CHRIS JANSING (HOST): OK, Hugh, you've outlined what [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell and the Republicans need to do to get the [Republican health care] bill across the finish line. Tell us about step one: stay on message.
HUGH HEWITT: Yeah, step one is don't step on the victory yesterday. Compliment the people in the House for getting a bill over to the Senate. The Constitution anticipates that the Senate's going to disagree with the House, and they'll have to have a conference. So don't go after the House bill. Get to work quietly on whether or not you're going to go big or small, then go big with a big deal with [Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck Schumer, if that's possible, or then go small and stay within the boundaries of reconciliation.
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JANSING: So, [Sen. Paul Ryan (R-KY) is] “hopeful we can make it better in the Senate.” Did -- essentially what we saw here yesterday, even with the victory lap in the Rose Garden -- was a punt?
HEWITT: Oh, no, no, not a punt. It's a necessary -- and I think everyone has to realize -- the Constitution anticipates a bill starting in the House, going to a very different chamber, a hundred-person chamber, where there are only 52 Republicans but 25 Democrats facing re-election, only eight Senate Republicans facing re-election, only one of them in any way in a real race, Dean Heller in Nevada, because Jeff Flake lost his only opponent on the Democratic side yesterday when Kyrsten Sinema dropped out. And so it goes over -- it gets changed and then they have a conference committee, and they will come out with either a big fix many things bill or a very narrow bill. But Mitch McConnell may be the most able Republican leader in 25 years, as demonstrated by the Neil Gorsuch confirmation. I'm very optimistic that we get to something by the end of the year.
