good evening. the republican witch-hunt is unraveling fast and democrats are coming in furious. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> they're going after eric holder because he's overturning voter oppression initiatives. >> democrats have their eye on the ball while republicans continue their attack on the attorney general and the president. >> they made a crisis, and they're using this crisis to somehow take away or limit people's second amendment rights. >> tonight congressman jerry conley and peter welch with the latest on the political witch-hunt and the crazy conspiracy theory fueling it. >> i'm going to address immigration in a civil and resolute manner. >> mitt romney fails to lead on immigration yet again. we'll have the latest.

and today there is proof positive why republicans want to kill obama care. health insurers are forced to refund a billion dollars to consumers. alan greyson is here with reaction. >> thanks for watching. republicans drag their radical witch-hunt from the margins into the mainstreams today. democrats expose it for what it really is. the contempt charge against eric holder helps to achieve three possible goals for the republicans. damage the president, fire up the right wing base, and as democratic house leader nancy pelosi pointed out, take out eric holder. >> it is no accident, it is no coincident that the attorney general of the united states is the person responsible for making sure that voter suppression does not happen in our country, that issues that relate to the civil liberties of the american people are upheld. these very same people are holding him in contempt are part of a nationwide scheme to

suppress the vote. >> indeed republicans are jumping at the chance to get rid of eric holder. senator marco rubio from florida where voter suppression is running rampant. rubio was asked by reporters today if he thinks the attorney general should resign. he said, yes, i do. we've now reached the point of no return on this issue. but getting holder out of the way is only the first goal. the investigation is perfect for riling up the hard core conservative base. john mica explained the case it to the fox news faithful. >> this administration is a gun control administration. they tried to put the violence in mexico on the blame of the united states so they concocted this scheme and actually sending our federal agents sending guns down there and trying to cook

some little deal to say that we've got to get more guns under control. that's how it started. >> we need to bring back psycho talk on "the ed show." that's outrageous. john's explanation probably didn't make sense if you're a normal person. he said the obama administration created a scheme to send guns to mexico in order to create more gun control in the united states. at least three other members of the house committee have also gone on the record with this ridiculous theory. it sounds insane, but it's actually very calculated. the national rifle association has pushed this conspiracy theory for over a year. the nra says they're conspireing to take away the guns. this helps the firearm industry. since 2008 the impact of gun sales on the economy has gone up 66%.

republicans are also firing up the head-shaking crowd by saying president obama has abused his power. how do they know? take a look at just a sample of the reaction from right wing blogged after the president invoked executive privilege over documents in the investigation. they compare the president to richard nixon and say he's directly involved in a cover-up. i don't remember republicans acting this way when executive privilege was invoked by george w. bush to protect karl rove from the senate judiciary committee? the right wing didn't seem to care when executive privilege concealed dick cheney's meeting with energy executives in the summer of 2001. on top of all the false outrage, republicans use the holder investigation to directly impact the president's re-election chances, and they like that. the transportation bill expires on june 30th. there's no sign of any action there. the program to keep student loan rates down expires on july 1st.

no action there. automatic spending cuts kick in january 1st. if no deal is reached on the debt ceiling. again, no action by republicans in the house on that one. white house spokesman jay carney called out republicans for what he called a political fishing expedition. >> this many months into it, this many months where house republican leaders have been focused on this rather than helping the economy grow or helping it create jobs, is that there is no evidence of anything beyond what the attorney general has said about this matter. >> at the center of everything is the man in charge of these hearings, committee chairman congressman darrell issa, refuses to call key players involved in the gun-running investigation. issa went on the rush limbaugh show and said that president obama was the most corrupt president in history. issa has no respect for the president of the united states, and he proved it last night on fox news.

watch what happened when issa got a phone call in the middle of this interview. >> so you weren't even necessarily getting the pages that you wanted -- that may be the attorney general -- >> if it's barack i'll say we're not available. >> maybe the attorney general is go to answer your subpoena. >> if it's barack i'll tell him we're not available. he wants holder to be held in contempt, but the contempt is against the president of the united states. get your cell phones out. tonight's question, will the fast and furious witch-hunt backfire on republicans. text a for yes and b for no. you can go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll have relates later on in the show. i'm joined by two members of the committee that is dealing with all of this. i'm joined by congressman peter welch of vermont and congressman conley of virginia. congressman welch, i'll ask you first.

