CBS's Rose Lets Ex-White House Aide Off the Hook About 'Badly Conceived' ObamaCare

Wrapping up an interview with President Obama's former White House chief of staff Bill Daley on Tuesday's CBS This Morning, co-host Charlie Rose wondered if it was "fair to say" that ObamaCare was "badly conceived." After a long pause, Daley replied: "I didn't hear you, Charlie." Rose was suddenly out of time: "I was asking whether it was badly conceived but I don't really have much time to consider that question. But thank you so much, Bill." Daley responded: "Good, Charlie." [Listen to the audio [1]]

Rose began the exchange by lobbing this softball to Daley: "Do you believe the President and do you believe he has it accurate when he says eight to ten years from now, health care, Affordable Health Care Act [sic] will be considered a monumental achievement?" Daley proclaimed: "I don't think there's any question that time is on the President's side."

Daley continued: "And I do think that over time, when the American people get to understand the benefits from having a system that insures more people and makes sure that the costs do come down – and that's a big question over time – I think will be quite a statement for this administration, long-term."

Fellow co-host Norah O'Donnell declared: "You hit the nail on the head, which is the idea is that if you get everybody insured and if you get more young people buying insurance, the idea is it will lower costs for all of us. Because we all agree that health care costs are out of control."

She did press him on the effectiveness of the law: "What about then, news that still comes up that premium hikes continue to go up?" Daley argued:

Well, I think that's the $64,000 question for most people. Is what will their premiums be over time?...I think you're going to see, Norah, over time, a continuing emphasis by the administration of the benefits, especially to young people, to be in a system. And then those of us who are a little older will hopefully reap the benefits from having a system that is very much being paid for by the healthier people and younger people in society. But that's a big challenge. And this is the first step in a very long road for the Affordable Care Act.

Rose worried about the political fallout: "But for politicians, now is the future, 2014 is when they're running. What's that going to mean for Democrats?"

Daley admitted: "I think there remains over the next seven months a tremendous challenge for Democrats to explain....to turn around the negative attitude about the ACA that seems to be out there....politically speaking in the next seven months this an enormous challenge for Democrats."

Here is a full transcript of the April 1 segment:

7:12 AM ET

CHARLIE ROSE: CBS News contributor Bill Daley is with us from Chicago, he is a former White House chief of staff for President Obama. Bill Daley, good morning.

BILL DALEY: How are you, Charlie?

ROSE: Good. Do you believe the President and do you believe he has it accurate when he says eight to ten years from now, health care, Affordable Health Care Act [sic] will be considered a monumental achievement?

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Assessing ObamaCare; Fmr. White House Chief of Staff on Health Care Law]

DALEY: I don't think there's any question that time is on the President's side. And the rush at the end of the sign-up period indicates that the American people do – we know that there are plenty of people who are uninsured. And after the challenges of signing up and stumbling to the finish line yesterday, I think time is on his side.

And I do think that over time, when the American people get to understand the benefits from having a system that insures more people and makes sure that the costs do come down – and that's a big question over time – I think will be quite a statement for this administration, long-term. But these are – these are a lot of hurdles still to go over. And as shown yesterday, in spite of all of the positives, we're talking today about another glitch and another stumble, which is unfortunate.

NORAH O'DONNELL: You know, you hit the nail on the head, which is the idea is that if you get everybody insured and if you get more young people buying insurance, the idea is it will lower costs for all of us. Because we all agree that health care costs are out of control. What about then, news that still comes up that premium hikes continue to go up?

DALEY: Well, I think that's the $64,000 question for most people. Is what will their premiums be over time? I think there's an expectation that if you continue to see young people sign up, and this is the first year of this. So, we've got to see an acceptance by young people. In the theory that they insure themselves and they paid for that, in spite of a difficult economy where a lot of people, even small amounts of money is a challenge for some people to pay.

So I think you're going to see, Norah, over time, a continuing emphasis by the administration of the benefits, especially to young people, to be in a system. And then those of us who are a little older will hopefully reap the benefits from having a system that is very much being paid for by the healthier people and younger people in society. But that's a big challenge. And this is the first step in a very long road for the Affordable Care Act.

ROSE: But for politicians, now is the future, 2014 is when they're running. What's that going to mean for Democrats?

DALEY: I think there remains over the next seven months a tremendous challenge for Democrats to explain – obviously, seven million people went online and signed up and those seven million people obviously must have a good feeling about it – but I think it's quite a challenge in the next seven months to turn around the negative attitude about the ACA that seems to be out there.

But that's a challenge that, again, this is a game, as we said last fall when this thing started and there were all sorts of stumbles, that right now the administration's got to hit singles and doubles and not go for the wall in any way. Since opening day was yesterday, I thought baseball was a good analogy.

But I really do believe that this is a long game. And those who talk about repealing. It's not going to happen, first of all. Whatever happens this fall, the President has a veto. So that's not going to happen, a repeal. Maybe changes, maybe improvement over time, as the President said there should be. But politically speaking in the next seven months this an enormous challenge for Democrats.

ROSE: But is it fair to say it was badly conceived?

[LONG PAUSE]

DALEY: I didn't hear you, Charlie.

ROSE: I was asking whether it was badly conceived but I don't really have much time to consider that question. But thank you so much, Bill.

DALEY: Good, Charlie.

O'DONNELL: Thank you, Bill.