so he'll have that conversation with the congress tomorrow evening. >> there's talk that max bachus willdemocrats have to go it alone? >> we're obviously very interested and eager to see what senator bachus does and how the senate finance xletity moves. it's really quite an important moment. we they that three committees in the house have already moved. one committee in the is that the. there's 80% agreement among those pieces of legislation already. so despite the back and forth and the bickering, there's already quite a bit of agreement. if the senate finance committee is able to move forward, i think there's an important step in getting this health care bill in front of the pld before the end of the year. >> bill clinton is quoted as saying don't even worry about the republicans, let them figure out what they're going to stand for, because as long as they're standing around waiting for us to mess up, at tthey don't have chance. is that good or bad advice is this. >> the president has always said that he wants to extend a happened, he wants to work with the republicans. he's been havin

are you kind of tired of waiting for max bachus and his gang to deliver?upplement the gang of 6. that might make it the gang of 20. wouldn't be too many people to have an effective gang, but i would take what senator mccain said today on a positive note, and as a call for bipartisanship, and i certainly would be delighted to be a part of it. >> all right. arlen specter, thank you so much. we've got a lot of gangs up there on the hill. thank you, senator. >>> and up next, republican senator orrin hatch, he's got his own gang. will his friendship with the late senator ted kennedy encourage him to reach across the aisle and get a health care bill passed? that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." here you go. whoa! that's some serious insurance. ding-ding-ding! ding! ding! fun fact -- progressive is the number-one truck insurer. yeah, great service at the right price. and nowadays, my business depends on it. do you have anything like that for my car? yes! our car insurance comes with 24/7 claim service, and you can save hundreds. so, what you haulin'? oh, eigh

the 15-8 vote is a victory for max bachus who chairs the committee. the democratic senator is hoping to push hi middle of the road measure by committee. >>> fedex field will be rocksing tonight, but also a lot of traffic problems. the concert starts at 7:00 and it will be a nightmare for people trying to get there. if you're watching this and have tickets tonight, you may want to head out of the door now. a safe bet is to take metro. metro is going to keep the morgan boulevard station open until 1:00 a.m. for people leaving the concert. >>> let's see how things are moving. ashley linder has her eye on traffic. >> hey, pat, i come bearing good news. the entire east side -- the inner loop will be headed toward the bottom of our screen. everybody is moves just fine, no problems on central avenue or 202 or arena drive in towards the fedex field area. this is definitely the time to get to the roadways, but stress, please take metro. you don't want to get stuck in rush hour and this sort of mess headed towards fedex field, but again, right now no major prob

the vote is a victory for commit aye chairman max bachus, the montana democrat hopes to push his more middle of the road he says he won't get the 60 senate votes to pass if the public option is included. >>> health care reform is a signature issue for president obama, but he's also wrestling with two major foreign policy issues, iran and afghanistan. steve handelsman has that report. >> reporter: meeting with the new head of nato, president obama laid out their agreed-upon goal in afghanistan. >> dismantling, disrupting, destroying the al qaeda network. >> the president is not vowing to destroy the taliban helped by the corruption. will president obama send 40 thousands more u.s. forces, he last visited. 40,000 more is what u.s. and nato commanding general mcchrystal is asking. sure he is, says the former pentagon manpower chief. >> i've never seen a commander ask for less troops. >> nator secretary rasmussen says the new plan is the priority. meetings this week will hammer out the approach. about iran's newly disclosed underground nuclear on behalf of the world the intention of the i

that's the arbitrary, basically deadline that max bachus has set.n't know if that's going to happen. steve: we don't know a lot of what the president is going to say right tonight at his address at 8:00. however, white house press secretary robert gibbs knows. and he joins us right now from the north lawn of the white house. good morning to you, robert. >> good morning, guys. how are you? steve: doing ok. so i know you don't want to spill the beans too much, but what you can tell us with about what the president is going to say tonight. >> the president will lay clearly out what's in this plan, what he is proposing for health care reform. i think i will leave people with two big impressions. one, if you are fortunate enough to have health insurance, like i'm sure you guys do but many people are struggling with the high cost of insurance, how do these reforms provide them security and stability in a changing marketplace? and for those that are not fortunate enough to have health care and have to go to the emergency room for health care and give us th

