tv Martin Bashir MSNBC March 26, 2012 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT
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>> this is a big deal. >> i do know that it is the right thing to do. it's right for our families, it's right for our businesses, it is right for the united states of america. >> appeal obamacare. >> do you think that this will come out in the rain? >> by the way, mitt romney is the godfather of our health care plan. >> i've been saying it in every speech. qu quit distorting our words. come on, man. what are you doing? it is halfway behind the capital and the supreme court behind me. as 26 states take on health care reform and the obama
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administration defends the signature legislative achievement for the first term of this president. and day one is done with a procedural hurdle. out of the way, we think, and the big question is still to come about the mandate and its repercussions. whether you're a support he who calls it the affordable care act or a critic who calls it obamacare. apparently now the white house is embracing that term. this could have profound implications for the extent of the power and define the race for 2012. most important, the supreme court case has drawn protesters, spectators, a media crush right up to the steps of the court. it is a pitched political battle. a landmark legal case. combustible public impact. nbc correspondent pete williams joins me now. this seemed as unanimous as i guess you can come. at least judging by the interpretations of the questions about part one of this
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challenge. >> right. i think there is no question that we're past the big hurdle in this case. here's what it is. there is a 150-year-old federal law that says you cannot challenge a federal tax before it goes into effect. now there is a penalty if you don't buy insurance in the health care law, you have to pay a penalty on your tax form to the irs, based on your income. is that a tax and are the parties barred from bringing this challenge now? do they have to say sorry, we'll come back in two years once the health care law kicks into effect? it seems very objection from the supreme court argument today that none of the justices think it is a tax. so this is not going to be a show stopper. where do we go from here? tomorrow the main event. the court will consider the argument about whether congress had the power to pass this law in the first place. the constitution gives congress the quote to regulate. they say there's nothing to regulate. the obama administration says it is not regulating health care
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insurance. and then on wednesday, two other questions. if the supreme court were to say that the insurance mandate is unconstitutional, can the rest of this huge health care law survive with all the other change to the health care system. then finally, a challenge that the states are bringing to the federal medicaid system. under the law they have to cover additional people with additional benefits. >> anything that you heard today. i know there is a little bit, what may be called snark for a supreme court justice when it come to the idea whether this was a tax or not a tax. did you hear anything in the way the questions went down that made you think, huh, this issue of whether the mandate and the fine is a tax or not is going to be a problem for the obama administration. >> all right. you asked so we're in the weeds a little bit here. here's the deal. the obama, and you did this on purpose. >> yes, i did.
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>> reporter: the obama administration is saying today for the purpose of this federal law, this isn't a tax. but they say, congress passed this law under its general taxing authority. now that is slicing it pretty thin. clearly from a question today from justice samuel alito, he thinks that's hypocritical. that the government is talking out of both sides of his mouth. it was pretty clear that they tried it out and if it is, if it does come up tomorrow, it won't get a very friendly reception. at least from him. >> all right. pete william with day one in the books the big day is tomorrow. thanks very much. virginia is not among the 26 states that are challenging president obama's health care law before the court today despite that state's attorney general being among the first to challenge the law. the supreme court has delayed consideration of virginia's challenge until after it hears this week's challenge, led of
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course by the state of florida. you can bet that the state attorney general is watching these proceedings very carefully. and he joins me now with his perspective. thank you for coming on today. what did you hear today that leads you to believe you understand where things, where the wind is blowing when it come to the mandate. >> as opposed to out here. >> where the wind might actually blow us over. >> i saw more ties today to the tax argument that we'll hear more about tomorrow than i did to the mandate. i would note that justice kagan comes to mind as opposed to mr. long, that the injunction act does apply. she said that the mandate and the penalty were basically one product. they're not separable. and the solicitor general was trying to separate them. tomorrow he wants to argue they're two different thing to preserve the tax argument and
