tv MSNBC Live MSNBC June 22, 2017 11:00am-12:01pm PDT
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top of the hour, two breaking stories here, the president tweeting just last hour that he does not personally have tapes of his conversations with fired fbi director james comey. the admission coming one day before the deadline i'm posed by the house intelligence committee. after drafting what amounts to one sixth of our nation's economy behind closed doors, they're finally letting americans in on the secret health care overhaul bill. here is what we know about that unveiled legislation at this hour, it repeals obama care, the medicaid expansion starts to drop off in 2021, deep cuts in
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2025. kacie hunt is following off of this very quickly right now. >> we're open to negotiation, but we want the bill to look more like a repeal. we're afraid that when we read the bill, it looks like a rei r reiteration or a keeping. we believe the subsidies may exceed or equal the subsidies in obama care. as we look at the expense in the first year or two it may cost more than obama care. and as we look at a brand new program to pay insurance companies, the idea that we'll allow the death spiral of obama care to derath spiral, but we
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will subsidize it. i think we have a better chance of getting it modified. >> right now you're a no vote? >> yes, we cannot support it in the current iteration. >> who is in the rest of the group? >> senator cruz, lee, johnson, and myself. >> that is enough to take down the bill? >> it is not to take down the bill, it's to make it better. i believe the leverage and the count of four people is never that hopefully those that wrote the bill will say "we want some or all of their votes and therefore we'll try to make the bill look more like a repeal bill and less like a reiteration of obama care. >> the choice is this or obama care, are you willing to let the country be under obama care and let the bill fail if that's the choice. >> i don't think there is anyone in the senate.
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i didn't run on obama care light. i didn't run on allowing the death spiral of obama care to continue to subsidize it with taxpayer money. we're $500 billion in debt right now. there is no money to expand medicaid unless you want to raise taxes. we're cutting taxes, so you have to be honest with people. we're going to keep a lot of stuff that was in obama care. i think we can do better and i don't want to defeat it, i want to make it better. >> if you lose -- >> i think what will happen and the reason we're coming out now, is that now the discussion begins. but if the people that are in favor of the current bill know there is not 50 votes for it, perhaps the discussion will
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begin in easternest to make it better. >> are the challenges depicted the way you want. >> this is supposedly a draft. at the meeting this morning, everyone here said they were still open to changes. i think you only get changes if you show you have power to change it. >> i am a favor of reading the bills before i pass them, but i have legislation that says you should wait one day for every 20 pages nap is six or seven working days just for this bill. and that i think would be a minimum. not only do we need to read it, but we need to negotiate what we can get in the bill to make it better. i think it could take longer than a week. >> it sounds like you heard so far, how willing do you think
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leader mcconnell is to negotiate big changes? >> you have to get to 50 votes. if you only have 48, i think that means you need to negotiate. >> if there is no hearing will you refuse to vote? >> if there is no what? >> no hearing? >> no hearing, no public hearing, will you -- >> i was in favor of having committee approach to it, but that is not a do or die on whether or not i will vote for the bill, i will vote for the bill on the contents of the bill. we're a no on the bill currently. >> what do you think of how he cut this bill behind clothes -- closed doors. >> i wanted a committee hearing, but i'm very concerned about the content. the most important thing we promised to repeal obama care. the current bill looks like we're keeping large parts of
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obama care. one of the architects are saying w ho hooray, we're not really changing obama care. and i think it looks a lot like obama care, actually. >> thank you. we have to go. >> senator -- >> there you it, kentucky's jr. senator, rand paul, saying he is one of four senators who is opposed to this bill that was unveiled roughly three hours ago for those of you keeping score at home. it only took two republican defections to kill it, it seems as it stands right now, the bill is dead on arrival right now. we're joined now by ali velshi,
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also page winningham, and garrett hake as well. we want to spend time looking ba back, he admitted that he has not read the bill and it's entirety, what he has seen so far is enough to help him figure out he is against it. the win over moderates in the senate, and what that has done you're seeing here is a provoking from the right side. he says he is speaking for three others. these are four of the most conservative senators on the republican side. it was about this change that had been made from the house bill to the senate bill
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involving subsidies or action is credits. helping lower income people pay for health insurance. it tied it to age and one of the biggest complaints you heard and that is until you got up to medicare age you're going to pay more and more and more. it ties it to income. if you're under the 400% poverty line you can get these credits. rand paul is looking at that, the conservatives are looking at that, and this is obama care. what is supposed to entice rand paul changes in medicaid. they don't quick in until about 2025. what you're sighing here is two crucial things.
