democrat ron wyden of the democratic committee is our guest. >> nuclear deception. the iranian secret is out. details of an underground nuclear-fueleded nuclear site revealed this morning. the president responds this is a mistake. they will be sorry. >>> will china impose sanctions on iran? >>> no classification on bill sparkman. >> they knock on doors of saintly people and really horrible people. missing him is real for us. >> joe. heckler is the gop's new joe the plumber. why the republicans continue to embrace and elevate their fringe elements to poster boy status? sarah palin's latest attempt to prove she is up to speed on global politics. also she changed her profile picture. how do you lampoon a human cartoon? "saturday night live" took their shot last night. >> those letters don't rearrange to spell that. >> all that and more now on "countdown." >> i'm the best damn actor on television. >>> good evening from new york,

senator ron wyden of oregon.hank you, sir, for joining us. >> thank you, chris. >>> up next, the elephant in the room. the story the white house would prefer we would ignore, about race. that kept coming up in the meets today with the presidential press secretary robert gibbs. so many questions. we'll get to how many on the question of race all being thrown at the white house. they don't like these questions. there's not really any answers. we'll have that story when we come back "the sideshow" only on msnbc. the sea salts of the world vary in color, taste, and intensity. now campbell's has found one that tops them all. it's naturally flavorful. adding it helps us use less salt than before in campbell's tomato soup. that famous, familiar flavor, as delicious as ever. now with less salt. thanks to a very special sea salt. ♪ so many, many reasons ♪ it's so m'm! m'm! good! ♪ chef's meal with pommes frites perhaps a night at the theater with extra special seats additional hotel night, our treat your world in perfect

. >> with us tonight from the finance committee is senator ron wyden of oregon.evening, senator. >> thanks for having me. >> of course. ten democrats on your committee voted for a public option today. is that a better or worse position than the public option held yesterday? >> my sense is that this fight is far from over, and in fact i'm going to keep pushing for choice, both private choices and public choices because that's how you get insurance company accountability. of course we would have rather won today but the fact of the matter is americans learned today that this system is walled off from competition and choice. i'll be offering a proposal that gives all americans choices, like members of congress have through competition. we can hold the insurance companies accountable. this fight is far from over. >> as far as chairman baucus, a democrat, can you explain why he, chairman baucus, unveiled a reform blueprint a year ago that had a public option, has been drifting away ever since, culminating with his vote against the public option twice today? even thoug

. >> joining us now is that man that you just saw there, democratic senator ron wyden of oregon. he sits on the senate finance committee, which today began the arduous task of marking up the baucus health reform plan and debating about 564 amendments. senator wyden, thanks very much for taking the time to be with us on this busy day. >> thanks for having me back. >> you described real choice, real reform as being able to choose something else if you don't like what you have now. that's the idea behind your free choice act amendment, which is getting a lot of attention. can you explain to us how that would work? >> you've summed it up, rachel, and it sits pretty darn well with the public option. look, all over america people are carrying these signs, public option, public option or bust. they're wonderful activists but a lot of folks haven't been told that the congressional budget office says only about 12 million people in america would actually get to choose the public option. they are likely to be sicker. they're likely to be folks who haven't had good preventive health care se

senator ron wyden of oregon.oining us. >> thank you, chris. >>> up next, the elephant in the room. the story the white house would prefer we would ignore, about race. that kept coming up in the meeting today with the presidential press secretary robert gibbs. so many questions. we'll get to how many on the question of race all being thrown at the white house. they don't like these questions. there's not really any answers. we'll have that story when we come back "the sideshow" only on msnbc. i'm picky. so, at national, i go right past the counter... and you get to choose any car in the aisle. choose any car? you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. go national. go like a pro. of maxwell house's flavor lock lid. hear that? seals it tight. smells like fresh ground. fresh fresh fresh fre-- that's our favorite part. ...fresh! (announcer) taste why maxwell house is good to the last drop. if you're using other moisturizing body washes, you might as well be. you see, their moisturizer sits on top of skin, alm