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the mandate argument under the tax laws. >> you and i did an interview during the midst of your lawsuit when you first filed it. you said you would not have filed the lawsuit had the government argued that it was a tax. that you would have said -- >> no, no, if they had passed it as a tax that you did not believe you had any standing to challenge. so you may not like the legislation but that is a political argument. that there is not legal standing. >> correct. and that question has been litigated. the social security case, it was mentioned in court today. and frankly took a little bit of a beating from all sides today. settled that question. if they had done this as a tax, meaning, you're going to pay. you and i are going to pay x dollars a year and we'll take that money into the federal government and pay for health care as we do, for instance, medicare, also been litigated and found constitutional. that would have been found constitutional. that congress and this president didn't want to be dealing with a
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tax bill. they cooked up this alternative scheme where they're compelling to us buy the product. which in this case is health insurance. it is not health care. it is health insurance. supposedly under the commerce power and that has never happened before. >> if they strike this down and use this commerce clause to do that. are you at all worried about opening up a can of worms? that this is going to be seen as precedent is that there would be more challenges to the federal government's power in this colonelers clause. and it could gum up the works for a long time. >> you know, the real can of worms here is if they win. to give you a simple explanation of how that would work, for the states to win, meaning for this mandate to be found unconstitutional. the supreme court doesn't have to change one dotted i or crossed t of its own law. but for them to uphold the mandate, they have to take the outer reach of the commerce clause and move it way, way out from where it stands. >> how is it moving that much
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farther out? look, i didn't go to law school. but reading the case that everybody brings up. it is among the reasons why the government believes they're going to win this argument. that they will convince possibly kennedy, roberts and maybe even scalia, all three of them on this. how did that not stretch the outer limits? >> it did. you've picked the farthest limit right now of the commerce clause. you picked the right case. in that case, farmer philburn was doing something. he chose voluntarily to go do something. plant wheat, use it, feed it to his hogs and so forth and sell those. here the person being compelled by the health insurance is literally doing nothing. they're doing nothing. their choice is to sit still and do nothing. >> but the argument is they are going to use the health care system. at some point in their lives. that is 100% fact. >> at the point they're
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regulatable. >> so that is the argument that it would fit in. and you say -- >> then you can regulate them then. the commerce clause is a pass of power. they can regulate commerce. instate commerce. it doesn't mean they can compel it. they cannot bring it into existence. this is so unprecedented, first of all. that our federal government has never ordered us to buy a product before under the guise of regulating commerce. it is more unprecedented. if you go back before the american revolution. and we do this when we have cases of first impression. when there is a case like no other that has done before. this fits in that category. back then for ten years, we boycotted british goods. the british, some of them thought it might be treason. but collectively they decided, including their attorney general, solicitor general were in on this discussion. that it was not in fact, it was not in fact treason. the british we rebelled against
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couldn't compel us to buy british goods. >> i want to talk about a larger thing. a lot of conservative there's argue that you cannot litigate politics. essentially, elections have consequences. and this was the case. the legislative branch, the executive branch, they passed it. signed it into law. argued that at the ballot box. if you litigate, if we get to the point where we now litigate everything we don't agree with. as our politics, what does that do to our system? >> well, that gums up the works, to use your phrase from earlier. i definitely would agree with that. when people come up to me all the time. oh, they meaning congress passed x. can you sue over it? no. that's what elections are for. we only have two lawsuits running. this health care case and an epa case where they've broken the law. that's when an attorney general gets involved. when they break the law. when they do that, states, part
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of our role in the constitutional system is to check the overreach of federal power. that's what's going on here. this case isn't about herring. it is about liberty. because if they can make it by this product, they can make us buy any product. >> that's what these guys are trying to decide in the next couple of days. thanks for coming on. we did not get blown over. our friends did next door. that was the thud you might have heard. democrats of course are well aware of the political stakes of the single achievement of obama's presidency goes before the court. republicans are out in full forceful here's south carolina senator lindsay graham over the weekend. >> this is the center piece of the debate. the proper role of government. the vim whispered to the president when he sign the bill two years ago, this is a big f'ing deal. >> i want to bring in now congresswoman loretta sanchez.
