on tomorrow's "washington journal," we will talk with representatives jason altmire about health care, david savage discusses john roberts, robert johnson will talk about financial relationships, and we will talk about the future of nato. "washington journal" is live 7:00 a.m. eastern time here on c-span. >> obama and his socialistic ideas to deciding salaries, that is what is in progress right now. >> sunday, michelle easton on her work to promote conservative women in leadership roles, sunday night on c-span "q&a prat." >> chief justice john roberts spoke at university of alabama law school on thursday -- on wednesday. he made comments about president obama as stated the union speech. today in 2010, when our nation has faced a stream of critical moments, lawyers maintain our faith in the resilience of our constitutional system. our society, our very way of life are protected by constitutional architecture that has survived and six every threat. our courts are often the branch of last resort, guardians of our constitutionalism with all attorneys bowling to serve the branch which alex

on tomorrows "washington journal," we will talk to jason altmire about health care, of reporter talksabout john roberts, robert johnson will talk about the financial industry regulations, and we will look at the future nato. "washington journal" is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> now what pentagon briefing on parliamentary elections in iraq. he also talks about the relationship between u.s. troops and the iraqi security forces. he speaks with reporters form a rack for 25 minutes -- from a rack for 25 minutes. >> it is my privilege to introduce the general. he assumed his duties in january of this year, and this is his first opportunity to be with us in this format, and we appreciate you taking the time this evening to give us some perspective on what you have been doing. most recently, the most important of elections taking place there. i know you have a few words that you would like to set the context before we start taking questions, so let me turn it over to you. >> brian, thanks a lot. i would like to make a brief opening statement. first of all, thanks to members of the p

in this final push, it was a congressman from pennsylvania, outside of pittsburgh, jason altmire, whohowered with presidential attention. two parties at the white house. phone calls from the president. rahm emanuel talking to him. cabinet officials calling. and in the end altmire who knows a lot about health care and worked in the insurance industry just said it's not popular in my district. gwen: wow. >> and then congressman kasich came to another conclusion. >> yes, he did. >> dennis kucinich. gwen: kasich a former congressman. >> kucinich who is advocate of a single payer government system, very liberal, he had been in the white house for meetings, too. and wasn't budging. and then he had this ride aboard air force one in the presidential cabin. gwen: air norse one rides. -- air force one rides. >> it's a little bit of extra razzle-dazzle. but what he said and others have sort of confirmed, my reporting on this, is that the president made a very personal appeal and said you were with me in the early days of the presidential contest when you told your iowa delegates, if i -- kucinic

. >>> congressman jason altmire of pennsylvania is feeling the heat. supporters and a few opponents of reform clashed outside altmire's office in pennsylvania. >> hell it ain't! >> on cnn's "american morning" altmire says he still hasn't made up his mind. >> i need to see the finished product and see that we're restraining the growth of health care in the long-term because we're never going to get the long-term deficit in order unless we address health care costs and we also have to bring down the costs of people who have it now. >> so you have something to say about health care reform? give me a call, 1-877-742-5760, some of you already have. man, have you ever. here's what some of you are saying. >> emergency room for three hours, $5,642.79. something awful wrong somewhere. >>> our nation needs to stand with every other nation in the world and give us health care. >> if they want to start with reform, they should start with the drug companies, the doctors and the household. >> more, more, more! we want to hear from you. here's the number again, 1-877

dozens of union members are staging a sit-in at the congressional offices of representative jason altmiredemocrat currently in the no column on reform. the president of the steel workers says his workers helped put altmire in office and wants him to change his vote. >>> the push and pull over the future of health care affecting patients, politicians, and physicians. we'll bring these two people in. first up is matt hines, a democratic state representative in arizona, who is also an internist. he's joining us from tucson. he supports the overall and then dr. brian hill is a urologist joining me from atlanta, opposed to the health care reform bill. you may recognize this guy from last -- you caused quite a stir at one of those town hall meetings, conversations that they had. we'll talk to him in a little bit. but let's go to our guest first, from arizona, why do you support this bill, congressman hines, representative hines? >> representative. thank you for the promotion. it is great to be here. i have to say that this is something that i ran on and that i told my voters that i would work t