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he took pains there to say over and over i want to vote for this bill, i can, and this is a negotiating side. >>. >> you just heard a discussion about this. the defunding of planned parenthood, but it rolls back the much hated obama care mandate. it makes these big changes to medicaid. critics of the bill and the medicate chances in 2021, and getting really drastic in 2025 have been big sticking points so far. >> this piece of legislation, we will keep this on the screen for
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a little while here. what was on the health care plan that surfaced a few hours ago. in terms of how it is different from the house, walk us through that page and walk us through what we heard from senator rand paul. >> it preserves the obama care subsidies. and that is because mitch mcconnell wanted an organized scheme for the lower income people. that was a big feegt because they thought they would see their costs go out of control. this whole thing is an effort to get the collins, the mercowskis. the other crews are pretty likely to vote for the bill, i
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don't think any of the conservatives want to be the deciding vote against repealing and replacing big parts of a law they finished for seven years. i think this is a lot of negotiating their doing. they want to force some smaller changes. getting some of those folks to sign on. for merkowski in particular, there is defunding planned parenthood. ultimately it is pretty steep. so that is sort of the path way. rand paul was always going to vote against the bill, i would be surprised they would have to
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get johnson and lee on board. >> walk us through some of the claims being made about this bill. >> it is whatever you want to say, neither fish nor foul, it doesn't make them happy enough, and we're talking about those that you just spoke to. and as paige said, you want people on board, but this will transform people for a year. looking at people's primary help. the ability to get waivers and to opt out of essential health benefits. women will have a great deal of difficulty with this bill. >> senator lindsey graham talking about the bill. >> they want to get to yes, but
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they can't with the bill in front of us. there is 52, and the question for us are we going to deliver or not. i don't know what they want changed in the bill. time will tell, one thing that senator cruz mention that got a lot of support is that every state will be required to offer a policy with the essential benefits. why not allow states to offer policies if people choose without all of the essential bui be benefits. they have the ability to offer policies that women woman. if you're 25, a high deductible policy makes sense. if you have a couple kids, it is different. we can tailor more to the choices of the marketplace and
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we're going to get those votes. >> do you think a week is the time table? >> yeah, we need a chance to read it, we'll have two or three days on the floor. >> yeah, you don't knee democratic support, i'm not blaming them, that is just where they're coming from. if e with can, we'll do it next week, and this is like fine wynn. -- line. >> he always gives us something. he said he was not surprised that the tapes don't exist. while the senator was talking there, he was talking about one of the features of this
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particular bill, it requires states to offer essential health benefits. he seemed to indicate he was interested in having a bill -- >> obama care required that every plan sold offered these essential health benefits that inclu include opioid, mental health treatment, maternal care, and a lot of people make these arguments. why don't you let me buy a policy that i'm not likely to want or lose. the risk pool, when you spread it among everybody, including people like the three of us, not likely to get pregnant, if we're paying into a pool that covers ma tern ternity maternity, is spreads over the
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pool and makes it cost less. same with prostate cancer. if women are paying for a fund that covers prostate cancer, it lowers the cost of insurance. a lot of people say obama care made people pay for things they would never use. if everybody pays for everything, then everything costs less, and that is the constructicrux of this. >> sarah huckabee sanders spent some time talking about the senate's health care bill a short time ago, here is what she had to say. >> is the president confident that he will have something to sign in the next few weeks? >> i don't think we're as focused on the time line as we are on the final product, we're looking for the best bill possible and we're going to continue being part of technical assistance and providing that with house and senate members as we work to get the best bill with can. >> the senate bill by analysis so far cuts medicaid, it does
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tyke like it will cut for folks. >> i have not had that conversation, i know that he made a statement that said this is a negotiation, and he will continue the process with the members until we get the best political we can. she is saying they are open to negotiate and expect the negotiations to continue. one of the things that the bill does, it is a section devoted to the taxes. . the medical device tax, and section 119, repeal of the net investment tax. it goes on to talk about the net
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investment tax in is a capital gains tax. this would essentially, and you correct me if i'm wrong, this is something that would basically give folks money back, it could give back money to people that already generated money from investments, is that right? >> this is a favorite talking point of democrats if is a rollback for people earning $210,000 a year, and this is a large portion of the tax revenue that would be under this review. it could roll back almost all of the taxes and delay one of them. senators toyed for awhile with keeping these taxes online. you have to pay for some of the additional subsidies and a slower faze out of medicaid
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expansion, and they may end up retaining some of them. those are levers they can pull to make sure that everything is paid for in the bill. that is an interesting component to watch over the next week. >> big thanks to all of you. i want to bring in senator bob casey now joining me from capitol hill. a bisy day, i appreciate your time, let me get your general reaction to the bill from a few hours ago. >> when you talk about the tax cuts, it is obscene. this is outrageous that it is a give away to the super rich paid for by cuts to medicaid, that
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alone makes this bill totally objectionable. if they do what they're talking about for kids, seniors, others with disabouts, it will change american life. we can take care of people and have a growing economy. this is for name are very vulnerable. this isout ray jous, and it obscene what they're doing. ? >> this is what president trump had to say in reaction to the senate bill, take a listen. >> it is totally dead, and we're putting in a plan today that is going to be negotiated, we would
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love democratic support. we will hopefully get something done and ploepfully it will be something with heart. >> there have been problems with barack obama care i assume you will admit that. in obama care there is opportunity for some sort of common ground to be reached. >> let's start with what is working. first of all, 20 million people got their health care through the patient protection and affordable care act. that is an achievement, we're all better off because of that. that helps all of us. the second thing we should highlight is everyone with employer coverage. don't think if you employer coverage that you're safe and sound with this bill.
