>> i don't think so. >> senator daschle?'re going to pass the reconciliation package in the house. it will go to the senate. there's 20 hours. amendments can be offered. procedural challenges can be made. at the end of the day, the majority will rule. and harry reid has the votes. he's going to demonstrate that beginning this week. >> i found it interesting he did release the letter. it's a letter giving the house democrats assurance. and they tell us there are 51 signatures on the letter. but in what's been released, the signatures are left off and it's a blank piece of paper. >> if so much as a comma is changed, its goes back to the house. >> that's true. >> but this is a protected measure. that is, it's an expedited procedure, that allows a majority in the house and the senate. there's no reason why we wouldn't have the votes necessary to pass reconciliation when it happens. >> the bill is going to pass. reconciliation is going to pass. it's becoming the law. and in november, people will argue, as part of the offyear elec

we'll speak with tom daschle. also today, tim geithner calling for an overhaul of the nation's mortgage system. time to end the ambiguity over the government's involvement fannie and freddie. a car & driver 10best for the third year in a row. ♪ with a direct injection v6 engine. see your cadillac dealer soon, because while there is no expiration date on achievement, on rewarding it, there is. for qualified current lessees, the cts luxury collection. ♪ to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm. a man can only try... and try...and try. [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy. ♪ >>> the president signed health reform into law today capping one of the wildest congressional battles in recent memory. with us now, former senate majority leader, tom daschle. thank you so much. it's great to see you. you

tom daschle said long ago do this in a bipartisan way. i think he cited the example of australia where they had very narrow votes for health care reform and then it was repealed and they went back and forth until they got consensus. >> let's get to reconciliation which budget reconciliation means you have a separate bill here that would only need a simple majority that would just deal with the spending provisions of health care. you two had words about this on the pages of "the washington post." and senator hatch, let me put a portion of what you wrote on the screen. thuse of reconciliation to jam through this legislation against the will of the american people would be unprecedented in scope. and the havoc wrought would threaten our system of checks and balance, corrode the legislate of the process and damage the prospects of bipartisanship. it e.j., your response included this. i'm disappointed in hatch, co-sponsor of two of my favorite bills. one created the state children's health insurance program, the other signed last year by obama

turns out this is a bill that tracks the recommendations not just of democrat tom daschle, but also republicans bob dole and howard baker. that this is a middle of the road bill, that is designed to help the american people in an area of their lives where they urgently need help. now there is some who wanted a single payer, government-run system. that's not this bill. the republicans wanted what i call the foxes guard the hen house approach in which we further deregulate the insurance companies and let them run wild, the notion being somehow that was going to lower cost for the american people. i don't know what serious health care economist who buys that idea, but that was their concept and we rejected that. because what we said was we want to create a system in which health care is working not for insurance companies, but it is working for the american people. it is working for middle class families. so what did we do? what is the essence of this legislation? number one, this is the toughest insurance reforms in history. we are making sure that the system of private insurance works for ordina

another time in '93, this bill is very similar to the bipartisan bill that senator dole and senator daschle and senator mitchell and senator baker, all former democrats and republicans, supported. it's very similar to the bill republicans advocated in '93. and if you look at mr. frum's piece, former bush speech writer, he noted-- which is something some of the things i've said before and others-- that this is very similar to policies advocated back in the '90s by republicans. not individual policies, the basic approach, which is a free market, market-based system approach. >> lehrer: is it true that as some published reports have said that you advocated actually going a little bit slower, a little smaller for health care and not go for the whole nine yards as the president ended up doing, the democrats? >> yes, first of all. >> lehrer: you did advocate? >> i said that a job of the chief of staff is to provide the president with a sense of options and to weigh those equities. and it's his strength is that he wanted that, looked at that and it was one of the things that he said thin this is w

later that day senate leader tom daschle holds a new conference on which he repeats the chart. the next day john kerry makes a speech come again we iterate in the charge and john edwards in a committee hearing makes the same charge. and at the end of the day they're joined by congresswoman jane harman, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee. thereby begin play several years and which the democrats allege that bush lied about weapons of mass destruction. and i try and make a point in the chapter of the book but if you believe that bush lied, then he got to deal with the fact that it's large number of democrats, bill clinton, al gore, hillary clinton, the four or five people i names. rob graham, democrat chairman, jay rockefeller, the ranking member of the committee and a member of the committee at the time. even opponents of the war like barbara boxer all said that iraq had wmd. this was a consensus of the intelligence community shared broadly throughout the government, sure probably to the government under clinton and bush and shared widely to western intellig

later that day democratic senate leader tom daschle holds a news conference of which he repeats the charge. the next day john kerry makes a speech again reiterating the charge and john edwards and a committee hearing mixed the same charge and at the end of the day they are joined by congressman gene harman, the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee. thereby begins several years in which the democrats allege that push lied about weapons of mass destruction. and i try and make the point in the chapter of the book that if you believe that bush lied in you've got to deal with the fact that a large number of democrats, bill clinton, al gore, hillary clinton, the of four named five people i mentioned, bob gramm, the democratic chairman of the intelligence committee, jay rockefeller, leader the ranking member of the committee and a member of the committee at the time, even opponents like barbara boxer all said that iraq had wmd. this was consensus of the community shared broadly throughout the government commissure broadly throughout the government of clinton and probably into the

