Hollywood walk of fame today. The star is currently in the hit movie interstellar. Thats going to do it for monday. Morning joe starts right now. Good morning. Its monday, november 17th. Welcome to morning joe. Dont look out the window. What a day. All right. On set, we have managing editor of bloomberg politics, park halperin is with us and amy joins us as well. How was your weekend . The tide rolled. The tide did roll. Quite a game. How did vandy do . They had a bye week. To Mississippi State where we
have to deal with the mess you left. Very angry group of bulldogs. Mississippi state should be in the playoffs. One loss to maybe the best team in the country. No doubt about it. How was your weekend, mark . Thank you very much it was good. I activated my iphone 6. Long delay. Thats exciting. It is for me. 6 or 6 plus. Ill show you a picture i took with it that relates to one of the guests on todays program. I hope you had a more exciting weekend than mark. I was in dallas, texas. It was colder in dallas than it was here. The arctic you know. The vortex thing. All right. So we have a lot of different news coming in from washington across the world and washington especially. I guess its good news. Bad news. Bad news. Maybe its good news mixed news bad news. A lot of stories about obamacare
this weekend. Steve has a piece on wages in the New York Times well get to. Well start with obamacare. Enrollment in the Affordable Care act is under way again and the secretary of health and Human Services says that 100,000 people submitted applications on saturday, the first day of open enrollment. She said about a Million People have been window shopping and in a new poll 7 of 10 americans rank their coverage under obamacare as excellent or good. I want to keep this up. Its one of the reasons we led with this story. Theres been a problem with the rollout but a lot of people have said all along if americans like obamacare, if obamacare works for them and makes their life easier and costs them less, the majority of americans, it will succeed. It will survive. It will thrive. You look at this poll, i must say this poll caught me by surprise this weekend. At how popular it is. For the people who actually
enroll that over 70 of the people like it. Theres two Big Questions i think going forward. One is will the losers in this become vocal, people who lose access to their doctor and whose premiums go up, will their voices be as loud as winners, the people happy with the program, and cost control measures have not kicked in in in full. If this controls cost for companies and individuals, it will be very popular. Youll remember this back 1993, 1994, the clintons were talking about healthcare reform. At the time medical inflation was exploding. The mere talk of a very rigid Health Care Reform system actually lowered. Some people say it was a coincidence. Perhaps it was. But suddenly everybody, the Insurance Companies, the big healthcare corporations, suddenly their cost started to go down. The same thing happened when
obamacare was debated. Even before it was passed. Suddenly we saw medical inflation slowing down. Its like she are saudis. The two time it slows down, its not when legislation passes, but when the threat of legislation comes up. It affects the whole market, not just Insurance Companies but other healthcare providers. The other big piece we saw was Sylvia Matthews is really talented. I went to college with her. Shes focused. She wants this to succeed more than her predecessor shes been given authority to implement this and make it work and so far it is. Its an interesting quandary for republicans whose top issue is the debt. Right. Longterm debt, medicare, medicaid drives longterm debt. Again, medical inflation, i want to state this again so people dont get too excited this early because i know they do, it was slowing down during the debate down to 2 and noted while that year and a half debate was going on how much it had slowed down. If you were a small government conservative, do you really want to say were going to get rid of this whole thing and maybe see all of the costs explode back up again because the threat is gone and the saudis decide they can control costs better or do you just all of the things that are offensive to you because of liberty and freedom and individual choice and you just mend it. I think it presents republicans, small government republicans, an
interesting question. Yeah. If you see polls like this come out again and we saw that theyre happy with the coverage, the people who enrolled 70 happy with the coverage and this is what the Obama Administration said all along. We were terrible with the website. We screwed up the website and political side of this is something different. Jonathan gruber and the rest of it. If this stuff works and people like the coverage they have, lets see how it works out and this is our first indication that some people who have it seem to like it. Willie mentioned the name that shall not be mentioned in the white house. Gruber. This could be good news except for the fact that jonathan gruber, i guess, he did this just sort of some people golf. Some people go around calling the American People stupid. Mr. Gruber should have picked up a 9 iron. You have never done that. Ive never called the American People people. I say the American People always get it right. At the end of the day when it
