president obama hitting the bully pulpit to keep the heat on congress to act. strange bed fellows. plan c. president obama's administration ending the fight on the morning after pill. those are the hot topics. vivian flounder joining and jed legman an ronnie grim from the huffington post. great to have you here. we lead off this discussion talking about the immigration push because in the last hour, the president was at the white house giving i guess, the latest face to put -- the latest human face on immigration starting his conversation by bringing out a dreamer and introducing a dreamer to the audience there and talking about what could get done. i want to play exactly what the president said about trying to find the middle ground on immigration reform. take a listen. it's a compromise. and going forward, nobody is going to get everything that they want. not democrats, not republicans, not me. but this is a bill that's largely consistent with the principles that i and the people on this stage have laid out for common sense reform. to business owners and to legality immigrants. and there is no good reason to undo the progress we have already made.
>> he talks about this being the best chance. are we really up against the clock here? the time crunch before the recess of july fourth and what do you make of the president coming out today addressing the fact it's not perfect but it's good?
>> i think the president is very aware of the fact another big visual going on in washington with the immigration debate. so it's really interesting to see the president speaking about this surrounded by a coalition of support. as you were saying earlier what i like to call immigration strange bed fellows. you have evangelical leaders and when you look at the debate going on in congress you will see the face of opposition. that is the contrast.
>> as you talk about strange bed fellows here, here is steve case who attended the remarks with the president today. steve, great to see you. explain to all of us what made you stand there with the president today for this?
>> i've been working for a decade on trying to reform the high schooled immigration the last couple of years focused here in washington on things like the start-up america of president's job council and key objective is winning the global battle for talent. how to have the best come here and stay here and start companies here to drive our economy but i realized a year ago the only way we get that passed is embrace a comprehend solution and build bipartisan solution for it. gang of eight and the judiciary committee and hits the senate floor and i'm confident we can get this passed and signed by the president the end of the summer.
>> global battle for talent is a great way to take about it. the president spoke about how the immigration reform will impact american workers now in the future. what would that mean you?
>> we are a start-up nation. the reason we have the leading economy in the world is the work of entrepreneurs who create great countries. half of the fortune 500 companies are started by second generation immigrants and high tech companies in silicon valley and elsewhere. we have to have the best talent and to do that we have to patch common sense immigration reform that deals with this issue and deals with it in a broad enough way you can build the kind of bipartisan support missing in the past. i think we have a moment now and we all have to join together in a bipartisan way that the president's remarks were terrific. the signals were getting from people and on the republican side and the senate and the house i think are also encouraging and if people work together in a good faith way and say now is the time to get this done i'm confident it will get done. we will remain the no inter entrepreneurial nation in the world.
>> i want to bring our panel back in right now. we talk about the fact there is a unique time for compromise in washington, d.c. certainly people have been vocal about where the sticking points are in coming to any immigration reform. mitch mcconnell has been vocal about this and recognizing that he feels there are flaws on immigration reform, this bill. take a listen.
>> at the risk of stating the obvious, the bill has serious flaws. i'll vote to debate it and for the opportunity to amend it but in the days ahead there will need to be major changes to this bill if it's going to become law.
>> judd, the serious flaws, is he trying to shine a bright light on what they feel is the lapsesed border security in this bill?
>> well, i think that is really the issue they are keying on and it's kind of odd because marco rubio and the other republicans who are part of the gang of eight were the ones who drafted this legislation and now rubio himself is saying this language that i drafted is no longer sufficient and i might not vote for the bill. so it's an interesting double game that is going on, at least by some of the republicans. but it looks like that they are going to have this vote that will kick off the debate. and, you know, there's a possibility that those issues could be resolved and move to the house which is where an even tougher ballots begins.
>> while that is going on, everyone is, obviously, distracted by the big news with the nsa, the leak that happened with edward snowden and whether or not "the guardian" is running with more sensitive material. you wrote a piece about this, ryan, strange bed fellows, talk about that, the connective tissue made now with people on polar opposites?
