Transcript: 'FOX News Sunday' (11-22-09)

"WALLACE: I’m Chris Wallace and this is “Fox News Sunday.” Health care reform moves forward in the Senate, while it’s wait and see on President Obama’s strategy for Afghanistan. We’ll tackle those issues and more with these key senators -- Republicans Lamar Alexander and Kit Bond, and Democrats Debbie Stabenow and Arlen Specter."

in reference to:

"Senator Alexander, now that the Democrats’ plan is on the Senate floor, what is your plan to beat it? Will you try to fix the bill, or will you urge all your members to vote against all the amendments? ALEXANDER: Well, our goal is to let the American people know what it -- what it does for them and to them, that it has higher premiums, higher taxes, Medicare cuts, puts 15 million more low-income Americans into a medical ghetto called Medicaid. And we think if the American people know that, the bill will collapse of its own weight. And we can get then started on going step by step toward reducing costs, which is what we’ve been trying to do... WALLACE: But do you... ALEXANDER: ... all along. WALLACE: Specifically, is the plan to vote against all amendments? ALEXANDER: Well, it depends on the amendment. But our -- the bill is fundamentally flawed. I mean, we -- if you expect Mitch McConnell to roll in a wheelbarrow with a Republican 2,000-page bill, it’s not going to happen. But we do have proposals to let small businesses to pool their resources, to reduce junk lawsuits, to let people buy insurance across state lines. And I think most people would be much more comfortable with us biting off what we could chew instead of this arrogance of thinking we can fix the whole system all at once. WALLACE: Senator Stabenow, there were several people voted yesterday for the bill to bring it to the floor who made it very clear -- probably four or five -- that they would vote against this bill on final passage because there are certain aspects that they cannot accept. My question, I guess, is since any amendment on the public option, or abortion or any of the other key issues needs 60 votes, how does the Democratic caucus -- how do you decide what you can accept, which may pick up two votes here but lose two votes here? How do you keep your super majority together? STABENOW: Well, first of all, let me say we all agree that the status quo is not working, and my Republican friends had six years of total control of the Congress and the White House, did nothing about making sure that small businesses and individuals without insurance who are seeing their premiums skyrocket actually saw any improvement. And so we’re all together on the fact that doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing means that businesses will see their costs double in 10 years... WALLACE: OK. STABENOW: ... and we’ll lose another... WALLACE: But I -- would you... STABENOW: ... 3.5 million jobs. WALLACE: ... answer my question, please? STABENOW: I will. But I want to start from that premise. Secondly, we all agree that this is about saving lives, saving money, protecting Medicare. So there are some differences, as you know, as to how we move forward to get competition with private insurance companies. I support a public insurance option."
- CQ Politics | CQ Transcript: Sens. Alexander, Bond, Specter and Stabnenow on ‘Fox News Sunday’ (view on Google Sidewiki)