makes me angry, the American People get it right. He said in three separate videos at least suggesting that a lack of transparency and stupidity on the part of the voters contributed to the laws passage. David axelrod tweeted this. As one who worked hard to make aca and its benefits clear, let me say if you looked up stupid in the dictionary you would find grubers picture. The president reacted yesterday from across the globe. I just heard about this. I get well briefed before i come out here. The fact that some adviser who never worked on our staff expressed an opinion that i completely disagree with in terms of the voters is no reflection on the actual process that was run. We had a yearlong debate, ed. Go back and look at your stories. The one thing we cant say is
that we did not have a lengthy debate about health care in the United States of america. I think its fair to say there was not a provision in the healthcare law that was not extensively debated and was fully transparent. Mark halperin, that statement just begs for so many swift rebuttals. I go to you. Was it transparent . On at least one important provision if you like your doctor you can keep him, i dont think we had a full debate because a lot of people have lost access to their doctor. Some people have been losers. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. That ended up not being true. Premiums wont go up. Thats not true for a lot of people. We didnt have a full and transparent debate. You have to blame mitt romney for part of that. He was not able to lead a full debate because he passed a plan
in massachusetts that handcuffed him a little bit in criticizing. Youre talking about during the 12 election. Either time we didnt have a full debate. The president is back from a weeklong trip to china, myanmar and it appears the president will make immigration his number one priority this week. Its believed the president will grant legal status to millions of undocumented workers through an executive action, an issue former president bill clinton could have made a difference at the polls just a few weeks ago. There was a collapse of the youth vote. The africanamerican vote held steady and was remarkable. We had a bit of a loss at the hispanic vote. Perhaps because the president didnt issue the immigration
order but it was a tough call for him because had he done so then a lot of others would have lost even more. It was a difficult call. So was it the president s fault for not leading with immigration during the campaign . I think president clinton is right. I think politics could have benefited the president and Democratic Party if he had led and not disappointed activist in the immigrant community expecting action before the election cycle. Senator mccaskill is not crazy about the president taking executive action on immigration saying if House Speaker boehner doesnt like it he should bring the immigration bill to the floor for a vote. A republican colleague in the senate is leaving the door wide open for a Government Shutdown. Senator john thune says the president is playing with fire by taking the issue of immigration into his own hands. I think republicans are
looking at different options about how best to respond to the president s unilateral action, which many people feel is unconstitutional and unlawful action on this particular issue. Shutting the government doesnt solve the problem. My concern is what happens if we end up shutting down what could be a record legislative accomplishment that is there for the taking if the president would choose cooperation instead of conflict. The door wide open to possible Government Shutdown from john thune, a guy that doesnt go around the capitol like the tasmania devil. That was two weeks after the election when we had peace and harmony for a couple of days. Now we talk shutdown again. I think it has to be taken off the table. They have enough power. They have enough authority. They run the house. They run the senate. They have the checkbook in the house. They have a lot of power in the senate. They could do a lot of things and still be able to say there
will never be a Government Shutdown. We will not do that. We will not play with the faith and full credit of the United States of america, no, no, no. The answer is no. We have a thousand other things that were looking at. Government shutdown, no. I have been there. Put my hand on the stove. You were there it not so long ago. You may remember your Approval Rating dropped to the lowest level ever and if you want to know why the Tea Party Candidates that you endorse did not win in the primaries, its because you shut down the government. Okay. So you shut down the government and you basically killed politically your allies so mainstream republicans won and now they control the senate. Were going to run the government and not shut it down. I have tried that twice. You tried it. Really, it sucked. The fallout is bad every single time. Okay. Hand on stove, bad. Thank you. Im done. Can i ask you a question about immigration. Sure. The president hasnt defended on merits the things he talks about with this executive order. Do you think they would be popular with the American People . I think the president can get i think he could get mainstream support for a measured executive order. I really do. I think a lot of americans are like me. They are here. I like them paying taxes. I like them were not going to go to their doors and kick them down and drag them back to mexico and china and other were not going to do that. We know that. Were not going to do it. So if theyre here at least