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you're on health care, the protections you have could be at risk, they let the states wave it. no longer is it far pre-existing condition. in some places there might only be one ensurer. if republicans would listen and sit down with us, let's increase the subsidy that someone gets to pay for their insurance. let's introduce a public option to create competition. we could be working on the discreet and substantial problems if they could get off of the obsession. giving the super rich lots of tax cuts. if they pass this for the rich, they're not done. they want to go right to tax reform to give the same rich
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people more money. that's all they seem to care about. >> you're saying this is a repa repeal this bill fwhb some ways doesn't repeal and replace obama care, this is obama care light to a certain extent. >> that is a statement about the republican party, that an extreme republican party that wants to push people off of medica medicaid, devastate kids in rural areas and small towns, that that party has elements that don't think it is extreme enough. further right, more extreme. it is hard to believe that we're discussing this. instead of fixes our health care system and making sure we have
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equity, but we were told to do it a long time about as kids. when you have the power to make it better, to tear it away from some people, give wealthy people a tax cut they don't even want, we're going to be a weaker country if they get their way on devastating or december fati-- decimating. >> nancy pelosi is being asked to stp aside, the november deb c debockel as well. >> to be fair, you lost in four straight now special elections.
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>> you lost in four straight. >> their republican districts, i think there is way too much analysis of this. focus on bringing jobs and stunt to the areas, major urban centers, we'll do real well i think we have a long way to go and we're going to get there. >> senator, thank you. >> thank you very much. >> we're also following breaking news from the white house. admitting on twitter that he doesn't have any recordings of the conversations with fbi director, former fbi director jim comey, we'll go live to the white house, next. beyond is a natural pet food
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quote
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quote
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unmasking and illegal leaking of information, i have no idea whether or not there are tapes but i did not make and do not have the recordings. halle jackson asked why it took the president so long to confirm or deny he had those tapes. >> why it took so long, 41 days for it to be laid to rest and if he is recording any oval office conversations. >> he gave you an answer. he said he would have it to you by the end of this week and he d did, path the i can't confirm anything for you. >> so is msnbc terrorism analyst and the author of "the lot to hack america, let me start with you, what have we heard from the white house on this? >> they're trying to frame it as
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a promise kept by the president who has been asked repeatedly. does a taping system exist. all of those things when the president through this into the nation gnal conversation when h raised the question and would comey speak truthfully sort of a threatening truth to it. the top spokesman today, the principal deputy spokes woman say she didn't view it as a threat. and that the president is keeping his promise to let the country know the answer to this. that is how they were setting it up. there is also the thing of a deadline that was put forward because of the president's words on twitter. that triggered a lot of what unfolded in the investigation, and with the special probes, one of the relevant committees set a deadline when the tweet was sent
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out. there was a window of time we expected the white house to reply, and at the same time it drops right in the midst of a health care conversation when republicans are having challenges with their new senate version of the bill. you had a new segment going into all of the health care conversation, but this tweet about no tapes is also crowding out a little face that might have been occupied by health care. >> perhaps an attempt to change the conversation. what significance could this have for the larger situation. >> i think donald trump is a national version of candy crush,
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wasting our time whether we like it or not. this is an allegation that he raised, and he took the time. there are different characters here, craig. one is the president who, asserted and claimed that he had tapes, and has now backed down, and he admitted there was no tapes, and jim comby said there was notes, of which will are, and he testified under oath about it. two very different approaches from the people to a, what happens in the campaign with russia, and have there been any attempts from the president on down with the inquiry into a. i don't think at the end of the day, trump helped himself or the
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administration with the very long running, confusing, and backtracking candy crush, twitter scenario. >> it has been baffling. client, same question. how do you see it has? >> if you remember, this prove case brought up the comey letters. he made a vailed threat, it is essentially a he said-he said story. he came out with what seems to be a lie, and it don't to the point of can you believe anything that the president says. everything that comes out of the
