Broder: Governor Gilmore, when you left the Governorship, you accepted President Bush's appointment as Chairman of the Republican National Committee, and you certainly praised his leadership. What is your evaluation of his performance as President now and where, if anywhere, do you differ with his policies?

Gilmore: Thank you, David. It was my honor to be named chairman of the Republican national committee and I served in that capacity for one year. And I was proud to have had the opportunity to do that of behalf of the Republican Party of the United States. The President has been a decisive President to be sure. He has been a person who has stood on principle and he has done so decisively. I think that it would be a helpful thing for the United States to work very hard on its image around the world, to make sure that our friends around there world know we occupy the moral high ground, to make sure that they stand with us in the amazing crises that faces us. But one thing that the President has right is that he was the President during the 9/11 attack just as I was the Governor of Virginia during the 9/11 attack. He and I both understand and I understand full well the international challenge that we face. I was Chairman of the national commission on homeland security and terrorism for the United States government for three years before the attack. And that commission, which still stands as the Bible of homeland security for the United States, we warned that an attack here at home was very likely. We presented the first report to in fact President Clinton, who asked me to the commission and then additional reports later on to the Congress, additional Presidents. The 9/11 attack happened and I took the decisive action that needed to be done. I believe that the President has worked very hard to make sure that the economy has been running well with a tax cut that was put into place, that all Republicans-and in fact it was bipartisan-put a tax cut in place, which has been extremely useful and helpful to the people of this country and those tax cuts are now threatened and that will mean a decisive tax increase. The policies are very different, and the policies make a big difference in the quality of life to the people of this country. Jim Gilmore stands for, I believe, the right policies.

Warner: Well I take that then as an endorsement of the last years of the Bush economic policies. I take that then as an endorsement of America's decline in standing in the world. I take that then as an endorsement of the fact that under the Bush administration we have had no comprehensive energy policy and now are grappling with record gas prices, record oil prices, spending 600 hundred billion dollars of our money buying oil from countries that are almost uniformly anti-American. I take that as well as an endorsement of the current fiscal policies that have led to the worst kind of tax increase, the tax increase that every Virginian pays when they go to the pump or purchase things in the store because of the decline of the dollar. I for one don't agree with those policies...
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Warner: Let's revisit one of the issues that was one of the ideological hot buttons for you, Jim. It was your reluctance to support any kind of children's health insurance program. Even though the legislature said please let's put in place this children's health insurance program you said it offended your philosophical positions. Instead Virginia during your term sent back 56 million in federal dollars that were supposed to come into Virginia that instead got spent in other states to sign up kids for children's health insurance. Jim was that the right decision, to not sign up those kids for children's health insurance?

Gilmore: Here's the answer, Mark. We established that FAMIS program and started it, and we actually created a program that was correct philosophically and in terms of what was best for families. It was a private health insurance, families had to have some responsibility of their own and pay a co-payment. It was not a welfare program, and gave people the dignity to know that they were taking care of themselves with the assistance of a state program like FAMIS. But when Mark Warner came in he concluded that the measure of success was simply putting people on a government welfare program and as a result he lowered the thresholds and then signed everybody up into Medicaid. And what happened was this program went up because everybody went on Medicaid the numbers on Medicaid went up. And that's what the difference is that he hasn't told you today. But it reflective of something. And the question is, what are the health care policies that we're going to face in the United States Senate. Barack Obama has come forward with a health care plan that is gonna say that employers have to pay to play and that in fact they have to offer a certain type of program or they will be taxed if they are an employer, and government will impose that on you. It says that insurance companies have to offer particular kinds of benefits and control certain types of programs. And then for extra measure he puts in a government-controlled program which will squeeze out private insurance. And in fact the more Medicaid goes up like Mark's type of program, the harder it is on private insurance options. And so the question I've got for you Mark, when you get to the United States Senate are you going to be supporting Barack Obama's health care program, or will you be supporting John McCain and myself, who want to put in place a more private kind of program, a private program that creates associations and more opportunities for private care, and more opportunities for guaranteed admission into private programs, so that in fact you can utilize the private sector, or you gonna go to in fact this type of government control that Barack Obama would like to do? And I think that's the fundamental question that we have to ask and I think we already know the answer, because when the time came on SCHIP and FAMIS, you put 'em in a government program.