. >> the emergence from senator max bachus the chair of the finance committee in the senate shows how we are are reaching the end game on the health care debate. nancy pelosi and harry reid met with president obama. speaker pelosi had a warning for the insurance industry. she said they ought to take the deal the house is offering now on a public option or they may be sorry. >> they'd be better getting a public option now than one is triggered. if you have a triggered public option it is because the insurance industry has demonstrated they are not cooperating, they are not doing the right thing and i think you'll have a tougher public option to deal with. >> the public option is only one of several decision points in the end game. a second is how to finance this expanded coverage that the administration and the congress want to provide? somewhat attacks insurance companies and high value insurance plans. the third is the level of subsidies for the uninsured, whether it is $900 billion, higher or lower. press secretary robert gibbs said in his speech tomorrow night president obama is go

it's like the moderate democrats in the senate, max bachus and company, they set the agenda because they're willing to give you five or six yards to give the president a slimmed down toothless five-yard field goal. that means you should buy the stocks that have dipped going into the speech or have been down on worries in general. because the third and nine, right? means that health care reform opponents and their favorite stocks aren't in any real danger and some of them are going to benefit from a compromise plan. that means for the hmos, you know i like them, i've been saying wellpoint got dinged for 2 1/2 points yesterday, that's my fave. i like the pharmacy benefit managers like medco health, express scripts, the stock my charitable trust actionalertsplus.com owns. you don't buy stock because the stock's going down. but overall you do not want to try to game health care reform. the market's wise to the ways of the nfl. we have to go beyond obama because, well, we have to make some money to play health care. we have to turn to something real. not the silly football game. and i'm talking

that, supposedly, is going to be coming out of max bachus' committee in the next few days, a little fasterhan anticipated, which tells me that the president's speech did have an impact, the president's speech did move the gang of six, the president's speech did hit that sense of urgency button. and so, with these new facts that are out, this is going to be a wake-up call to a lot of americans, you know. the time for jokes is over. we've got to get moving forward on this. the time for slogan-airing is over. this is some serious stuff for small businesses in america, and that's really -- you know, alex, that's another thing that i think a lot of folks have missed. there is such a differential between big business and small business in america when it comes to insurance premiums. small business can't be treated like this if it's going to be the backbone of our economy. and until we fix this, until we move forward and do something for small businesses and get the monkey off the back of small businesses, which has turned into a gorilla in recent years -- >> right. >> we're not going to fix this

ring no carrier ring no carrier ring no carrier ring no carrier committee no carrier > chairman max ring bachuses to no carrier unveil the report. >>> later today the house could take up no carrier disciplinary action against congressman joe wilson. it was wilson who no carrier called the ri president a liar during mr. obama's speech on to congress last no carriweek. wilson ring apologized to the president, but no carrier refuses to make another apology to the house no floor. >>> just ahead no carrier > ring on the "morning news," kanye west issues no carrier ring his no car latest apology. >>> plus the yale community turns out for ring a no carrier candlelight ring vigil for graduate student annie no carrier le. >>> first, ri katie couric has a no car preview of tonight's ring "cbs evening news." >>> at the height of the economic crisis, no carrier taxpayers committed > ri$700 billion to buy up toxic no carrier assets. now one ri year later, not a single asset has been sold, so what happened some we'll have a no carrier reality check tonight only on the ring no carrier ring no carrier ring cbs

. >> reporter: max bachus' proposal, the high-end insurance plans that some say encourage consumers to overuse health care. it's a tax thanz companies would pay but critics say it would be passed on to sums. less than $900 billion, significant, because this is about $100 billion less than the other bills presented for congress. it's senator bachus who put this together. he wants to see if they can reach an agreement. he obviously wants to ensure that his committee has an opportunity to put its stamp on the health care debate before wednesday nigh. >> the best political team on television will bring you special live coverage of the president's health care speech wednesday night starting at 8:00 eastern. >>> prosecutors say it could have been worse than 9/11. there's a verdict today in a british terror trial that changed the way you fly. our progressive direct rates,coe apples to apples, against other top companies, to help you get the best price. how do you do that? with a touch of this button. can i try that? [ chuckles ] wow! good luck getting your remote back. it's all right -- i lov

chuck grassley has been negotiating with max bachus.hey themselves might be able to come to a meeting of the minds, but grass rley trying to bring other republicans. that's very difficult to do. the president made remark last night to i'm not going to waste time if your made a calculation to oppose me and he thinks republicans have. >> all right. the president is shaking a couple hands here as he approaches the podium. let's listen to his comments on health care. >> thank you. thank you. thank you so much. it is -- it is good to be with all of you. please sit down, everybody. it is just great to be with nurses again. it is great to be with becky. i want to acknowledge -- i want to make sure i get them in order. natay, this is linda, and that is sonya. right? i got it right? and i want to thank all of them for appearing with us today. i want to also acknowledge dr. mary wakefield, our health resources and services administrator, highest ranking nurse in the administration. you know, thank you, becky, for your leadership on behalf of nurs

