rewrite this thing from a fresh start without being encumbered by some of the base work in obamacare. and if there are good pieces of that, we can put them back in by consensus rather than try to save something. how many people in your district are on the exchanges, congressman? i don t know that number. you may have that in front of you, chris, but i don t know that number. it s about 11,000 or so. do you know what s going to happen to them under this replace bill? have you talked to constituents? particularly in rural areas who are going to be paying more on out of pocket under this plan? of course we don t have that data because we just got a look at this bill that s been offered. i have a whole series of proposals that i think we should do but i will say on balance if the american people had to decide between continuing with obamacare the way it is and trying to supplement it so it doesn t go under or going back the way we were i d be for going back the way we were and then
decide between continuing with obamacare the way it is and trying to supplement it so it doesn t go under or going back the way we were i d be for going back the way we were and then start the process of the reform of the existing health care system and i think more people are better off that way. i want to get you on the record here. so you think the health care system before the affordable care act with no changes, back to that, is superior to the one we have now? absolutely i believe that. let me ask you this and left us a foundation where we can start to improve our health care and delivery system. let me ask you this. the t that steve scalise and paul ryan and others in leadership are making is that everyone will roll over. that they re going to basically make you walk the plank on this. they won t listen to anything you say. they won t take changes and mccarthy was clear about that today. they re going to make you vote for this bill whether you like it or not. are you
know, i don t believe in slavery, i think it s wrong, but you guys do whatever you want to do. where would we be? and there you have ben carson comparing abortion to slavery. now, i have to say that one of the reasons he s probably doing so well in iowa right now in those iowa polls is his very vocal opposition to abortion, which is a very big issue for evangelical voters who have an outside influence in the iowa republican party, ashleigh. mark preston, thank you for that. do appreciate it. and just when we thought this race couldn t get more exciting, with me now, cnn political commentator van jones and republican strategist lisa booth. welcome to the both of you. hi, ashleigh. hi, guys. we talked about the front-runners, and then there s jeb. what happened to jeb? and this weekend, this mass meeting down in houston with dad and brother and mom and the big wigs and the fund-raisers and the donors. i guess, van, the question becomes, is this the last desperate grab to make sur
damaging and what is happening right now including the comments that have been coming from ted cruz? what s interesting here is who s driving this agenda? if you asked congresswoman blackburn and many of her colleagues why they re doing this, they re saying they re responding to the republican base and they point to americans with prosperity and the 60-plus association and the tea party express is calling for this defunding vote, but as it came out earlier this week virtually these votes are run by the coke brothers so it might be accurate that they re responding to their base and they re not referring to the american people and they re referring to two radical billionaires. i want to move over to you, joy, dick durbin spoke last hour on the shore and they did take a dig. i hope the united states doesn t go under cruise control fl leing what we ve seen from the house republican caucus.