(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BARBARA LEE, (D-CA) CHAIRWOMAN, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: We must reject the spurious claims that the cost of reforming health care in America is something our nation can't afford.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Members of the Congressional Black Caucus taking some swings at blue dog Democrats in the house, those are the conservative Democrats. And here is a quote from one unnamed, but talked to our producer, a senior member, saying "We don't feel like we've been dealt with honestly."

Democrat on Democrat over health care in the House as we learn that there will be a delay and Congress will not have a bill before the August recess officially today.

We're back with the panel - Juan?

WILLIAMS: I was talking to some people at the White House yesterday and today by phone, but their feeling is to make the case to these blue dog Democrats they have to be very up front and say, look, it's not to your advantage to put any space between yourself and the president of the United States when that president is a member of your own party.

That's not going to help you get reelected. It's not going to help you in your district. So don't think that somehow the president has abandoned you. You got to get with the president. You got to get with this message.

BAIER: However, you look at the polls, the FOX News opinion dynamics polls about taxes, is health care reform if passed, what will happen to your taxes? 79 percent today said that they will increase.

Then you look under the health care plans being considered, the quality of care, better, worse or the same - worse, 45 percent. I mean, those poll numbers are not party specific. Those are across the board.

WILLIAMS: Right. And it's a problem, and they understand the problem.

And what they're hoping now, and I think this may just simply be living with reality, Bret, but what they're hoping now is that the summer, the August recess will be a period in which there's lots of talk about health care in the districts and that pressure comes from the grassroots.

Don't forget, the president is using some of his campaign '08 mechanisms here to put pressure, build grass roots momentum, saying health care is broken, remind people of it, remind them that premiums have been doubling.

They are going to really push that during the recess in the hope that this gets reignited in September.

But the other scenario would be they simply lose momentum.

BAIER: Yes. The conventional wisdom would be that the lobbyists buy all the ads and pummel this program - Charles?

KRAUTHAMMER: I think the reason the president has been so much in a hurry to push this before August is precisely because he's afraid the more people learn about this, the less they are going to like it.

If you watch that poll you cited, 80 percent of Americans think it is going to raise their taxes, 18 percent aren't sure. I love that 1 percent who think there is going to be a decrease in taxes. I want to meet that guy. He needs a little education or encouragement here.

(LAUGHTER)

The other thing, I understand why the president is arguing you don't want to weaken a president who is strong in '08 who swept a lot of you into office. You don't want to weaken him, because if he loses on health care, he is very much a weakened president. It could hurt him in 2010.

However, these guys who already are in conservative districts have swallowed hemlock on behalf of the president on cap and trade. They have been really wounded on that, extremely unpopular, and it didn't even pass in the Senate. So it was a wasted negative vote.

And these guys, I'm not sure they want a second swig of that hemlock on health care.

BAIER: Steve, the House Speaker says she has the votes. She keeps on insisting. It's the second day in a row. She says they're going to pass something out of the House. The blue dog Democrats are telling us that all of the blue dogs, as written now, could vote against this bill.

HAYES: Right.

BAIER: Which means she wouldn't have the votes.

HAYES: Continuing to insist it doesn't make it true, actually.

I think what's been interesting to watch today over the course of the past 12 hours is that after the president went out and put his reputation on the line, a lot of political capital to do a primetime news conference - there's only one reason you do that, and it is because you think you want to halt the negative momentum of your policy proposal.

He didn't - not only did he not do that, but today was filled with discussions of his comments on race, fact checks by usually friendly media outlets like the Associated Press and "The New York Times," and disarray among Democrats in Congress.

Not only did he not be accomplish what he set out to accomplish last night in the press conference, I think he actually took several steps backwards.

WILLIAMS: I think he needed to take the reins last night on this issues. His strategy all along has been let the thousand flowers bloom, let them argue about it on the Hill.

He needs to say here is how it benefits you and here is what I stand for to the American people last night. He needs to make news. He didn't do it.