>> they are going to continue to ram this bill through the house. >> kill the bill. kill the bill. >> this week on "inside washington," as opponents waged a last-ditch fight against health care reform, democratic leaders search for votes. >> we will do what is necessary to pass the bill. >> something is better than nothing. that is what i kept hearing from constituents. >> the big chill between the obama administration and israel. >> the announcement of the settlements the very day the vice president was there was insulting.

>> the president's education secretary's thinking about what? graduation rates? >> i reiterate my proposal to the n.c.a.a., that if they fail to graduate 40% of their players, they should be ineligible for post-season competition. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> as we put this program into production, we are expecting a house vote on health care reform sometime sunday afternoon. needless to say, if we are late for the vote, you will be looking at a blank screen for the next 30 minutes. we will talk about health care anyway, even though we don't know how the story ends. lack of information has never stop us before. we do know that for the second me, the president has postponed a trip to indonesia in anticipation of the vote on health care. mark, of long house democrats, what is the nervous nellie

factor? >> it is considerable. we'll looking at a 14-point republican edge in the "wall street journal"-nbc poll in terms of intensity and interest and excitement about the election. and they know that. the one saving feature is that if you have already voted for it, voting against it is probably not political insurance. >> "politico's" taught at the margin refers to wavering house democrats as the drum up queen caucus -- drama queen caucus. is that fair, charles? >> this is a very unpopular bill. if you look at public opinion, massachusetts, and they know that this could cost them their seat in congress, it is not an easy vote. and if you want to give them credit for lack of selfishness, there is a question of whether you ought to represent the wishes of the constituency, or act under your own understanding of what the national interest.

that is not an easy choice. >> evan, all it took for dennis kucinich was are right on air force one. must've been quite a ride. >> he has been an independent guy, but when the president says it to you that way -- it is hard to say no. >> nina, what kind of goodies to the president offered the nervous nellies and the drama queen caucus? >> people who are in districts that it really will hurt them -- but there are districts where it is not clear how this will play out. attention will be paid. that is not insignificant to people who like to be attended. >> in reality, who is willing to walk the plank for barack obama? >> but, gordon, it is not just walking the plank. i think that the democrats are sort of sunk here in our way.

this is part of what the party stands for. it may be an imperfect bill, but for years, democrats have wanted something like this, and that is what the their base at once. they cannot just walk away from it. they do, the injured themselves as a party, and they injured themselves -- they into the president very forcefully. >> that was the argument fo dennis kucinich -- barack obama basically said, "my presidency is doomed if you do not come across." >> do you think it is doomed? >> it is certainly precarious, and if you are a democrat and running in 2010, your name is on the ballot, you are facing the following -- a lack of an duse's and an intensity among democratic voters. -- of enthusiasm and intensity among democratic voters. this will certainly not increase the gis as and an intensity if it goes down. and there is also the liability of the do nothing congress.

this would be do something. you could still be criticizing it as liberal or socialist or whatever else, but this is a significant something to be done and you have something to run on. >> i think this is all about the presidency right now. it is no longer about health care. i don't think any of the arguments are about the specifics of the bill proposal. it is that if the democrats are defeated on this, but it will be dramatic. and the presidency, after everything he has taken, a year and two months, postponing trips, it would be essentially over. if you are a democrat, that might sway either. but i think there is something tragic about this. the country ought to insure the uninsured, but this bill is so ugly, inefficient, about the worst possible way. but everybody understands, despite all the talk abo the cbo numbers, is that it is going to bankrupt our country -- >> well, we don't --

>> without solving the issue of efficiency, expanding coverage that is already headed over a cliff this elite, we are entering a very dangerous waters. it could have been otherwise. >> charles has his own progress will budget office appraisal. 32 million people who were not covered will be. when it is put to people, do you think congress should vote for this or not vote for it, but 46% of voters say congress should vote for it, 45% say they should not. the status quo is unacceptable. one out of eight people think nothing should be done. there is momentum -- >> but in a cnn poll, only 25% approve of this proposal. an equal about our four doing nothing -- an equal amount are for doing nothing, and half the american people want to do something, to start over --

>> there is a great thing about this bill that the american people don't know. some of the parts will be very costly don't kick in for a while, but what does right away is that something like 6 million businesses suddenly have a tax benefit for giving employees health insurance. that is a huge thing. people who have kids up to 25 years old can keep them on the policies. there are benefits that will kick in right away that people don't realize are there. >> the congressional budget office, the bill would cost less than $1 trillion, reduce the budget deficit by $130 billion by over 10 years. >> this is the biggest deficit reduction bill that any member of congress will have a opportunity to vote on. >> they will still spend $1 trillion to impose government run health care on the american people. the american people want no part of it. >> the american people want no part of it?