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president, on twitter, can be discounted. what comes out of all of this, while this is a kindy crush scenario, what do you believe? a form leader some day may take what he says as serious, or it may be time when the president wants to communicate something that is serious, and we'll turn away from him because we don't know what to believe. >> in the past he said things that are proven to be untrue. in this instance, it is the president himself saying oh, you know, maybe i was kidding around. >> he created his own problem, twice. now he is underminding himself. >> malcolm, on a closer reading, it could seem that the president was leaving the door home, that someone else may have made
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recordings, and someone else is in possession of those recordings. did you read that at all? >> i did but i think that is bluff and bluster. he better prey ay that is not t. there is not a phone recording, now he made two statement that's are contradictory. we're in the middle of a very serious count er terrorismes terrorism espionage investigation. he could certain i will be viewed as trying to intimidate a witness or obstruct justice. i think this will playout not just in the white house, but on a national security scale. we may have just damaged ourselves.
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the president of the united states is now mo longer credible by his own admission twice. they're going to play this and work us hard because they know they can just jerk donald trump around and whatever he says half of the world won't believe it. >> one of the things that is amazing is there was no explanation as to why it took the president this long to firm what must suspected anyway. thank you to all of you this afternoon. up next, we go back to the other big story today, health care, a lot of talk about what senate republicans want versus what house republicans have already passed, but what about you? we'll look at how this plan will change health care for a lot of you in a dramatic way.
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of wisconsin speaking a few minutes ago. she also a no vote. among other things eliminating b obama care. but medicaid, the program that provides coverage to those that are low income, medicate could feel the biggest impact. they will faze out obama care's expansion. they call for the process to start in 2019. the congressional budget office says the house bill would cut $834 million from medicaid. the senate bill cuts even more. states would essentially just
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recei receive more money. >> also, president of the foundation for research on equal opportunity and former health insurance executive wendall potter. you know, let me start with you, you posted something on twitter a short time ago that caught my attention. i want to put it p for our viewers and listeners. finish reading the senate health care bill. put simply if it passes it will be the greatest policy passed be a congress in my lifetime. >>. >> i live in austin texas. they did not expand medicate, but the tax credits will extend to all of those for medicaid extension. it is important to understand that is being replaced by
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generous subsidies. the private insurance market, and that provides better coverage. that gives states more tools to cover the unensured in their areas. . >> i have been around it a long time. i have never seen a bill so mean with less heart than this one. it will be devastating for millions and millions of people. largely people who are poor. they may get money to help them buy coverage, but a lot of people who get coverage from the medicate expansion don't have money to buy coverage in the first place. senator johnson was talking about helping the legislation to help people have insurance with
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lower premiums. that is classic misdirection. you can have coverage with lower premiums. the way you do that is to cut benefits and the value of those policies and to make sure that people are not having to pay more. it means that it will be far less also have it doesn't do much for employers. ere year, year after year, continuing cost increases that predated balm care and continues on. they have to shift more of the premiums to their employers. that is not sustainable. a lot of employers are coming together to push back against the industry and cannot control costs. one organization is being formed
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called business leaders transforming health care. warren buffet said rising medical costs are the tape worn that are hurting american competitiveness. they said it is time to talk about a single payer system. >>. >> i have not thumbed through the whole thing just yet, but there is a section that was introduced this morning, and among the tax cuts, the medical device tax, a tanning tax that would be gone, but there is also what appears to be a retro active capital gains tax cut. why would that be in this bill? >> obama care has a whole array of tax increases in it, so this bill repeals and reduces the
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implementation. but here is something that is very important to understand. when obama care was originally shared by max baucus,s decide what was everyone would get their exchanges through the affordable care act. it changed and they changed coverage through medicaid because they told the white house and congress that medicaid was cheaper in the exchanges. . that is not turned out to be true. the changes have turned out to be lest costly than the medicaid expansi expansion. so by putting more people on medicaid and covering them and providing generous assistance, the bill will do a lot to make sure that they can use the same plan, doctors, hospitals.
