it was approximately a month ago that secretary kathleen sebelius said the u.s. department of health and human services announced the creation of this new federal agency, and that is the administration for community living. and in her words, she said "for too long, too many americans have faced the a possible choice between moving to an institution or living at home without the long-term services and support they need." so this new administration for community living will be to helping people with disabilities, as well as seniors, to live a productive, satisfying lives. now, as you may be aware, the aging and disability population has been recognized actually at the local and state levels for quite some time now. so the mechanisms for providing support that facility community living have been really brought together into local and state agencies such as the san francisco departments the of aging and adult services that serves those populations since the year 2000. yet, at the federal level, policy developments from a community outreach, and program implementation

and the secretary of health and human services, kathleen sebelius said yes. she said yes, they're basically right. the only offset is they'll put a lot of subsidies and tax credits into which will cauost us more money. secretary sebelius signed on to this. i'm not making it up. >> i'm not disagreeing with you. i want to go back pre-obama care and preeveryone's hair being on fire including mine. find me a time when a health insurance company has not increased premiums in the last 30 years. regulated by the states, and every single time what happens? they go to the state insurance commissioner and they say i want to increase premiums and they always rubber-stamp and say yes. someone explain to me since obama care has not kicked in why everyone is blaming obama for health insurance premiums going up. actuaries are nothing, but doomsday sayers. >> hold it, my dad's a -- >> let me point out -- let me point out, kathleen sebelius says that the subsidies will mean it's affordable. subsidized isn't the same as affordable. if food costs doubled food stamps would not b

. >> the revelation of the week was that kathleen sebelius, health secretary told americans that actually health care law may increase people's health care premiums and costs, wow, what a revelation. >> imagine that. >> something we've been saying for four years on the page and by the way, the people really get shafted according to miss sebelius are people under the age of 30. when you've got employers dropping plans, when you've got costs out of control. this is not get the cost curve down. maybe it's time to repeal this law once and for all. >> paul: james. >> hit out to the u.s. supreme court which this week announced it will take a case on racial preferences at the university of michigan. a federal appeals court says that voters can't repeal preferences because their purpose it to help minorities. but ten years ago, the supreme court said that these preferences were constitutional only because their purpose was to promote a diverse student body. the justice got it wrong and now is a chance to get it right. >> paul: dan. >> this is a one of the solemn times of the year. a hit to the pe

buy the president saying oh yeah this is finally kathleen sebelius had to come out and say yes actually you know what this is going to be a lot more than your sorry you're really going to try and ride that horse of you know we're not going to fix this because we shouldn't have to because it should have oh no i don't think no i think first of all. you need to you need to keep the market in tact you if you push down artificially rad why we're presented is fix this small glitch obamacare is going to cause a small number of people that pay a little bit more in health and i must be missing something but what is what is the small fix that you're proposing would be to reduce compensate for how they're paying for you know to move to their ways are you going to say well we're never going to agree on that because i'm just trying to say we're already you know you're saying there should be a debate about it there's not even a debate. that while there will be a debate it would know there are there one john boehner says you know we're not going to discuss this idea we will continue this war. you know

we're making our own analysis of the situation in pennsylvania, and every hear from secretary sebeliusher more questions, we'll make our open decision, but right now, what i've told the general assembly, i can't recommend expansion at this time. >> neil: governor, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. >> neil: spring break? give me a break. snow coming down, a nightmare for travelers and the french protests and they're called quaint. americans protest and it they're called kooks. monica on the media's double standards. license and registration please. what's this? uhh, it's my geico insurance id card, sir. it's digital, uh, pretty cool right? maybe. you know why i pulled you over today? because i'm a pig driving a convertible? tail light's out.. fix it. digital insurance id cards. just a click away with the geico mobile app. dad: you excited for youyeah.st day? ♪ dad: you'll be fine, ok? girl: ok. dad: you look so pretty. ♪ i'm overprotective. that's why i got a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. picasso painted one of his master works at 56. doris taerbaum fi

