"GREGORY: And we are back. Joining us, the National Urban League's Marc Morial, the House Republican Whip Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia and House Democratic Chief Deputy Whip, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. Plus, two Washington journalists, Ron Brownstein of the "National Journal" and Katty Kay of BBC World News America, plus two minor league round draft picks to be picked leader.
We have our own health critics over here. We have a big league. Welcome to everybody. Congressman Cantor, let me start with you. The big question is, where are we after this summit? After all the machinations and negotiations, are there the votes in the House to get this done?
CANTOR: Well, I'm sure my colleague will have are something to say about that, but David, there's a reason why we're here with no health bill having been passed. That's because the American people have decided this is not the health care bill for them. And that's why you heard during the seven-hour discussion that we had at the Blair House with the president, Republicans come to the table and say, look, we do care about health care and we want to do something to effect positive reform.
It's just that we want to take a much more common sense, modest, incremental approach, trying to address the first issue first, which is cost, and then go on to try to deal with some of the things that the president and Speaker Pelosi want to do.
GREGORY: All right, we'll come back to that, but in terms of what the general approach is, but Congresswoman Schulz, is there -- are the votes in the House, which is really the big testing ground here, if it's reconciliation, for instance, where you go for a simple majority? Are the votes there?
SCHULTZ: When we start counting, the votes will be there because the American people want to make sure that we take the abusive practices that the insurance companies engage in and make sure that we put doctors and patients back in the driver's seat.
Right now, it's insurance companies that decide what kind of coverage you have. Right now it's insurance companies that can drop you based on a preexisting condition. I know that from personal experience. Right now, you can get dropped when you become sick. We've got to make sure that we put doctors and patients, not insurance companies, back in the driver's seat. And if you look at the polling, if we're talking about polling, that the American people have weighed in on, they support the components that are included in this bill because they want to make sure that we end an abusive practice by insurance companies...."
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/02/28/john-mccain-eric-cantor-debbie-wasserman-schultz-on-nbcs-mee/Could Schultz become the new "James Carville" that both the President and the Party need?
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