Jay Rockefeller: “I will not be too long. As it happens, on the poll, over a period of months and months, people saw this thing happening…”

“I will not be too long. As it happens, on the poll, over a period of months and months, people saw this thing happening, and they didn't like it. People lined up on one side or the other--mostly one side--and they didn't like it. It turns out that the New York Times and CBS did a poll--I don't necessarily have to trust them because they took a poll; I don't trust polls--that says 80 percent of Americans oppose repeal. I found that in the cloakroom. I don't live by polls. But that is based on January 20 of this year. Let's suppose it is off by 10 percent or 15 percent. One thing that becomes clear from the generalization of that number-- certainly it could go lower--is that people don't want repeal. Then that takes you to, well, what if we do have repeal? Does the repeal then lead you to a thought-out process that would then be substituted for what we created and the President signed? And then very quickly one comes to the realization that there isn't an alternative from the other side. There never has been. From that, it quickly follows that the deduction is what they want is the present system. If that is not true, then they can come down and tell me about that. That is what I have to believe because I haven't heard the new ideas or the alternatives to what it was we worked on and accomplished over a very difficult period of many months and much angst, agony, and screaming at townhalls and all the rest of it, which was worth it.”