now, just yesterday, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius total reporters, quote, these folks will be moving into a fully insured product for the first time so there may be a higher cost associated with getting into that market. now she tells us? maybe it took her this long to actually read the bill to find out what's in it. what's interesting about the revelation, it directly contradicts what the president has been telling you for years. watch this. >> we will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2500 per family. and we'll do it by taking the following five steps to lower costs throughout our health care system. that's why i met with representatives of insurance and drug companies, doctors and hospitals, and labor unions who are pledging to do their part to reduce health care costs. >> add it all up and the plan i'm proposing will cost around 900 billion dollars over ten years. >> our cost cutting measures mirror most of the proposals in the current senate bill which reduces most people he's premiums and brings down our deficit by up to 1 trillion dollars over the

secretary sebelius, i try to tell mika that every morning. show. it's didn't to see you. >> healthcare.gov. check out the site. >>> coming up, one of the founding members of the band fish makes the jump to broadway. we'll ask him about his brand new musical opening today. sounds cool. you're watching "morning joe" approved by starbucks. mom always got good nutrition to taste great. she was a picky eater. well now i'm her dietitian and last year, she wasn't eating so well. so i recommended boost complete nutritional drink to help her get the nutrition she was missing. and now she drinks it every day. well, it tastes great! [ male announcer ] boost has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones, and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. and our great taste is guaranteed or your money back. learn more at boost.com [ dietitian ] now, nothing keeps mom from doing what she loves... being my mom. governor of getting it done. you know how to dance... with a deadline. and you...rent from national

secretary sebelius will talk about the impact of education on head start. cutting programs for children is economically foolish and morally indefensible. in his state of the union, obama called for smarter government. sequestration is an example of dumb government. it is mind-boggling that washington is manufacturing a crisis when educators and parents are facing challenges and doing so well every single day. these across-the-board budget cuts were not caused by some hurricane or by natural disaster. they are manmade. they can be fixed now, by men and women who have the courage, commitment, and willingness to come together to compromise. they can be fixed by lawmakers who come to the table to do the right thing for children and keep growing america's middle class. this is not rocket science, not intellectually difficult, and must be done. thank you so much. now it is my honor to turn it over to secretary sebelius.she fromeen an amazing parter day 1. please give her a round of applause.[applause] >> good morning. i want to join secretary duncan in thanking t

the author of the article entitled "sebelius, some could see insurance premiums rise." thanks for coming n you were not at the briefing. one of your colleagues from "the wall street journal" was there and that colleague recorded the briefing and then gave you the tape is that right? >> that is the case, yes. >> what exactly did she say as far as premiums going up for a lot of americans across the country? >> the important thing is she spoke about premiums going up for some americans and in particular folks who have skimpy insurance plans right now and might get more generous coverage. this might seem like a little bit of an obvious point that if people are getting more they might have to pay more. but it is not really something the administration has focused on so far. so that's certainly created a lot of controversy. the other thing she pointed out was some people who currently have lower premiums perhaps because of insurance market practices like younger men might see their premiums increase even as perhaps older people or women see theirs decrease. they are acknowled

the hhs secretary kathleen sebelius saying there may be a higher cost associated with getting insurance. is that what we heard in the beginning? or is the obama administration singing a different tune? >> theyville to admit the reality. the president said if the obamacare was passed, premiums would go down $2500 for the average family by the end of 2010. that's what the president said -- >> did it happen? >> no! the average premium for a family of four was $13,375 a year before the affordable care act passed. the year it passed trose to an average of $13,770, $200-some-odd dollars more. then $15,073. then the following year, 2012, it's $15,745. so we have seen pretty consistent increase. we have a delta approaching $5,000 between the difference of what the president said it would be and where it actually is at this point. >> why did that happen? >> the law encouraged -- the law includes a lot of mandates and requirements for -- for insurance providers. these policies have to have a burch of stuff in there that heretofore were not included. for example, there is a limit on lifetime expen

you like to register to vote and he thinks it's fishy and he sends a letter to cat tli kathleen sebelius. >> he asks her to reply by april 8th. and in this city we send letters around and no one responds. we're in easter passover so maybe in a couple of weeks. >> greta: is this peculiar or routine? you do voter registration when you apply for food stamps or-- >> is there anything pe kul peculiar about this? >> we want to do our best to do good oversight of the application as the drafts are made, obviously, the final version isn't out yet and they want to have an impact on how it looks in the end. no, i don't think there's anything fishy here. since the '90s, if you're applying for medicare, for food stamps like you said, there's always an opportunity to register to vote because we decided in this law in the '90s, it's important for americans to have the opportunity all the time. and so, i think that that's what we're seeing here. >> greta: i can see we should talk a second about this questionnaire. in order to see whether you apply. the 61 pages, something, i don't know how you feel abou

