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And issues like this help explain it. and i think issues like this really help explain pennsylvania, wisconsin, ohio. given the fact that the president is from urban america and during the campaign talked a lot about, you know, equal rights for all citizens and talked about the lgbt community, is this then just about politics? i mean, it sounds like you re saying this is i mean, one way to look at what you re saying is it s a play to the base. it s about politics if you consider that even though the president is from urban america, the reason he s in the white house is not urban america. right, sure. if you went to that rally last night in ohio, and there were a lot of democrats there, and you asked any one of them about this decision today, i bet you wouldn t find too many objections. we can t start believing that lgbt people don t exist in the south. exactly. that they don t exist in rural america. i m from rural america in the south. the majority of parents, of gay p ....
Which is a whole different question. there s a lot of criticism of the president among his fellow republicans on capitol hill for, you know, the way that he s basically trying to bully jeff sessions into quitting instead of just, if he wants him to go, just firing him. i m not sure if there really is a strategy behind this. you know, we have been reporting for the past day or so about a concerted effort among those who are closest to jeff sessions, who are inside the white house. steve bannon and others among them, desperately trying to get the president to stop, not only because they are allies of jeff sessions, but because they realize that this is bad politics and policy for the president. and just tonight, chuck grassley, the chairman of the judiciary committee in the senate who would be in charge of a confirmation hearing if there were to be one for another attorney general, specifically said, without prompting, specifically in a tweet, the agenda for the judiciary ....
Portman s amendment will be included. on opioids? yes, exactly. they want to make sure they also protect the medicaid funding, which the states want, that s critical, because the senators are going to do what their governors want to do, a lot of them are up for reelection. the cbo came out with scoring on the skinny repeal, and it could, according to the congressional budget office, raise premiums by 20%, and 13 million americans, which is certainly less than 31 or 22 but a lot of americans, 16 million americans, could lose insurance. so i think it is very smart of minority leader schumer and the other democrats to force the facts out there. because going from a total repeal to the skinny repeal sounds like, oh, it s not so significant, who doesn t want to lose a few pounds? but by doing this we re getting the real facts out there. 16 million americans. 20% increase in premiums. those are all things americans, we know from polling throughout this process, don t want. except tha ....
Banning several thousand people from the armed forces, how that might affect readiness? well, we don t. and the word readiness is really a red herring to stall any debate. look, i want to make a couple points. i think there is an issue of the politics of the military. it s an issue of what the law says and what congress has the ability to do. and also the potential for lawsuits to block this on the back end. on the politics in the military, what i m most what strikes me the most is how this comes down completely the opposite way that the don t ask, don t tell repeal went down. so i covered the pentagon through the years when secretary gates was there. and he told us early on, he did not want obama to get the credit or blame for the don t ask, don t tell repeal. he didn t want it to be pinned on obama because any opponent could just say, ah-ha, it was his thing. so it took a couple years. and the gay community was not happy with it. but it took a couple years for gays in the penta ....
Had a child who was diabetic. so the personal experience it does fare and inform. i ll put you on the spot like i put gregory on the spot, do you think in this congress that enda is going to end up passing? i think it is a long shot. but talking about the personal experiences, what i think you re going to see is lgbt advocates taking this back to the home states of those lawmakers who don t yet support it and trying to personalize it. bringing out someone who served openly in the military as gay or lesbian and being, like, look, they served openly but now that they re a civilian, they have to go back in the closet because they re worried they re going to be fired because they live in a state without these protections. i think that in part was why don t ask, don t tell repeal was so successful. because you saw these patriots who had served and who weren t able to do so openly tell their stories, and that s what they re going to be doing, going forward to try to make it hit home mo ....