ron wyden is with us.s klein president of the american benefits council and against wyden's free choice amendment. bear in mind choice is you would be able to leave the employer-based program if you so desire. also with us is jonathan capehart of "the washington post" and arianna huffington, chief of the huffington post. senator wyden, where do you stand politically with you efforts to get liberation and choice for americans to try to get health care for themselves? >> i think we're making some real headway. what you got to say is if somebody doesn't like their health care plan, if they are entrapped, they don't like it, they still shouldn't have a choice. i don't think that's right. what we are doing with our proposal is importing the principal of choice into the employer-based system and strengthening the hands of the workers and imploirs and i think making headway. >> mr. klein, you wrote a letter to some members of the senate finance committee asking them and urging them to vote against the wide -- wyd

democrat ron wyden told us the bill would force many people to buy health insurance that they can not afford. >> under the draft proposals certainly some significant number of middle class folks could end up paying more. >> reporter: and that's a problem for you? >> it doesn't pass the smell test. >> reporter: senator jay rockefeller called the bill a big, big tax on the middle class. and the senate's top democrat, harry reid, sounded off via twitter, criticizing parts of the bill. while senators debated parts of the issue, a house committee heard from americans pleading for health care reform. this los angeles father told of his struggle with his insurance company to get treatment for his baby daughter. >> i feel like her medical manager instead of her daddy. i need you people to let me be a daddy. >> reporter: liberals were also unhappy that the bill does not create a government-run insurance program, but charlie, the reaction today makes it clear that that is only one of many obstacles facing this bill. >> jonathan karl on capitol hill, thanks to you tonight. and there was new evid

there is that plan in the senate by senator ron wyden of oregon, who is a democrat, endorsed by any numberf republicans as well. there are plenty of plans out there. that's a democratic talking point that president obama, in particular, should not pick up, and he said it repeatedly. he said it again on monday in his speech in cincinnati. he said republicans are the people they just want to have a plan. what is odd about this speech, if you remember 16 years ago, president clinton gave his speech on healthcare and he outlined -- this was at the beginning of the whole healthcare debate and he outlined what he wanted. it went on from there. now we have had the healthcare debate. we we are have had bills pass three committees in the senate. in the house there are a couple of bills in the senate and now the president is going to come in and tell us? look, what a strong president does in a case like this is sit down with the parties in congress and say here is what i want and then negotiate a bill and go from there. there is no even for this speech unless he is going to hit the reset button and

joining me now, another member of the senate finance committee, senator ron wyden of oregon. good to have you with us tonight. >> thanks for having me back. >> we talked a lot about choice. you have an amendment out there that would allow employees to shop around the health insurance policies. to shop around for them. what kind of shopping are we talking about? i mean -- >> ed, we're talking about the kind of shopping that members of congress do. what my amendment is all about is that this provides a way for the typical consumer to hold the insurance companies accountable. it puts the consumer in the driver's seat. it forces the insurance companies to compete for the consumers' business. the president always says, and i really like it, you can keep the coverage you have. what i want to do is make sure is if you don't like the coverage you have you can go out and hold the insurance companies accountable. if they're ripping you off with your current coverage, you can go get something else just the way members of congress can. >> from the insurance industry? >> absolutely. >> wh

lot of democrats that have a problem with these cuts including senator bill nelson from florida, ron wydenm roaring gone. it is going to be a tough sell to get this to happen. >> the reason is that the president has said if you like what you have, you keep. it the problem is that he said a quarter of seniors have this, instead of the regular medicare, and they like it. a lot of them are poor, and the reason that they like it is it is a trade-off. there is a little bit of a restriction on who your doctor can be, however, you get benefits and the poor that can't otherwise purchase it, so the president has said on television on sunday, they will make no difference if they take it away, and once again the c.b.o. shoots an arrow right through obama's promise. it said that if you have medicare advantage, and it's abolished, you will lose half of the benefits so you are not going to keep what you have. that's the original sin of the obama proposal. at the beginning, it said you're going to get a free lunch. we're going to expand the coverage at no cost. you cannot do it. somebody has to pay and h

