At the House Intelligence Committee holding a hearing on that very issue. Witnesses include the director of national intelligence, james clapper, who sounded a wri note on the outrage over u. S. International spy efforts. I have to say, chairman rodgers, some of this reminds me a lot of the classic movie kasa blanka, my god, there is gambling going on here. The same thing. Indeed it is. The president faces an uproar including from chancellor mer l merkel, whose cell phone was tapped. The administration has denied the president knew the extent of the spying. And the president said last night he has ordered a fuel review. In an interview on the new fusion network. The National Security operations generally have one person, and that is to make sure the American People are safe and im making good decisions and im the final user of all the intelligence they gather. What we have seen over the last several years is their capacities continue to develop, and expand, and thats why im initiating now a review to make sure that what theyre able to do doesnt necessarily mean what they should be doing. And today the president and his administration are also, of course, facing heightened scrutiny on his health care law. In a warmup for testimony tomorrow by hhs secretary Kathleen Sebelius, todays hot seat belonged to medicare administrator, marlin tavenner, the federal official who oversees the new Health Insurance exchanges. And she became the first senior official to apologize for the troubled rollout. To the millions of americans who have attempted to use healthcare. Gov to shop and enroll in health care coverage, i want to apologize to you, that the website has not worked as well as it should. I want to assure you that healthcare. Gov can and will be fixed and we are working around the clock to deliver the Shopping Experience that you deserve. Now, you didnt think that would be enough for congressional republicans, did you . No, indeed. They have already moved on to their newest, latest favorite line of attack. If you like your Health Care Plan, you can keep it. Is that a true statement . The white house. Gov website says if you want to keep the Health Insurance youve got, you can keep it. And now theyre being told they cant. Thats a lie. Yeah, thats the one. The claim that millions of americans are losing the insurance they know and love. Ms. Tavener did come with an answer when she was allowed to give one and the white house weighed in on the effects of the Affordable Care act on the 5 who currently purchase on the individual market. That market has been like the wild west. They could throw you off, they could jack up your premiums. They could change your coverage. The fact is that millions of americans who have been subject to the whims and vague arrestees of this individual Insurance Market are going to have security they never had before. Bonus, its going to lower everyones Health Care Costs when people with those shoddy plans upgrade and no longer end up in the emergency room for care. So lets all calm down and Work Together to get the law up and running. Right, Speaker Boehner . There is no way to fix this monstrosity. Thank you for that. And a very happy halloween to you, mr. Speaker. Joining us onset, im delighted to welcome msnbc contributor, joy reid, of the grio. Com and msnbc political analyst, our very own black sock r sock roties. Michael eric dyson. This week they say the president is a liar so i guess they are making progress in the way theyre moving forward on the Affordable Care act. What was interesting about the hearings today and the questions from republicans, they had to do less with sort of the actual operation of the Affordable Care act. And more to do with sort of relitigating their complaints about there being an Affordable Care act. You have the chairman, i believe, of the Ranking Member of the chairman of the house ways and Means Committee say the problem is over the law. The law itself is bad. So therefore, all of our sort of points about the website and things not working, we dont really care about the website. We still just hate the law so were going to find ways to question ms. Tavenner, to relitigate that. Professor dyson, Speaker Boehner claims there is no way to fix this monstrosity. One of the things you never hear is the monstrosity of preAffordable Care act market, where three quarters of medical bankruptcies happen to people with insurance. I mean, isnt that a monstrosity . Oh, its a horrible monstrosity. And speaking of halloween, we were tricked and not treated to what we should have been treated. As you indicated already, martin, most people who were poor used the emergency ward as health care maintenance. What does that do . It jacks up the prices exponentially, because by the time their diseases are caught upon scrutiny or scan in an emergency ward, youve got to pay now hundreds of thousands, if not millions of more dollars collectively for those people. Yes, absolutely, the preexisting conditions of being a woman or being poor without health care, the individual market will be accommodated, because now 1 Million People will have insurance through medicaid, and those with individual abilities to pay will have a better plan. Those who are grandfathered in, had preexisting insurance already, wont be penalized to the degree that the boehner and others have suggested. They say this is a monstrosity. Its not a monstrosity. The