president, i read an excellent come up in "the new york times" by nicholas kristof, and i ask that it appear in the record. the presiding officer: without objection u. mr. reid: he tells the stoart of a number of things but of one richard streeter, a truck driver who's very, very, very ill with colon cancer. why? because he couldn't afford insurance. couldn't afford health insurance. kristof writes, "the biggest health crisis in america now is not the inexcusably messy rollout of back obamacare. now, far more serious is the kind of catastrophe facing people like richard streeter." mr. streeter is a resident of eugene, oregon. his problem isn't obamacare, but a tumor in his colon that is going to kill him. unless there is a miracle. he could have been treated, had he had health insurance. for him, obamacare didn't come quite soon enough. kristof's come up is an important reminder that the rollout of obamacare is about more than an effective web site. it is about saving lives, lots of lives. kristof reminds republicans that they should have empathy for the nearly 50 million americans wi

joining me to explain all of this, nicholas kristof a columnist for "the new york times" who won one of two pulitzer prizes for his coverage and also elizabeth economy. is this as big of a deal as it looks like? >> the one child policy is a misnomer. on average a chinese woman has 1.5 children right now. it's a real relaxation. most people will have a chance to have a second child and that's a real step forward. it's a promising -- this is something that's been talked about forever by the chinese government and interesting that the leader was able to push this through. >> liz, this is presumably because they look at the demograph demograph demographic future and within five or seven years they face a labor shortfall and have lots of old people and not enough young workers. >> they look at a situation right now where by 2050, a third of the population will be over 65 years old so they are quite concerned. the truth is this relaxation is unlikely to produce transformation. it's going to be a slight bump, if anything. we're looking at maybe a million or two more children born per year a

as new york times columnist nicholas kristof described this weekend, mr. schrader could not find insurance in the individual market. no insurance company would cover him. he did what people locked out of the market do, he went without care. after months of ignoring care, for areeter went in colonoscopy, he could not afford one. the only one -- the only way he could get it was from a doctor who agreed to take half payment now and half when he could afford it. he had advanced: cancer -- advanced colon cancer. his doctor said this "it was heartbreaking to see the paint on his face, the real train wreck is what people are experiencing every day because they cannot afford care." mr. streeter is the second patient the doctor had put off seeing because of a lack of health insurance and now has advanced colon cancer. he has a tough road ahead of him, but now he does not have to worry about paying for treatment. he signed up for health insurance starting january 1, which cannot turn him down because of his pre-existing condition. we passed to the affordable care ac

joining us now, the "new york times" columnist, nick kristof and bill kristol, editor of the weekly standardmanpour spoke with the foreign minister of iran today and he said this. i'll play the clip. >> i believe it is possible to reach an understanding or an agreement before we close these negotiations tomorrow evening. >> wow. a deal between the u.s., these other powers and iran on nuclear, potential nuclear program there. you must be thrilled. >> it's kind of easy to make a deal if you give up on most of your negotiating positions. iran is not going to stop enrichment, of course. it's not even going to reverse anything they have done. they may stop parts of their program allegedly, not even all of it, and nothing gets moved backwards. so this deal is a collapse, really, by the united states and by the west in these negotiations. >> i have a different take, not surprisingly. look, we don't know what the terms will be but it looks as if iran will stop enriching at 20% which is the most dangerous kind of enrichment and would also slow down a plutonium reactor which are the two things which m

kristof or i could mention kathleen ferguson from des moines. eight years ago her son died at age 33 and she said my son died needlessly because he had a pre-existing condition and could not get the medication he needed. i want us to take better care of each other and i'm grateful people with pre-existing conditions can now get coverage. that's the old value system. mary lamb is from swisher iowa told me about her brother. trying to find insurance coverage for his wife for years and tried to buy coverage with a 50,000-dollar deductible but no one would sell her policy. they log on to the federal exchange and rove himself federal exchange and rove himself and his wife saving $700 a month from what he was paying before. mary writes the aca gives folks with chronic conditions is chance to avoid bankruptcy, a new value system. i guess they're going to be disruptions when you move from an old system to an new system. and certainly we have to make sure we fix these problems and the web site and other things. i will refer again to what i said earlier a