so, chris, this republican lawmaker comes out and says to miss sebelius, look, the question is askedheir voter registration is somehow tied to their eligibility for a subsidy under obamacare and therefore, he has problems with it. your thoughts? >> well, it turns out that this is normal for public assistance application forms across the board. because democrats recognize that this is one of their constituencies, and they want to recruit people and line people up, you know, as soon as they can at every possible opportunity. i think, you know, i think everyone should vote. i think everyone should register to vote because then you can legally vote, but i think that the democrats certainly see this as an opportunity and the obama administration to appeal to a target audience, that is people signing up for obamacare. what really threw me on this one, was that the application for obamacare is 61 pages long. now, you can buy real estate in virginia with about eight pages. now, i don't know what you need 61 pages. that's what threw me for a loop. that's longer and-- >> and it's not surprisin

because i think secretary sebelius and hhs, whoever wrote this draft, are completely out of line with> well, so let me just get this straight. you go in there, and apparently it's not just obamacare. you correct me if i am wrong, sir. voters can register with a driver's license, okay. but if they apply for medicaid, food stamps or any other public assistance, they either can or have to put down some kind of voter registration. now to me, the incumbent president or the incumbent party is the clear winner. because they're the one offering the public assistance. i mean, republicans have opposed all this stuff. so to me that is totally political. it reminds me of here in new york, when the immigrants came off the ships, the old town hall would be there signing them up for the democratic party. that's what this sounds like. >> well, that's what it sounds like to me. i will say this. there has to be a clear wall of separation between political activity and using taxpayer dollars for these applications and for the official type of work. and to put this type of questioning in there creates a

also in the battle for privacy a designer in new york came up with a name to sebelius clothing line this is a garment that's designed to be thermally reflective which means that he bounces off it and he does what's he was for thermal imaging in particular this technology is used a lot on drones and you refuse but it's doubtful that this designer is gear however creative could compete with the cutting edge spight acknowledging now being developed for government use a million terabytes of video a day which is the equivalent of five thousand hours of high definition footage so you can go back and say i would like to see what happened in this particular location three days two hours four minutes ago and it would actually show you exactly what happened and you feel watching it live there's actually enough resolution to be able to see that people were. saving their arms or walking around where as a number of states try to restrict the federal level there is a great push. the federal aviation administration projects. there will be thirty. there's absolutely no way of knowing if we are being fil

chuck hagel has health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius flanked the president.ir agencies are two of the hardest hit by the $85 billion rolling off of the chopping block. >> obama: it is an area of deep concern. i think everybody knows where i stand on this issue. we're going to try to minimize the impact on american families but it's not the right way for us to go about deficit reduction. >> he told his cabinet he'll keep reaching out to republicans for some support. house republicans countered with a spending bill that would keep the government open through the end of the 2013 fiscal year. the $982 billion deal would give pentagon leeway to absorb the sequester cuts and let republicans say they have the military's back. depending on the reaction from democrats it could be a way to award the march 27th deadline. march 27th is yet another deadline. does the booms day clock ever stop ticking in washington? well it looks like president obama's newest cabinet nominees might energize en enenvironmentalist enenvironmentalists, today he gamed gina mccarthy. she makes

kathleen sebelius health and soo human services secretary says what congress is allowing them to go intotially blaming the republicans in the house. this is something the president himself did and both of those two officials, miss sebelius and president obama have been contradicted by the white house spokesperson, listen to the president and then jay carney. >> the sequester is not something that i proposed, it's something that congress has proposed. it will not happen. >> what i will concede is that we were looking and the republicans were looking for a trigger around which to build the mechanism to get us out of default, possibly and sequester was one of the ideas put forward, yes, by the president's team. >> megyn: why are they coming out trying to say it's congress. >> sure, it is congress's law, it will be congress. >> megyn: how does a bill become a law again after congress passes it? what happens next? >> right then we get the president. >> megyn: and they all have dirty hands. if you like it, clean hands, i don't know. >> it will be congress that has to reverse this. congress doe

