CHARLES GASPARINO: I think what Republicans have to come to some consensus about is can we do this as an iterative process, can we move the ball to the right side of the ledger meaning more conservative by giving states more rights, by curtailing Medicaid to being for people who really can't afford it, not able bodied people, can we move it enough in that direction that they can appease everybody.
NEIL CAVUTO (HOST): You know what I think it's going to take Charlie? I think it all comes down to the number of people who supposedly will not have health insurance ten years out. Now even though it's at best a guess what the CBO does this, anyone does this, they've got to come up with a figure that the CBO scores lower than 22 million who would presumably be without insurance. We should stress that the plan as it is now means 20 million more Americans will have insurance in 10 years, it will just not be the 42 million more that the CBO estimates would be the case if they left the thing alone. So still more people can get in, but I think it comes down to that. That if they can get that down to the single digits, or single million digits I should say, then they're off to the races. I think that will be the decider. I don't think that alone should but that's going to be the decider.
GASPARINO: Well, it's funny you mention that because whenever I talk to my sources they throw out a number like, “oh, CBO says 23 million.” You know what I'm saying. I mean that number has some salience in this debate. I don't know why it should because we're moving people to the right, we're making sure, just because they don't get insurance doesn't mean they don't get health care. I mean listen, people didn't have insurance in the past, they got health care.
CAVUTO: Fully agree with that, fully agree. But that's the game we're playing and it's a silly game, an unrealistic one because you'd assume with this plan, fewer people will have insurance, more people will just not as many as the CBO thought would have been the case if we stuck with what we have, there's no guarantee of that.
GASPARINO: Look I want everybody to have insurance, kumbaya but there's a cost benefit, there's a cost analysis here, the conservatives are very much aware of that.
