This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," June 29, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
BAIER: John, how does this play politically? Does Romney need to lay out specifically what the health care, what would stay in -- what the good things that would stay?
JOHN STOSSEL, FOX BUSINESS HOST: I would think so because people like getting free stuff. And I don't think there is much good in there that should stay. Even without the mandate. The most popular stuff, the stuff that Bill O'Reilly likes, a ban on discrimination against people with preexisting positions. That's popular. These poor people, some are fat or smoke, but some of them did nothing wrong. Why should they have to pay more? But that's not insurance. That's like saying you charge Lindsay Lohan the same price for car insurance as we're charged. That is a new welfare program, and if they want that, they should call it that.
BAIER: And it all has a price tag.
STOSSEL: It sure does.
BAIER: Juan, former governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, quoted today "We're not going to run away from health care. The Republicans are going to make it a campaign issue. I have always said we make a mistake, we Democrats, when we don't stand up and defend. It's going to be an albatross around our neck. Let's stand up and defend it." Do you think that is the sense of most Democrats?
JUAN WILLIAMS, SENIOR EDITOR, THE HILL: No, not today. The sense among Democrats long has been that the administration has done a terrible job of selling the Affordable Healthcare Act. That they have not been out there. They have been absolutely cowed, and the criticism coming from the right has dominated the conversation throughout.
And the idea now is to get out there. We have seen people like Bill Clinton now saying you know what? For the last two years the cost of health care has gone down for the first time in 50 years.
BAIER: But you don't it hurts somebody like Claire McCaskill or Jon Tester--
WILLIAMS: Potentially. Here's the political dynamic -- it stirs the rightwing base. And certainly right now we've just seen a tremendous rush of money into Mitt Romney's coffers, especially in the 24 hours immediately after the decision, just tremendous. Bill Clinton -- the Obama administration says they, too, have seen a rush, although they haven't said how much.
But what I think is very obvious is the people who led the rush that brought 63 Republicans to the Congress and the mid-terms of 2010 are now energized again. But are those previous who were previously going to vote for President Obama? I don't think so.
BAIER: Here is the issue, Charles, for Governor Romney, the issue of the tax. In Massachusetts, there is a Wall Street Journal article that's coming out -- just came out. If you said, as Justice Roberts did, that it's a tax, then, quote, "The Massachusetts healthcare law, Mitt Romney signed as governor resulted in more than $20.6 million in extra tax revenues this year, according to state records. The problem -- Mr. Romney often says on the stump he didn't raise taxes as governor." So apples to apples, this is what the Obama campaign will point to.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: But I'm not sure that running on it as a tax is going to change much. After all, when the Republicans were running against ObamaCare in 2010 when it hadn't been declared a tax, as it is now, they shellacked the Democrats. The argument on ObamaCare is its expense, how unworkable it's going to be, how much government it adds, all these commissions, the 15 wise people who are going to decide on the rationing of care, and the general issue of the expansion of government intruding into your lives. That is the argument, that's the argument that won in 2010. The argument remains.
And in addition, we have new facts. The CBO has now told us about three months ago that the cost of ObamaCare is going to be $1.76 trillion over the next ten years. That is a lot of money for a society, a treasury drowning in debt already. So you've got debt. You've got intrusiveness. You've got disruption of the relationship between the patient and the doctor. You've got expansion in government. You don't have to talk about taxes.
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: You could talk about --
BAIER: I have to give the last 15 seconds to John Stossel because I want you to tease your show this weekend. What do you have coming up?
STOSSEL: We talk about government inc. That's why I wrote "No, They Can't." All the things government thinks they can do better than the private sector.
KRAUTHAMMER: What's the name of the book again?
STOSSEL: "No, they can't!" But individuals can.
BAIER: he didn't wring the sign today. You didn't bring the sign. John, thanks for coming down. That is it for the panel. But stay tuned for more on the White House reaction to the big health care decision.
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