>> they are appointed by the secretary of health and human services, kathleen sebelius, but i have aheavy role in making a recommendation, and i do so generally by organizing a search committee of the best and brightest people in that field to try to identify the perfect person, have them go through all of that vetting, and then have them make a recommendation to the secretary. it is not easy. we cannot pay them probably more than a quarter. you can barely squeeze up to $300,000. very few of our directors are at that level. they get paid three or four times that. >> why did you depicted to do the human genoa project? >> i have wondered that -- why did you get picked for the human genome project? >> i have wondered that. it started in 1990, and the first person was james watson, of watson and crick. i was at the university of michigan. i had been hunting for genes that cause diseases, including for a disease called neurofibromatosis. but i was not expecting to get a call to come to nih and lead that effort, and i initially said no because it did not seem like something i was ready to

the president's health and human service secretary kathleen sebelius reportedly stated that those whons cold might have to purchase more comprehensive policies under obama care. a new insurance study estimates that insurance companies will pay about 32% more for claims on individual insurance plans because of obama care. california was the 62% increase by 2017. >> the fda says that they will approve a new drug to control multiple sclerosis and adults and hard street forms of the disease. the twice a day capsules offer a new option for multiple sclerosis, a dissipating the disease in which the body will be attacked by his owner system. the fda said they will approve the drug based on two studies that show that patients taking the drug had fewer relapses and patients who took a dummy drug. >> in the past a cancer diagnosis was like a death sentence. thanks to modern medicine there is more reason for hope. right now they're nearly 40 million cancer survivors in the united states and the number is expected to climb to 80 million by 2020 to. that is good news. the bad news, assess some can

. >> coming up, health and human services kathleen sebelius, with a reality check on where the law stands today. >>> and new jersey's tough-talking governor faces a tough crowd of his own, a class full of kindergartners. >> i'm a third grader at the elementary school. you've done a great job here in new jersey and i was wondering if you were thinking about running for president. >> softening him up with the compliment and then hit him with the hard-hitting question, love it good day i'm chris slizcilli in washington. andrea mitchell is traveling with the president in jordan where syriand a the peace process remain the key topics. >> hi, chris, in jordan president obama comes to see king abdullah and reassure a king surrounded by the arab spring, by uprisings on all fronts and most importantly by the widening civil war next door in syria with the refugee crisis. refugees coming across the border to jordan. the u.s. will probably offer some more help on that front. and other problems as well, the increasing fear that the asat regime could duly use chemical weapons against its own people. op

i do have a number of questions into secretary sebelius through various letters.ting for responses. we've gotten some. we have more questions as a result. so we still have a ways to go in the final decision. but as of right now i can't recommend it. liz: so you could reverse the decision? >> well, i can't recommend it right now on the facts that i have right now. if the facts substantially change, then i would have to reconsider where we are but i don't see that. and you know, you asked me about the first three years. the problem is, the federal government also said they will keep 90% after that. well the federal government has a track record of not keeping their promises if you look at special education which i think was supposed to be around 50% they would continue to fund. now they're down to about 17, 18% to the various states of the so you know --. liz: you're looking not what is said but what you know from past experience. so then the next the question becomes -- >> actions speak louder than words and it is hard to make promises future congresses are going t

secretary sebelius will talk about the impact of education on head start. cutting programs for children is economically foolish and morally indefensible. in his state of the union, obama called for smarter government. sequestration is an example of dumb government. it is mind-boggling that washington is manufacturing a crisis when educators and parents are facing challenges and doing so well every single day. these across-the-board budget cuts were not caused by some hurricane or by natural disaster. they are manmade. they can be fixed now, by men and women who have the courage, commitment, and willingness to come together to compromise. they can be fixed by lawmakers to do the right thing for children and keep growing america's middle class. this is not rocket science, not intellectually difficult, and must be done. thank you so much. now it is my honor to turn it over to secretary sebelius. please give her a round of applause. [applause] >> good morning. i want to join secretary duncan in thanking the superintendents, school leaders, principals, pre-k tea