>> this is kinds of a shaking out of the politics that started right after september 11th. it traces decades back brnt but right after -- painting democrats as borderline. a lot of these new republicans didn't have experience drafting this post 9/11 legislation and they didn't have ties to the leadership that had fought those battles and they had an extreme distrust of gost. the first time that house leads brought the patriot act extension to the floor, the tea party shot it down. ever since then a push and pull going on inside the republican party that we haven't seen since the 1920s or so this has been exacerbated.
>> it's the right thing. but doing it without any real oversight seriously jeopardizes the rights of all americans. we have to find a way to give the president the power he needs to protect us while making sure that he doesn't abuse that power. you can't have a hundred percent security and also then have a hundred percent privacy.
>> so, ryan, is this it boils down who is watching the watchers and what is the capability of our government and the muscles that are going to be flexed and needed as we advance as a society into the future? the genie is out of the bottle and not going anywhere. we need to be aware of it.
>> when president bush was in power republicans pretty broadly supported the president's extension of this authority and in 2006 democrats opposed this type of use of power and republicans supporting it. today, democrats control the levers of executive power and polls show democrats are standing behind the president much more time this time around.
>> is this just their authority? because extended authority means that it's only temporary.
>> where are they getting the authority some they are asserting the authority. if nobody pulls it back from them, then, sure, they are exercising authority but where does it actually come from?
>> so one thing we want to get on as well because this has been a big news maker today is about the administration announcing it's ending fights to keep age restrictions on the morning after pill. jed, you noticed they asserted it to plan b but only reversed for -- not for the generics. there is a price differential, a big one.
>> right. i think it really shines a light on potentially the power of the pharmaceutical industry because we have seen them dropping their objections over age restrictions for plan b, the brand name of this morning after pill, but the generic alternatives which are much cheaper and more affordable and much more readily available for people who need it they will maintain the same restrictions. the reason is that these generics rely on two pills rather than one pill. doesn't seem like a huge hurdle even for a relatively young woman or girl to figure out.
>> why the about face?
>> i think it has a lot to do with the fact that there's a lot of politics involved. when the president got involved in this and he spoke on this, he put on the cap of father 234 nchief and actually referred to his daughters and said, my goodness. i don't know how i would feel to think my daughters can go and get this kind of medication without me knowing about it. but he firmly put the politician in chief hat on because there have been losses in the lower courts and all indications this would lose yet again on a much larger scale in the larger context of the battles brewing in washington the president can't afford another loss.
>> he talks about this being the best chance. are we really up against the clock here? the time crunch before the recess of july fourth and what do you make of the president coming out today addressing the fact it's not perfect but it's good?
>> i think the president is very aware of the fact another big visual going on in washington with the immigration debate. so it's really interesting to see the president speaking about this surrounded by a coalition of support. as you were saying earlier what i like to call immigration strange bed fellows. you have evangelical leaders and when you look at the debate going on in congress you will see the face of opposition. that is the contrast.
>> as you talk about strange bed fellows here, here is steve case who attended the remarks with the president today. steve, great to see you. explain to all of us what made you stand there with the president today for this?
>> i've been working for a decade on trying to reform the high schooled immigration the last couple of years focused here in washington on things like the start-up america of president's job council and key objective is winning the global battle for talent. how to have the best come here and stay here and start companies here to drive our economy but i realized a year ago the only way we get that passed is embrace a comprehend solution and build bipartisan solution for it. gang of eight and the judiciary committee and hits the senate floor and i'm confident we can get this passed and signed by the president the end of the summer.
>> global battle for talent is a great way to take about it. the president spoke about how the immigration reform will impact american workers now in the future. what would that mean you?
>> we are a start-up nation. the reason we have the leading economy in the world is the work of entrepreneurs who create great countries. half of the fortune 500 companies are started by second generation immigrants and high tech companies in silicon valley and elsewhere. we have to have the best talent and to do that we have to patch common sense immigration reform that deals with this issue and deals with it in a broad enough way you can build the kind of bipartisan support missing in the past. i think we have a moment now and we all have to join together in a bipartisan way that the president's remarks were terrific. the signals were getting from people and on the republican side and the senate and the house i think are also encouraging and if people work together in a good faith way and say now is the time to get this done i'm confident it will get done. we will remain the no inter entrepreneurial nation in the world.