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hiding from the win. congresswoman. i want to ask you, do you think that there would have been a lawsuit that these lawsuits would have been as prevalent as they were if somehow conservatives didn't think they had public opinion, at least not against them on this? i say not against them. nobody as a majority in their favor. there is a plurality that is unpopular. democrats have talk about this issue. whether they've sold it well enough or not. do you think if this law were more popular, there wouldn't have been as many lawsuits? >> the fact that this law is about 2,500 pages plus means there's a lot of thing for individuals not to like about it. and it mean it is difficult for people to understand what the law really does. when they look at the things that have already been implemented because of affordable care act like our kids are now covered. they don't have up to age 26 on their parents health care plans. like the fact that there are no
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preexisting conditions for kids. just as the same thing will apply in two years to all adults. i think that's very important. i just had a constituent the other day who said that she went in to get her annual physical and she is on medicare. she paid not even a co-pay and she was astounded. i said that's the aca working for you. that's the affordable care act working. so the more people realize what this act, what this law will do for them, the more popular it will become. >> you say this about this issue of not understanding or knowing the lawfully want to throw up this kaiser poll. 59%, this is the kaiser foundation has been doing this monthly on health care. 59% right now. americans don't understand how health care reform affects them. that number hasn't budged for two years. what could be done, or could have been done differently? >> first of all, as you probably know this. it is a lot easier to say it's a
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bad law than it is to explain 2,500 pages of why and how and how it will affect you. the more important thing is that we promise that we would not affect the people who already had health care coverage that they liked. so we had to craft something. so every individual is in a different sort of situation. the law sort of crafted to have more accessibility and more affordability. i think that the republicans are always so much better. just say no. everything terrible. rather than to talk through the positives of the laws that we are passing. >> and very quickly, do you think it's a good idea that the white house and the obama campaign is embracing the phrase, obamacare now? >> well, whenever people talk about obamacare, all of a sudden they understand that we're talking about this health care reform. so i not only think it's a good idea that we talk about it that way. that's the way people have heard it. more importantly, the positive things about it and of course,
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once this supreme court decides that the individual mandate will stay and i believe they will, because of the prior precedent setting case. this is about the commerce clause. we looked at i very, very deeply when we were trying to pass this law. people will see they will have access into this system and that's what obama care does. >> loretta sanchez from southern california. thank you. next, much more on this issue that has the candidates trading blows now. stay with us. we've got a lot more on this. ♪ oh. let's go. from the crack, off the backboard. [ laughs ] dad! [ laughs ] whoo! oh! you're up!
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it's supreme court week for health care. we're back right here after the first day of arguments on the president's health care plan. joining me now, thomas goldstein is co-founder of a blog. and welcome to both of you. let me start with you. not too many gray hairs there. >> one or two. >> are we overreacting in the how big we're making out this week to be as far as the political implications are for november? >> when you consider how this is a signature program for president obama, and how the polls show public opinion at present opposed to the affordable care act. this makes it a juicy issue for republicans to pounce on. and it is one that helps them to rally their base.
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and i think president obama will use it to rally his base as well. the court has the future of the entire way the government approaches such problems like this. that whole question is in the air right now. >> i want to talk about what we heard. if anything that we heard leaves us a clue of what tomorrow will be like, we have a little montage of whether this was a tax or not. first let me play this. >> now here congress has nowhere used the word tax. and this is not attached to a. at a. it is attached to a health care requirement. >> this is not a revenue raising measure. >> what we have is something that doesn't use the word tax once except for a collection device. >> that was justices briier and ginsberg. two people you would assume would be favorable to the president's cause here on this. if they're not buying the tax
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argument, what does that tell you? >> sure. let's set the table a little bit. there is a statute called the anti-injunction act. it says you can't sue ahead of time over taxes. what they were saying was something favorable to the government. this is not a tax so you can bring the suit now and we can decide the case now. but there is another side of the coin for the government. that is tomorrow, when it is the main event, defending the individual mandate. the government has two arguments. one is that this was passed under congress's commerce power. that's the main argument. then their back-up argument is that, by winning today, that this isn't a tax so the lawsuit can go forward and get an answer about the constitutionality of the statute. they are losing a little of the argument tomorrow. not the main argument. >> you've called there a back-up argument. that ultimately they're saying you can choose to look at it as a tax but it isn't the main argument. >> that's right. this is all about the power of
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congress. to pass the law. and as ken cuccinelli that, they can't make you buy insurance. the obama administration's main argument is that there is commerce in insurance so congress can pass this law. it doesn't have anything to do with tax. the government would be okay losing this argument. today they get out of today's argument, they get a ruling that the lawsuit can go forward. we'll get an answer. tomorrow they hope to get out of that argument a ruling. between the states. >> it is interesting that this is happening this week. this whole issue of mandate. you can't help but look at this and say, republicans don't like this plan so they're trying to find a way out of it. that's the argument here.