but asked about the rising costs, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius this week saidmoving into a fully insured product for the first time, so there may be a higher cost associated with getting into that market. now this of course caused some confusion for people who thought that the health care bill would bring lower premiums as we -- as the public had been told that it would keeping costs down for business of course and saving the government money. joining us now is nancy depaul who led the health care reform effort for president obama as director of the white house office of health reform. don't call her health care czar. you're not a czar. >> right. >> but you did head the office and are now a guest scholar at brookings institute. the first question i have is i don't understand what is going on here. why are premiums going up? we were told they would go down. >> we don't know what is going to happen with premiums. insurance companies set the premiums and i think the secretary said this week that it's really speculative to guess what they're going to do. i'll tell

now kathleen sebelius is saying for a lot of americans it is going to increase premiums.and humans. we're going to go in depth and take a look at this issue because it affects so many of the viewers out there. and we're also going to be speaking with the lead investigator of the tucson shooting gerald lee loughner. as you know, thousands of documents have been released today. >> up to 3,000 pages. >> really important stuff has come out including the magazines that he had, what could have happened if he would have just gone on and on. all that coming up at the top of the hour. >> sounds like a scintillating show i can't wait to watch. thank you. >>> the zombie apocalypse is upon us. i'm talking about the tv show "the walking dead." the hit show that has everyone asking what is so appealing about eating flesh? our pop lead is next. matt's brakes didn't sound right... ...so i brought my car to mike at meineke... ...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. >>> the pop culture l

there's a letter sent by the chairman of the house small business committee today to secretary sebelius saying look, you were supposed to have the small business exchange to allow small businesses to have a marketplace to purchase insurance supposed to be up and operating by now. you don't appear to be anywhere close to having this exchange up and operating by the time it should be. >> greta: can this be fixed all of these sort of problems or just implode on us? >> my personal view is i think this thing is going to turn out to be far more expensive than we thought and funneled by red ink and going to turn out to be very damaging to people getting health insurance from their company. think about this, if the average cost today after policy for a family of four is $15,000 which about 11,500 comes from the employer, and the cost keeps going up, why should the company continue to provide coverage when it can dump that coverage, pay the employee some more money and pay a $2,000 fine for having dumped the coverage and put them into the exchanges? the exchange is going to cost, according to th

visit pnc.com/wealthsolutions to find out more. >>> tomorrow morning, kathleen sebelius joins us righte's a look at your business travel forecast on this first day of spring. it is a frigid start to spring in the midwest. wind chills are the negative numbers through much areas of minnesota, wisconsin, and iowa. high temperatures today struggling even with some sunshine to get up near 20 to 25 degrees. i mean that's crazy for this time of year. well below average. we're not looking at a lot of travel trouble. one. you know how to dance... with a deadline. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. this is awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is, business pro. yes, it is. go national. go like a pro. yes, it is. i have obligations. cute tobligations, but obligations.g. i need to rethink the core of my portfolio. what i really need is sleep. introducing the ishares core, building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional

the president's health and human services secretary capsuling sebelius rreportedly said, those who currentlyplans might have to purchase more comprehensive plans under obama care. >> a new insurance study estimates that insurance companies will pay about 32% more for individual claims because of obama care. california was a 62% increase by 2017. >> the air force has sent stealth bomber to south korea to participate in military exercises. the be- to spirits flew more than 605,000 mi. from whiteman air force base in missouri to south korea, dropping fake ammunition there is part of the exercises, before returning to the u.s. mainland. the disclosure of the be-to flights, a , a day after north korea said it was cutting off military communications with south korea, provoking fresh expressions of concern for u.s. officials. >> the un has set a deadline of today to come up with a global treaty on regulating the arms trade that the 193 member countries can agree on. un diplomats said the u.s. is virtually certain to go along with the latest plan, but countries such as iran , egypt and india have se

should sebelius be doing that on her own? i don't think so. should the head of c.d.c. be doing that? no. they need a travel specialist who knows how to work it, and maybe in the long run safe travel. i support one of the directions that the senator is going in where he told me something i didn't know, where some of these v.a. international conferences take over 50 people, for which i don't know what more than 50 people would do. so he's on the right track on many things. but i think we have to be very careful when we're dealing with the entire civil service, millions of people -- two million people who work for the federal government and put a freeze on them. some federal agencies have had a hiring freeze for some time, and among them the department of defense is already under a civilian hiring freeze. so it's important to recognize that a hiring freeze would only have limited savings. a hiring freeze does not solve these problems, and it's just one more blow to a battered civil service. remember, we've had civil service pay freezes in effect, so we have now frozen the

