“Meet the Press” Moderator David Gregory Discusses the Week's Politics

Transcript

Event Location(s): Washington, District of Columbia, United States, New York City, New York, United States | Description: GFX: Header “USA Today Gallup Poll” GFX: Header “Next For Health Care Reform” GFX: Supers “Repeal Law Entirely 31%”, “Repeal Parts Of The Law 21%”, “Expand Gov'ts Role 25%”, “Keep Law In Place 13%” EJ 08:11:17 (:24) INT MS: Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in interview. MS: “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory says, “...of the trenches to get this thing passed.” MS: Pelosi says, “Yes.” MS: Gregory says, “It wasn't easy. Do you think repeal is unrealistic? It—you know...” MS: Pelosi says, “Yes.” MS: Gregory says, “You know, for Mitt Romney to Republican leaders, they say we're going to lead the charge on this.” MS: Pelosi says, “It--but it's--I think that that part of it is over. Do we always want to fight for more and better? We want to lower--continue to lower costs and we built that in to the health care--Affordable Care Act.” EJ 08:12:44 (:26) INT MS: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks at a rally. MS: Romney holds a baby. EXT DAY MS: Romney shakes hands with a man at the podium at a rally. Roney addresses the audience. INT MS: Romney kneads dough with women. EXT DAY MS: President Barack Obama walks. MS: Obama speaks from a podium. INT MS: Obama speaks from a podium. 08:13:22 GFX: Graphic of the unemployment rate from June, 2011 to May, 2012. 08:14:04 GFX: Graphic plug for “Meet the Press”. “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory joins Jenna Wolfe (in studio 1A) in two-way live remote from Washington, DC. JENNA WOLFE: David, good morning. DAVID GREGORY: Good morning, Jenna. WOLFE: So the Supreme Court's ruling on health care did little to quiet the chatter and the criticism. A recent poll shows 52 percent of Americans want either some or all of it repealed. I know you had a chance to sit down with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to talk about the chance of this even getting repealed. WOLFE: Let's listen to her--that and then I'll ask you about it on the other side. (Clip from Nancy Pelosi interview) GREGORY: ...of the trenches to get this thing passed. Representative NANCY PELOSI: Yes. GREGORY: It wasn't easy. Do you think repeal is unrealistic? It—you know... Rep. PELOSI: Yes. GREGORY: You know, for Mitt Romney to Republican leaders, they say we're going to lead the charge on this. Rep. PELOSI: It--but it's--I think that that part of it is over. Do we always want to fight for more and better? We want to lower--continue to lower costs and we built that in to the health care--Affordable Care Act. (End of clip) WOLFE: David, how realistic is it that this will get repealed? GREGORY: I think it's very difficult. You know, it depends on what the outcome of the election is not only at the top with the president, but also numbers for Republicans in the House and the Senate. I mean, look what a legislative grind it was to pass this in the first place. It could be that difficult to do it--to repeal it, as well. And then I think it's a question of political will. Do Republicans really want to spend the next, you know, six months fighting this fight. What they do recognize is that, A, there may be some politics on their side. And, B, they realize if they're going to do anything they want to do it before 2014 when a lot of this gets implemented at the state level because then it gets harder to take a new benefit away from people. WOLFE: It would also be incredibly expensive to do that, as well. Both Obama and Romney are trying to capitalize on the ruling, however both campaigns feverishly fundraising, looking for donations and money right now. Which candidate stands to gain the most from this ruling? GREGORY: Well, I think it's going to energize conservatives considerably because it did before. It had huge political results in 2010 when Democrats lost the House. And I think for Romney it becomes a centerpiece of where the Obama administration went wrong in his view, where it took its eye off the ball of economic recovery. And so then on other side, the president has an opportunity to tout what is certainly a signature achievement of his first term, but he also can try to connect it to a bigger message about middle-class economic security and that this is a big piece of it. So I think that's how it'll shape up as we move forward over the next several months. WOLFE: Speaking of the Obama campaign, they're trying to forus--refocus their attention on the economy right now. New job numbers are going to come out on Friday. How important is that going to be to the campaign? GREGORY: Well, you know, a lot of people are away, certainly, but if you look at that chart you see that 8.2 percent for May and a dismal jobs report is going to have a lot of attention focused on what June looked like and whether there's any more sign of recovery or whether it continues to be very slow. So these become big moments. We'll have after this coming Friday, I believe, four more reports until the election. These become very important, not only because Americans understand the unemployment rate, but they're also paying attention to how many jobs have been created as a sign of whether growth is going anywhere near the right direction. WOLFE: We mentioned Nancy Pelosi. Who else do you have coming up on the program this morning? GREGORY: We're going to have a debate. We're going to do a special hour on health care, what it means, what the politics are? Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal, could be a VP pick for Mitt Romney, will join us. He'll debate Howard Dean on whether this law is good for Americans as it now moves forward. And our political roundtable will break down the politics, and Savannah Guthrie, the new co-host of TODAY, will join us to talk about it all, as well. WOLFE: All right, looking forward to that. David Gregory. David, thank you very much. GREGORY: Thanks.