"It is a classic left-right brawl. President Obama and the Democrats wanted to provide health care to Americans who could not or would not pay for it. The Republican Party and President Trump do not want to do that. So the battle lines are drawn. Here are the facts: 81% of Americans who signed up for the ObamaCare health plan will receive government assistance this year. Some will have their entire healthcare premium paid for by the government. That cost American taxpayers more than $100 billion last year alone. That's the essence of ObamaCare, that all Americans are forced to buy health insurance so that the have-nots can be subsidized and covered. It is estimated that since ObamaCare passed, 13-million people have health insurance who did not have it before. Enter President Trump, who says Obamacare costs way too much and is a disaster in every way. So the Republicans will put forth a new plan. This one will not order you to buy health insurance. If you don't buy it, your option will be to go to the emergency room and get treated. If you can't pay, the taxpayer picks it up just like the old days. If you cannot afford health insurance premiums, the Republicans want the states to handle it through Medicaid. President Trump and his acolytes essentially want out of the healthcare business and will send federal money to the individual states so they can decide who gets what. Liberals hate that, they want the feds to dictate health insurance costs and who gets it free or subsidized. The key question for you is will your healthcare premiums go up or down once ObamaCare is history? The Congressional Budget Office says that under the Republican plan, the feds will spend about $337 billion dollars less subsidizing health care over the next ten years. But about 21-million more Americans will not have health insurance by the year 2020. Again, that would mostly be their choice. The CBO does not know what might happen if the insurance companies are allowed to compete nationwide, which they cannot do now. The Trump administration has promised to lower taxes and their healthcare plan does that. It is simply impossible for you, the American consumer, to know how this will all turn out. Summing up, liberals want a big entitlement culture. Some uber-conservatives want few, if any entitlements. More moderate Republicans want the states to handle healthcare entitlements with limits. There you have it."

The Factor continued talking health care with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. "ObamaCare is a disaster," he declared. "In my state of South Carolina in 2014 there were five health care companies providing insurance through the exchanges, and we are now down to one. There is also a 27% increase in premiums this year. But President Trump should not take a bad deal, he has to find a bill that helps Americans and not just the Republican Party. He can walk away and let ObamaCare collapse. All I'm asking is for Republicans to slow down because we will own what we do for the rest of our political lives."

For another take on this complicated issue, The Factor welcomed former Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee. "You can have whatever complaints you want about ObamaCare," he began, "but the 'TrumpCare' that is being outlined is clearly and demonstrably worse for millions of Americans. According to the Congressional Budget Office, if you make $30,000 a year, you will pay out of pocket some $10,000 a year more than now. And this bill cuts Medicaid, which is a clear and direct violation of one of Donald Trump's campaign promises" The Factor reminded Goolsbee, "If the pinheads in Washington can pass a law that will allow insurance companies to compete across state lines, that will drive insurance costs down."

Former Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who was wiretapped by the feds in 2011 as he spoke to Muammar Gaddafi's son, entered the No Spin Zone to elaborate. "I had a resolution in the House," Kucinich reported, "to try to stop the war and he called me to talk about it. I cleared the discussion with House attorneys and a member of Congress is not supposed to be listened to by the executive branch. The Director of National Intelligence under President Obama was tracking my resolution and I didn't find out until two years after I had left Congress." Because of that experience, Kucinich does not automatically dismiss President Trump's allegation that he was bugged. "I heard a lot of people laughing about it, but I had something happen to me. If a member of Congress can have his phone tapped, this can happen to anybody."

The latest insanity on campus? Carleton University in Canada has removed the scale from the gym because it could 'trigger' negative reactions. Katie Pavlich and Mary Anne Marsh weighed in on the issue. "The word 'triggering' is used on campuses," Pavlich explained, "to ban things that people don't like or don't agree with. It's just a way to shirk the responsibility of acting like an adult. Students should visit a third world country, I don't think they'll worry about the scale in the gym." Marsh also lamented the rash of similar incidents on compuses. "This coincides with a growing intolerance people have about a lot of things. Rather than dealing with the circumstances and the facts, they choose to change the facts and circumstances. It undermines our society, our discourse, and it divides us further so that there is less common ground."

Trump opponents continue to push the notion that his campaign colluded with Russia during the campaign. But Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has denied any collusion and added that the Russian ambassador had conversations with the Clinton campaign. Brit Hume joined The Factor and tried to sort things out. "Whatever a spokesman for Putin says," he declared, "should be taken with a considerable measure of skepticism. But for all of the talk about collusion, there is no evidence. There are hunches and suspicions and theories, but no real evidence. But even without evidence, the left has managed to get a pretty good run out of this."

Jesse Watters headed to the New York subways and asked some strap hangers what they know about ObamaCare. Their replies: "90% of Americans don't know how ObamaCare works" ... "It's like welfare, when you don't have money welfare is there to help you" ... "I think the new plan will be worse than the one we have now." Watters himself admitted, "Most people have no idea about ObamaCare, I don't have any idea, and I don't understand 'TrumpCare' either!"

Ken Hoover, Woodland Park, CO: "Bill, in your Talking Points you spoke about what the government owes citizens. You were spot on with defense, but not education and health. They are not listed in the Constitution."

Charles Bishop, Alpharetta, GA: "Wikileaks is not treasonous. The American people have a right to know how we are being spied on."

Skip Parker, Henderson, TN: "Bill, Bernie Goldberg's remark that Trump supporters don't care if he lies was off the charts. He doesn't know us."

The East Coast is expecting a major snowstorm and people are stocking up on flashlights, canned soup, and other staples. Meanwhile, weather forecasters are hysterical and many schools have already been closed. But it's worth remembering that overreaction is never a good thing.