why can't the democrats call witnesses to these hearings? i mean, obviously t-there are key people that need to be heard from, yet the republicans are hell bent for election to hold this vote for contempt in the full house coming up next week. why can't you get people in front of the committee? >> well, ed, you're asking the question we asked chairman issa, and he said he's not going to permit it. he has the authority as chair to prohibit us from doing it. it's very relevant. congressman mika says this is a gun deal by a gun controlled administration. this fast and furious started in the bush administration. this had been going on for years. this is something that was inherited during the obama administration. there's no evidence that the top of the justice department knew about it under obama. there's no evidence whatsoever that president obama knew about it. one of the questions we were asking mr. issa is, look, if you want to get to the bottom of

this and this is about doing oversight, why don't we start at the beginning. the beginning was in the bush administration. it was the attorney general mukasey. and he says that's not relevant. that's a -- that's an interesting construction at getting to the bottom of something when you start after it's over and focus your attention on the administration that ended. >> it would seem to me that darrell issa would feel compelled by his responsibility as chairman of this committee to go right to the heart of the issue and get the head of the alcohol, tobacco and firearms right from its inception and find out if these weapons were traced, because there's conflicting information on that. congressman conley, when is this conspiracy gun control theory that's out there of some of your colleagues they're spinning? what do you say to them? >> it is a big lie technique, ed. in fact, it's interesting. the vote next week scheduled by speaker boehner on the contempt

citation on the floor of the house, nra has decided they're going to score that vote. isn't that coincidental? the one thing they don't want to talk about is the role of illegal guns and the violence in the southern part of our border and mexico. i met with the attorney general in mexico. the number one thing he said we could do that would make an appreciable difference in violence in his country was to reinstate the assault weapons ban. we haven't had a single hearing as part of this investigation on the role of guns and on the enforcement of gun laws on the books right now. >> congressman welch, do we know if the republicans' key argument is even true? were any of these guns ever traceable? i want to get you on the record on this. from what you know, were any of these guns ever traceable? >> they were traceable. this is a botched operation. there's no question about it. >> they were not?

>> as i mentioned, it was a botched operation. some of them were traced, and, in fact, a couple of guns that were allowed to walk as we call it was in the vicinity of where agent terry was killed. this is a serious issue as far as a mismanagement, but again, it's morphed into this political agenda that is obviously quite disturbing. let me give you a really good example. the subpoena that the committee had issued to the attorney general as of last friday was asking, directing him to turn over information that would have been a violation of law for him to turn over. grand jury transcripts, the rules of criminal procedure explicitly prohibited, transcripts of wiretap applications, the united states code, especially prohibits it. darrell issa in the committee was demanding that the attorney general commit a violation of his oath, violate the law in his refusal to do that they call him

an obstructionist. that's a stretch. some people may ask whether it's political. >> ed, can i add one thing here to what peter just said? you asked about guns. we're talking about roughly 2,000 guns in these special programs that went awry as peter says. what it masks is tens and tens and tens of thousands of illegal weapons purchases crossing that southern border into mexico every year killing hundreds of innocent people and fueling the drug cartel's war against itself. that doesn't get talked about because darrell issa and his friends at nra don't want us talking about that. they would rather pretend eric holder is the problem. >> there seems to be a concern from darrell issa about a february 4th letter. the attorney general says that,

you know, he thought that this program was not taking place, yet, it was still going on. i have to ask both of you, do you believe the attorney general? >> well, i do. i mean, what happened there is when the request was made, the legislative affairs operation of the attorney general's office asked for information from of all places the phoenix atf office. they assured the legislative affairs folks that, no, we weren't doing this. that turned pd out to be wrong. when the attorney general learned that it was wrong, he wrote a letter correcting it. so there clearly was some misinformation by the phoenix office where all of this started. this is a problem, and all of us on the committee are willing to get to the bottom of it. it's not a conspiracy thing asking the attorney general to

