MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And now, the view from the White House. We're joined by David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama.
Mr. Axelrod, welcome to the program.
Mr. DAVID AXELROD (Senior Adviser to President Barack Obama): Thanks, Melissa. Good to be with you.
BLOCK: We just heard Republican Dick Armey saying that this vote in Massachusetts reflects widespread anger about Democratic policies, on everything from health care, to the environment, to banking, to the auto bailout. Do you see it that way? Does this result in Massachusetts represent a rejection of President Obama's policies one year in?
Mr. AXELROD: Well, Senator Brown said that it was not a referendum on the president. There was a Republican poll that was taken on Election Day in which the vast majority of people said they were not voting to register a protest against the president.
But I do think that there's a great deal of anger out there about the state of the economy in which middle-class people are working harder and harder - if they haven't lost their jobs - just to hold their place. Wages have been flat for a decade. You know, health care costs have doubled; premiums have doubled over the decade. College costs have gone up. Retirement security has eroded. Home values have plummeted.
And so, there's a lot to be angry about. And then they look to Washington and then they see the power of special interests in this town. And these are the same forces that really propelled Barack Obama in office in 2008. So we're well aware of them. This is why we're here. But as the party in power, you bear some of the responsibility for this. Or in people's eyes, you become the fulcrum and we understand that. We understand that as well.
BLOCK: So going along with that message of anger, isn't part of the message also, you haven't fixed things, President Obama? We voted for change and we're not seeing it.
Mr. AXELROD: Yup, that is. There's no question about it. And, you know, a year ago, Melissa, when I heard the economic forecast, I said to the president, you know, we've got some great numbers now, but they're not going to be so great a year from now because we're going to have to govern through the worst economy since the Great Depression, and that's going to be difficult. We're going to have to do some things to try and turn the economy around that are going to be politically difficult. And, indeed, we did.
We had a recovery package that was absolutely essential. And most economists agree it had a lot to do with breaking the back of this recession and the momentum of this recession. And - but it was difficult to do. We had to stabilize the financial industry, and that was a distasteful thing. We had to help the auto industry, because to not do that would have meant hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in the middle of a deep recession.
None of these things were politically popular. The president knew that when he did them, but he did the responsible thing. And we also knew that there'd be people on the other side who would try and take advantage of that. So, you know - and then we had a long health care debate that is important to the economic well-being of every middle-class person. But the process has not been very satisfying for anybody.
BLOCK: Let's talk about the future of the health care bill. The president told ABC that Congress should coalesce around core elements of the bill. Doesn't that mean you're scaling back your expectations for what comes out of Congress?
Mr. AXELROD: No. That we have a bill that provides enormous security that's needed for people around the country, people who have insurance and people who don't. The minute the president signs this bill, people with pre-existing conditions will have the ability to get coverage they weren't able to get before.
BLOCK: But you won't have the 60 votes you would need for the bill as it stands now?
Mr. AXELROD: Well, there are a variety of possibilities. The Senate has passed a bill. The House has passed a bill. Certainly, they could embrace each other's bills. So, you know, that is a - there are a number of options that are being discussed. But in no way are we going to give up our fight to reign in the worst excesses of the insurance industry, to hold down the costs that are crushing people across this country, to give pre-existing - people with pre-existing conditions a chance to get insurance, to lengthen the life of Medicare and give people who are on Medicare greater prescription protection.
We're not going to give up that fight because this is essential to the economic stability of middle-class families.
BLOCK: But you are hearing now from Democrats in Congress, saying, you know, slow down. Anthony Weiner is saying the Democratic leadership is whistling past the graveyard, if you think that Scott Brown's win in Massachusetts doesn't mean that you have to rethink the health care plan.
Mr. AXELROD: Well, you know, here's my interpretation of this as someone who's been around politics for a long time. If we walk away from this, all that's going to be remaining is the negative caricature that the insurance industry, with their advertising and their allies in the Republican Party, have placed on it. And what - and that caricature is wildly inconsistent with what is actually in the bill.
And if you look at all of the research, what you see is that when you tell people what's actually in the bill, they're very enthusiastic about it. But they'll never know those benefits and will not be able to campaign on them if we don't pass this bill.
The larger point, of course, is we're here to make a difference for people, to push back on the special interest to do what will enhance people's economic security. This is an essential part of this, so we ought to fulfill that.
BLOCK: David Axelrod, thank you.
Mr. AXELROD: All right. Nice to be with you.
BLOCK: David Axelrod is senior adviser to President Obama.