if you're conservative and you don't like the 80 of secretary sebelius have broad-reaching powers youeptical of the president to use the flying death robots who kill who he thinks are terrorists. >> and all these leaders. >> so conservative principles ought to make you more skeptical. rand paul said that. people listened. i think it will move the conservative base, maybe even conservative senators. >> to follow up on that, i want to play sound to hammer in on that point. you're totally right, that was important in terms of broadening, to create a constituency for real kind of -- let's say, a peaceful, lawful posture towards the rest of the world in our national security, right? that rand paul said this about the second amendment. right? imagine if the second amendment were being infringed. take a look. >> you can match the furor if people were talking about the second amendment? could you imagine what conservatives would say if the president said, well, yeah, i kind of like the second amendment. and i tend to when convenient, when it's feasible, to protect the second amendment? >> tha

health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius saying customers entering into new plans will see. here is the quote. these folks will be moving into a fully insured product for the first time so there may be a higher cost associated with getting into that market. however over the past four or five years president obama as repeatedly promised americans that costs would go down. >> we will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2500 per family. add it all up and in the plan i'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years. our cost-cutting measures mirror most of the proposals in the current senate bill which reduces most people's premiums and brings down our deficit by up to one trillion dollars over the next decade because we're spending our health care dollars more wisely. when you hear about affordable care act, obamacare, -- [applause] and i, and i don't mind the name because i really do care --. bill: that stretch from 2008 to 2012. in 2013 we welcome virginia republican congressman eric cantor. house majority leader with us in new york. welcome back here to our s

secretary sebelius at the white house conference on lgbt health last year said the affordable care actmay represent the strongest foundation we've ever created to begin closing lgbt health disparities. here at cap, as neera mention i run the exchange is project it was for this project in january of 2010 to take events of all the opportunities that the affordable care act provides us to start closing those disparities that keep lgbt. from achieving the highest attainable standard of health. we have for formal partners in 30 states with statement marketplaces that transgender law center in california, one in colorado, the lgbt record or position in colorado. maryland health care for all, and they alliance in nevada. the project works not only in states with state-based exchange. also work year in d.c. on federal policy development. and we've in formal partnerships in many other states with both lgbt advocates and consumer health advocates. some of our national partners include community catalyst from whom you'll hear later from today, rural america, and raising women's voices. going to t

fortunately, secretary sebelius at the white house conference last year for the affordable care act maybe representing the strongest foundation we have ever created. i run the lgbt project and we started it in january of 2000 tend to take advantage of all the opportunities that the portable care provides us to start closing those disparities the key people from achieving its high standards possible. we have partners with state-run marketplaces and the maryland health care for all coalition and the productive leadership alliance of nevada. the project works not only with states of big exchanges, but we work on federal policy development and informal partnerships and many other states with those advocates and consumer health advocate. some of our national partners include catalysts of many groups. the top five priorities in the affordable care act that our project works on is to provide us with a background as we go into the panel discussions. data collection is number one. as we know, if we can't explain what the problems are, it is really hard to explain how we want them to be fixed. it

the obama administration was quick to dismission the study as speculative but kathleen sebelius did acknowledgese numbers at all? >> i'm not surprised by the state-by-state blip. the fact we have this patch work system in this country increases costs. i have a little bit of a bias because i lived and worked in europe for many years and i had two children under the national health care system in britain. i do think you get the big efficiencies in costs when you have one system that is connected, the technology is the same across a country. i'm not surprised to see that kind of differentiation between the states. i am curious i know the affordable care act stresses preventive care and one of the ways to bend the health cost curve so i'd love to see those numbers and see what the increases are coming from. >> the truth is, we don't know yet how much it it will play out because a lot of it it is implemented yet. >> still ahead from the department of veterans affairs, tommy sowers is here to discuss the backlog many veterans face awaiting their disability benefits. keep it here on "morning joe." ♪ ♪

secretary kathleen sebelius said -- quote -- "being sick will no longer keep you and your family and your employees from being able to get affordable health coverage." what she should have added was that now the president's own health care law will be the thing that keeps people from getting affordable coverage. the law that was passed was the wrong solution and the wrong way to reform our health care in this country. hardworking american families can't afford it, and, mr. president, they deserve better. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from florida. there nelson: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. nelson: mr. president, i, like many of our colleagues, have just flown on our nation's airways going through a fairly crowded airport in florida, coming into a crowded airport here in washington. and in 30 d