legalize them. I would rather cops go after murderers than arresting people that are here and have been here whose children are in school and are going to stay here and they are not leaving. Nobody is suggesting theyre leaving. All right. Go ahead and give them legal status, right. Threeyear work permit. Do whatever you want to do. And build the border fence 800 feet high. Awesome. Ill all for that. And i think the president would probably find that would be acceptable for a lot of americans. I mean, theyre not going. Now, listen, heres the deal. If theres part of that that leads to citizenship, some people like me have a problem with it because the first thing you do coming to america cant be illegal. Nothing you do illegally can put you ahead of the immigrant from pakistan who wants to bring her
husband over here. I mean, its got to be fair. Lets be fair. Since they are here, lets face the reality. Legalize the status and get them paying taxes into the system. Its a lot of taxes we need. One more major headline this morning. In just a few hours, the parents of the american aid worker beheaded by Islamic State militants will speak out at a news conference. U. S. Officials say they have authenticated a graphic 16minute video from isis which revealed that 27 peter kassig was executed. Hes the fifth american to be killed by isis. The former army ranger was kidnapped during an aid mission. Kassigs parents said he converted to islam during his captivity. In a statement, president obama said it was an act of pure evil. Meanwhile, former republican president ial nominee mitt romney is criticizing president obamas
response to it the rise of isis. He says the president should not rule out boots on the ground. I just dont think you take things off the table and say that were going to destroy isis when the president says for instance that isis is a cancer and it must be eliminated. Hes right. But you dont say were only going to use the following tools in doing so. You say were going to do whatever it takes and hopefully well be able to do that with other peoples troops but if it takes our own troops, you dont take that as a source of our strength from the battlefield. All right. Mark, i think hes running. If jeb bush doesnt run, i think he will. He would beat jeb bush. I cant believe im saying that. If jeb bush runs i cant believe im saying it. If jeb bush runs, that guy beats him. I think he could beat jeb bush but i dont think hes going to run against him. I think hes absolutely running without question. He does a lot of sunday shows
for a guy thats not running. He looks president ial. Hes been in the middle of it. Hes been right. Jeb has been off the field for a very long time. A very long time. Lets go to eamon. You knew peter. Talk, if you will, about the last time you saw him. The last time i saw him was actually in beirut just a few weeks before he was ultimately kidnapped. We had a chance, myself and a few other foreign journalists, many who knew peter better than i did. It was a casual day in beirut. We had lunch. I saw a young man driven by what he set out to do which is this organization he created to help syrian ref yugeerefugees. He was at peace despite knowing the risks. Being the journalists that we were, we were skeptical about the environment he was going into to be careful and watch out with who he was working with. He had a network of people he was relying on. The circumstances of his kidnapping were to us still somewhat mysterious if you will. He was great guy. He was an individual. Very calm person who was driven by a great sense of ideals after several years of questioning what happened around him in the middle east he felt he had the purpose in trying to help syrian ref yugees refugees. A former army ranger. He served in iraq. He decided he wanted to go back and help. An aid worker. Its remarkable. I saw the Atlantic Monthly tweet yesterday an article where they said there was a time when islamic radicals actually tried to Court Journalists and explain why they were doing what they were doing. Now they try to kill them and
behead them. Its a short sided routine that in the end loses, it always does. There was this line in a letter to his parents that was so moving where he said dont worry, dad, if i go down just know that i know the truth that you and mom love me more than the moons and the stars. He seemed like a pretty incredible guy. Incredible guy trying to bring relief to the hopeless. Everyone that knew him could feel that. He was well liked by his group of friends in beirut. Very, very respected. Still ahead on morning joe, we have general Michael Hayden here and actor Matthew Goode and Michael Haney. A highly contagious virus
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a lot. I picked it up. Hes obsessed. Hes quoting it. He got the jokes. He likes the song. All right. Lets go to the morning papers. To sounds wonderful. The New York Times a surgeon has been transported to omaha, nebraska, to undergo treatment. He is ill and in worse condition than other ebola patients treated in the u. S. Dr. Salia lives in maryland and was diagnosed with ebola last monday. The illness killed 5,000 people in west africa and the u. S. Announced it will begin to screen people traveling from mali for the deadly virus. It looks like our thanksgiving cruise that we were going to do may be off. Morning joe cruise. Were wor