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>> the opponents. they're arguing in the '90s. it is interesting, this sort of, what mitt romney has been caught up in, of course. because -- he is now opposing nationally. but this is, in regard to this whole tax versus penalty fee question. this is one that i don't think the court wants to put off a decision on this. because the more it goes into effect, the more precedent is set. it become more disruptive to the court than if they were to decide against it. for many reasons, they want to settle this whole matter. >> i want to get your opinion before we go. this issue of recusal. you hear complaints from the left and the right. that clarence thomas is up there since his wife is a teem
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activist and active in calling for the repeal of this. we know where justice roberts is. this end up at the supreme court's door. everybody who doesn't like the statute wants to get out of the case and vice versa. it is not going anywhere. the justices get to decide for themselves whether they'll recuse. >> how much do you want this as an american? i have this worry that 5-4 in either direction -- >> moynihan wanted to see ann at least an 80% vote in congress for health care saying that you would have a real problem selling it to the american public if it didn't have a super majority. we didn't have it, of course, in congress. and we would love to see with it the supreme court one way or the other. >> coming up, we've got a lot more. we've got a lot more on the presidential race as well. that's heating up.
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any week that the mandate comes up is important. that's pretty important for rick santorum. labored breathing ] [ coughing continues ] [ gasping ] [ elevator bell dings, coughing continues ] [ female announcer ] washington can't ignore the facts. more air pollution means more childhood asthma attacks. [ coughing continues ] log on to fightingforair.org and tell washington: don't weaken clean air protections. is this where we're at now? we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber one. but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later,
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and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth. in less than an hour, trayvon martin's family will lead a march to a sanford commission meeting. march is men to honor the one-month anniversary of the death and to bring appreciate on law enforcement to arrest the shooter, george zimmerman. the sentinel is reporting that zimmerman told officers that trayvon attacked zimmerman after zimmerman claim he turned his back and started to walk back to his truck. of course, a story that we will continue to follow and much more. we'll be right back. [ johan ] hello, piper. nice up-do. i see you're crunching numbers with a cup of joe... when you could be relaxing with a delicious gevalia. or as i like to say, a cup of johan. joe's a cubicle.
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turkey time. >> a lot of folks are saying this race is over. people in louisiana said, no, it's not. and i think we're going to do very well up here in wisconsin, too. people say how do you feel about your loss in 2006? it was a great gift to get away. the reason i'm not getting out is because the people i'm talking to out there are supporting us. >> three strikes in a row. that's a turkey. we've got someone here who can relate to the voters in wisconsin. >> i think all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how something like this happened. if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. >> the president is disgraceful. he is suggesting if it had been a white, it would be okay? >> mitt romney agreed with barack obama every single thing.
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>> he is the worst republican in the country to put up against barack obama. >> mitt romney is the godfather of our health care plan. >> marlon brando is saying, you disrespected me. >> i'm going to make him an offer. >> are you kidding me? what do you think i'm doing this for? do you think because i like barack obama? >> come on, guys. don't do this. >> talking about obama care. the worst because -- >> what speech did you listen to? stop lying. he fashioned the blueprint. i've been saying it at every speech. quit distorting my words. if i see it, it's bull [ bleep ]. >> if you haven't cursed out a reporter for the new york time on a campaign, you're not a real republican. >> wow! let's get right to our panel. joining me. jonathan capehart, opinion writer for the "washington post" and karen finney, and also an
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msnbc political analyst. and robert costa, political report he for the national review and a contributor to our friends at cnbc. i want to stick with 2012. jonathan, we know that it seems the romney folks are trying to have a field day with santorum because they're hoping that pay no attention to what happened with the ballot box in louisiana saturday night. but do pay attention to what they're trying to create a hash tag. are they having any luck? >> well, thanks to rick santorum and his anger at our colleague and friend jeff, it might work. the romney campaign has been single-minded in its determination to win this nomination. they're not so much concerned about states. as much as they would love to win states. i'm sure they would have loved to have won louisiana. time and again we hear the romney campaign about, it is all
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about the delegates. anything they can do to knock rick santorum off his message. we're about his expletive and about not anything that rick santorum wants to do as the republican nominee. >> it's funny. you bring this up. you were with them early this morning. we had a report he roundtable a little bit. do you think he's having a good day? >> i think he's having a great day and he told me that over breakfast. he had some eggs and orange juice. santorum as you saw -- >> he buys his own argument. >> that's right. santorum wants to be in this position. he thinks romney can't camp with the conservatives. >> you bring this up. mitt romney today is in la jolla. okay? in san diego. and his event didn't even bring up what's going on right here. the number one conversation every political junky is having, left, right or in the middle. he doesn't talk about it today. >> not so much at all.
