ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming steven brill and z. emanual [applause] >> thank you. one note. the introduction made it sound like i had the open heart surgery to complete my book. i won't go that far. >> you don't believe in self experimentation? >> no. it is a pleasure to interview you. you spoke once in the process of your writing of the book for about an hour i recall. >> alzheimer's early. >> i want to ask you why you wrote the book and in particular a large part of the book is about those sorts of fighting over the passage of the a c a, reclaiming, the fixing of the web site, and the question i get is did all that matter? lots of people's they you shouldn't book the sausage of making kills someone the we learn from that sausagemaking? >> at the core we learn why the sausage is the way it is. for a while i have been looking for a book to write about what i perceive is the challenges facing our governments, the dysfunction of washington and it struck me that looking at how a dysfunctional washington attempts to reform, quote the mo

host: steven brill, you mentioned -- the founder of court tv? guest: i am not sure if he is connected to that, but he wrote a book recently and has given a number of interviews. he is very correct in his discussion about the fact that there is nothing in obamacare that lowers cost. in fact, big pharma, the big insurance companies, came together with the architects and wrote the bill. the exchange was that if you let government run your business, in exchange we will give you a bigger business. this was capital cronyism at its worst. host: and in fact, steven brill's book will be on c-span's "booktv" this weekend. you are on the armed services committee, and i want to ask you about this issue -- "obama to seek congress's approval to fight militants." "kicking off a political fight that can see the administration clash with members of both parties over how much authority to give the president." at this point, would you vote to give the president the authority? guest: i would have to see it. it depends. i have been very dissatisfied with the preside

steven brill when dr. ezekiel emanuel discuss the health care system and millville house talks about the book publisher's decision to release the senate intelligence committee report on torture. for a complete television schedule booktv.org. booktv 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. television for serious readers. >> next on booktv from the hudson institute in washington d.c. alex nowesteh and mark krikorian debate the united states immigration policy. this is 2 hours and 48 minutes. >> good morning. i am kenneth weinstein president and ceo of hudson institute. i would like to welcome our audience our audience on c-span's booktv. those of our panelists who have already arrived and those who will be arriving in a couple minutes, let me simply note hudson institute is an international policy research station based on the proposition that security, prosperity and defense of global order requires strategic and engage u.s. international leadership in partnership with our allies. we are delighted to be ho

joining me now is steven brill.w book "america's bitter pill: money politics back room deals and the fight to fix our broken health care system," i should point out already a "new york times" bestseller. congratulations. >> thank you. >> you wrote the longest ever cover story for "time" magazine about health care and then you had an ayor it aneurysm so i guess you could say you had a front-row view. what did you learn from your own experience you didn't already know? >> i knew intellectually that health care was a difficult political issue because people really care about their health more than they care about health care policy. i learned that in spades emotionally when i had my own situation and when iat i learned really in spades is there's no such thing as a health care marketplace as we know the marketplace, which is you go into a store, you're a consumer you have information about what you want to buy, you can comparison shop decide you don't want to buy it you can ask questions, look at consumer reports and s

host: you mention the founder of court tv, steven brill. guest: he is very correct in his discussion that there is nothing in obamacare that lowers costs. in fact, the big insurance companies, they all came together with some of the architects and wrote the bill. the exchange was that if you let government run your business and exchange we will give you a bigger boost the business. this is cronyism. host: in fact, steven brill's book will be on book tv this weekend. if you want to see what he is talking about, you will see it there. you are on the armed service committee, i want to ask you about obama seeking approval to fight militants. in days, they will seek authorization, and kick off a political fight that may see members clash over how much authority to give the president. would you vote to give the president the authority? guest: i would have to see it. it depends. i have been very dissatisfied with the president's approach on this. for instance, he came up with what i think is an insane idea to fund the so-called free syrian army, w

host: steven brill, you mentioned -- the founder of court tv? guest: i am not sure if he is connected to that, but he wrote a book recently and has given a number of interviews. he is very correct in his discussion about the fact that there is nothing in obamacare that lowers cost. in fact, big farm, the big insurance companies, came together with the architects and wrote the bill. the exchange was, if you let government run your business in exchange we will give you a bigger business. this was capital cronyism at its worst. host: and in fact, steven brill's book will be on c-span's booktv this weekend. you are on the armed services committee, and i want to ask you about this issue -- "obama seeking congress's approval to fight militants." "kicking off a political fight that can see the administration clash with members of both parties over how much authority to give the president." at this point, would you vote to give the president the authority? guest: i would have to see it. it depends. i have been very dissatisfied with the president's appr

