which is a small piece of the pie that was a state-run health care system that obamacare -- that the massachusetts health care plan was and obamacare was. they preloaded it, they had health savings. everybody got health care. you know what happened five or six years later? it was eating up every new state dollar in the state of tennessee and there was only one solution, the democrat governor of the state at that time had to turn away really hundreds of thousands of people in health care to make the budget balance. and i think as you look at this long term, adding everybody in the country to a government run health care program is -- >> hold on. david. i'm going to let you back in. chip, i actually want to go back. i want to play you an example of sort of what's going on in your party right now because essentially what you've just said is there's a government-run horrible health care plan. if somebody stands up at a town hall and tells you i am on that government plan, i'm on medicaid.
i was involved in ten care, which is a small piece of the pie that was a state-run health care system that obamacare -- that the massachusetts health care plan was and obamacare was. they preloaded it, they had health savings. you know what happened five or six years later? it was eating up every new state dollar in the state of tennessee and there was only one solution, the democrat governor of the state at that time had to turn away really hundreds of thousands of people in health care to make the budget balance. and i think as you look at this long term, adding everybody in the country to a government run health care program is -- >> hold on. david. i'm going to let you back in. chip, i actually want to go back. i want to play you an example of sort of what's going on in your party right now because essentially what you've just said is there's a government-run horrible health care plan. if somebody stands up at a town hall and tells you i am on that government plan, i'm on medicaid. your message is i promise to take that away from you doesn't sound like smart politics. here is a congressman attempting to discuss what the republicans
dollars to let people buy private health insurance. not some government plan. some some public option that everybody's scared about. you know, this is private health insurance. so where are we drawing the line? what we're seeing, chris, is people just moving that line and i honestly believe it's no longer about concerns about health care. this is really just playing out whatever message that they want to send tea parties to other republicans that will offer them kind of scare tactics in voting on other issues. that's what i think this is. >> there's also a mobilized campaign right now with big money donors and outside groups to push against medicaid expansion. medicaid expansion is now viewed as part of obamacare. obamacare is part of barack obama. ergo, it must be defeated at all costs. doesn't matter if you keep 100,000 people, 200,000, 300,000 people away from needed medical care. that's what the political objective is here. >> absolutely. and i think what's really unfortunate, you know, states are -- this is really hard on all states.
the government. everyone pays into unemployment insurance just like you would with your health insurance if you're on a government plan. rand paul makes it sound like some kind of free ride that you've never paid into it before. this is nothing but getting a free check on the couch. republicans like rand paul are under pressure from conservative special interest groups to block the unemployment. don't vote for it. some called on republicans to block an extension. it could mean real bad news for the republicans come the midterms. this is why the democrats can't let this go. there are numbers out there. a new poll shows 55% of americans support extending unemployment insurance. only 34% say we don't care about
out how a catastrophic event could take place. looking into the future, do i think it will end tomorrow? the family has a lawyer who has been representing them and pushing forward their efforts. i would not be surprised if we see the case pushing on forward. >> jahi's mother will be live today on "the lead" coming up next, 4:00 eastern. definitely stay tuned for that. we have gotten word today from the white house that the president has signed up for obamacare, but we have also gotten this slight clarification here. we were asking about this, the fact he did not enroll through a website. the white house is saying him being the president, they had to take some extra precautions so the sign-up was done in person. the first lady, you see her with her husband, with the president at a hawaii basketball game last night. first lady and kids staying on the president's government plan. he is doing obamacare out of solidarity, says the white house. and mark preston joins me now from washington. he's our cnn political director.
all democratic votes, i should add. i think it was better in its early phases on the energy and commerce committee, where i served on the health subcommittee, when it was bipartisan, and maybe in hindsight, it would have been better to put it in pieces, but i don't think this experiment is over. the rollout has been a mess. it is hopefully better today. but will matter is in six months or whatever the right time frame is, will there be enough people across the spectrum from sick to healthy in the exchanges to create a comparative market so the price of health care is affordable to those who have very little or no money, and is -- goes at least -- stays about steady to other -- >> that's a very open question at this point, about whether it's going to work the way you're suggesting. >> i agree it's an open question, but i'm betting it will work. i remember the big fights about single-payer which i opposed and about the public option, which was a government plan to compete with private plans. we sort of kind of have that.
all democratic votes, i should add. i think it was better in its early phases on the energy and commerce committee, where i served on the health subcommittee, when it was bipartisan, and maybe in hindsight, it would have been better to put it in pieces, but i don't think this experiment is over. the rollout has been a mess. it is hopefully better today. but will matter is in six months or whatever the right time frame is, will there be enough people across the spectrum from sick to healthy in the exchanges to create a comparative market so the price of health care is affordable to those who have very little or no money, and is -- goes at least -- stays about steady to other -- >> that's a very open question at this point, about whether it's going to work the way you're suggesting. >> i agree it's an open question, but i'm betting it will work. i remember the big fights about single-payer which i opposed and about the public option, which was a government plan to compete with private plans. we sort
all democratic votes, i should add. i think it was better in its early phases on the energy and commerce committee, where i served on the health subcommittee, when it was bipartisan, and maybe in hindsight, it would have been better to put it in pieces, but i don't think this experiment is over. the rollout has been a mess. it is hopefully better today. but will matter is in six months or whatever the right time frame is, will there be enough people across the spectrum from sick to healthy in the exchanges to create a comparative market so the price of health care is affordable to those who have very little or no money, and is -- goes at least -- stays about steady to other -- >> that's a very open question at this point, about whether it's going to work the way you're suggesting. >> i agree it's an open question, but i'm betting it will work. i remember the big fights about single-payer which i opposed and about the public option, which was a government plan to compete with private plans. we sort of kind of have that.
that is going to cost republicans a lot of races tomorrow especially in virginia, i think people forgot all about the shutdown. what do you think? >> absolutely, the government shutdown is long gone. nobody remembers what happened with the government shutdown. this is all about obamacare of people getting a letter saying you are no longer covered even though barack obama promised to not once, not twice, but two dozen times you could keep your plan and people are not able to keep those plans. if people said we will take away your plan that you like and you have been paying for and give you a government plan even though you don't need it and you already have a plan that you like there is no way obamacare would have ever passed. massachusetts might like their health care plan but all of the polls show it and president obama not only his approval rating personally but
government plan is. >> where was that information at the top? where was it in 2009? 2010? 2012? where was that information? >> with all due respect, valerie jarrett, to elisabeth's point right there in the affordable care act it says it grandfathered you in unless there are changes. then the department of health and human services made changes. now millions of americans will lose their health care as they thought they were going to be able to keep it. so far 1.5 million policies have been canceled. rudy giuliani was on the channel last night, and he remembered, remember the rollout, the computer rollout for the affordable care act, it's been a catastrophe. but remember the gigantic worry with the computer known as y2k as we changed from 1999 to 2000. the worry was nuclear power plants would melt down, there would be blackouts, airplanes would fall from the sky, our bank accounts would be wiped out. you know what?