace, and that it cannot figure out what more he can do. >> that was the bush strategy but it is not the romney strategy. romney intrinsic cannot fire it up. he has to rely on the fact, and it is of fact, that no matter how much people are disafcted with the romney, they are driven

by the three years of obama's want to they don't see eight years. what romney's strategy obviously is is to hold the body, which he will come and go for independents in the center. >> a study says that the most recently used positive words to describe romney our "code," and "delectable -- are "good" and "electable." bush,fnow is our time to take a message to the people in the fall." >> he wants this over because the only drugs out -- the longer it drags out, the harder it is for romney. romney cannot hold this conservative base and win independents. he cannot do both. >> sure he can.

>> on immigration, women, something like plned parenthood, you cannotove to the center on those positions. he cannot be both of things. what point do santorum and gingrich decide it is a fool's game? >> gingrich's never going to. this is about him. >> santorum is looking at to victory in louisiana as we do this on friday morning, as well asrkans, ktuck texas, pennsylvania maybe. he has that a slice of the electorate that has been cool to romney. wherever a evangelical voters are dominant, he carries.

>> not catholic voters. >> he lost catholic voters to romney in illinois. he has lost them consistently to romney across the board. you whaid last week that jerry brown was the analogy to santorum today. he chased clinton all the way to the nomination, winning late race is not the nomination. it is possible that santorum, the only reason he would do it, is to reestablish himself as a force in the party. in the end, he is extremely unlikely to win the nomination . still, he has a goal, and he becomes a logical front runner, or at least a strong candidate come in the next cycle. >> does romney have to offer him the no. 2 position?

>> i don't think it is ever going to happen. santorum at this week said that obama would be preferable to romney -- >> i think he is right. [laughter] >> congressman paul ryan has a new budget. >> in order to keep the commit to the current seniors, you need toeforit tthe xt generation. >> they don't believe in medicare and the bank act on their beliefs, the republicans in do. -- and the they act on their beliefs, the republicans to . >> is it reforming it for the next generation or allowing it to wither on the vine? >> it is a political document. he changed his proposal from last year, the one that newt gingrich labeled the right-wing social engineering at the time. he perrmed an enormous political disservice to mitt

romney. at a two-to-one margin, orders believe that -- voters believe that mitt romney does not understand the needs of the voters like themselves, they believe obama does. they believe, 65%, that romney tilts to the rich. he gives a tax break of $150,000 a year to the average millionaire. just your average street rner millionaire. this puts them in a terrible position at a time when the party is tilting to the rich. this reinforces the perception and gives the democrats an opening. >> charles? >> i have a slightly different interpretation. it is the most -- in fact, the only realistic budget offered by either party. obama offered nothing.

last year he offered a budget that the senate, controlled by --oats, rejected 970, but rejected 97-0. this is serious, and it does it with the tax reform, as reagan ended with a tip o'neill, the most successful legislation of the last quarter-century, and what obama's own a debt reduction commission recommended an obama rejected. it lowers rates but eliminates loopholes. those loopholes, cent of- $7 out of every $10, go to the top quintile of income. you are changing the way the irs is collecting taxes and doing it in a rational way. >> it is the budget on paper. it is not happen in reality.

taking away loopholes in theory, but it is not going to work out that way. no cuts to defense, cuts to every program for the poor and disabled and lower middle classes, and structural things for the country. i don't think that is something people really want. >> people was taken a serious look at the budget have said the same thing. you cannot have only tax cuts, but you also need revenue enhancement. ryan's budget does not touch revenue at all. he is true to his principles. it is not a disservice to romney. this is at romney wants, o. relying heavily on cutting discretionary spending, falling hard on the poor. increasing military defense spending. >> with all due respect, that is

completely wrong. when you say there are no revenue and handsr -- revenue enhancers, the liberals think that if you cut rates you cut taxes. it is completely revenue neutral. the marginal rates are cut. threvenue enhancers are the elimination of deductions, local -- loopholes, and corruption in the budget. you end up as you did in 1986, with the irs not losing a penny but rational lower marginal rates. >> and on the question of what those loopholes should be to be closed, he leaves it up to somebody else. >> the house ways and means committee, whose jurisdiction is a good idea is not his jurisdictio - whose jurisdiction it is. it is not his jurisdiction. >> we extend the bush tax cuts

in perpetuity under paul ryan. the reality is that there are no spell out elimination's of tax expenditures. are you going to do it home mortgage, charitable deductions, state and local taxes? that is where the money is. something onimpson-bowles that chars refenced- it had as its guiding principle that it would not increase poverty. >> talk about absence of the spine -- your guys have not introduced a budget on anything, anything on social security, anything on tax reform. that is the definition of an absence of the spine. blocks from here, $4.39 on gasoline. the president is feeling the pipeline and blues. he went out to oklahoma and announced he is fast tracking a