turn over illegal information. you can't do that. >> congressman connolly we have a constitutional crisis on our hands to ignore an executive order by the president. how much of trying to defeat president obama is in all of this? >> that's entirely what the agenda is here. it's a kangaroo court. we decided someone's guilt before we heard the testimony. we've doctored testimony, and we had an atf agent who talked to our committee in public hearing, their witness, the republican's witness that said, you know, the enforcement mechanisms and gun control laws are too loose. we need tighter laws and more effective law. he was krens sored by darrell issa for going beyond the scope of the hearing. they don't want to talk about those things. >> congressman welch, do you agree with congresswoman pelosi who says it's about the voter purge, they want to get rid of eric holder because he's doing the due diligence on that? >> well, they absolutely want him gone. pick your reason. he's not enforcing doma. he wants people regardless of sexual preference to be able to be married. he is against the enforcement of that arizona law that was really hard and unfair and unfair to mexican-americans and hispanics. of course, he's standing up for voter rights. >> you agree with her?

>> a lot of things they're against eric holder on. >> peter welch and jerrold connolly, thanks for your time tonight. share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. next up mitt romney criticizes obama on immigration in front of a latino audience. we'll weigh in on that. lots more coming up. stay with us.

up next mitt romney totally whiffs on immigration today. there's more proof republicans are rooting for failure. a new report says the romney campaign doesn't want governor scott to talk about his rebounding economy. shelt insurance companies owe americans over a billion dollars, but the supreme court's

decision on the aaffordable care act could let them off the hook. we'll have the details coming up and don't forget to like the ed show on facebook. we're coming right back.

welcome back. six days after president obama announced a major policy change affecting the lives of nearly 800,000 young people, mitt romney has no answers when it comes to immigration. today romney spoke to a convention of latino-elected officials in florida offering few specifics on how he would deal with more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the united states if elected president. as to whether he would overturn

president obama's executive action, romney again sidestepped the issue altogether. >> some people have asked if i will let stand the president's executive order. the answer is that i will put in place my own long-term solution that will replay and supersede the president's temporary measure. >> while the president's plan applies to a broad spectrum of young people brought to the united states as children, romney's proposal offers a path to legal status only to those that serve nts military. green cards are gin to those that earn advanced degrees in the united states. the one thing romney did offer the hispanic audience, was a different tone. he told a republican audience this at a debate back in january. >> well, the answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can't find work here. >> today, romney changed his tune again.

>> i'm going to address the problem of illegal immigration in a civil and resolute manner. we may not always agree, but when i make a promise to you, i will keep it. >> let's turn to chuck rosha. chuck, good to see you again and have you with us tonight. what does romney's position on immigration say about his ability to lead? i have to say after watching the speech today, there's no more definition today than yesterday. no more definition. >> his biggest truth is when he said we don't agree in a room full of elected latino leaders

and talked about electric fences and self-deportation and actually had the gall to say he would rescind the order that president obama set. president obama had to do that because the congress wouldn't act. there were over 800,000 children who have pledged aledge i can't answer to one flag in a life. the man who wants to president who is say millionaire gets before latino leaders and says, why don't you get me and understand where i'm coming from? you can bleem me. when you talk about electric fences and self-deportation, there's no wonder you're 35 points behind with the latino vote. >> it sounds like you believe he didn't do anything to improve his standing with hispanics today. he had a golden opportunity to do it. it seems to me that romney really agrees with the president, but president obama is so toxic to the right wing and any republican right now he can't bring himself to saying it. what do you think? >> you could tell by his tone today he wanted to be the nice guy and go, i know what it's like and there's something holding me back. maybe it's the tea party and conservative right. if i say the wrong thing i cut off my funding and all hopes of being president.