secretary sebelius has informed us that payments to medicare providers would be significantly disrupted by this. you can't separate out the affordable care act from all the other provisions of medicare that are being -- being run by -- by health and human services or by c.m.s., the center for medicare services. well, madam president, -- oh, yes, i know the senator also talked about the deficit, reducing the deficit. i don't understand why someone would want to stop something which the congressional budget office said would reduce the deficit in the future. so i guess we're going to reduce the deficit by increasing the deficit. that's sort of the logic of this amendment. the congressional budget office confirms the affordable care act reduces the deficit by more than $100 billion in the next ten years and more than a trillion dollars in the decade that follows. so the cruz amendment would roll that back. so i guess the senator wants to reduce the deficit by increasing the deficit. go figure that one out. so it's really time to stop the silly games, but i guess it will continue. after all

i don't know what her views are on all of the issues but she needs to channel her inner kathleen sebeliusmagnificent governor. wouldn't it be nice to have more women in the senate? >> absolutely. she will be running in kentucky. is there a risk of rnc of republicans overplaying their hand here? >> oh, arabic. >> they have been very dismissive of ashleyly judd. >> and because she is hollywood and all that. people want to say she is not relevant and not important. i think that is an underestimation they can't risk. they need to look at this seriously. she will put a smart team around her. to mark's point, the dnc and the senate and democratic committee will be there in a major way to support her. this is the test for someone like mcconnoll who has to go up against a woman and stature in her own right and who, i suspect, given what i've seen from her, can go toe-to-toe with the senator and is prepared to take him on. i think the rnc and need to be very careful and smart how they approach this campaign and not cocky and self-assured as they tend to be sometimes. >> howard fineman is reporting

my boss, secretary sebelius, is very anxious to see results as well. any model that is scalable, that can be scaled-has to go through rigorous review of the chief actuary so we will share our learning. and one positive learning is providers are very eager to step up. we're overwhelmed by interest. there's some -- >> due you have a system of interim results? >> we build every model with the assumption that it can be scaled, and the law requires any model for the innovation center in order to be scaled, it has to pass that rigorous review by the chief actuary. so our team developed the data okayabilities and monitoring systems, really with the end point hopefully will be that these models can be brought to scale but they have to first pass the rigorous review. >> but does it make sense for you to share with us at the appropriate time the interim? we want to keep informed and frankly just keep your feet the fire. >> absolutely. we're happy to work with you and your staff to energy out how to best share results and data. and that our commitment to this com

. >> kathleen sebelius and arnie duncan were careful not to get any of the blame. >> didn't this come? >> actually, the idea was designed in such a way and really inserted in the bill by congress because they thought it was such a bad way to run government that it would never happen. >> worried about how the cuts will affect programs for at-risk children, the head of the pta has a message for the politicians. >> i think they need to grow up. act like our children would. talk to one another. maybe they need to come to the playground. >> perhaps they might need fifth grader eric perez. >> you're worried that it might hurt your school? >> it might hurt my school, my education, the teachers. >> it's not just cuts at schools. across washington, reality is setting in for federal workers. >> i know i will get furloughed. i've accepted that. >> the furloughs, as explained in this letter to justice department employees, you will be in a non-pay, non-duty status. back at the school, arnie duncan tried to clarify his own comments about job cuts this week. >> these are teachers getting pink slips

sebelius is saying republicans are actually going to help expand medicaid.governors are making this decision. doesn't john kasich do this in ohio? >> but the house of florida stopped him. >> the governor of florida decided he was going to take the medicaid money but the speaker of the house, who we will try to get on the show because it's an absolutely fascinating, to get him and the president of the senate to come up on the show to talk about it. they decided to actually veto it. >> why? >> because they believe the federal government will pay for it the first couple of years but after that, the cost is dumped on the states. you talk to any governor, democratic or republican alike, they tell you that medicaid is their biggest long-term -- so they are concerned about what happens in -- >> arizona, florida, new jersey. >> look. this is a good illustration of a law that was written the right way, right? the big story the last couple of weeks has been sequestration. it's failed and supposed to be written in a way that guaranteed a compromise. the idea behind oba