Hell just froze over -- David Gregory corrected a Republican

[travelingtypist]

On the TeeVee.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32518842/ns/meet_the_press/

HATCH: Well, I think the president realizes that a public option isn't the last answer to everything. As a matter of fact, both independent groups and others in government indicate that if we go to a public option millions and millions--tens of millions of people will go into the government plan. And the problem with the government plan is, is that Medicare, for instance, is a government plan, it's $39 trillion in unfunded liability. It's going to go bankrupt within the next 10 years. The costs of the government plan will be astronomical. Keep in mind, in Medicare they pay doctors 20 percent less, they pay hospitals 30 percent less. Guess where those costs are transferred? They're transferred to the people who have private health insurance, and the average private health insurance policy goes up about $1800 a year just to pay for what the government fails to pay for in their current government plan. So we're going to throw out--we have 300 million people in this country, 85 percent of whom have insurance. Both sides believe that--both Democrats and Republicans believe that we should reform the insurance industry. There's no problem there. The real problem is are we going to go to--in a government plan that can't even take care of what we have in Medicaid and Medicare? And, and the point is if you go to a government plan, both independent analysts and government analysts, the CBO, have indicated that tens of millions of people who go with the government plan...

MR. GREGORY: Well, wait a minute, Senator Hatch, that's not right.

SEN. HATCH: ...will destroy the private health industry.

MR. GREGORY: The Congressional Budget Office did not say that. In fact, what they have concluded...

SEN. HATCH: Yes, it did say that.

MR. GREGORY: ...is that, well...

SEN. HATCH: Yes, it did.

MR. GREGORY: The CBO said that, in fact, those enrolled in private insurance plans would go up by three million, and they estimate that about 10 million people, only 10 million people go into a public plan.

SEN. HATCH: Well, didn't I say tens of millions of people? Others have said as many as...

MR. GREGORY: Tens of millions, that's different than 10 million.

SEN. HATCH: Well, that's plenty. Others are saying up to 119 million people. It, it ranges in between. The point is, it's always more than what the government says it is. Look, I don't think people in this country believe that the federal government controlling everything is, is the best system of last resort. I think we should have more flexibility in the states to solve their own problems. For instance, New York is not Utah, Utah is not New York. We have a tremendous healthcare system that works out here, they don't in New York. Massachusetts, Massachusetts has that so-called connector system. They now haven't added people over the last two years because they're, they're almost bankrupt because of the costs of their government plan. You know, if you go down through it, anybody that believes that the federal government is going to take this over and do a better job than the private sector, even with all the faults of the private sector, I, I think just hasn't looked at the last, at the last 30 years.

So sad that I would be thrilled with such a small thing.