that does not jibe with the numbers we are hearing -- >> paying for this bill, it has a dubious, funny numbers in. congress is not going to want to reduce medicare payments for doctors. that part is dubious. they are also not going to want to stick it to the unions, when i need a few years the rule takes in that these cadillac plans -- one in a few years the rule kicks in that these cadillac plans that the unions like -- big trouble. but inside the bill is a grain of hope. and that is that they will gradually change the payment system for doctors to get away from fee-for-service, which is a prescription for constantly increasing health care costs, a cost-plus-contract, meaning that the costs will always go up. moving away from that system to a system where more doctors are on salary, that is the key structural change that has to happen for health care costs to be contained. [ beeping ]

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>> again what you see is the lengths to which the insurance companies to go. able to anything to stop this legislation. -- they will do anything to stop this legislation. they have made such a fortune off the misfortune of the american people. we have played on their turf for decades without being subject to antitrust laws. now they will be playing on the turf of the american people. >> house speaker nancy pelosi, not a big fan of the insurance companies, apparently. the insurance companies say that the premiums go up because of the cost of health care, and the cost of health care is going up. the speaker giving insurance companies a bum rap? >> it is political. every politician needs an enemy. but there are structural

problems that the bill does not fix. it has encouragements to x those problems, and you have to hope that as the costs become insupportable, as they quickly are, they will gradually change the system. but that is not really in the bill. is not required. >> one thing about this bill that will help hospitals, and the reason they support this bill, is that at the moment, there are public hospitals in trouble, and even private ones. they are basically supporting charitable patients. most people are covered by insurance, then they get reimbursed. they get more money to help defray costs. >> speaking of hospitals, the catholic bishops are against this, but the catholic health association, representing hospitals and other organizations, came out urging the passage of the bill. >> and the nuns. >> and an organization

representing 60,000 nuns. >> they run hospitals. the deal with health care on a daily basis. the bishops don't. >> well, how much impact is that going to have on bart stupak? >> i think the congressman from michigan has already put his marker in the turf. he is not going to change. the question is whether others -- 6 -- 60 democrats voted for his amendment. how many of them are stalwarts? nobody really knows, but a congressman from michigan who had been with stupak and is pro- life is supporting the bill. jim oberstar, long time pro-life, has indicated that he will. one point on the insurance companies. they saved this bill. >> they did.

>> after scott brown's victory, no question about it, in massachusetts, and the loss of 60 democratic votes in the senate, 39% rate increases across the country, at all of a sudden, the insurance companies became the perfect villain and foil. if rates are going up now, what will they go up? it became not a question of whether the bill is perfect. the status quo, which was unacceptable, versus change. >> that is a lot of drama, but there is also the unbelievably missed opportunity. just look at the changes in the bill. in the senate bill originally, it was attacking one of the great inefficiencies in the system. the tax exemption that people have for employer provided insurance. it is a relic of the second world war, it makes no sense, a is a tremendous incentive to overspending. -- it gives a tremendous incentive to overspending. the senate had a 40% tax on the cadillac plant. the unions come in and the

man to cut out and they get it. there is a huge uproar over favoritism to as a result, the bill that the house is going to approve, the cadillac plan is down to a yield of $3 billion a year. this is an exemption that yields a quarter -- $250 billion loophole, in which nothing is changed. there is no chance in hell that it will be enacted in 2018. that is a farce. >> let me ask you a question about the constitutional challenge. lawyers for republicans are already talking about court challenges. >> they have out case if the house deems acceptance of the bill in it the senate rather than having to vote, because as i read article one, section 7 of the constitution, and i am sure you as well, gordon, have read it, it says that the bill "shall have been passed" by the house

or senate, not "shall have been deed to have been passed." >> it is certainly a question. there are states were passing exemptions to exempt themselves. that is a joke. that does not fly. there are legal arguments that will be made. there will be lawsuits filed immediately. i am not sure that any of them really have legs. but we have an extrem -- an extremely conservative supreme court that seems to like having a fight with the president of the moment. >> that certainly seems to be the case. just one point about deductibility on insurance plans -- we have a system that is surely break. it's a terrible system. it is based on your employer.

millions of people lost their insurance as they lost their jobs, a double hit. as long as we're going to have this system, there are going to be loopholes, provisions that are not ideal. >> charles agrees. >> this was a great opportunity to change it, and was missed.

