Sen. Mike Lee: Burwell Has a ‘Tough Road Ahead’ to Be Confirmed as Sebelius’ Successor

‘This ultimately isn’t about the person. It’s about the policy’

VAN SUSTEREN: "Big news."
LEE: "Very big news."
VAN SUSTEREN: "What do you make of it."
LEE: "Look, this ultimately isn't about the person. It's about the policy. And Secretary Sebelius was in charge of implementing a very unpopular policy. And her departure signals the end of a very tumultuous era for the Obama administration. And so it will be interesting to see what happens if the nominee, with Ms. Burwell, what she can do with this. Because she inherits a very very difficult task. And she is going to have a tough road ahead of her in terms of securing senate confirmation, especially if she is not prepared to answer all kinds of questions about how independent she is willing to be and how open and transparent she is willing to be with Congress."
VAN SUSTEREN: "I actually, I assume because ever the new rules that she will get by. It's not particularly hard to get a nominee by. But if I were President Obama, I would have asked Sebelius to stay on until after the election because what he has done is he has put this new candidate up with all these hard questions you get to ask. Like how many people actually paid for ObamaCare? You know, where are the premiums requesting? I mean, it's like he sees sitting deck duck for she's."
LEE: "That's right. Even in the post-nuclear option Senate where an executive nominee can get through with 51 votes there are still a lot of tough questions to ask there are still going to be a lot of concerns, I suspect even from some of my Democratic colleagues who are themselves facing some of the heat as a result of the implementation of this very unpopular law.
VAN SUSTEREN: "Do you think Secretary Sebelius took more heat than -- I mean the government sort of -- I don't know if thrown under the bus is exact but do you think she took a lot of heat for the White House or is this totally her responsibility?"
LEE: "She definitely took a lot of heat for the White House. And again, it's about a failed policy that she was asked to implement. A lot of implementation of that policy ended up making it even worse. But at the end of the day, she was given a very very hard job, and that job ended up making her very unpopular and with some good reason."
VAN SUSTEREN: "I bet she is so happy to get out of it town."
LEE: "I can't imagine how happy."
VAN SUSTEREN: "I mean, anybody who leaves a job under fire would be happy to get out of here."
LEE: "That's right, that's right."
VAN SUSTEREN: "Do you know how many people of that 7.1 million -- do you have any hint on that?"
LEE: "Well you know, according to McKinsey and Company, we are talking about less than a million people who fit into two categories. People who, number one did not have insurance, prior to January 1st of this year. And, number two, have actually paid premiums."
VAN SUSTEREN: "And even with paid, I always think -- paid doesn't mean you are not getting subsidized. I mean, necessarily. I mean, paid, are you talking paid meaning pay the full freight?"
LEE: "Paying something."
VAN SUSTEREN: "Something."
LEE: "Paying something into the system. The McKinsey and Company have actually estimated that the number is less than a million of that 7 million. So that number is a lot less impressive than the administration would have us believe."
VAN SUSTEREN: "Do you believe that the Senate taken bay the Republicans in November that ObamaCare will get repealed or not? Or is that just not happening?"
LEE: "Look, I think that the repeal of ObamaCare is ultimately going to be something of an inevitability because it was built almost to fail. It can't succeed. The question is simply when. Obviously, President Obama is not going to be eager to sign the repeal of ObamaCare."
VAN SUSTEREN: "He is not going to sign that."
LEE: "Nevertheless, if the Republicans are able to retake the majority of the Senate this November, I think significant changes can start right away and we can at start try to repeal and this replace it with free market alternatives."
VAN SUSTEREN: "Or maybe everybody will work a little bit better together. Who knows. Senator, thank you so much for coming on."
LEE: "Thank you."

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