Interview with Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, June 27th and STARTING POINT begins right now. You know, I like this song. It's just been played and played.</s>MARGARET HOOVER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's three chords, three notes, over and over and over.</s>O'BRIEN: And they tend to play it on the radio constantly.</s>HOOVER: That's exactly why it's my karaoke song because I can only hit three notes.</s>JOHN FUGELSANG, POLITICAL COMEDIAN: Yes, it's more like shallow wait nothing. In fact, the irony of this song is it's not about breakfast at Tiffany's. It's about the movie "Roman Holiday." Did you know that?</s>O'BRIEN: Details, details. Come on.</s>FUGELSANG: I was a deejay. I know this crap.</s>O'BRIEN: I know you do. Our team this morning, that was Margaret Hoover's play list. Margaret Hoover is with us. She is the author of "American Individualism." John Fugelsang is with us as well. He's a political comedian. You've been busy. You've been traveling a lot.</s>FUGELSANG: Just a bit, yes. It's nice to see you again.</s>O'BRIEN: Nice to see you again.</s>FUGELSANG: I've been stalking you on airplanes.</s>O'BRIEN: Please don't say that. Will Cain is with us as well of TheBlaze.com. On STARTING POINT this morning, the heated political climate, easy for me to say. Tomorrow, the Supreme Court is going to rule on the president's health care law. The house is planning on holding a contempt of Congress vote against Attorney General Eric Holder. All these issues simmering around the country. President Obama and Mitt Romney are in this tight race, trying really to focus on the swing states. And there's a new BC/"Wall Street Journal" poll that shows that 50 percent of people living in those 11 battle ground states prefer President Obama, 42 percent back Mitt Romney. It's all within the margin of error. People who are living in the state of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin were polled. Republican Senator Ron Johnson is a Romney campaign surrogate. He's also from the swing state of Wisconsin. It's nice to see you, sir. Thank you for talking with us this morning. Appreciate your time. Not only that poll is new. There's also a poll that takes a look at -- it breaks down sort of the voters, and if you look at African- Americans, no surprise, President Obama is leading significantly, 92 percent to 1 percent for Mitt Romney. If you look at women, President Obama is leading 52 percent to 39 percent for Mitt Romney. Voters who are relatively young, 18 to 29, 52 percent to 35 percent for Mitt Romney. Independents, a little bit more of a squeaker there, 40 percent to 36 percent. Really technically neck and neck because there's a sampling error of plus or minus 6 percent. When you look at these polls in total, tell me what the strategy is to try to get, you know, a little more play on the map there.</s>SEN. RON JOHNSON (R), WISCONSIN: I think any American that's concerned about having a job or any American that's concerned about the mountain of debt that we heaped on the backs of our children and grandchildren, and really mortgaging the future, I think those people look at Governor Romney and say, here's somebody who will be a leader and actually start addressing the problem. You know, actually propose solutions to save Social Security and Medicare. And I think that's what basically the message and the campaign that Governor Romney I think will be running.</s>O'BRIEN: Do you think that the about immigration, even though we have been having a lot of conversations this week, certainly -- do you think they are irrelevant</s>O'BRIEN: Does Mitt Romney support SB-1070, yes or no?</s>CARLOS GUTIERREZ, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN: Soledad, it's a little bit more complicated. Let me just say this.</s>O'BRIEN: It's not. It's not.</s>GUTIERREZ: No. What the governor has said, and he made a statement yesterday, he supports the rights of border states to do what they have to do according to the law to protect their borders.</s>O'BRIEN: And does that -- and does that include stopping and detaining anyone and checking the immigration status of that person if they have reasonable suspicion if the person is in the country illegally? I'm not just sparring with you, sir. As you know, this is the critical, central, most controversial portion of this bill. And Governor Romney has not said if he supports it or not.</s>GUTIERREZ: But this is not about Governor Romney.</s>O'BRIEN: It is if he wants to be president.</s>O'BRIEN: Why is it so hard to articulate his position on immigration?