. >>> we are joined tonight by senator ron wyden, democrat of oregon. >> thanks for having me, larry. >> i want to put up a couple of poll numbers. 80% of democrats think republicans are motivated just by politics. for some reason, more than half of democrats, 54% still think you democrats should compromise enough to get republican support. how do you read those two polls that seem to be in conflict? overwhelming majority of democrats believe the republicans are just stumping here, but they want you to negotiate with them? >> larry, polls are fleeting. tuesday is really when the test is going to be given. the question is going to be, is the committee going to hold insurance companies accountable? is the committee going to take on what i call the status quo caucus? it's led by the insurance industry. there are other powerful lobbies behind it. they are slicing a fat hog. what we need is cost and competition. >> you are going to get two amendments to the bill on public option, one by senator rockefeller which will be a public option similar to what they've done in the house. another by

. >>> and also joining us is ron wyden. and one of the best we have had around. and then jonathan capehart, editorial writer and board member of the "washington post," and senator, i will begin with you. your thoughts on the bacchus talking points? >> this is the starting point. certainly not the end point and we are waiting for the detail. i continue to believe, the real challenge that we talked about on the show is to give choices to all the people of the country. we looked at the bills previously, and by law, if you look to 2019, the ten-year period of the legislation, by law 15 million people would be barred from getting real choices in the market places. if you want to get real accountability, you have to give everybody choices. i will be offering those amendments in the finance committee. >> if you look at the president's task tonight, and your views and the senate's views, and those that you talked to are about dealing with health care, how far off is the president or how far off is the senate relative to the president? >> i am encouraged the president's a

senator ron wyden of oregon. >> thank you, chris. >>> up next, the elephant in the room. the story the white house would prefer we would ignore, about race. that kept coming up in the meeting with robert gibbs. so many questions. we'll get to how many on the question of race being thrown at the white house. they don't like these questions. there's not really any answers. we'll have that story when we come back "the sideshow" only on msnbc. you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. go national. go like a pro. discover a light yogurt like no other. activia light! delicious, fat free, and above all... the only one that has bifidus regularis and is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system. activia light. ♪ activiaaa! if you're using other moisturizing body washes, you might as well be. you see, their moisturizer sits on top of skin, almost as if you're wearing it. only new dove deep moisture has nutriummoisture, a breakthrough formula with natural moisturizers... that can nourish deep down. it's the most effective natural nourishment ever. new dove d

. >>> now joining me now tonight is the great senator from oregon, ron wyden. i say great because you had something on the table -- we're not going to talk about that tonight, but you've been working on this for a long time, this speech, ron. what did you think? >> powerful and persuasive. the fact is on issues like insurance. the president is talking about changing the inhumane model of private health insurance, in ep infe effect turning it on its head. it's a complicated issue. he put it in very personal terms. this industry will no longer be able to cherry pick, just go take healthy people. send sick people to government programs more fragile than they are. >> did he have -- did i sense a little bit of anger tonight, a little bit of frustration? this is a president who isn't known for showing a lot of emotion, okay. tonight he did. would you agree with me on that? >> he certainly did, and he said he was going to be on the public's side. he understood -- >> he wasn't going to back down. >> he said, we're going to have to take on some very powerful interest gro

joining me now, democratic member of that finance committee on the senate side, senator ron wyden of oregon. good to have you be us tonight. >> many thanks, eds. >> all right. i want to know about this baucus plan that ended up on kay street first before it got over to the white house. is that any signal at all to you there's really no genuine effort on a bipartisan agreement? what do you think? >> ed, first of all, this is just a starting point. this isn't the end point. there are plenty of areas of improvement. it starts with the comment robert gibbs made yesterday, the white house communications man. he said 180 million people wouldn't be eligible for the public ogs. our figures are it's more like 225 million people. we need real choices for the consumer. that's how you're going to hold the insurance industry accoun n accountab accountable. that's how you get real reform. that's what i'm going to get out of the senate finance k. >> you're saying 180 million or 220 million people would not benefit from the public option? which whatever number it is, senator, at least they're going

democrat ron wyden told us the bill would force many people to buy health care they could not afford.> under the draft proposals, certainly some significant number of middle-class folks could end up paying more, yes. >> reporter: and that's a problem for you? >> it doesn't pass the smell test. >> reporter: senator jay rockefeller called the bill a big, big tax on the middle class and even the top democrat, harry reid sounded off via twitter. while senators debated the issue, a house committee heard from americans pleading for health care reform. this los angeles father told of his struggle with his insurance company to get treatment for his baby daughter. >> all too often i feel like her medical manager instead of her daddy. i need you people to let me be a daddy. >> reporter: liberal democrats were also upset the bill does not create a new government-run health insurance program but the reaction to the bill's release makes it clear that that is just one of many obstacles facing it in congress. jonathan karl, abc news, capitol hill. >> the white house is putting distance between itsel

