House holding health care repeal vote Wednesday

>>> but house republicans are putting the president's health care law on trial this week, scheduling a vote tomorrow to repeal the law even though it won't get past the senate. the debate is under way in the house and new york congressman steve israel is chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee and joins me now. congressman, thanks so much. does this create a problem for you not only on the house side but potentially on the senate side with other votes that are taking place on taxes, for instance, or positions that are being taken by members running in close districts who do not want to support the president?

>> no, this doesn't create a problem at all. look, i have been pretty outspoken in telling our candidates and our incumbents that they need to reflect the values and priorities of the districts that they represent. in this case, the priorities and values of the republican party , house republicans are all wrong and undermine the middle class . it is their priority to repeal health care and undermine patient protections for the middle class . it is our priority not to move backwards and repeal health care and hurt the middle class but to move forward and vote on comprehensive legislation to create jobs for the middle class . it is the republicans ' priorities to take away patient protections, tell women that if they have breast cancer , it is once again a pre-existing condition, tell children that they are now kicked out of their health insurance -- their parents' health insurance plans, tell middle class consumers that once again, there are things like lifetime caps and tell seniors that they are going to have to pay more for prescription drug care. those are republican priorities. they are wrong. democrats should run against those wrong priorities and instead talk about our solutions to rebuild the middle class and that's what this election is going to be about.

>> how many democrats do you think you will lose in this vote tomorrow?

>> you know, i can't give you a whip count or head count. right now we're focusing on holding republicans accountable for their wrong priorities. i'll say it again. we want to move forward to create jobs for the middle class . republicans want to go backwards and repeal health care and undermine patient protections for the middle class . we are going to hold republicans accountable very aggressively for their wrong priorities and my advice to democrats is to talk consistently, coherently and strongly and aggressively about how these republicans are putting insurance company profits ahead of middle class stability.

>> what do you say to congressman from north carolina , larry kissel who said i have heard from hundreds and hundreds of people from my district about their opposition to the health care law , i voted against it originally and i will vote to repeal it? have you talked to him?

>> every member of congress when they raise their right hand and take their oath to the constitution makes a commitment to reflect the priorities and values of the districts that they represent. i happen to disagree with the congressman on this. my advice to democrats has been to continue to focus on the wrong priorities of republicans and what they are repealing. they are repealing important patient protections. they are repealing the ability of a woman to get health insurance if she has breast cancer . they are repealing the right of children to stay on their parents' health insurance plans until they are 26. they are repealing the elimination of the doughnut hole and trying to cost senior citizens more money. these are important, very important things that we should be running on and my view is that the republicans , they themselves are very fearful right now. i'm hearing that there's a lot of second guessing and a lot of jittery republicans who don't want to repeal these important patient protections and are questioning their own leadership about this vote. we'll see where they are at the end of the day tomorrow.

>> okay. congressman steve israel , thank you very much.