>> i want to bring our panel back in right now. we talk about the fact there is a unique time for compromise in washington, d.c. certainly people have been vocal about where the sticking points are in coming to any immigration reform. mitch mcconnell has been vocal about this and recognizing that he feels there are flaws on immigration reform, this bill. take a listen.
>> at the risk of stating the obvious, the bill has serious flaws. i'll vote to debate it and for the opportunity to amend it but in the days ahead there will need to be major changes to this bill if it's going to become law.
>> judd, the serious flaws, is he trying to shine a bright light on what they feel is the lapsesed border security in this bill?
>> well, i think that is really the issue they are keying on and it's kind of odd because marco rubio and the other republicans who are part of the gang of eight were the ones who drafted this legislation and now rubio himself is saying this language that i drafted is no longer sufficient and i might not vote for the bill. so it's an interesting double game that is going on, at least by some of the republicans. but it looks like that they are going to have this vote that will kick off the debate. and, you know, there's a possibility that those issues could be resolved and move to the house which is where an even tougher ballots begins.
>> while that is going on, everyone is, obviously, distracted by the big news with the nsa, the leak that happened with edward snowden and whether or not "the guardian" is running with more sensitive material. you wrote a piece about this, ryan, strange bed fellows, talk about that, the connective tissue made now with people on polar opposites?
>> this is kinds of a shaking out of the politics that started right after september 11th. it traces decades back brnt but right after -- painting democrats as borderline. a lot of these new republicans didn't have experience drafting this post 9/11 legislation and they didn't have ties to the leadership that had fought those battles and they had an extreme distrust of gost. the first time that house leads brought the patriot act extension to the floor, the tea party shot it down. ever since then a push and pull going on inside the republican party that we haven't seen since the 1920s or so this has been exacerbated.
>> it's the right thing. but doing it without any real oversight seriously jeopardizes the rights of all americans. we have to find a way to give the president the power he needs to protect us while making sure that he doesn't abuse that power. you can't have a hundred percent security and also then have a hundred percent privacy.
>> so, ryan, is this it boils down who is watching the watchers and what is the capability of our government and the muscles that are going to be flexed and needed as we advance as a society into the future? the genie is out of the bottle and not going anywhere. we need to be aware of it.
>> when president bush was in power republicans pretty broadly supported the president's extension of this authority and in 2006 democrats opposed this type of use of power and republicans supporting it. today, democrats control the levers of executive power and polls show democrats are standing behind the president much more time this time around.
>> is this just their authority? because extended authority means that it's only temporary.
>> where are they getting the authority some they are asserting the authority. if nobody pulls it back from them, then, sure, they are exercising authority but where does it actually come from?
>> so one thing we want to get on as well because this has been a big news maker today is about the administration announcing it's ending fights to keep age restrictions on the morning after pill. jed, you noticed they asserted it to plan b but only reversed for -- not for the generics. there is a price differential, a big one.
>> right. i think it really shines a light on potentially the power of the pharmaceutical industry because we have seen them dropping their objections over age restrictions for plan b, the brand name of this morning after pill, but the generic alternatives which are much cheaper and more affordable and much more readily available for people who need it they will maintain the same restrictions. the reason is that these generics rely on two pills rather than one pill. doesn't seem like a huge hurdle even for a relatively young woman or girl to figure out.
>> why the about face?
>> i think it has a lot to do with the fact that there's a lot of politics involved. when the president got involved in this and he spoke on this, he put on the cap of father 234 nchief and actually referred to his daughters and said, my goodness. i don't know how i would feel to think my daughters can go and get this kind of medication without me knowing about it. but he firmly put the politician in chief hat on because there have been losses in the lower courts and all indications this would lose yet again on a much larger scale in the larger context of the battles brewing in washington the president can't afford another loss.
No comments:
Post a Comment