Interview: Allan Hubbard -- Director of the White House's National Economic Council
>> while massachusetts governor mitt romney signed into law his state’s new health insurance plan today, president bush was touting the new medicare prescription drug benefit. the president has been talking about healthcare issues and his own proposals for fixing the nation’s healthcare problems but even republican lawmakers say there’s little hope of any of those changes passing in this election year. joining us from the white house to talk about these issues is allan hubbard, director of the white house’s national economic council. thanks for your time today.
>> great to be with you, peter.
>> if i could, i wanted to start with your reaction, the administration’s view on what’s going on in massachusetts. does the massachusetts plan to you sound too good to be true?
>> mitt romney is a very creative guy. he’s been a great governor. he obviously cares very much about healthcare and making it available to everyone in massachusetts. the great thing about our system of 50 states is we have 50 laboratories of innovation. all of us are going to watch what happens in massachusetts to see what works, what doesn’t work. we certainly are hopeful that the new law will work very, very well. we applaud him for his innovation, for his creativity. and i know part of what he’s doing will involve c.m.s., the federal government medicaid department working with him, which we look forward to doing and we look forward to seeing how this new proposal comes out. but, again, we applaud his efforts.
>> let me ask you, if i can, about some of the ideas the president’s been talking about and you’ve been talking about on his behalf recently. among the proposals, the president has discussed with regard to healthcare going forward is the expansion of the health savings accounts, allowing americans to save money tax-free for medical bills. one possible solution here. i want to ask you about some of the criticism of the h.s.a.’s in that they’re mainly geared to people who are young and healthy right now and may not be acceptable, a real option for many americans. what’s your response to that?
>> well, that’s just absolutely untrue. a year ago, a million americans had h.s.a.’s. h.s.a.’s, by the way, many of your viewers may not be aware of them. they are high deductible policies that allow you or your company to contribute to the health savings account on a tax-deductible basis which enables you to have tax deductible dollars that go to pay for healthcare so there’s no advantage to buying healthcare with your insurance policy, you have the same advantage when you buy it out of pocket and the good news is health savings accounts premiums are significantly lower, which enables you to have the money to put into your health savings account and spend it wisely and make sure you’re a wise consumer of healthcare. people say, as you suggested, that this isn’t for low-income people, just the opposite is true. of the three million americans who today have health savings accounts, 1/3 of them, one million, did not have health insurance until they bought their health savings account. the reason is, it’s much less expensive. it’s much more affordable. that’s what we need to do to encourage people to have health insurance.
>> health savings accounts, expanding those, just one of the ideas the president’s put on the table. yet we were hearing from some republicans on the hill that there may not be an appetite for pushing through some of these healthcare reforms in this election year. what’s your sengs right now, your level of optimism that this idea, health savings accounts and association pools for smaller businesses to pool their health insurance coverage, that these things will fly in this congressional year?
>> well, you know, i’m finding out just the opposite. there’s enormous enthusiasm on capitol hill. in fact, some senators are competing with one another over who will get to introduce the president’s proposals in the senate. again, the members on capitol hill recognize that healthcare is a very, very big problem facing americans. the costs of escalating at an unsustainable pace. we must do something about that. that’s why it’s so important to get the consumer involved in the decision-making process to incentivize the consumer to be a good and wise consumer. again, there’s enormous enthusiasm on capitol hill. we’re optimistic about getting something done. we look forward to working with not only republicans, but with democrats to achieve these enhancements of health savings accounts, to make them portable so all americans will have the opportunity to have health insurance.
>> let me change gears, if i could. talk to you about the trade numbers out today. the trade deficit in february shrinking to $65.7 billion led by a decline of imports from china. is this a trend that’s sustainable?
>> the numbers go up and down. i think they’re going to continue probably in the $60-plus-billion range for the near term. but but that’s something that’s not predictable. at the same time, as you know, we’ve been working with our international trading partners, especially china, to address the imbalances in the world economy. we’ve been talking to them about allowing their currency to be more responsive to the market . we’ve been talking about―to them about leveling the playing field so american manufacturers have the opportunity to export to china the way chinese manufacturers have the opportunity to export here. and we will continue to press them to make sure that we have a level playing field between china and the u.s.
>> let me finally ask you about that, the president meeting with hu jintao next week, the chinese president. the president’s level of optimism that he’ll see some movement from the chinese during the course of this visit?
>> again, just―not again. but yesterday, secretary of commerce guiterez, u.s. trade representative portman met with madam wu yi from china who is their chief economic minister to talk about leveling the playing field, about enforcing our intellectual property rights, about opening up markets to our software, opening up markets to beef and --
>> i’m going to have to cut you off right there, running up against a commercial break. my apologies to allan hubbard.
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Listen Interview: Janinie Zacharias for State Department
>> even some of iran’s supporters on the u.n. security council are expressing concern with the country’s decision to accelerate uranium enrichment. china’s ambassador to the u.n. said he hoped the country would take note of the international news and be more cooperative. russia also calling on iran to cooperate. u.s. secretary of state condoleezza rice says the u.n. should take strong steps to halt iran’s nuclear program. janine zacharias is from our state department, and she joins us to discuss these developments.
>> the secretary of state is responding to the announcement by iran that they’ve accelerated their uranium enrichment program and what you’re hearing from china and russia is a step in the right direction as far as the u.s. is concerned. the united states wants the security council to impose sanctions to iran to halt the program. china and russia have been resistant so perhaps the comments from president ahmadinejad may shift their sentiment.
>> condoleezza rice telling the security council to step up and do its job, here?
>> absolutely, you have u.s. officials repeatedly saying that this iran case is a true test of the united nations security council, are they going to be effective here or are they going to allow iran to pursue a nuclear weapon and that’s the message the u.s. is trying to drive home and secretary of state condoleezza rice today, as well.
>> is the parallel to the walk-up to military action in iraq, is there anyone at the state department or at the u.n. raising concerns this is moving down the same path?
>> i think it’s a little bit different in that the u.s. went through the united nations security council on iraq because they needed the rubber stamp, in this case, for war. in this case, they’re actually trying to use it as a diplomatic tool to put pressure on iran but they’re not talking about an invasion of the nature we saw in the invasion of iraq in 2003.
>> walk us through the time line here. what are the marine developments we can anticipate in terms of reaction from the u.n.?
>> the end of april will be a deadline for iran to comply with what the international -- international atomic energy agency has. the security council is to convene and discuss it again and the u.s. will push for sanctions at that meeting or mention of sanctions but i would say you’re looking at a couple of months of slow diplomacy from the u.n. and maybe a stronger push by the u.s. for sanctions.
>> there is still apprehension, even though there are words from china and russia urging iran to cooperate, not a strong sense of a push for sanctions from those countries.
>> there is resistance, even though you saw a lot of talk this week about a possible preemptive u.s. strike on iran, i think the focus of the administration is, no, we do not need another confrontation in the middle east, let’s solve this diplomatically.
>> and mohamad elbaradei with the international atomic energy agency, some of those inspectors in iran right now. could we get news from them that could defuse the situation?
>> i think this will be a very important visit by mohamad elbaradei. they have not definitively said iran has a nuclear weapons program but definitely have to keep an eye on that for sure.
>> janine zacharias, thank you very much. we’ll be right back after this break.
