CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript

Interview

CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript

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HENRY: We appreciate you joining us on CNN radio and CNN television. Senator Barrasso, where do you think we are in this debate, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Barrasso, you're on the line live with CNN.

HENRY: Senator, welcome. Ed Henry here on CNN with Tony Harris. And where do you think we are on this debate right now?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R), WYOMING: Well, I'm in the middle of Wyoming, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, visiting with people. I'm going to visit with about 300 emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters in the next hour and a half, just to talk about the issues of health care.

And people in Wyoming have great concerns. I've been having meetings around the state, and when I talk to people, you know, and you ask them the question, do you think you're going to end up paying more or less under the president's plan, you know, by two to one, they think they're going to pay more. And then you say, you think your health care's going to be better or worse under the president's plan? And by two to one, they're telling me they think it's going to be worse, and they're not sure they're getting the value that they deserve. And that's what the people of Wyoming want.

HENRY: Now, Senator Barrasso, a little earlier, we spoke to Senator Ben Nelson, a moderate Democrat you know well from Nebraska. And he floated an idea that basically, look, maybe the public option should be a secondary option.

He said in the first option should be passing a bill that deals with pre-existing conditions, making sure insurance companies can't, you know, pull that coverage out when you have a pre-existing condition, and make the public option sort of a fall back position that could be triggered if the insurance companies do not make the reforms that Democrats and some Republicans have been pushing for.

Could you live with a bill, as a Republican, that has a public option in it but not as the first one, but as a fallback? Could that be a possible compromise here?

BARRASSO: I probably am going to need to see the details as it's laid out. But I have a great deal of respect for Senator Nelson. We work hand in hand on a number of different proposals. And right now, I look at this large bill, 1,018 pages.

To me, it's very complicated. When one of the members of the House says, well, why read it because it takes two days to read it and two lawyers to explain it to you, that's too complicated for the American people and for the members of Congress.

We shouldn't vote for that sort of thing. If you can't understand it, you shouldn't vote for it. So, I like the idea of breaking it into pieces, taking a look at trying to figure out what's what...

HARRIS: Very, very interesting to hear that from Senator John Barraso of Wyoming that it is essentially too complicated a bill right now for Americans to read and understand.

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