monstrosity is the inability of americans to afford to be able to take for granted what people in europe afford can take for granted. That is, if i get sick, i can go to the hospital, they dont ask me where is your card, let me see if you have enough money to pay. And we know hundreds of thousands of people have died as a result of being checked for insurance they dont possess, or they have been their health has been ruined as a result of lack of access. Thats the real monday trosty. Yeah, and, of course, we saw something of a monstrosity earlier with ms. Tavenner, but tomorrow is the big game, the one they have been waiting for and longing for. Kathleen sebelius. What do they do to her tomorrow . Its sort of a strange political strategy. You take a political figure that 90 of americans probably have no idea who this person is. And you sort of make them now the symbol of your discontent. Its not a smart political strategy in the sense that after tomorrows hearing blockbuster though it may be, even if they produce numerous youtube sound bites, 90 of people will still not have any idea. God bless her. So you have picked an enormous target what if they get her head on a platter, what if they force her to resign . Here is the down side and this is going to be very difficult to break to our conservative friends. There will still be an Affordable Care act. Even if Kathleen Sebelius was taken away by martians tomorrow. If they could get her to resign. If they can get the entire administration of barack obama to resign. The Affordable Care act is law. And what we still havent gotten to is acceptance of the fact of this act having passed, having passed scrutiny by the supreme court. It will exist no matter how many people they grill on their committees. Okay. Professor dyson, republicans are focused on the horror that people will be forced to get better care than they currently have. Thats correct. And i would like you to take a listen to this. Analysis has shown that if youre between 18 and 34 right now, about half of the people can get highQuality Health care for less than 50 bucks a month. Less than your cell phone bill, less than your cable bill. And about 70 can get it for less than 100 bucks a month. But heres the point, professor dyson. Thats what the Koch Brothers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on preventing young people from doing. Preventing young people from taking it up. Absolutely. As opposed to putting it in a fund, set aside for those who they claim will not be able to take advantage of it. Why not use that Koch Brothers money to permit them to afford the very care they claim wont be available under obama care . I love watching the president there. Im reminded of sades smooth operator. Hes clear, calm, smooth, telling the truth. Less than 50 bucks a month. What your phone bill would cost. Here is a man breaking down in the digestible form, a complicated thing like the Affordable Care act. And the reality is, as joy reid is saying, we cant say it enough. That it is law. It has been enshrined. It is there, regardless of their feelings, they cant remove it. If they co starred with Sandra Bullock in gravity and george clooney, they cant remove it. Thank you for that. Joy, i just wanted to one other question with you, though. This debate about individuals on the private Insurance Market losing their plan, it seems as though the republican preference now is that if your plan gets worse, right, you should be able to keep it. As opposed to the president s proposal, which is if your plan gets worse, it doesnt qualify, because it doesnt have those ten important essential elements that the Affordable Care act enshrines for all of us. Yeah, its a strange argument. What theyre essentially saying, if you have really bad but expensive insurance, that has high copays and deductibles, really horrible. And you can be tossed off at any moment. Your doctors can resign at any moment. This is the worst possible insurance. But at least you have something. If you are forced to change that for better insurance, that this is somehow an assault on your liberty. Theyre saying, foinstance the only example, if you are feeding your kids extruded Chicken Nuggets and horrible, made of chicken paste. And the government says you know what, from now on, it has to be chicken breast. Well, you have now assaulted my liberty. I have a right to feed my kids you have assaulted my liberty. It doesnt make sense. Were saying youre going to get a better product for a lower price. How that is an assault on your liberty, rather than your current policy being an assault on your dignity and good health, i really am not sure. Because theyre in bed with the insurance company. Theyre not into health care. Theyre into insurance position. Professor, before we go, i want wanted to get your thoughts on whats happened with regard to the nsa and the issue of spying on over 35 World Leaders. And senator Dianne Feinstein saying its a big problem, and the president apparently not knowing that Angela Merkels cell phones, both tapped. How damaging is that for this president s status as someone who is in control and in touch and one we can trust . Yeah, its a slippery slope. Because on the one hand, you want to look like you know whats going on. But you cant say the butler did it. This is something that youre responsible for, right . Its in your house. Colombo cant come in and save