portion of the keystone pipeline that will run to the gulf coast. unfortunately, colby, the oil is up north. >> yes, it is, it is in canada. .et's be clear there is nothing the country can do to lower the price of gas. >> do voters know? >> apparently not. >> as bob dole used to say, you know what, i know it, the american people you know it. you have china as a consumer, disruption anin the middle east. the president is in the hot seat. on the pipeline question, he is getting clobbered. not much to be had. >> i keep hearing how much oil

consumption has gone down and how e drilling has increased, drilling everywhere. >> gas prices are not rational -- >> neither our politicians. >> neither aree -- >> he got hemmed in by republicans on the keystone pipeline. i thought he made it clear that he would approve it, and the administration thought they had a deal with officials in nebraska that fell apart -- >> clean drinking water, good water for irrigation purposes -- you cannot fault him for that. that is bipartisan. >> the aquifer they are worried about is crossed by 25,000 miles

of pipeline, enough to go out and the world. the water you are drinking is nice and cle. obamwas t hemmein by republicans on keystone. he made a unilateral decision last year after the longest study conducted on any pipeline in american history, that the state department at connected and concluded was going to be without any danger, he decided he would veto it purely to appease his left. now he is trying to make a ridiculous compromise, or he does the pipeline from oklahoma down, but there is no canadian oil. it i le liedin announcing -- translin -- lincoln announcing the transcontinental route but only leaving at halftime. -- leaving the afghan. -- leaving it half done.

>> what is good for oklahoma is good for america. we're talking about two states that are deeply red, nebraska and oklahoma, but the politics go beyond that. i was confusedy the mesge of the white house this week. what the message was about the pipeline i missed. gasoline, quite frankly -- i heard republicans say the best and it cannot do anything until summer 2008, and now here -- now i hear the democrats say they cannot do anything in 2012. >> on the message, i was against the pipeline until i was in favor of that. aughter] >> mr. obama's health-care law before the supreme court next week. >> if that the supreme court

finds it unconstitutional, barack obama will not be reelected. they will have to vote him out of office to repeal it. column, he says that if it is upheld, in what what change the nature of the social contract. you will be out there, nina. what will they do? >> [ught] i do not make predictions. most scholars of books stripes say it will be closed but they will uphold it. my husband is a doctor and an administrator, and i talked to a lot of folks in this field all the time. the social contract in terms of medical care is going to change no matter what. it is very different today from what it was 20 years ago, 30 years agocertnly yrs o.

>> mitt romney, in an op-ed in "they's "usa today," says program is a disaster for the economy and a dramatic federal intrusion into our livestock as -- in our lives." >> romney would no, having done the same thing in massachusetts. lost in this whole discussion is theact that lge numbers of uninsured arica will be covered for the first time under this bill. we're extending health care to people who have never had it. it is a social objective for the united states. >> charles does not agree. >> the way changes the social contract is that if you interpret the commerce clause to allow the government to force an individual to enter into a private contract with a private company, the essence of the

individual mandate -- if you say it is constitutional under the commerce clause, there are no limits whatsoever as to the power of congress. the powers are enumerated and circumscribed and everything outside of it is the right and freedom of the individual. you do this and you give unlimited reached to congress means congress is almighty and the individual can scratch out an area here and there in the spirit of autonomy. the is fundamental chae in how the system works. >> echoes of the new deal and the supreme court of the 1930's, the fear of an omnipotent congress. that is an and expressed concern on the part of most americans -- a congress powerful and assertive. i yearn nostalgically --

>> they cannot even do a highway bill passed by 3/4 the senate. >> they cannoto anything b trillion a yearen in doing that nothing . >> the bounty hunters have no part in our game. >> that is the head coach of the new york jets, who just acquired it tim tebow. broadway joe says it is of publicity stunt, but i digress. [laughter] ad cch hn pton has been suspended without pay. former defensive coordinator greg williams suspended indefinitely.

injuries for paid bounties. >> i was really upset with dan snyder. he did not make it greg wilams the head coach, and greg williams left. now am pting dents i -- patting dan snyder on the back. i am glad that gregg williams is out of the game, at least for the near future. >> senator byrd and -- planning to -- senator turban is planning a hearing -- >> the reason i do not like watching football is it is so brutal. there is no way people are going to survive these injuries. the nfl has a medical tea evaluating iurie >> these are incentives -- >> i know that, but when you watch a game, you can see --

>> my friends who played college football say it look, i guess a tough game. that is the nature of the dam. -- the game. >> i have to agree with nina that this is like the piano player in the cast house. -- cathouse. we did not know what was going on upstairs. [lghter] is there something we can praise it dan snyder for? this is it. >> i am not going there. >> i would like to know, the devoutly religious tim tebow -- is there a devoutly secularist quarterback? >> i finally found something on which my liberal colleagues are correct. they stumbled int the truth. this is about laers and lauits.

the nfl is looking at billions of dollars of lawsuits for concussions in the past and this is a way to be shock gambling going on. football is a gladiatorial sport, the most since christians and a lions in the coliseum, except they are wearing helmets. the idea that upcounty makes it worse is a fig leaf. >> we will have a word from the pio player next week. see you next week.