respective jason altmire from western pennsylvania, steelworkers staged a stit-in, in his office yesterdayhe right thing and vote for the bill. he is from a very tough district that mccain carried 55-44 in 2006. on the other side john botcherri voting yes, after voting no. he says now something is better than nothing. chuck, what are the consequences for each of these congressmen as they go into the fall? >> i'll say this. i do think that we to assume that the next six months is going to look like it is today is clearly to say that it's clearly you haven't watched american politics over the last three cycles. to sustain this anger, and this ability to rally conservatives, rally independents against democrats and some of these swing districts i think is going to be tricky. that said, you know, there are some guys who basically made the decision, well, it is easier to go down at least the base of the democratic party, will be with me in the fall, and you know, this is going to be a base turnout election, so don't depress the base. that was sort of the political argument that they were saying

in fact, jason altmire, who is from a swing district in pennsylvania and voted no on health care in november time, but he decided he is once again a nay. and there are plenty of other democrats in tough re-election battles this year who are undeclared but they don't want to talk about it. t.j.? >> thanks to our dana bash this morning. >>> this is a great story. this woman, she definitely delivers. a woman going the extra mile by land, air, and sea to bring medical supplies to a remote area of the world. >> we'll intror deuce you to our hero of the week. stay here. >>> this is the weekend. they are working this weekend expecting to see a vote tomorrow on the senate version of health care legislation. a live picture of capitol hill. they are working this weekend. still, a lot of undeclared and undecideds out there. they're trying to get to the magic number of 216 on either side, yes or no. that was going to make the difference of whether or not this legislation passes or it fails. that means 38 democrats, if they join in on the nos, that means the legislation will be defeated. by last count 29

jason altmire, stephanie from south dakota. these are people who voted no. deficit hawks, but not quite the blue dogs. >> here's the question. you know the old terrible kinard against john kerry, which is i voted for it before i voted for it, i voted for it before i voted against it, if you're a democrat and a house member and you voted against it the first time, and now you decide you're going to vote for it, can't your opponents trash you and say, oh, he was against it before he was for it. and run that at him? >> unless you're somebody like dennis kucinich. >> one of the people on the left. the people on the left have more to run on. >> how about in the middle? somebody from a red state? isn't that a tough one for you? >> i don't think so. >> you say what you don't think so? >> the thing is, i think it would have to be one of the four from the left. i don't think anybody from the right. >> nobody from the right will change and vote for this? >> no, no. >> we just saw a poll in bobby >> bright's district. montgomery, alabama. here's somebody who voted agai

jason altmire is one of them and he joins us live from capitol hill. great to see you. with the current legislation and what would it take to get you on board? >> i've said from the beginning this has to be about bringing down the cost of health care for people who have it now, for families and businesses and seniors. and the initial versions of the bill didn't do as good a job as we could have. that's why i need to see the finished product and see we're retaining the growth of health care because we'll never get our long-term deficit in order unless we address health care costs and we have to bring down the cost for people who have it now. >> three times in ten days, that's how many times you've spoken with president obama. trying to get you on board and trying to get you to agree to any final legislation to pass through the house. are you any closer to leaning in the direction of saying yes this time around? >> i need to see the finished product. there's no cbo score available yet. we expect that perhaps as soon as today. at that point i can go through it and see if t

pennsylvania's jason altmire voted no on the original house bill last november. >> i think it's our job as a representative to go on record. this is the biggest policy agenda in the last 40 years, more than likely, and for the american people not to know where their representatives stand, i think, is crazy. you have to do this in a way that is transparent and open for the american people to accept the result. >> holman: president obama has been pushing for final passage of the health care bill to uncommitted democrats in private white house meetings. >> kill the bill! >> holman: but pressure from the other side was on public display today. a group of "tea party" protestors visited capitol office buildings, attempting to sway members away from voting for the health care bill. john beatty is from wilmington, delaware. >> i came down here to stop the bill. i believe the bill in its present form is bad government. we need to stop and start over, and have smaller, targeted bills to save money and insure more people. >> holman: the spotlight remains on the house tomorrow, when the rules commi

jason altmire was here today for the bill signing, is he meeting with him? >> i have not talked about names, i assume there are a numb of people who had a bill signing who were probably spoken to by the staff. i don't know who the president has met with. >> were they invited to try to get them to vote for this bill? >> i think they played roles in getting the bill, the very important legislation the president signed right here just a few hours ago, to provide tax credits for the unemployed. that's why they were invited to that ceremony. along with many dozen members of congress. >> it wasn't to twist their arms on health care reform? >> i don't doubt somebody mentioned health care reform while they were here, there are probably not many conferrings happening any place in this town that don't involve health care. >> in his conversations with members to what degree is the president stressing the importance ofing is passing health care to his -- importance of passing health care to the strength of his presidency? >> again, chip, i don't think anybody doubts the