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that will help with the continuity of care, access to care, and make sure that people get the best possible delivery they are not getting today. >> i imagine you don't necessarily agree with all of that? >> no, i don't. the exchanges have worked for a lot of people and not for ores. it is important because it is where people go if their employer doesn't off coverage. he did not get his insurance from an employer. maybe we'll go back to those days, but they're talking about having maybe one insurer on that. but keep this in mind, too. i would rather have one that selling quality coverage than five insurers, four of which sell practical insurance. people will be signing up for
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coverage they think has value, and when they find out too late it's not what they need. >> premiums have doubled, doubled -- >> to be fair, premiums were increasing substantially before obama care. >> exactly. >> not by 100%. so the premiums have gone up, the deductibles skyrocketed. people say it increases deductibles, but it reverses a lot of things that drove the premiums up. >> i think people will see this market actually, you know, wen d wendall says it is a small percentage of people, it is only 10 to 11 million because the premiums are too high, it is important to fix that. >> okay, former health care advisor for the romney campaign, a big thanks to you, we'll have you both back on to continue the
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conversation. i imagine it is something that we'll be talking about for a long time. another big story, snan si nancy pelosi defending her leadership in the caucus. >> i respect any opinion members have but my decision about how long i stay is not up to them. >> pelosi defiant in the wake of calls for her to step aside after the party failed to win any of this year's special elections. ohio congressman tim ryan who ran against nancy pelosi in last year's election says it could be tough to take back the house if she is still in charge of the caucus. >> i think it's going to be more challenging, certainly. you see these commercials that tie these candidates to leader pe pelosi.
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we have a lot of excitement in our base but you have to beat the republican and you have to carry this toxic democratic brand on your back, too. >> howard dean, msnbc contributor, former governor, also former chair of the democratic national committee, rick tyler, msnbc political analyst, former spokesman for senat senat senator ted cruz's presidential campaign. we were talking about nancy pelosi. you think she's a fine -- not speaker but fine leader of the democrats in the house. >> well, first of all, she was almost certainly the best speaker we've had in the house since tip o'neill in terms of her effectiveness and getting stuff done. she's a terrific fund-raiser for her caucus. i have said we need a younger generation in politics to get the younger generation who supports us overwhelmingly over the -- as opposed to the republicans and who don't like institutions. but i -- i mean rick is going to
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be able to say something helpful, i hope, because i'd like to see the polling numbers. i mean, the truth is on the one hand this is washington blather is a dime a dozen, just because you run ads against nancy pelosi, unless you know they work -- maybe they do know but there are numbers we can look at to see if this is true. it would be a big deal to throw accomplishments and the leadership she provided inside the caucus. >> this is what newt gingrich said, rick tyler. this is what newt gingrich said when asked about whether he thinks nancy pelosi should stay or go and this speaks to what howard dean just talked about here. >> we know exactly how to run against a nancy pelosi led party, we'd love to have the question being in 2018 nancy pelosi versus paul ryan and i hope the democrats keep her right where she wis for a long, long time, at least a decade. >> so president trump, former
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arkansas governor mike huckabee tweeting about pelosi. the president writing "i certainly hope the democrats don't force nancy p out, that would be very bad for the republican party." and huckabee going on there to say "many dems called for ouster pelosi as house leader. this would be tragic for republicans. stay nancy, stay." what would it mean for the republican party if nancy pelosi were to be replaced? >> i think howard is right, she has been an effective speaker for the democrats. she has raised an enormous amount of money which is why no one in the democratic party will challenge her but her problem is georgia six, her negatives were so high the race on the republican side amounted to the john ossof was tantamount to electing nancy pelosi. and all the democrat -- well, most of the democrats in the house democratic caucus represent districts that are like her so they're not going to say she's too liberal.