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>> we know why. >> we do. he is trying to do everything he can to distance himself from it. if you look at the way the calendar is laid out and where he's been winning, there's no reason for him to get out. he can still continue to make a credible argument that says, you know, if i keep going and i keep winning and i don't partner up with newt gingrich, he has a credible argument to make. >> what do you make of mitt romney sort of trying to stay above it today. not really everybody gauged in the health care conversation. he is the godfather of the mandate. democrats will keep bringing that up over and over again and certainly santorum is. it seems to me he didn't really even address this in his one event. >> odd that romney didn't address it? >> considering what's happening. >> the rest of us are having it. this is the one conversation that mitt romney just does not want to have. he will get clobbered by the democrats on this.
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he will get clobbered by gingrich and santorum over this. and the longer he can stay out of this conversation right now, i think from their perspective, is for the better. we all know that as tim paw lenny called it, obamanicare. for him to explain himself yet again is something they don't want to do. >> jump in. >> quickly, what you would have expected was some kind of doubling down on why obama care is not romney care. this argument about the states. to think that you're not going to be a part of this conversation. that's just bad staff work. you know you'll be part of this conversation. try to get something in the conversation that at least makes your argument. >> it strikes me as this. you have the obama folks decided, hey, we'll embrace obamacare. fine. you want to call that it? we'll call it that. the romney folks haven't found that moment of embracing health
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care. >> it's two different strategies. santorum was amazing. i was over at the supreme court with him. >> it was a rally. >> i was standing right next to him. he sees this is his opening. >> maybe his last opening. he may not be winning a lot of states. but obama care tying to it romney, that's his spate. romney, it's all about the economy. >> i want to switch gears a little bit. the president oversees, i'm hoping we can play this one more time. about what was caught by white house pool cameras in this conversation he was having with russian president medvedev and this issue of flexibility. here's the sound one more time. >> this is my last -- >> i understand. >> when the president of the united states is speaking with the leader of russia saying he can be more flexible after the
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election, that is an alarming and troubling development. this is no time for a president to be pulling his punches with the american people. and not telling us what he's intending to do. >> jonathan, flexibility. why do i have a feeling we'll hear that word a lot from the conservatives and republicans, trying to say that's code for, he's not telling you everything he will do in his second term. >> right. when will politicians learn, and especially when will president obama learn that every moment is an open mike moment. and that you can't -- you can't even whisper. just whisper it in his ear. yes. the republicans are going to use this. it is one of those unforced errors, if you will, given to them by president obama himself. how effective it will be, we'll find out as the campaign gets going. >> let me tell what you the white house told me. hey, this shouldn't be a shock. this isn't the time to have a discussion about this. it is an election year in russia
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and it is an election year here. some truth about being able to get treaties and all that done in any election year. whether the president is up for the u.s. senate. >> but wait a second. you know from covering the white house, do you really think when two world leaders sit in a room together, they're not at all talking about what their own political realities are in terms of what they're trying to accomplish? >> i mean, that's like -- >> but the narrative that obama could have avoided. remember leading from behind. obama was being questioned from the right, leading from behind. now he is bringing a foreign policy question back into the arena when it wasn't part of the discussion. >> russia is port to us for a number reasons. foreign policy is about a number of moving parts. it is about syria, israel, iran. it is all very different. and your rims, you need them over here and you'll use them over there. i think that's, you know. that's a stretch. >> this is one of those that has the feel of the -- all presidents have more flexibility
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after a second term. right? >> right. it's a fact. >> the state of virginia, they don't have a second term. >> about four years and you're out of there. >> stick around. jonathan capehart, we have more to discuss. >> i was bowling yesterday with a bunch of folks at a tournament. and threw three strikes in a row. that's a turkey. you've got someone here who can relate to the voters in wisconsin. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion.
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>> thank you very much. one of the reasons stocks went up, some very sort of dovish remarks today from the fed chairman ben bernanke implying according to some interpretation that's the fed stood ready to move if the economy slows. that's why they're having their version of march madness. nasdaq up 49. stocks on track for their best first quarter of the year in 14 years. we'll be back after this. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st, polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space, which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans?