and up next, steven brill's analysis of the healthcare system, followed by george w. bush's profile of his father george h.w. bush in 41. "the new york times" nonfiction best seller's his continues with the account of the life as a guantanamo bay detainee in guantanamo diary. and in i am malala nobel peace prize recipient recounts growing up in taliban controlled northern pakistan. and wrapping up the list a history of the underground railroad in, gateway to freedom. that's a look at the list of nonfiction best sellers according to "the new york times." >> reuters legal cooperate was an author. her book "breaking in the rise of sonia sotomayor." what did we learn about sonia sotomayor. >> we learned what she has been doing while she has been on the court for the last five years. this book is a political history that tells you how she got on the supreme court, and then what her life has been like since. it picks up where her memoir left off. you learn in the opening chapter how she persuaded her fellow justices to salsa with her. then you also learn how she has been ef

system had to be supplanted by -- replaced by something else and i don't know how many of you read steven brills' knew new book. i think that he identifies the kaiser model as being the way out of the mess, where physicians and healthcare systems issue their own insurance product. they collect the premiums and they have the natural innocenttive to limit costs. of course you have to put in various protections into place so they don't unnecessarily limit spending, but i think the kaiser model is a very reasonable one. i grew up in southern california, in the '70s and '80s and we went to kaiser and we got perfectly good health care. some people advocate a single payer system. i don't see that happening in this country. what works in -- abroad doesn't -- won't work in the united states. i don't think. i remember one of my professors, who is teaching healthcare economics, was talking about the national health service in england and then someone asked him, why don't we just do that here. he is like, america is too different. in england they live in a rainy climate, they drink warm beer, they learn to

up next is steven brill's diagnosis of what's wrong with the health care system in "america's bitter pill," followed by former president george w. bush's profile of his father in "41." "the new york times" nonfiction best sellers' list continues with "guantanamo diary." and in at i am malala the author recounts growing up in taliban-controlled northern pakistan. and wrapping out the list a history of the underground railroad in "gateway to freedom." and that's a look at this week's list of nonfiction bestsellers according to "the new york times." >> now on booktv christopher hill. mr. hill appeared on colorado public radio's "colorado matters" program that was recorded in front of an audience at tattered cover bookstore in denver. this is about an hour and a half. ..

steven brill has written a whole book about how expensive it is to be treated in this country twice as expensive per capita as anywhere else in the world. the reason health care costs are expensive is that they're expensive and we need to focus on structural changes, which i know the affordable care act does, but that has to be a national priority. if we continue as we are and let health care costs fee for service continue to drive the kind of escalation, which unfortunately may recover shortly, we'll never get out of this hole. and then the next strategy is some kind of revenues. we can't deal with the demographic problem if don't look at revenues. my concern and i'm interested in a balanced budget amendment. i think something that puts constraint makes sense. on the other hand, if you add the no balance amendment and no tax pledge, it creates a ratchet effect that you will never solve these problems and squeeze out everything else as you pointed out, but payments to the elderly. there's got to be some relief built into that and that's where i think we need to have some discussion abo

steven brill, the founder of courttv talks about the effectiveness of the affordable care act with dr. ezekiel emanuel. [inaudible conversations]

steven brill has written a whole book about how expensive it is to be treated in this country, twice as expensive per capita as anywhere else in the world. the reason health care costs are expensive is that they're expensive and we need to focus on structural changes, which i know the affordable care act does, but that has to be a national priority. if we continue as we are and let health care costs fee for service continue to drive the kind of escalation, which unfortunately may recover shortly, we'll never get out of this hole. and then the next strategy is some kind of revenues. we can't deal with the demographic problem if don't look at revenues. my concern and i'm interested in a balanced budget amendment. i think something that puts constraint makes sense. on the other hand, if you add the no balance amendment and no tax pledge, it creates a ratchet effect that you will never solve these problems and squeeze out everything else as you pointed out, but payments to the elderly. there's got to be some relief built into that and that's where i think we need to have some discussion

and up next, steven brill's analysis of the healthcare system, followed by george w. bush's profile of his father george h.w. bush in 41. "the new york times" nonfiction best seller's his continues with the account of the life as a guantanamo bay detainee in guantanamo diary. and in i am malala nobel peace prize recipient recounts growing up in taliban controlled northern pakistan. and wrapping up the list a history of the underground railroad in, gateway to freedom. that's a look at the list of nonfiction best sellers according to "the new york times." >> reuters legal cooperate was an author. her book "breaking in the rise of sonia sotomayor." what did we learn about sonia sotomayor. >> we learned what she has been doing while she has been on the court for the last five years. this book is a political history that tells you how she got on the supreme court, and then what her life has been like since. it picks up where her memoir left off. you learn in the opening chapter how she persuaded her fellow justices to salsa with her. then you also learn how she has been ef