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the problem for the democratic party is they have cut the cord with the white working class, they don't know it yet, and they don't have a message to get it back. >> this is what congresswoman debbie dingell said to me roughly this time yesterday. this is what she said speaking to what rick just said there. i asked her about the state of the party. i asked her about nancy pelosi. here's congresswoman dingell's response. >> we've become this identity politics -- the women's caucus, the black caucus, the hispanic caucus. we've lost sense of we, that our strength comes in community and that community of all of us and sometimes i don't feel like i belong in any of the little different caucuses but i am a proud democrat who was sent here to represent the working men and women of my district and that's what i'm supposed to be a voice for. >> so this big tent that you helped create. this 50-state strategy that gave us -- it's the party of black people and brown people and gays and -- has that come at the expense, perhaps, of a cohesive
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message on jobs and trade? >> well, i don't think there's a cohesive message on jobs and trade and all that and there needs to be one. i think this is mostly washington hand wringing about people who don't get outside of the beltway very much. the truth is we do need a unified economic message that is about everybody. i don't want to cater to the white working class, i want to cater to the whole working class because the issues that face white people are similar to the issues that face brown people and black people and everybody else trying to make a living in this era where they're about to cut $800 billion out of health care so they can give it to donald trump's friends which is what they're doing. cutting the hell out of health care for people who need it and giving the money to rich people who are going to get the tax cut from frump. there's a good message there. so we do need a unifying democratic message. in defense of the democrats, it's hard to do that when you don't have a presidential candidate. you know, i'm not big on beating up on everybody in the sixth district who didn't whatever and didn't -- look, we didn't have
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the strongest candidate. he was a good candidate, it's a plus 20 republican district. we'll kick these guys butts in 2018. >> senator ted cruz speaking on the health care bill. let's listen. >> the ideological differences among the conference and we've been working collaboratively that entire time trying to solve the problems. the underlying problems in health care. this current draft doesn't get the job done. but i believe we can get to yes. i believe we can get this done and i have been for the last five months working around the clock to get to that agreement and i still believe we can get there. the key to getting an agreement, to getting a bill that can pass is we need common sense reform in the bill that lower the cost of premiums. the single-biggest reason so many people are unhappy with obamacare, that are hurting under obamacare is because it's caused premiums to skyrocket. when i'm home in texas i hear over and over again from texans who say "i can't afford health
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insurance because of obamacare." we've got to fix that. the current draft circulated this morning doesn't do nearly enough to lower the cost of premiums but there are a number of reforms that have wide agreement within the republican conference we can include and should include. >> reporter: what have you offered? >> one of the suggestions i put forth is called the consumer freedom agreement that says if an insurance company is offering a health insurance plan in a state consistent with the title 1-mandates, that insurance company can sell in that state any other plan that consumers desire. that would have the effect of immediately dropping the cost of premiums. when we met with leaders of insurance companies and asked, as i've asked repeatedly, what is the most important piece for lowering premium, the answer we hear is let us sell the policies consumers want to buy. what that would enable people to do is buy low cost catastrophic
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policies and enable people who don't have insurance because they can't afford it to be able to afford insurance. it doesn't take anything away from anyone, instead it adds additional choices, more choices, more competition, more options, lower prices. that's what consumers want and it's what the republican majority should give to them. >> senator, earlier you said it was important these things not be negotiated in the media. why are you coming forward publicly with your complaints about the bill now? >> well, look. >> this has been an ongoing process. the working group met for over a month with no leaks to the media. we met in that conference room in my office working to come together. we made a lot of progress, there's a lot of agreement. not all of that agreement is reflected in the current draft. we're at a different stage. there's now a bill drafted as public. there has been public debate on obamacare for the last seven years and there will continue to
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be debate. we can get this done. we can get to yes. we need common sense reforms to lower the cost of premiums so health insurance is more affordable. >> reporter: people when we get to these big bills they put themselves in play, it didn't do this provision and whatever and you can trade the horses and it's good optics, i fought for this. is none of that going on? are these things you oppose or do you think by saying no they will come and say maybe we can help you on this issue, maybe help you on this issue and get you to yes? >> i have been clear from day one that i want to get to yes. when i ran for senate i campaigned on repealing obamacare. it was the central promise of the campaign. in my time in the senate, nobody has fought harder against obamacare than i have. this matters. bef to do it and get it right. it's not enough to pass a bill that has obamacare repeal in the
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title. we have to actually have legislation that fixes the underlying problem. under obamacare, the average family's premiums have risen over $5,000 a year. that's the fault of the federal government. it's the fault of the failed federal policy that is obamacare. we need to fix that and so throughout the conversations with the working group, with the majority leader, with the president, the vice president i've made clear i want to get to yes and the way to get to yes is fix the underlying problems. lower premiums and i will happily be part of it. we can get there and there are other senators who feel the same. >> reporter: what about resolving that in conference committee and you turn out to be the person that prevents it? you're the 49th or 48th vote and they're just shy. >> i think we can get there but this current draft doesn't do enough my biggest concern is under this draft premiums would continue to rise and if premiums
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