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i want to bring one of the main defenses of the law. here's what david plouffe said about it over the weekend. >> most of this law doesn't begin to take effect until 2014. but there are important parts right now. you have two and a half million kids who are o'their parents' insurance now. you have free preventive care on mammography and cancer screenings. children can no longer be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions. by the end of this decade, we'll be glad it is called obamacare. >> are you concerned that maybe there will be some justices on there that agree with you about the mandate? but don't agree with you enough because they feel like, you have to throw out the whole law. you do the whole law, and they sort of
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reluctantly accept the mandate because they don't want to throw out the whole law? >> you mean am i concerned that the justices will throw out the whole law on politics? i hope not. >> this issue of -- >> it would be better for the country to throw out the whole law because if they throw out bits and pieces, it would be a mess. >> you don't believe it's separable. >> i don't. i like it if dante's rings of hell, and there's different things closer. >> i had this conversation earlier. why isn't this a question that should be at the ballot box and why is it here? the legislative branch passed it, the executive branch signed it into law. do we want to be having a political argument at the supreme court? >> it has been at the ballot box. the democrats lost because of
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this issue, scott brown was elected because of this issue. fundamentally, they can't do whatever they want on the penalty of voting and that's it. they're there to review the law and make sure the government stays within its powers. >> make the case for me on the difference between this mandate and an auto insurance mandate. that's always one of the comparisons that are made. >> the important constitutional point is that the auto insurance is by the state government and states have different powers that don't come from the federal constitution. that's the difference between romneycare and obamacare. >> but the federal government does have ways of incentivizing states to make sure they have certain laws when it comes to things like withholding highway funds if you don't meet a minimum standard. so is that just the line that -- >> yes, there are constitutional things the federal government can do and there are unconstitutional things the federal government can't do. if they had increased our income taxes or add aid new payroll tax or made medicare for all, but
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what they can do is good or bad as a matter of policy. >> let me ask you a larger question on the mandate. in the mid-'9 00s, the mandate s considered a constitutional deal. i don't want to pigeonhole you. it's total pure libertarian policy. but how do you think this sort of moved from being a conservative response, essentially, to hillarycare at the time. >> it was just the policy guys that changed their mind as well, but they didn't consult the lawyers at all. the lawyers could have told them how the constitution worked, finagle different things and experiment, and maybe at the state level, mitt romney was experimenting with that, other states could do it other ways, but this is not something the federal government should do in this way. i share the goals of the people who passed this, but you have to stay within the bounds of the
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constitution. >> and one final question, you were telling me earlier you had interns standing in line at 10:0 p.m. how early do you think you have to be standing in line for the ticket for tomorrow's -- >> i think we were overly cautious. this time i got in fairly easily, but tonight i'll start them at 10:00. >> 10:00 at night. >> that's right. >> and you get there at what time? >> i'm on cnn about 6:00 a.m. and i'll come here about 2:00. sg >> it's going to be an interesting intern party here today. ilia shapiro, thank you for coming o. >> thank you. we'll be back with more on what's been an interesting day here in capitol hill. ok! who gets occasional constipation,
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outside an only am america scene complete with protests. red hot rhetoric and a presidential candidate. correspondent kelly o'donnell joins me now. i know we're supposed to say there was a lot going on out here, and there was, but it actually seemed tame. i remember the -- when the supreme court took up the casey abortion issue, and i thought that scene was more pandemonium. i didn't see that out here. >> the scale of this was not what we may have expected, and it doesn't stack up with some of those bigger events, but there was kind of compact passion on both sides, and those who waited over the weekend and really put in time in the nice and not so nice weather to be there made this a real event for them and for their cause.
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it struck me there was an overwhelming number of people who were there in support of the president's health care law. >> i was going to say it seemed that they realized they got sort of out-organized when health care got passed by the tea party and they're not going to let that happen again. >> outrage over the health care law in 2010, that outrage was not present today, but it was definitely weighted more toward those who wanted to come out and show the loss of support. >> rick santorum was there. >> they planned this last week, his signature issue of why he is a candidate is to try to fight for the repeal of the president's health care law, so this was an ideal backdrop for him to talk about it, and also going after romney and link romney to the same kind of romneycare/obamacare thing. it was a great way for him to
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get in the news. >> how many press release do you get in your e-mailbox? everybody claiming they're doing an event? >> oh, absolutely. >> all right, kelly. thank you. thanks for watching. don't miss my show, of course, "the daily rundown." we're doing this again tomorrow at 9:00 and 3:00. right now ari is here for dylan ratigan. what you got, ari? >> thank you, and the show starts right now. good afternoon to you. i'm ari melber today in for dylan ratigan. all eyes are on the supreme court today as it completes the first of three straight days of oral arguments over president obama's health care law. it's also the first time that the court is
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