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UYGUR: Welcome back. I‘m glad you were still with us. In fact, we should all be glad we still around period. When President Obama signed the health care bill a year ago today, Republicans predicted it would be the end of the world.
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REP. MICHELE BACHMANN ®, MINNESOTA: Socialized medicine is the crown jewel of socialism, this will change our country forever.
REP. LOUIE GOHMERT ® TEXAS: You get it? One in five people have to die because they went to socialized medicine.
REP. PAUL BROUN ®, GEORGIA: This program of government option, this being touted as being in this panacea, the savior of allowing people to have quality health care at an affordable price is going to kill people.
REP. JOHN BOEHNER ®, OHIO: We‘re about 24 hours from Armageddon.
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UYGUR: (LAUGHTER). Armageddon, it‘s a year later. Did we have Armageddon? Are 20 percent of the people dead as Louie Gohmert predicted? Oh, Gohmert, get out of town. Well, it turns out, no, were in fact, we‘re all still here. And not only was there no Armageddon, but a lot of people are already actually better off because of parts of the bill that are already in place. For example, plans now have to provide free preventive care. That sounds well. Kids can stay on their parent‘s insurance plan until they‘re 26-years-old, meaning more people are covered. Insurance plans can no longer deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.
In 2014, that policy will be extended to everyone. And insurance plans can no longer drop your coverage when you get sick. Now, I want you to think about that one for a second. What kind of a joke system do we have where insurance can drop you if you get sick? What‘s the hell is the point of insurance? I got insurance in case I get sick, right? But they‘re so obsessed with profits, that there‘s, well, look, if the guy is sick, he‘s going to cost us more money. Let‘s get him out of here. And look, the bill tried to address it, in my opinion, didn‘t go far enough.
We‘re still so many ways at the mercy of those private insurance companies. But what was the down side of the extra protections that we‘ve gained from the bill? Nothing. No downside so far. There was no Armageddon. All these people didn‘t drop dead. But of course, that didn‘t stop republican leaders from insisting that the law is a disaster, based on absolutely no facts. Both House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released videos today, doubling down on their doomsday scenarios and their intention to get rid of health care reform entirely.
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MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER: One year ago today, over the objections to the American people, the disastrous health spending bill that Washington Democrats rammed through with a partisan vote became law.
BOEHNER: Instead of creating jobs, employers have been handed more uncertainty and more headaches. In the coming weeks you‘ll see more votes and more hearings in the House. And to take this law apart step by step. We‘ll do whatever we can to ensure that Obama-care is never fully implemented.
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UYGUR: I was amused by the ram through with partisan votes. How else do you get the bill through? You take a partisan vote and you win, and it becomes a bill. By the way, the Republicans in the House, they‘re not ramming anything through in a partisan way at all right now. But why are they doing this whole effort to kill health care reform now? Because the heart of the legislation gets implemented in 2014, and the Republicans believe that they will never be able to reverse it after that time because people will see that the reality rather than their propaganda. That‘s why they‘re rushing up the fear mongering now to kill it before it actually goes into full effect. Now, how one out of five people actually got of course not? They‘re so over the top, I can‘t believe anyone believes them anymore. But this is how they win. They substitute fear for facts and hope that you panic.
All right. Joining me now is Ed Rendell, former Pennsylvania governor and MSNBC political analyst. Governor Rendell, was it a mistake to wait until 2014 for these things to get implemented? Because you were going to get four years of republican fear mongering until then.
ED RENDELL, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, no, it isn‘t Cenk, because it‘s going to take that time to set up the exchanges and do it right. And I think the president was intent on doing it right. But I agree with you. People are starting to change. And you know, you see the health care bill get more and more supporters as time goes on. Two things you didn‘t mention is that every senior who had to lose prescription drug coverage because of doughnut hole, got a $250 check this year to help defray some of those cost.
And in the next three weeks, small businesses with 25 employees are less are going to file their income tax returns, the federal income tax returns and they‘re going to get a substantial tax credit for offering their employees health care insurance. So the facts are belying all of the B.S. rhetoric, I‘m sorry, I almost said a bad word, but all of the B.S. rhetoric, and the rhetoric that you played was unbelievable. Socialism? This bill kept the private insurance health care delivery system intact. It‘s not socialism. It kept business and private sector in the bill. It‘s not single payer at all. Government option? Didn‘t those guys realize the president, and a lot of critics say, he did the wrong thing, took the government option out of the bill.
But these guys continue to lie, even though they know what they‘re saying is untrue. It‘s not socialism. There is no government option. The private insurance system is still intact and best of all, the insurance reforms, the things that you and I just named are starting to come into effect, and they‘re coming into effect now, and even better than that, Cenk, the president challenged all of these republican governors who kept saying it‘s a disaster for the states. He said OK, we‘ll give you a waiver. If you can design your own system that covers as many people and costs the same or less than our bill, we‘ll give you the waiver. It‘s put up or shut up time. And guess what? No one is going to put up.
UYGUR: All right. Now, Governor Rendell, I want to ask you about something you just mentioned. You mentioned, the government option, otherwise known as a public option, and they‘re saying he did it when he didn‘t do it, right? We knew they were going to lie like that. They do it all the time. They call him a socialist and a Maoist no matter what he does. Given that, shouldn‘t the president have actually done the public option? Should they say, you know, if they‘re going call him all this stuff, actually be progressive and actually challenge the monopoly of the insurance companies.
RENDELL: Well, sure, he did that or drop the Medicaid age down to 55 which as you know, Joe Lieberman supported and then—it was his idea, partially his idea and then for some reason he changed his mind. One of either of those things should have been included in this bill. It would have made it better, it would have made it stronger, it would have put competition in. But with the exchanges, Cenk, we‘re going to have competitions, you‘re going to see these private insurance companies, many of whom have had monopolies in many areas in the country, you‘re going to see them starting to have to compete and lower their prices because of the exchanges.
UYGUR: All right. Governor Ed Rendell, thank you so much for your time tonight.
RENDELL: Thanks, Cenk. Hang in there.