max bachus is still trying to find a way to tax the priciest plans. keilar is working her sources this morning. what are we going to see? >> reporter: instead of a public option, john, it includes a health cooperative approach. this is a nonprofit health co-op approach. we're not surprised it's not a public option. and it would be governed by the patients that it serves. so this is the key element of the proposal that senator max baucus will be talking over with a key group of democrats and republicans, the supreme court gang of six that he has been working with for months trying to forge a compromise. they'll be meeting this afternoon. this baucus proposal expands medicaid. right now, medicaid covers children up to 5 years old, covers pregnant woman below the poverty line and up to one-third above it. under this proposal, that would be expanded to include all people who are up to one-third of the poverty level so more kids and even adults who do not have children. there's the big question, of course, john, how do you pay for it? as you mentioned, a t

as we mentioned earlier, senator max because cass -- bachus -- baucus.after a closed door meeting yesterday several of baucus's fellow democrats emerged and voiced serious concerns with the plan. ron white. >> what is being discussed is the idea of 13% of your income is what you would have to be pay for some of this basic health coverage. so members are going to be grappling with is how you would go home and tell folks something like that would be affordable. sean: here is our prediction. i'm sure senator baucus will find a way to blaine blame the republicans anyway. it appears that bill clinton does not forgive nor does he forget. according to abc 7 in california, the former president is reportedly set to endorse san francisco mayor good afternoon knew some in the democratic democratic primary marry. he could gravely damage the campaign of one of his old political rivals california's current attorney general jerry brown, home many consider to be the frontrunner over newsome. the two went head to head in the heated 1992 democratic presidential primary. s

senate finance committee chairman max bachus of montana gave an update on the committee's health careday. the senator promised to deliver a bill next week with a markup scheduled for the following week. he also said the final version will not have a public option because he does not believe it would pass a full senate vote. his remarks are six minutes. >> i just met with my finance committee colleagues and laid out a path for moving forward. i will wut out a chairman's mark early to mid next week. the finance committee forward to mark up on health care reform the week after next. this is our moment. we have spent many weeks and months on this crucial issue and now is the time to move forward. >> >> is that a bipartisan mark? >> i very much hope and i expect it will be some republicans when i issue the mark next week and when we go to markup the following week. my door's open irrespective, i'm going to move forward anyway. we have to move forward. i told grassley that just about an hour ago. i mentioned that to other key senators a short while ago so we will have a mark and we'll put o

i think malpractice will bring people who wouldn't vote for the by the democrats and max bachus shouldget sainthood for the patience he's shown but there's time that, you know, i run across people in every trip i make talking about this issue, pat and john lose their 100-year ranch, roberto walker loses her health care and finds out the next week she has cancer. we can have lots of policy debates here. if this is about building a bipartisan consensus, fine. if this is about changing the bill and be like lucy on charlie, pulling the football out every time he's ready to kick it, i'm not for that anymore. >> we should find some foundational bipartisan issues. i think the malpractice has the potential to erupt as much as other things. we should be choosing what we agree upon. there was a huge focus on chronic disease in what tom daschle and others wrote. we should declare a war on obesity like we've done with other things in the past and hopefully more effective than some of those and looking at how do to the change the care model to look at that. those kinds of things we can agree on. if

director of a regulatory office in the centers for medicare and medicaid service who used to work for max bachus said that a mailer humana sent to its customers was misleading and confusing to beneficiaries, who may believe it represents official communication about the medicare advantage program, end quote. he also banned all advantage contractors from telling customers what mr. elmendorf told congress. mr. bloom happens to be a former senior aide to mr. bachus and an advisor on the president obama transition team. for the record, c.b.o.'s director elmendorf said cuts to medicare advantage could lead to many plans to limit the benefits they offer, raise premium or withdraw from the program. they want to put a gag on the deliverers of this congress because they're writing to patient the people they're cover, and telling them they'll lose coverage if this bill passes that medicare advantage is going to be gutted, senator baucus is now saying we want to put a gag in the mouths of the people who are providing this coverage so that they can't tell the senior citizens of this country they're going to

under the bachus or the senate finance bill subsidies to low income people would be capped at 13% on premiums of the max. whereas in the house bills the premiums would be capped at 11%. so the house bill again is doing more to help middle class people. the senate finance committee's doing -- is cutting into the middle class even more. this is just premiums. this is not co-pays, this is not deductible payments you have to make, this is not other costs associated with health care. this is just premiums. so, again, the senate finance committee, not nearly as good as any of the house bills. senate finance committee has -- ms. woolsey: if the gentleman will yield again, just that 2% difference, that cuts into middle income workers who -- i don't know what the numbers are, but i think it's if they earn $41,000 a year and have four children, then they're not -- the subsidies would -- they wouldn't be eligible for the subsidies and i don't have that in front of me, i'm sorry, i might be off a little bit. but it really cuts into middle income workers and part of what this bill is about is making it secure for al