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Care exchanges? according to chris frates, reid is the only top congressional leader to grant exceptions to some of his staff. lisa day jordan has been tracking congress's own health care decisions and certainly helped with the story. how is harry reid able to do what he's doing and why is he the only congressional leader that has made this decision? >> he is the only of the top four congressional leaders, the top democrat and republican, both the house and senate to make this exception. why is he able to do it, wolf? well, frankly, it's because of wording in the affordable care act. it's all ...

Lost their unemployment insurance, which is what will happen if congress does not act before they leave on their holiday vacation. >> so sort of painting republicans as ebenezer scrooge there, wolf. then the other thing you heard and you mentioned this as you were tossing it out to me, the president did offer again another stout defense of obama care. he said that republicans owe it to americans to say not just what they're against but what they're for, and on that front, wolf, we should also mention that i an source familiar with enrollment numbers did confirm to cnn within the last couple ho...

Out, wolf, is that for many lawmakers, especially those who are on the republican side in the house and the senate, they believe that being in congress, legislating, isn't just about passing bills and sending them to the president for his signature. it is about stopping legislation, stopping laws from being passed they think are the wrong thing to do. so that is possibly part of the reason why that number is so low. the big one, though, is of course, just partisan gridlock. >> very quickly, is there going to be a budget deal? patty murray from the senate, paul ryan, this conference, they're su...

Under the law, but it's a question of was the intent when congress pass a law saying that congressional staff should go on the exchanges, are they following the intent? that's up for debate. they certainly are following the law here, wolf. >> it's only been a little while since chris wrote the story. is it giving ammunition to republicans to further their attack against obama care? as far as the democrats in congress are concerned? >> xwrae, as you say, has just been broken in the last 12, 16 hours. you can bet that republicans will make hay out of this. however, they have to be careful, wolf,...