what president barack obama did was very smart. it wasn't political because these 800,000 people can't cast the first vote for him. what it did was mobilize and energize people like me who is latino who is registered to vote, who was born here. that's the root thing to do. as americans we came here, and people came here with an idea, to kind of honor or values. we were supposed to be equal, all equal under the law. it puts him in a bad place. >> here's what one former mccain adviser told z "the new york times", if they have the wrong tone or rhetoric on immigration, hispanics won't listen to any proposals on anything else. does his performance today should the door all the way to november for him with the latino vote. >> i run the latino project, and the top three issues with latino voters are jobs, education and immigration. today in his speech his job

proposal is more trade agreements. when i hear that, more trade agreements, that says my job is leaving, and on education, he said we need a choice when it comes to education. when i hear that that means schools for profit, privatizing schools and no public education. he said all the wrong things today, and i think he has a long ways to go. >> president obama is going to speak to this very same group o? >> i think that he hasn't fixed the problem totally but made aa step in the right direction. he made these people under, from all different types of latinos from cuba or a texas mexican like i am. i'm trying to get you something so you won't be deported. all have collective action to be heard. at least he stood up and said your voice is heard. if the congress won't act, by

god, i will ask. >> chuck rocha one of the best latino voices in the country. >> thank you, ed. >> the politics of failure. find out have romney is telling rick scott will you please shut up on this economy thing down there in florida. republicans are busy going after eric holder while student loan rates double in ten days. the president is calling them out. stay tuned. t there. t there. - one serving of cheese is the size of four dice. one serving of cereal, a baseball. and one serving of fruit, a tennis ball. - you know, both parties agree. our kids can be healthier... the more you know.

welcome back to "the ed show." we have new evidence the republicans are rooting america to fail when it comes in the economy. the romney campaign asked florida governor rick scott, dude, can you tone it down when it comes to jobs and the economy? when rick scott talks about how great florida is doing, bloomberg says it clashes with the nominee's message that the nation is suffering under president obama. the republicans want you to believe the president of the united states is killing the economy and romney is the only one that can bring it back. >> he's going to say the economy is getting better. thank heavens it's getting better in spite of him. >> romney's people must hate it when rick scott says stuff like this. >> it's all about jobs. >> and you think jobs are turning around there? >> oh, yeah. we were at a three-year low on unemployment. >> if romney wants rick scott to stop talking about florida's economic success under obama,

he's got a bigger problem. romney needs to convince the people in ohio, michigan, and virginia that the economy is terrible there as well. republican governors in all of those states are enjoying better than average unemployment. these republican governors are in a tight spot. they could be honest about their economic success or lie for the candidate romney. let's turn to ben, national press secretary for the obama campaign. ben, good to have you with us tonight. >> nice to be with you. >> to be fair obviously these republican governors are saying, hey, what i'm doing in my state is why we have better numbers than anybody else. they're very nervous via the romney campaign when romney is saying tone it down a little bit? which is it? >> some have been honest that the president's policies has helped their state economically. governor mcdonald talked about how it benefitted his state. governor kay sick in heez is

rushes for the auto that obamamented it and he posed. he opposed many of the same policy that is have led to a boost in the recovery since the economic crisis in these states. this comes on the heels of the report in the "wall street journal" that congressional republicans will hold up legislation it to help the economy until after the election because they believe it would benefit mitt romney politically. now we see mitt romney putting a gag order on republican governors in these states from talking about recovery. >> how much credit do you give the stimulus package? >> certainly governor mcdonald gave it a lot of credit. we were losing 800,000 jobs a month when the president came into office. businesses have created 4.3 million private sector job. we can't stop there. the president outlined the choice in cleveland last

thursday in terms of building our economy by investing in education and research and development where romney would cut and going back to romney's philosophy, doing it from the top down assuming it will trickle down to the middle class stripping back oversight from banks and polluters and assuming that the market will take care of the rest. we've done that before. it led to the slowest job growth we've seen in half a century. >> how do you combat the commercials that are going to be coming with these republican governors saying it's because of us and not because of president obama, we could do better if we didn't have president obama? this is probably going to unfold in each states where there are good numbers, which forces the campaign to react in what way. >> governor walker spent $31 million on the air in wisconsin talking about the revival of the economy in that state, specifically in areas like manufacturing, which had been in decline before the president took office and because of investments he made in areas like the auto industry, we've seen a resurgence in that sector. i don't think governor scott

