Debate ahead of House repeal vote underway

>>> the leader, is speaking. lawmakers have been debating for of hours the republican attempt to repeal president law.a's health and the votee day, should be between 3:00 and 4:00. iowa senator tom harkin is chairman of the health, education, labor and pension committee and joins me from the hill. senator, great to see you. thanks so much. what do you think of this exercise on the house floor? what's going to happen when it comes over to the senate?

>> well, absolutely nothing. this is sheer political theater . it's wasting a lot of time and it's scaring a lot of people. but it's nothing -- this is the second time the house has voted to repeal the affordable care act in its entirety and i think if i'm not mistaken, the 33rd time they voted to repeal some affordable care act . nd every time, it goes nowhere because we're not going to do .hat in the senate

>> let me play a little bit of the speaker, john boehner , speaking just a few minutes ago about this on the floor.

>> there's a better way and that's why we're here today. americans want a step by step approach that protects the access to care that they need from the doctor they choose at a lower cost. they certainly didn't ask for this government take-over of their health care system that's put us in this mess that we're in today.

>> so that's john boehner . do you have any response to his arguments on the house floor?

>> well, you know, if you follow their lead, first of all, they have no plan. there is no republican health care bill, none whatsoever. secondly, if you vote to repeal in the house, think about what you're doing. you're voting, for example, to deny up to 17 million children in america today that can get affordable health insurance even though they have a pre-existing condition, that would be taken away from them. over three million young people in america today can stay on their parents' insurance policy until they're age 26. you would take that away. over 100 million americans today, today, get insurance mayrage even though they or easeor heart something where insurance find a way of canceling their policy. can't do companies that anymore. that away from 100 million americans . me, what we have in the affordable care act is not government health care . there's no government health care at all. set up a system where insurance, n get everyone can get coverage, where we have good preventive care and where we're really making sure that the kids in this country get the health care they need when they need it, not in the emergency room .

>> senator, before i let you go, because you're from iowa , iowa is a critical battleground state . the president was just there yesterday. yet he won iowa by nine points last time and it's dead even. latest poll has it at 44-44 with only 5.1% unemployment in iowa , iowa is doing better than a lot of the rest of the country, why is it such a hard sale for president obama for re-election to iowans?

>> i think you have to remember for the last year, mitt romney and the other republicans have been going all over iowa and all they have done is trash barack obama , for over a year. so that takes its toll when it's day after day in the caucuses that you have that kind of barrage. i know it's going to be tough for president obama in iowa but he's going to win iowa . it's going to be close. but i believe when we start talking more about what the health care bill does for people, the fact that the president has been great on domestic energy and we get a lot of domestic energy in iowa , wind and ethanol and other kinds of biofuels, and the president has been extremely good on agricultural exports, and that has helped our whole farm economy. so there's every reason for iowans to vote for barack obama and in the end, they will.

>> senator tom harkin , always great to see you, sir. thank you very much for joining us today.