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Kellyanne Discusses Public Opinion on Healthcare Options on CNN's Lou Dobbs TonightOctober 27, 2009 (7:00pm) Read more on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight website. Topics: Afghan War Surge?; Where are the Jobs?; Health Care Battle DOBBS: Well, joining me now for more on the future of health carelegislation, four of the country's best political analysts, KellyAnneConway. She's republican pollster and strategist; good to have you withus, KellyAnne, president and CEO of the polling company. Jeffrey Plaut,who is democratic pollster, good to have you with us. Joe, columnistSalon.com, Joe Conason, and Matt Lewis, contributor toPoliticsdaily.com. Matt also writes for Townhall.com. Good to have youall with us.Let's start with the public option. Let me askyou Jeffrey if I may, what is the difference between an opt out publicoption, a competitive option, a consumer option, and say,government-run health care? JEFFREY PLAUT, DEMOCRATICPOLLSTER: Well, the public option is supported by 57 percent ofAmericans. So it's not yet supported by 60 United States senators. Butan option is something that is in American politics, is popular. Healthcare is a split view between the parties, but the public option is muchmaligned but better thought of by the country than it is -- DOBBS: So, Kelly Ann, with 57 percent support for the public option,why in the world would Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, be playing with otheroptions, opt-out option, consumer option, what's the problem? KELLYANNE CONWAY, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: They must realize that pollsthat ask Americans do you support or oppose a public option areincomplete and I don't blame them because most senators seem confusedas to what that is. The public option is a fancy way, a sanitized wayreally Lou of saying a government-administered plan. Even Tom Carper, ademocrat of Delaware, today said he would support a public option if itwere run by a nonprofit board and if the taxpayers didn't pay for it.That's hardly the public option that I think Nancy Pelosi and othershave in mind when they say public option. Asking people if they supportor oppose an option is like asking if they support world peace or norain on Saturday. It sounds good. DOBBS: Well adding thepublic option, Senator Reid the majority leader lost the support ofOlympia Snowe. Also of Joe Lieberman today. Let's listen to what he hadto say. Well, we don't have Lieberman. So I will just turn to the factthat we lost -- Senator Reid lost Joe Lieberman. What is the future --I'm sorry? JOE CONASON, SALON: I doubt he ever had JoeLieberman. The reason is simple. Joe Lieberman has been a creature ofthe insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies for 20 years.His wife worked for them. She was a lobbyist in all but named forPfizer and for one of the biggest lobby shops in Washington. If theywere ever counting on Joe Lieberman to them with this, they were makinga big mistake. DOBBS: Olympia Snowe? CONASON:Olympia Snowe the public option is quite popular. I don't know if it'smore popular than Olympia Snowe is but it is very popular. I wouldn'tcounter to the right end. The question really is what do they do in thefilibuster? This is what Lieberman did today. He said he would voteagainst culture, which is a betrayal of his party. He promised he was aDemocrat on everything but the war in Iraq. DOBBS: Who is betraying the Democratic Party? CONASON: Joe Lieberman who told the voters in Connecticut he was aliberal Democrat on all the issues except the war in Iraq. It turns outhe's -- DOBBS: The same Democratic party which, by the way, rejected him. CONASON: The voters did. The Democratic Party in Washington allowed himback in, let him keep his seniority, and he made promises to them. CONWAY: What about Mary? CONASON: She's not from Connecticut. That's a whole different thing.For many Democrats, any Democrat who supports a Republican filibusteragainst this bill is not much of a Democrat, and they're going tosuffer for it. DOBBS: Suffer, pain, punishment. CONASON: Lack of contributions, lack of support in the party, and problems when they run for re-election. MATT LEWIS, POLITICSDAILY: That's probably why Harry Reid probably cameout in pressure of this. He's under intense pressure from the peoplethat are threatening the votes. The liberal blogosphere and the unions.It's probably what has pushed Harry Reid to coming back to somethingthat we all thought was dead a couple weeks ago. CONASON:They don't have to vote for the public option, but they have to notsupport a Republican filibuster against a goal that Democrats have hadfor 40 years or more. That's a place that I don't think any Democratneeds to go unless they're really going to court extreme anger in theirparty. PLAUT: If the public option went to ballot, whichit's not, the United States senate obviously would get 55 United Statessenators or more, the whole issue is the number 60. 60 is a big number,and one to get past. CONWAY: 60 is what you have, Jeff. You have 60 Democrats. LEWIS: Most people do favor a trillion dollars in federal spending? Doyou favor spending going up? They would say no. We're going to haveRepublicans in Virginia, even in New Jersey, there's a toughgubernatorial race. I think if I'm Blanche Lincoln or Ben Nelson orMary Landrieu, I'm not sure I want to go and support a public optionand campaign as a blue dog back home. CONWAY: The opt out,if you want to provide an opt out, allow small business owners to optout. This administration's policies have been an assault on smallbusiness owners, believe me, or allow seniors to opt out of the cuts inMedicare that are on the table. CONASON: Cuts in the private Medicare. CONWAY: But it's huge. When people hear it, they don't understand. CONASON: We should discuss that. It's to cut Medicare advantage, whichis a subsidy to private insurance companies to try to compete withMedicare because they can't compete with Medicare. When people complainabout a government-run health care program, they're complaining about aprogram that is like Medicare. So it's an interesting position. On theone hand, they're trying to save Medicare. On the other hand, theydon't want -- LEWIS: They benefit financially from gettingrid of it. There's a lot of hypocrisy going around. What about the idea-- Because I think that's one of the big groups pushing for this. Whatabout the idea of bipartisanship? Harry Reid and the Democrats had aRepublican, Olympia Snowe. That would give them cover that said theywould pass a bipartisan bill. That slapped her in the face. They havesold her down the road. CONASON: They decided she's wrong on the policy issue. DOBBS: The Associated Press reports on the profits of health careinsurance companies, a unique report over the weekend. The insurancehealth care companies have been vilified in this debate by thisadministration, this president, by the Democratic leadership about theprofits they're enjoying. It turns out according to the associatedpress survey of these companies that they have averaged 2.2 percentprofits, ranked 35 out of 53 industries on the fortune 500. Has there-- is there just the slightest possibility that the rhetoric hasexceeding reality to the point that it could be a problem movingforward? PLAUT: If it covered pre-existing conditions, it would do a lot to improve Americans' views of them. DOBBS: I'm asking about the administration's problems in publicrelations, not the health care companies. They're being vilified with2.2 percent in profits, ranking 35th out of 53 industry groups in thefortune 500. I think I used the expression average. CONASON: So some ofthem are very large. PLAUT: I think Democrats went on recordsaying this industry has the highest profits of any industry. In fact,we're 35th. PLAUT: I don't think so. CONWAY: There's a huge boogie man they have been trying to vilify. DOBBS: The president stopped vilifying and demonizing doctors. He'stalked about ripping tonsils out of children and amputating feet.That's to the good. Will we see a similar retreat when it comes to theinsurance companies? CONASON: I think they're going to try to make the companies come in and try to make a deal. DOBBS: This sounds like it's not going to lead to a direct response to my question. LEWIS: That's the Chicago way. If you don't make a deal -- DOBBS: Thank you all so much. Appreciate it. |