I think the thing with Medicare - and a lot of this - I should say, with Medicaid - and this is going to depend - states are going to be in a position to have a lot of flexibility.

I have a Christian worldview and so it shapes the way that I view issues. I don't apologize for that, and I don't think people of faith ought to shrink away from being in the public arena.

What Medicaid basically does is allows them to choose the two base years that they would calculate current their reimbursement levels on. And they all have per-capita allotments based upon what the states are experiencing today in terms of Medicaid costs. And then those are inflated over the years, the next decade, increased at the rate of inflation. And so they have to figure out how to take those dollars and put them to the best use in the state.

The Democrats would want to keep the taxes. And Republicans want to do away with taxes that are driving up the costs of premiums. So, I think it would be hard to see a scenario where Democrats would be willing to come to the table in good faith and actually work with us on a solution that meets those requirements.

It's my preferred working style to have bipartisan legislation. I think what the Democrats have made clear is that they don't want to deal with anything that repeals and replaces Obamacare. I think they wouldn't want to do anything that gets rid of the mandates, which is a big part of our proposal, getting rid of the individual employer mandates.

There is a battle to be waged over what kind of country we are going to leave our children and grandchildren and that battle is happening now in Washington, not two years from now.

I don't happen to subscribe to the notion that everybody who criticizes Tom Daschle is criticizing Tim Johnson. I think that's a bit of a stretch.