Meet The Press – November 17, 2013

Guests:

Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)

Ezra Klein

Dan Henninger

Mike Murphy

Kathleen Parker

Tom Brokaw

Chris Matthews

Gregory: OMG the Republican House

passed a bill to change Obamacare!

Gregory: are Democrats fleeing Obamacare?

Pelosi: no

Gregory: but Democrats are frustrated

Pelosi: some of them

Gregory: aren't Democrats losing confidence 
in Obama?

Pelosi: no

Gregory: but

Pelosi: calm down Fluffy

Gregory: but Obamacare

Pelosi: I call it the ACA because I got it through

Gregory: okay Nancy

Pelosi: the law does not require these

cancellations – the laws says if you had a

plan before the law was enacted you

could keep it and that's still true

Gregory: would you or other Democrats

actually campaign on Obamacare?

Pelosi: the ACA

Gregory: whatever

Pelosi: it's working in Kentucky – it saves lives

Gregory: but people are mad

Pelosi: so the President is going to let

people stay on their crappy plans but the

insurer must inform people that they

have better options

Gregory: but one million cancellation

notices have gone out in California

Pelosi: and they will get second 
letter correcting that

Gregory: did you lie to people in 2010

Pelosi: no

Gregory: but if your plan doesn't meet

government standards then you can't keep it

Pelosi: you can if it pre-dates the law

Gregory: Obama apologized – why don't you?

Pelosi: that's neither here nor there

Gregory: this was a forseeable problem

Pelosi: insurers must tell people they

have better choices

Gregory: in 2010 you said this would

be awesome and it's not awesome

Pelosi: I stand by what I said

Gregory: okay

Pelosi: we passed this law and it got

past court challenges and we're going

to keep fighting for this law

Gregory: do you still consider this law a success?

Pelosi: it will be

Gregory: what is success?

Pelosi: if people can sign up

Gregory: why aren't you more

concerned that this is a disaster?

Pelosi: you can't be knocked for a

loop over a little setback

Gregory: will Democrats lose seats

over Obamacare?

Pelosi: remember the government shutdown?

That was bad!

Gregory: yes I recall that

Pelosi: also in 2014 we will fight over jobs,

gay rights and immigration reform

[ break ]

Gregory: welcome Kelly Ayotte -

you hate the ACA

Ayotte: my constituents are telling me

they have less choice – there's only

one insurer in New Hampshire

Gregory: is your goal to repeal

the ACA altogether?

Ayotte: no Republicans voted for the ACA

so it must be bad

Gregory: are you open to fixing the law

and how would you provide insurance for

40 uninsured million Americans?

Ayotte: the first rule in politics is

First, Do No Harm the Upper Middle Class

Gregory: I knew that

Ayotte: all we have to do is allow

people buy insurance across state lines

Gregory: what else?

Ayotte: we have lots of good ideas

Gregory: like what?

Ayotte: lots of them

Gregory: what are they?

Ayotte: repeal Obamacare

Gregory: what else?

Ayotte: we have many ideas

Gregory: thanks for coming Kelly

Gregory: is Obamacare done for?

Klein: it's not now – but they have time to get

the website working and get people signed up

Gregory: okay

Klein: after all the Medicare D rollout was a disaster

Henninger: this is really complicated and

there's no way to fix it in two weeks

Gregory: wow

Henninger: they may lose an entire

generation of young people who

will grow up hating the government

Gregory: won't insurers just raise premiums?

Klein: the insurers will want healthy

people signed up – that's where the money is

Gregory: Doug you hate big government 
and mandates

Henninger: FDR is being proved

wrong by a slow website in 2013

Gregory: I see

Henninger: in the next two weeks people

will abandon government after

80 years of giving it a chance

Klein: Paul Ryan had exchanges in his plan too

Gregory: thanks for coming guys

[ break ]

Gregory: this week Obama came out

and said we fumbled the rollout

Brokaw: I would have thought Obama

would have been on top of this since

it was so important to him

Gregory: where is Obama's Bobby Kennedy

– where's the muscle?

Matthews: he should have had a Obamacare Czar

Murphy: this is crackup and now we

have the midterms coming up

Gregory: fascinating

Murphy: the GOP should now come up

with their policies and run the table

Parker: John Boehner told me that they

will be on the attack for the rest of the year

Matthews: the problem with the Katrina

analogy is the Bush didn't do anything at all

– not that he tried and failed

Brokaw: also the GOP still has no plan 
to fix health care

Murphy: that's true – but now we are

allowed to have an alternative

Gregory: what will it be

Murphy: take away from the poor and

give to the middle class

Gregory: people like the idea of not

having pre-exising conditions

Matthews: what if Obama goes to the

Republican party and asks for money for Obamacare?

Parker: they will say no

Gregory: people say this is Obama's Katrina

– I say it's more like Obama's Iraq

Parker: no that was different Bush was a hero

Brokaw: the American people don't trust

Obama because he won in Syria

without firing a shot

Murphy: Obama is the most unpopular

politicians of all time

Parker: what if Obama had just agreed

to delay Obamacare for a year in August?

Murphy: the campaign is over – 
now it's time to govern

Matthews: the campaign never ends

Murphy: that's true

Matthews: it's only going to get nastier

Parker: he's been getting bad advice

Brokaw: people are scared of getting

a terminal disease and they blame politicians

Gregory: just want to be healthy and

never pay for insurance – is that so hard?

[ break ]

Gregory: you made a documentary about

the Kennedy assassination and

interviewed Stephen Spielberg

Brokaw: JFK was the perfect guy for his time,

following Eisenhower, it was the tv age –

he was young, glamouros, good looking,

and left with all this unfinished business

Gregory: the Kennedy assassination is

like 9/11 – nothing was same after

Matthews: I studied the JFK the canny

politician – he was trying get re-elected

while working on a civil rights law

Brokaw: I've talked to all his advisors

and JFK was taking a hawkish line 
through 1964 but probably wouldn't have 
gone all-in in Vietnam

Matthews: he was hawkish – but would he

really have put 500,000 troops in Vietnam

– I don't think so

Gregory: thanks for coming

Gregory: Ha – Bill Clinton dissed

Obama on health care

Parker: ha ha the Clintons are totally

distancing themselves

Brokaw: don't forget they screwed up

health care in 1993

Matthews: Hillary Clinton is moving 
to the right of Obama

Gregory: ha ha

Matthews: the great thing about Bill Clinton

is he is totally in touch with white people

in a way Barack Obama is not

Murphy: Hillary Clinton is threatened

by Elizabeth Warren

Parker: she is warm and wonderful

Murphy: just like a Bond villain

Brokaw: I love these parlor games

but this is ridiculous

Matthews: Democrats don't like

a coronation – they like a fight!

Gregory: I'm looking forward to it!

Matthews: ha!

Gregory: and that's another episode

of Meet The Press