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he doesn't have time for lost checks. he doesn't have budget to waste. but he does have digital currency. 38 states use visa pre-paid cards to deliver benefits to familieinstantly instead of mailing checks, saving taxpayers millions. this is nebraska. this is progress. visa. currency of progress. >> trying to negotiate a lasting peace between palestinians and israelis is tough, but it was a helluva nice break from health care. >> vice-president biden this week. his visit to israel was not such a nice break. when he visited last week, the was the surprise announcement that israel was planning to build 1600 new homes in

jerusalem. as you heard a clear, the secretary of state said that was insulting. are we making too much of this? >> i think we are. i heard on the news this week that this the biggest crisis in u.s.-israel relations in decades. why? yes, it was a bad move by the israelis, it really was. but the problems or bad then, they are bad now. it is almost an intractable situation -- i hope not entirely. it will have to get past it. >> according to an israeli newspaper, israel's ambassador to the united states, relations with the united states are the worst in 35 years. >> the threats issued by the president through the secretary of state in a phone call to the prime minister of israel were at that level, all the way back to the mid-1970's, in which they were reading the white acted threatening all kinds of actions

against israel unless -- reading the riot act and threaten all kinds of actions against israel unless they did all sorts of things that they cannot do, things that no government of israel since the 1960's, including rabin and others, has ever accepted. the puzzle is why obama inflated into a crisis. it was able level bureaucrat who released -- a low level bureaucrat released this construction proposal, not the prime minister's office. the israelis apologize, the vice-president appeared to have accepted, and it is the day after he returned that the phone call was made and the threats were made. >> i don't think it is in the president's nature to keep the fight going. that is not his style. i was sort of taken aback. but i don't think it can last. >> first of all, the ambassador to the united states called it a

crisis. it was not anybody in the obama administration. secondly, i think there is an adjustment of the relationship between the united states and israel going on here, that the political situation in this country finally does allow administration had little bit of wiggle room to it because we are in two wars in the middle east, i don't think it was just a settlement. i think the administration thought that netanyahu's administration or coalition or whatever you want to call it was not serious about negotiations, and that some of the generals have indicated, our generals, that that really does harm us from a natiol security perspective at this point. >> mark? >> let's establish this -- joe biden, an unequivocal supporter and enthusiastic admirer of the state of israel, our ri -- arrives to announce that they

have abbas and the palestinians on peace talks with george mitchell on the serial basis. netanyahu either did not know about this or did not override his decision to announce these 1600 units being built at this time, incredibly provocative. it is not just on weiss -- not just unwise, and it is essentially an outbreak is to embarrass and humiliate your no. 1 ally and protector in the world, arriving in a country, as the israeli government did through these actions. to me, the anxiety and apprehension you detect among israeli supporters in the united states is understandable, that the relationship is changing and is under a new pressure. >> but here is what is mysterious -- for the last year is mahmoud abbas who has

reviewed any negotiations with israel. a government that represents left, right, and center did an unprecedented freeze on settlement activity in the west bank, explicitly excluding jerusalem. it did to that -- secretary clinton said the concession was unprecedented. why is obama and the administration put such pressure on the israelis, who made concessions, and not on abbas, the one holding out on negotiants for over a year?

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>> tennessee head basketball coach, education secretary arne duncan, who played basketball for harvard and did graduate. he seems to think that we ought to have a better than 40% to get in postseason play. >> this has been a continuing dispute and debate, i think he has got a great point. but you have to go back to the admissions office in college. when a star basketball player n get accepted just on the sake of a coach, which is true of too many schools in the n.c.a.a. right now. >> we all know that these basketball teams and football teams are semipro. and often kids to graduate because they need to be in the pros. -- kids don't graduate because they need to be in the pros. but we don't treat them as a pro basketball, pro football. >> but surely these colleges can figure out how to get them to graduate. it is not that hard to do.

you just do it. >> some of them do. >> the whole idea of a student athlete is a farce and fraud. it ought to be paid. it is the minor leagues. let them have a salary, and not snoop around car washes and penalize them. they are not really students, but they are athletes. >> if they want to go to class, let them once in awhile. last word. see you next week. announcer: whether it's earning a promotion... they're the culmination of lots of hard work. the graduate school has more ways to get you the knowledge you need to reach your next goal, your next great moment, with continuing education programs to fit your schedule

and lifestyle. learn more. visit...