Fox News "Fox Business News" - Transcript

Interview

Today, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) joined FOX Business News correspondent Peter Barnes outside the U.S. Supreme Court moments after oral arguments on the constitutionality of Obamacare. Below is a transcript of their interview, or to watch the video, click here.

Peter Barnes: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas just came out of the court room, she was there for the arguments, what do you think?

Sen. Hutchison: Peter, I thought the severability issue was pretty united. I thought Kennedy asked clear questions showing he thought if you take out the heart of the bill, how can you keep the rest? How can you say it is essential for the payment of the bill to have the individual mandate -- but if you take that out then you can go ahead and have the bills' functions but not pay for them?

Peter Barnes: We heard liberal Justices like Sonia Sotomayor say you can take out the individual mandate and continue with the other reforms in the bill. What about that?

Sen. Hutchison: That was the government attorney position, to say, `Even if you don't have the best parts of the bill, you can take parts of the bill that aren't great, but are better than nothing.' And then they started talking about whether Congress wanted that. I think Congress didn't have a severability clause because they know if you can't pay for it - the heart of the bill is the mandate -- and if that is gone, you have to start all over.

Peter Barnes: And one of the things the Justices look at is the intent of Congress and in the House bill there was a provision on severability. The House said yes, you can break this up into pieces -- but the Senate didn't include that and the final bill did not include that. You think that was taken out on purpose?

Sen. Hutchison: You have to think so. That is the written law. They know the difference between severability and not having severability. It had to be the intent of the Democrats to have the heart of the bill -- required for the bill to take place -- because they realized that if you have no mechanism to pay for it - then it is not tenable. I think Congress made that decision -- without my vote, but they made that decision - and I don't think the Court will go around that.

Peter Barnes: If the court does what you think it may do, it goes back to Congress. What will happen in Congress if anything?

Sen. Hutchison: Congress will relook at the whole thing -- and we think we should start all over. We do believe there should be affordable health care available to more people, but not with mandates that are against the freedom that we have in this country, and are guaranteed in this country.

Peter Barnes: Senator Hutchison, we will be watching after the decision in June, it will be back in your Court. Thank you, Senator.

Source