</s>JOHNSON: First of all, Soledad, this is a very difficult issue. And what Arizona is trying to do is it's basically trying to address a problem that President Obama and the federal government has basically abdicated their responsibility on. These are very serious issues. They are difficult issues. And President Obama said during his campaign that this was such an important issue that he was going to handle the immigration problem in his first year. He has done nothing on it. He certainly has done nothing to secure our borders, which is the first step. And that's a real problem. Because we're not going to solve our immigration issue until we secure our borders. And this is much more than just immigration issue. It's a national security issue as well, as people can come into this country, people that threaten this country, because we've refused to secure our borders.</s>HOOVER: You know, Soledad, I wonder if Senator Johnson and the Romney campaign actually look at the numbers, seeing how close they are, and knowing we are not even to July yet, Mitt Romney hasn't garnered the Republican nomination yet. The majority of Americans who are going to be voting in November haven't gotten to know Mitt Romney yet, and whether they take a little bit of hope from the numbers that -- thinking that maybe when they get to know Mitt Romney then they'll have a more informed opinion that maybe the disparity, since it is so close, is just because they don't know the candidate yet.</s>WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You asked what is the strategy? I'd offer to you, "The Wall Street Journal" wrote yesterday that Senator Johnson's existence is in fact a strategy. That the Republicans can go into what have been reliably Democratic states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota and hope to make up ground. Now, I don't know if that's true or not. But Senator Johnson's office, that he exists and holds it, might be evidence of that.</s>FUGELSANG: I'd like to ask Senator Johnson. Good morning, sir. John Fugelsang here. When you consider that the president has sent National Guard troops to the border, has a record number of deportations, and last April we found out that America has had a net zero increase of illegal immigrants, whereas the governor hasn't yet taken a stance on this controversial topic, how does the governor claim he is taking leadership more than the president on this issue?</s>JOHNSON: First of all, we have seen reports that border agents aren't able or have been discouraged from actually reporting the true extent of the problem on the borders in terms of not actually enforcing the borders.</s>FUGELSANG: Net zero increase in illegal immigration as of April.</s>JOHNSON: That's because our economy is in such dire straits that there aren't the jobs here to attract the illegal immigrants.</s>FUGELSANG: So Bush gets credit.</s>JOHNSON: These are serious issues, but it has to start first with border enforcement. And this administration really has been terrible in terms of actually trying to secure our borders. And that's where it first starts.</s>O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the Supreme Court expected to rule on health care. We are expecting that at 10:00 tomorrow morning. Give me the hypotheticals on this. Let's say in fact that it's shot down. What happens next?</s>JOHNSON: Well, first of all, that's obviously what I'm hoping. The cleanest decision --</s>O'BRIEN: We know.</s>JOHNSON: The cleanest decision would be to totally, you know, rule the entire law unconstitutional, and then we can start over with an open debate and a step-by-step approach. Republicans are not going to be putting forward a 2,700 page bill, another 12,000 pages of rules and regulations. We're going to take a look at the individual issues. And debate openly. And let's face it. The greatest impediment to access to health care is the cost. And this president promised if we enacted his health care law, the average cost for a family plan would decrease by $2,500 per year. It's actually up by over $2,000 per year. That's making it more difficult for families to access care. And so, you need to reintroduce the free market disciplines into health care, and you start with some common sense tort reforms so that we can get rid of the huge costs of malpractice and defense of medicine.</s>O'BRIEN: There are lots of people I think who think that the individual mandate is not such a great idea. But there are people who are very beholden to the idea of covering people with pre-existing conditions, with the cost of keeping the premiums for elderly people. How much of a political hit will you take if it looks like Republicans are responsible, that's a big if, for killing this bill? I think that people who want their pre-existing conditions covered, that could be some kind of leverage in an election year, don't you think?