and ron wyden seems to be doing something that is working nicely for him. >> the idea is the challengee and the center. i think we are a center country, and i don't believe we are center right. i think we can do a better job articulating values and policies. let's take the health care debate. we are trying to put forward a policy that would create competition in the marketplace. that's supposed to be, you know, a part of our society and our system. it's supposed to be an american value, actually, dylan. >> exactly. >> part of the problem is we become so divided we forgot we are all americans and it's supposed to be about america and not holding on to power. and what is interesting in the value voters summit, and john mccain tried that strategy and to go far to the right in the primaries and then come back to the center, and then the problem was when he tried to come back to the center, the moderates and center did not believe him, and he lost support, a couple of my own family, moderates that previously had great respect for him. so you have to stand up for what you believe in from the

senator ron wyden rejoins the conversation. you believe you have a solution to unleash the forces of competition, senator. how do you get it done? >> we get it done by saying look. at every rally, i'm sure the president will use it over the course of the next few days, he looks at the crowd and says you should get the same deal as your member of congress. that is, almost a verbatim quote at these rallies. the fact is, the bills that are being written here on capitol hill, not only don't give people choices like members of congress, they don't give any choices at all. by law they are going to be barred from holding insurance companies accountable. >> why do you -- why are people in washington, d.c. so terrified to unleash the natural forces of competition in health insurance as in every other major industry to tremendous success for this country? >> ultimately, the status quo caucus, led by the powerful insurance interests don't want this kind of competition. they are slicing a fat hog. i had a chance with senator bennett of uta

again, here's ron wyden's comments about this amendment that is proposed before the senate finance committeee ability to either choose to keep the coverage they have or pick a plan that works better for them and their families. who will be against that, torre? >> it makes sense. >> to insure their workers through state-based insurance exchanges. olympia snowe has a similar amendment. those against this amendment, the unions who will accumulate leverage in negotiation by being able to get better health benefits than non-union members. employee benefits, and anybody in the medical business who makes extra money through excess medical procedures that go through such an inefficient medical system. let's see what the senate does. we'll talk about it in the morning. but again, do they work for us the people? or do they work for special interests in this is the referendum on msnbc continues right now. >> dylan works for the people. >> i work for the people. how to get rich, by america's health insurance companies. raise health insurance premiums 4 times faster than wages. pay your ceo twenty four m

. >> you know, mika, we need to get with ron wyden on the bill and get him to talk about this.itical points. if you want true free-market forces in the health insurance industry, this is how we do it. >> let me ask dylan before we go. what is your sense of the federal reserve's assessment of the economy? >> in a nutshell, again, a year later the government gets an a or maybe an a minus on how we handled the bailout. a fragile system was breaking and they were able to support it. it costs us $23 trillion. that's the use of the money, and not necessarily the expenditure of it. what kind of a system requires the use of $23 trillion in taxpayer capital in that subsidy, simply to make the banking system work? that's evidence we have to review how the banking system is built. we have an f for systems design. >> harold ford jr., thank you for being with us. dylan, stick around for the round table. and dylan, we go around the table, and we don't talk on top of each other, and we talk separately to each other. >> just follow my lead. >> that's how she talks to you, joe -- >> we'll have

ron wyden asked him if a person has critical threat information, urgent information and you need to bee to secure that information he asked leon panetta what wod you do in the particular situation where you have someone who could be a ticking time bomb and it's absolutely necessary to find out what information the individual has i feel we would have to do everythingossible, everything possible within the law to get the information. if we h@d a ticking time bomb situation obviously whenever was being used i felt was not sufficient i would not hesitate to go to the president of the united states and request whatever additional authority i would need but obviously i would against this president would do nothing and would violate the laws in place. having said that -- >> [inaudible] >> with the president of the united states, president obama, b from considering aequest from the cia to engage in the interrogation techniques beyond the field manual that were lawful? >> from the quote you read the keyword from leon panetta with the law -- >> the complete all -- >> it is an outline for interro