will talk about mitt romney's housing policy in florida. the state was hit hard by foreclosures. he has a refinancing plan that allows 5 million responsible homeowners to refinance their homes, and mitt romney thinks we should let foreclosures hit the bottom. you had an independent economist a couple of weeks ago say his policies could lead to another recession. >> ben labolt, good to have you with us tonight. lots more coming up. stay tuned. we're right back. >> very clearly they made a crisis, and they're using this crisis to somehow take away or limit people's second amendment rights. >> the big panel on the big conspiracy theory before the republican fast and furious witch-hunt. student loan rates double in nine days unless republicans act. >> if congress does not get this done in a week, the average student rack up an additional $1,000 in debt over the coming year.

>> the president was making his case for action today. that report ahead. and it's the clearest evidence yet. why obama care is working and why republicans want it dead? former congressman alan greyson on the big news on the health insurance refund.

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♪ me, i've got a plan. fred he uh... fred what is your plan? do i look like i have a plan? not really. [ female announcer ] only flood insurance covers floods. for a free brochure, call the number on your screen. instead of bringing job-creating legislation to the floor, the transportation bill, they are holding the attorney general of the united states in contempt of congress. >> so many facets to this story. no doubt about it. republicans have blocked legislation to boost jobs and allow fair pay for women, but the committee members made sure that they cast a vote in contempt proceedings against attorney general eric holder. the beat goes on. nancy pelosi and her fellow democrats call it a witch-hunt and a distraction, but now we

see some republican elected officials actually say that the big grand conspiracy here is it's about gun control in america, which i find interesting. susan, democratic strategy -- republican strategist with us and also democratic strategist keith boykin and author and attorney karen cryer. i want to talk about this gun control issue first. the reason this is happening is because president obama wants to take away your firearms in america. the grand conspirasee. >> this is a tough case to make to the american public, frankly, and there's reasons the republicans should pursue it. bringing in firearms is a big mistake. they're already kind of muddying the waters. i don't understand why they're bringing it in, frankly. i don't want to defend it, but it makes no sense. keep to what tear doing. the attorney general has withheld information.

this has been a long dance between both of them. they probably could have come to an agreement, but both sides tried to win the argument in the press and look good to their own folks. at the end of the day, just to go back to the question, i can't understand why bringing in firearms. >> here's the deal. the whole gun running, which started the investigation during the bush administration in '05-06 but men are buying guns legally and running them through smugglers. whether they end up in mexico or in our streets in crime, all of a sudden the nra is going, oh, dear. if they start chasing down the strawmen sellers that could justify more regulations. that's what arguing about, but the whole point was, in fact, people are running guns and buying them, quote, legally as strawmen and shuttling them through and they're committing crimes. >> no one is doing anything

about it. that's the problem. this is why the party is an issue. we had a conversation about this in the green room. we could talk to each other civilly. "the new york times" had a great editorial about it today. why can't the two sides get together and resolve this? why get to this stage? why did the republicans make this a contempt issue? >> there's a lack of leadership on darrell issa's part. he doesn't bring in key players to testify in front the committee. whole mess has turned out to be right now. that's not why the attorney general is being held in contempt. we have to get that issue. >> why is he being held to

contempt? >> all the complaints about the program which are justifiable investigations he resolved. >> they should resolve those. >> the family of the dead agents deserves answers. >> as to whether or not there was any sort of conversation to cover up the inepitudes. >> at that point the program was terminated. why is it necessary to dig into information. if you want to find out what's going on, look at the program. we're doing that. let's talk to the people from the atf and the agents and talk to the past attorney general. they're not offering to do that. >> how unusual is it, katherine, that the head of a committee has banned people from coming in to talk about this that have information? >> it's unusual. remember the death of the border agent was in december of 2010. the letter from the ag went out february 4th going i didn't really know, and now he backed up and said i've heard the program. i didn't know. >> the truth is if they didn't also warrant, lie to or misled originally, they wouldn't have gotten to this situation. >> in less than two months -- >> five months before the election. >> over christmas is when this con stern nation and the only thing being debated in the

