TUMULTY, KAREN: It sounds like the plan that you're describing about your standards right have some of the elements of single-payer but also some of the elements of a medical savings account. It's not a sort of traditional,
TUMULTY, KAREN: pure single-payer plan. And you described this as something that would never come from Congress. And so can you describe again this process by which -- what kind of process are you talking about here?
GRAVEL, MIKE: I'm talking about using the National Initiative. First for this to happen, and I've got to tell you you're not going to have an alternative because 10 years from now, 15 years from now you're going to have the problem getting worse.
GRAVEL, MIKE: You're all right about that. It's getting worse all the time. But don't worry about that. You think that that's going to cause him to solve, the Congress to solve the problem? Look at this country. We're literally bankrupt.
GRAVEL, MIKE: We're literally bankrupt and nobody pays any attention to it. We've got these crazy wars. We have a nation that's controlled by the military industrial conflict that dictates what's happening to your lives,
GRAVEL, MIKE: and the Americans are just whistling walking through the cemetery. So I don't know if I've answered your question.
TUMULTY, KAREN: This National Initiative, how does that work?
GRAVEL, MIKE: How does it work?
TUMULTY, KAREN: In terms of the petition and it starts as what?
GRAVEL, MIKE: Well, I don't want to take the time to go through this whole process, but understand what I've done is I've copied the procedures that are used in the Congress and every legislative body in the world and I've put them into a law called the National Ballot Initiative.
GRAVEL, MIKE: And that is to equip every single American to become lawmakers to come into the operation of government as lawmakers and partners with their elected officials. Now, this is revolutionary. This is out of the box.
GRAVEL, MIKE: You know what it means is we trust the American people. Isn't that revolutionary? We trust the people, rather the other politicians say trust me, I'll get elected, I'm going to do the job for you.
GRAVEL, MIKE: I've got news for you, can't be done that way. And we have historic precedence to show it. And if that doesn't convince you that we're not going in the right direction electing various personalities president and thinking that's going to make the change,
GRAVEL, MIKE: I've got to tell you, the change lies with you, not the leadership. The leadership has been screwing up by the numbers for the last 50 years. Have you had enough yet? Please.
TUMULTY, KAREN: Senator, there was a question that I had in my mind about this, and it's addressed by one of our questioners in the audience, and interestingly enough at this very moment a question over email popped up that addressed the same issue.
TUMULTY, KAREN: You described these vouchers as addressing the specific conditions you have. You need a heart bypass, you get a voucher that would cover it. But Michelle in Iowa asked how would you increase the role of prevention in the American health care system?
TUMULTY, KAREN: And I'd, in fact, like to turn to Becky, and I apologize in advance, is it Estraya or Estralla, who's an RN at UHS Valley Hospital. Are you here, Becky?
ESTRAYA, BECKY: I have been a nurse for 37 years and I have seen patients come into the hospital with medical problems that could have been prevented if a doctor had seen this patient early on. As president how will you ensure that more efforts for preventive and wellness care is provided nationwide
GRAVEL, MIKE: First off, there is a role for the president in his leadership capacity, or her leadership capacity, and that is to change the culture, to really energize people to exercise. Now, people say at my age that,
GRAVEL, MIKE: you know, I'm a good example. I've had two major operations, several major operations, but I'm in good shape because I exercise. I try to eat the right foods.
GRAVEL, MIKE: And so I have a lady on the plane that showed me that she could have got this junk bar for 50 cents but they were asking for a dollar 25 for the apple which she was holding up about to eat. Doesn't that tell you something about the dynamics of what's going on?
GRAVEL, MIKE: I mean, we're all patriotic, whether it's in business, whether it's in labor, we're all patriotic.
GRAVEL, MIKE: But we need a leadership that sets a tone, that sets a tone to demand from us the best that's in us. We recognize these problems. We know the problem of obesity. I try to diet all the time, sometimes successfully,
GRAVEL, MIKE: sometimes not so successfully. But when all you've got in your field of vision is junk food, you got problems. And that's the problem that the president can bully but not giving you. He's going to regulate all this.
GRAVEL, MIKE: I got to tell you, look what happened with Katrina. You know, you heard the joke, I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help you. Well, that doesn't work.
GRAVEL, MIKE: The government is a tool. The people can use it. But if the people have the direct power to use it, now you get to see government as a real tool, not the tool you have where the special interests determine how the tools of government is handled by the lobbyists and the bundling to pay for the people who pay for their campaign to manipulate you to vote for them.
GRAVEL, MIKE: That's the process that we live under and that's process that has to change.