it s still inclear if even the cbo knows what it will cost for this country. you have the deficit. the clock ticks. tick, tick, tick. it keeps going up. so the question is about the cost. how do democrats feel about that? everybody s home now in their jurisdictions and they re hearing from their constituents. do you think they re hearing, we can t afford it? yeah. i mean, they democrats are undoubtedly concerned. senate democrats who have got some tough races in 2014, democrats are looking to potentially take back the house of representatives in 2014. so from a political lens, yes, there are many democrats, jamie, who are worried about this. this is why i think you hear a lot of republican strategists and other folks, more of the establishment republican breed, essentially suggesting that let s not take the lens off of the implementation problems we ve already seen with obama care. let s keep the focus on that. let s keep the pressure on democrats. lawmakers who are in tough distri
this notion that the mainstream media, i.e. liberal media isn t doing its job is just not true and they have a whole thing about when it s going to be implemented. so the fact is that it s not been ignored and if you read enough media, you ll see what s going on. well, judy, there are a lot of reports that the costs are going to be much higher than the president has promised and the media generally seemed to ignore that. i think that s because the president himself has said there s going to be some implementation problems. these is a hugely ambitious and important program that if implemented well will do a lot to increase the health, improve the health of americans. the problem, it s all in the implementation. and as rich lowry said this week in news max, he said, who are you going to believe? the president s numbers or your lying insurance company. or right wing publications that he writes where he doesn t
disapproval rating, but congress is faring even worse, around 81%. elizabeth prann in washington. elizabeth, thanks. president obama, meantime, says he will do everything that he can to make sure that his health care law works. is this realistic, or should he hold off on it and avoid that threat of a government shutdown? john fund is a columnist for national review magazine. he joins us now with more insight. thanks for joining us. thanks. you just heard about the polls, the president s approval rating down, congress approval rating down. what should we do in reference to the affordable care act and this threat of the government shutdown come october 1st? well, i think the president s view is that obamacare is going to have lots of implementation problems, but if we stick with it, you know, after two or three years it will become cemented in american life, people will get used to it. the problem is, the next two years are going to be very rocky. the president has now misse
of that, too. raise the central challenge for supporters of the law at this point. this implementation in getting healthy 18 to 34 year olds, healthy young people making the case they need to sign up for this. if you can t get them to sign up in the first year, big implementation problems, right? look, implementation problems with something like this, i understand that. but in some ways this discussion that happens all over this country is almost a fact free zone. the republicans have an obsession about this. this could work perfectly. they would still have this obsession and they want to abolish it. they never supported it. i voted for this law and, of course, i want it to work and the question to ask all of those fec e e e e e e e e e es you voted to repeal it 38 times what is your plan, the answer is they don t have the plan, that s
inevitably have a lot of implementation problems. that s what house house democrats very worried. if the bill becomes popular, in the short-term, they think it s going to be terribly unpopular. max baucus is warning the white house about it. a lot of democrats have been warning the white house about this. and it is, i think it s going to be a real political problem. when i used to teach political science, we used to say 90% of life is execution and implementation. this is the 90% of life. all the focus on the design of the bill, now into the rough stuff. yeah. jim vandehei with a look at the politico playbook. thanks so much, jim. take care. coming up next, jason colls upside down with the announcement he s the first male athlete in a pro sport announcing he s gay. we ll have the executive editor of the magazine joining us next. morning joe back in a moment.