contempt issue is surrounding what happened creating that february 4th letter, which was less than two months after the instigating event. >> keith, what about that? what about the timing of this, and, of course, nancy pelosi says today she thinks it's because he did a good job going after the voter purge? >> this is about getting holder and embarrassing barack obama. not smooch about fast and furious, susan agreed and katherine pointed out they could have done other things to purr stew that. you had an instance where one atf agents testified at this hearing not long ago, a year ago. when you mention the issue of gun control as something that could be done to sort of stop this sort of cross-border issue, immediately congressman issa

shut him down and told him that was not relevant testimony and refused to allow him to discuss that. how do you say you're concerned about stopping the problems if you're not willing to do something about it? of course it's political and skeptical. susan, you may agree with me. this may backfire against the republicans. >> it is political, and nancy pelosi's comments were highly political. this probably could have been decided several months ago, so you can't blame it all on issa for the timing of trying to plan it in june. he's been asking for this information for a long time. the administration's been dancing around it for a long time, but to go to keith's point, could this backfire? i think they're winning the headlines now, but this is a

slippery road. this is something the republicans have to be very careful about. >> you think the president knew there was something illegal going on here? >> no. >> they were told by the atf agent -- >> i don't think that the president knew at the time that anything was going on. frankly, i think it belongs in the department of justice. i think eric holder definitely misled people as far as who knew what. >> is rubio over the top asking for his resignation? >> yes. >> i think so at this point. this is the fundamental problem we have right now in this country. this is the president's attorney general. every president gets to choose their candidate. you have to lend a certain respect to it that, democrat or republican. i think that is stepping over the line. there is no need at this point to ask for that except to charge the political environment. >> do you remember in the bush administration when harriet miers, white house counsel and karl rove were going to be held in contempt. that was the firing of the nine assistant u.s. attorneys. there were political firings. but, in fact, what happened, it got pushed and pushed, but then karl rove testifies in private and everything goes away.

>> they were able to restore it. >> did the president do the right thing here? >> obama in the kinds of withholding, yeah, i think there are times when executive privileges are rare. >> when you said that, they did not withhold all the documents. they've only exerted executive privilege over the documents after february 4th related specifically to the executive prognosis and internal communications. they have nothing to do with the operation of the program. >> but at the same time -- >> the supreme court? >> remember jao couldn't go after cheney's dvrgss about the energy task force. they said those are privileged communications. >> the only reason i think this may not backfire on the republicans horribly is because with the president invoking executive privilege, that is a bad pr mistake. it just doesn't -- >> he did it six times, george bush. >> clinton did it 14 times and we know presidents that did it three times and one time. the point is in this environment this is a bad pr move. it looks like the president has something to hide. whether he does or doesn't, it's irrelevant.

>> thanks for joining us. federal student loan rates are set to double in just ten days, and republicans are wasting their time attacking eric holder, just what we were talking about. we'll have the latest next. stay with us.

up next, congress has ten days to act on student loan interest rates. will pressure from president obama get the republicans to stop stalling? into the big finish tonight. republicans are going to great lengths tie down the president's health care bill, which is not good if you want to check in the mail. i'll tell you all about it. lynn to me on sirius xm radio monday through friday, noon through 3:00 p.m. follow me at ed show on twitter and like the he had show on facebook. we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "the ed show."

it's summertime, june coming up on july real soon. there's a lot of families across america getting ready to send their sons and daughters off to college for the first time and they're thinking about how to pay for this. let's do the loan route, you know? that's what everybody else is doing. as republicans prepare to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt, there are over 7 million college students who will see their student loan rates double if congress fails to act. so what's this year's class have to look forward to? higher rates? republicans could fix this problem right now, but instead they're too busy making the president look really, really bad politically. president obama has been warning congress about this for months on end. now, the federal student loan rates are set to double in ten days. he explained the consequences earlier today. >> if congress does not get this done in a week, the average student with federal student loans will rack up an additional $1,000 in debt over the coming year.