</s>JOHNSON: The way you handle pre-existing conditions is how you do it in Wisconsin with the high risk pool. In Wisconsin, in the state of Wisconsin, 95 percent of the population either has coverage or has access to coverage, whether they decide to alas access it or not. Wisconsin did not need a federal solution. We didn't need 2,700 pages. And I think this is far better left to the states on the individual basis to figure out what is the best way of handling people with pre-existing conditions. You can't just force insurance companies to take all comers or you will bankrupt those insurance companies. And, by the way, individuals would never buy health care. I mean, why would you, if you can wait until you're basically on the way to the hospital? So that's a system that doesn't work. And Democrats that passed the health care law even admitted that covering everybody with pre- existing conditions with no penalties does not work without the individual mandate, which I believe is unconstitutional, and I hope that's the way the Supreme Court rules.</s>O'BRIEN: We will see how the Supreme Court is going to rule and maybe we'll get a chance to talk about it tomorrow again, sir. Senator Ron Johnson, Republican from the state of Wisconsin. Nice to have you with us. Appreciate it.</s>JOHNSON: Have a good day.</s>O'BRIEN: Thank you, likewise. Let's get right to Christine. She's got an update on our top stories. Hey, Christine.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there. It has exploded. New video in to CNN showing overnight homes entirely up in flames in Colorado Springs. Thirty-two thousand people have been chased from their homes. This fire now raging unchecked, spreading to 6,200 acres. It is only 5 percent contained. The largest of the fires in the state, the High Park Fire, has been burning since June 9th. That one has destroyed 257 homes. To Florida, where Debby has now been downgraded to a tropical depression. The storm has dumped a dangerous amount of rain over Florida, more than 25 inches in some parts. People just beginning to return home by boat and finding total loss.</s>JO GRADDY, MADEIRA BEACH RESIDENT: The water was up this high on the doors. Everything inside the garage was floating. There was a walkway in the center, and everything was stacked up on the sides. The water started floating everything, and it collapsed down in on itself.</s>ROMANS: In Washington, the art of survival. Seventy-eight- year-old Senator Orrin Hatch beating back a Tea Party challenge in the Utah Senate primary. Hatch easily defeated former state Senator Dan Liljenquist. He says he did it by outworking his younger opponent. Hatch is trying for a seventh term in the Senate. Long time New York Congressman Charlie Rangel also survived a primary challenge in his Harlem district. The 82-year-old Democrat was facing voters for the first time since being censured by fellow House members for ethics violation. Rangel is running for a 22nd term in Congress. She touched millions with her words. Writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron is being remembered this morning after losing her battle with leukemia. Ephron was known for romantic comedies, including "When Harry Met Sally" and this classic scene.</s>MEG RYAN: Yes, yes, yes! Oh, oh, oh, oh, God. Oh.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll have what she's having.</s>ROMANS: Billy Crystal said in a statement, "I'm very sad to learn of Nora's passing. She was a brilliant writer and humorist. Being her Harry to Meg's Sally will always have a special place in my heart. I was very lucky to get to say her words." Ephron was 71 years old -- Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: I loved the movie, but I really love "Heartburn." too.</s>FUGELSANG: You know, I'm glad you mentioned that because that was Meryl Streep playing Nora Ephron in a film about her divorce from Carl Bernstein.</s>O'BRIEN: Right.</s>FUGELSANG: That was her first really big script.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes, that was a great, great movie.</s>FUGELSANG: Also a good director too.</s>O'BRIEN: Ahead on STARTING POINT this morning, he has taken some big hits. Now the Saints' Super Bowl winning quarterback Drew Brees talks about his mission to try to educate folks about concussions. And today's "Tough Call," no air conditioning in Texas prisons. Is that cruel and inhumane? Here's Tom Petty, "I Won't Back Down." That's Will Cain's play list. It wasn't Carly Rae.</s>O'BRIEN: You're watching STARTING POINT. We're back in a moment.