it turns out this is a bill that tracks the recommendation, not just of democrats, tom daschle, but also republicans, bob dole and howard baker. that this is a middle of the road bill that is designed to help the american people in an area of their lives where they urgently need help. there are some that wanted a single payer, government run system. that is not this bill. the republicans wanted what i call the foxes guard the hen house approach, we further deregulate the insurance companies and let them run wild, the notion that was going to lower costs for the american people. i don't know what serious economists that buy that idea but that was their concept. we rejected that. we said we want to create a system in which health care is working not for insurance companies but working for the american people. it's working for middle class families. so what did we do? what is the essence of this legislation. number one, this is the toughest insurance reforms in history. [ applause ] we are making sure that the system of private insurance works for ordinary families. a prescription -- this a

turns out this is a bill that tracks the recommendation, not just of democrat tom daschle but also republicans bob dole and howard baker. that this a middle of the road bill that is designed to help the american people in an area of their lives were they urgently need help. there are some of a wanted a single payer, government run system. that is not this bill. the republicans wanted what i called the hen house approach in which we further deregulate the insurance companies and let them run wild. the notion being that they were lower costs for the american people. i do not know a serious health care economist who buys that idea, but that was their concept and we rejected that, because we said we wanted to create a system in which healthcare is working not for insurance companies but for the american people. it is working for middle-class families. so, what did we do? what is the essence of this legislation? number one, this is the toughest insurance reforms in history. we are making sure that the system of private insurance works for ordinary families. this is a patient's bill of rights on ste

as demonstrated by the landmark kerry daschle lugar-berman legislation, which supports pakistan's economic and social development goals with $7.5 billion in assistance over five years, the united states is committed to advancing the long- term aspirations of the pakistani people for a more peaceful and prosperous future. presidents the dari, prime minister gillani, and foreign minister qureshi deserve our thanks for their work to make that a reality and to ensure that its benefits reach the pakistani people. i also want to get for a manner -- foreign minister qureshi personal credit, not just for launching this credit, but for ensuring that we make tangible process -- tangible progress and produce real results on matters of importance. our working groups were hard at work today. first we are cooperating to boost economic development on a number of tracks. saisecretary -- deputy secretary lew will sign a letter of intent to upgrade significant road infrastructure in the northwest. we are taking concrete steps to help pakistan boost corn exports -- exports of agricultural products and to imp

people like bob dole and howard baker had proposals with tom daschle, very similar to what was proposed here. i talked about the fact that this legislation looks and all like -- looks and all light -- an awful lot like what happened in massachusetts, and i'm sure mitt romney hates me say net. why would people who propose something very similar to this now walk away from this? it is a good question for them to take. . . >>> ladies and gentlemen, i welcome you all. [ inaudible ] >> we need the mike. >> thank you all for coming. i want to thank carl cannon in advance. our distinguished group of panelists. this is a second report of our strengthening of america's future initiative entitled "prosperity or decline: breaking washington's deadlock to save america's future." we've all heard the phrase washington is broken. cnn series and the fact that both mccain and obama campaigned to change the way washington works. the nbc/"the wall street journal" polling show the congress at 37%, the president 48%. he dropped today. with 51% for the first time saying that they would not favor the reelectio

because of a stronger system turns out this is a bill that tracks not only recommendation of tom daschleicansñ this is designed to help people in an area of their lives where they urgently need help the republicans want the foxes guard the hen house approach. let them run wild under the notion that this was going to run the cost for americans. it is working for middle class families what did we do? number one, this is the toughest insurance reforms in history. we are making sure that the system of private insurance works for ordinary families making sure employers if they are paige prepare yums that their employees are getting the coverage that they expect. insurance companies are not going to gain the system with fine print that's number one. the second thing this does is it creates a pool. a marketplace, where individuals and small businesses who right now are having a terrible time out there getting edge insurance. they'll be able to pump health insurance as part of a big group just like federal employees, members of congress. they are now going to be part of a pool who can negotiate

people like bob dole and howard baker had proposals with tom daschle, very similar to what was proposedere. i talked about the fact that this legislation looks and all like -- looks and all light -- an awful lot like what happened in massachusetts, and i'm sure mitt romney hates me say net. why would people who propose something very similar to this now walk away from this? it is a good question for them to take. >> are you willing to work for a year on financial reform? >> we have already been working a year on financial reform. if passed the house. we're likely to pass through some committees in the senate, and the president believes we're coming close the two-year anniversary of the other collapse of our financial system, based on people gaming the system, and they are not seeing strong rules to prevent that from happening. the president is not convinced that it will take another year to get those rules and the place. people are going to have to decide within the next few months, particularly on financial reform, whether you're going to put rules in place to prevent this from happeni