you. Neither can pj rourke or whoever else can be i think the problem here is that the president has been talking about transparency and clarity, and hes got to get ahold of whats going on here. Angela merkel doesnt want to come to the white house because youve been snooping and spying on her. Ive been trying to listen to see if they have been on my two phones. If theyre not on my phones and World Leaders spy on each other all of the time, we can make him a scapegoat. He has to be culpable and responsible, but at the same time, its a lot more pervasive than we thought. Isnt this about the permanent intelligence bureaucracy . And we learned president bush was trying to get involved in invading iraq. I thought theyre spying on our allies to see if theyll vote for the law. There is this bureaucracy and when you give an agency or any entity power it never gives it back willingly. I think it is up to congress, decrepid though they are, to reign and continue after this one. Which means it will never happen. It will be permanent and go on. Absolutely. Professor eric michael die son and joy reid, wish you could join me for the whole broadcast. Dont let republicans tell you they have a magical alternative to the Affordable Care act. Our next guest, a democratic congressman, is having none of it. I started parttime, now im a manager. N. My employer matches my charitable giving. Really. I get bonuses even working parttime. Where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day. Healthcare starting under 40 a month. I got education benefits. I work at walmart. Im a pharmacist. Sales associate. I manage produce. I work in logistics. Theres more to walmart than you think. Vo opportunity. Thats the real walmart. Medicare open enrollment. Of year again. Time to compare plans and costs. You dont have to make changes. But it never hurts to see if you can find better coverage, save money, or both. And check out the preventive benefits you get after the health care law. Open enrollment ends december 7th. So nows the time. Visit medicare. Gov or call 1800medicare but chantix helped me do it. I told my doctor i think im. Im ready. 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Use caution when driving or operating machinery. Common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. If i could describe being a nonsmoker, i would say awesome. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. The highlight of Todays Health Care hearing had to be an exchange involving a democratic congressman who decided to take a gop colleague to task for having the audacity to suggest that republicans have ever offered a viable alternative to the Affordable Care act. Its a false choice to say its obama care or nothing. There are numerous proposals, including the one that im a co sponsor. Are you serious, what you just said . Are you really serious . After what we have gone through . After what we have gone through in the last threeandahalf years . Have you you can sit there and say that you had a legitimate alternative . After these years . Weve gone through 44 votes. 48 votes now. Of you trying to dismantle this legislation. You call that cooperation . I dont joining us now was a man sitting front and center for that exchange. Democrat joe crowley of new york. Good afternoon, sir. Hey, martin. Great to be with you again. Now, you were sitting next to congressman pass equal of new jersey when that exchange occurred. Right. Did you begin to wonder if you started hallucinating or perhaps someone had spiked your Morning Coffee with rohypnol when you heard a republican claim with clear face, they had offered viable alternatives to the Affordable Care act. Well, i think, martin, that congressman pass crawl, i think, expressed the exacerbation and frustration i think we as democrats are feeling about our republican colleagues. You know, if this wasnt a serious hearing, we would all be laughing right now. Because we all know that theyre not about fixing the problem as democrats are. Theyre about trying to find a problem they can exploit. Theyre exploiting this as best they can. As i pointed out, the attention of the other side of the aisle, the republicans, is not to fix the problem. They want to undo unravel the whole, as mr. Reichert said in the hearing, he wants to take a chain saw to this. Youve anticipated my next question, congressman. Okay. Because as youre saying, things didnt seem to get much better. The hearing moved on from drunk karaoke to the Texas Chain Saw Massacre with, as you said, David Reichert of washington saying we should take a chain saw to the act. Now, can you please explain how making sure that Insurance Companies cannot deny coverage, because of preexisting conditions, how insuring that all americans can have Health Insurance. How is that such an horrendous thing . Well, i think thats the problem they have been tripping over all along. They know there are wonderful things in this bill. And yet they cant bring themselves to embrace it at all. In fact, what i said today, to the witness was that to understand that theyre not here to see you or this law succeed. Understand that. The questions theyre asking you about the rollout, or about how poorly it was done, they could care less. They dont care how poorly it was done, because they just want to exploit the issue. You know, what we are about is finding solutions to this problem. And that is the website can