>> democrats have offered reasonable solutions to fix the problem, but the only way republicans will play ball is by attacking women's health care. >> over in the house the republicans said they'd keep these rates down only if we agreed to cut things like preventative health care for women, which obviously wouldn't fix the problem but create a new problem. >> there you have it. republicans keep student loan rates in place at the cost of breast cancer screenings and immunizations for women. these are serious issues. student loan debt is over $1 trillion in america, and the average student who takes out loans graduates $26,000 in debt. here's the president trying to make a little path available in easier for young people in the country. republicans are blocking him every step of the way. so congress has a critical decision to make. they can either make it harder for average americans to afford college or they can make it an

investment to help the middle class in the future. you be the judge. tonight in our survey i asked, will the fast and furious witch-hunt backfire on republicans? 93% of you said yes, 7% of you said no. coming up, your check is in the mail. millions of americans will be getting a rebate from their health insurance plan all thanks to obama care? that's right. former congressman alan greyson will weigh in. stay with us.

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welcome back to the ed show. we have the smoking gun when it comes to health care. that's right. you want to know the real reason why the republicans want to repeal the health care law? so the insurance companies can keep more of their money. that's one of the reasons. here's the headlines from today in "the washington post." look at that, health insurance plans a $1.1 billion in rebates. you mean, i get a check? who is getting the money? you are. you know, look, the health care law, if it had not been here, this wouldn't have happened. you wouldn't get a check. here's why. the law forces insurers to spend at least 80% of the premiums you pay on actual health care. the other 20% is for administrative costs and

profits. if insurers didn't hit that 80% mark, then they are required to send you, your employer a rebate to make up the difference thanks to obama care. if your employer gets the check, then your employer is required to pass that rebate on to you or lower your premium. that would be a good deal. a cording to the obama administration, how many? 12.8 million americans are expected on to get rebates this year. the check's in the mail. with an average value of $151 per household. when you get a check in the mail, do you think that's a good thing? it's a real good thing. that money's going to go along way to a lot of families. i'm joined tonight by former florida congressman alan greyson, currently a candidate for congress. good to have you with us tonight. what will these rebates mean to millions of americans?

this is one of the these facets of the health care law that nobody told us we would get in money in the mail if this thing goes through. what do you make of it? >> it's meant to make health care affordable for people, and it's a down payment on what the bill will provide next year which is to give discounts to people. those are the affordability credits we start to see next year. the republicans are desperate to cut those off because frankly they understand how much people need them and how much people want them. once that kicks in, then everybody will love this big. >> now, it would seem to me this 80% rule in this law is absolutely brilliant. i mean, it is telling the insurance companies you got to be right with consumers. now, the catch in all of this, if the supreme court and the ruling could come down next week, if they overturned the health care law, those checks will not be sent out.

would it pave a way for the single payor system? >> well, first of all, in overturning the health care law they rule on the single question, they should rule on the single question whether the individual mandate is constitutional or not. the best arguments is on to leave the rest of the bill alone. that question is severability is one that's clear in the law. the question is can the pill function without the individual mandate? the answer obviously is yes. so these payments, the affordability credits people will enjoy next year, all the other elements of the bill and the doughnut hole for seniors, these are things the court should not strike down. if they strike it down, it's clear to everybody the courts become a right wing kaball. >> most want health care reform in the country. 77% say if the law is overturned they want the president to go back to work on legislation

what do democrats need to do on the messaging war here? is this the time to go after universal health care single payor. >> health care in america is affordable and it's universal. it doesn't matter that much the way we approach those goals or the way to reach those goals. the fact is the democratic party is the only party in this country that's even taking a stab at doing those things. the republicans obviously couldn't care less about affordability. they couldn't care less about universal health care. their health care plan is don't get sick. >> congressman alan grayson good luck on the campaign. appreciate your time. that's "the ed show." the rachel maddow show starts right now. i'm a little early because it's just one day closer to the weekend. i don't know. >> not that you're leaning forward into that or anything, ed. >> it's 100 degrees outside. >> i know. i'm rerigging my fishing gear because i have to fish deep because the fish are too hot. >> there's a segment for us. thanks.