SCHIEFFER: And good morning again.

Senior White House adviser David Axelrod is in Syracuse this morning. Republican Senator Olympia Snowe is here in the studio.

The demonstrators who poured on to the streets of Washington yesterday capped off an angry summer that saw the president's popularity go down as tempers went up, even on the floor of Congress where a backbencher congressman called the president a liar as the president was calling for unity.

I want to go first to David Axelrod this morning.

Mr. Axelrod, what do you make of this demonstration yesterday on the streets of Washington? Do you think it's indicative of the nation's mood? And what message do you have this morning for those people who were on the streets here yesterday?

AXELROD: Well, first of all, Bob, I don't think it's indicative of the nation's mood. In fact, I don't believe that some of the angriest, most strident voices we saw during the summer were representative of the thousands of town hall meetings that went on around the country that came off peacefully, that were constructive, people voicing their points of view.

But this is -- you know, one of the great things about our country is people can express themselves even if they're not representative of the majority. Your own poll, which was taken after the president's speech, suggests that they don't represent a mainstream view of this health care plan.

And so, you know, I don't think we ought to be distracted by that. My message to them is, they're wrong. The president made it very, very clear that he wants to build on the system that we have.

He wants to fix what's wrong with it so insurance company bureaucrats can't rule arbitrarily over the lives of their customers in ways that are very significant. So that people don't go broke because of out-of-pocket costs from the insurance companies.

And we want to make sure that people who can't afford health care today because they don't get it from their employer, can get health care, and at a price they can afford. Right now they have to pay three times as much as anyone else.

So that's what this is about. We ought to focus on what it's about and not on distortions of it.

SCHIEFFER: All right. In an interview that's going to be shown tonight on "60 MINUTES," Mr. Axelrod, Steve Kroft asks the president what he thought of all this anger that sort of erupted over the summer.

Here's what he said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The truth of the matter is that there has been, I think, a coarsening of our political dialogue. I will also say that in the era of 24-hour cable news cycles that the loudest, shrillest voices get the most attention.

And so one of the things that I'm trying to figure out is, you know, how can we make sure that civility is interesting?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIEFFER: That entire interview is going to be seen tonight on "60 MINUTES."

And let's go back to what the president said the other night to the Congress, Mr. Axelrod. David Brooks, a columnist from The New York Times, said that basically the president had praised the so- called public option -- that is this government insurance plan that many people want -- then effectively buried it.

Why doesn't the president just say, we don't have the votes to pass this, we have the votes perhaps to pass a lot of other things, and just put that aside and say he's not going to push it? He said, you know, he didn't think it was crucial to the plan but he still liked it.

AXELROD: Well, he -- let me say again that he believes that it will add an element of competition where there is none in some places in this country where there's a monopolistic situation with insurance companies.

And we believe competition and choice will help bring prices down and improve care and give a better deal to consumers. So he continues to believe it's a good idea. He continues to advocate it. And I'm not willing to accept that it's not going to be in the final package.

But what he also said and what we've all said is that this is not the whole of health insurance reform. And we should not let the whole debate devolve into this one question, circulate around this one question, and lose the best opportunity we've had in generations to do something very significant about a problem that just -- that is just getting worse.

SCHIEFFER: One of the other things he said the other night was that he thought that this program could be self-sufficient. How can he really say that he can put all of this into effect without adding to the deficit? We don't have any other programs that haven't added to the deficit like Medicare or like Social Security.

AXELROD: Well, look, one of the reasons we have the problems we have is because over the last eight years Congress has passed a series of things, two major tax cuts for the very wealthy, funded two wars, prescription drug coverage for seniors, without funding any of it.

AXELROD: And that's why we have the tremendous deficit problem we have today.

So what this president is saying is, we need to move forward on this, but we need to do it in a fiscally responsible way, so we need to say how we're going to pay for it. And the president has identified a series of savings that he feels can be made in our public health programs. The Congressional Budget Office has certified that, yes, these are real and legitimate savings. And now we have to discuss how we close the rest of the gap.

He embraced one idea on Wednesday night relative to fees on insurance companies on high-end insurance policies. And there are a menu of other things that we'll be discussing with Congress, but he is absolutely committed that he will -- he will not sign a bill unless he can say to the American people honestly that this bill will not add to our deficit.

SCHIEFFER: Do you sometimes wonder, Mr. Axelrod, if perhaps the president just tried to bite off too much? We had all these severe problems with the economy. And maybe that's what caused people to wonder about all this. Has he tried to bite off more than the country can chew at one time?

AXELROD: Well, as to your last point, Bob, health insurance reform, health care reform has never been an easy issue. That's why it hasn't been resolved in 100 years since Theodore Roosevelt first raised it. So I wouldn't ascribe it to him or anything in the current debate.

We were faced with an economic -- potential economic catastrophe when we came to office. We had to act to stem it. Senator Snowe, to her credit, was a part of that effort. And by the way, for those who believe in civility in politics, she's a great example of that.

But, no, so, I don't believe that. Here's what I believe, Bob. Around kitchen tables, around -- in small businesses and large around the country, people are wrestling with this issue of health care. It is a greater and greater burden. More people are losing their insurance. More people are being crowded out of coverage even though they pay for it. And it's only going to get worse. Costs have doubled in the last 10 years. They're going to double again unless we act.

Everyone knows we have to do something.

SCHIEFFER: All right. Thank you so much for being with us this morning, Mr. Axelrod.

AXELROD: Great to be with you.

SCHIEFFER: And we will turn now to Senator Snowe. Did the president take the public option off the table the other night, or should he be more specific about that, Senator Snowe?

SNOWE: He should be more specific. In fact, I urged the president to take the public option off the table, because it's universally opposed by all Republicans in the Senate. And therefore, there's no way to pass a plan that includes the public option. So I think he's recognizing that, because it is a roadblock to building the kind of consensus that we need to move forward. Even Chairman Baucus has indicated no proposal could be passed in the Senate that includes it. So it would be best to just move forward.

SCHIEFFER: Well, you just heard what Mr. Axelrod said. He's not willing to take it off the table.

SNOWE: I think it's unfortunate, because it leaves open a legislative possibility that creates uncertainty in this process. And I think it could give real momentum to building a consensus on other issues. I appreciate the fact that the president did demonstrate flexibility on the question in his speech Wednesday night, but it does leave it open, and therefore unpredictable.

SCHIEFFER: You first broached this idea of the so-called trigger option, and that is setting a deadline for these private insurance companies to come up with plans that would cover everyone who needed health care, and then if they didn't get that, then consider some sort of a public option. Do you still feel that way?

SNOWE: Yes, I do. I think it is a possibility. You know, bridging the gap at some point in this process as we move forward. And, in fact, I recommended it to the president months ago, even before health care was at the forefront in Congress, because that started (ph) as a way of assuring coverage, not instituting a public option, but making sure that people have access to choices of affordable coverage if the health insurance industry doesn't perform under a newly restructured market, similar to what we did in the prescription drug benefit, which actually -- it worked. There were so many choices, we never triggered the fallback, in fact.

SCHIEFFER: Well, you are a part of the Senate Finance Committee and part of the group that's trying to put together some sort of a bipartisan group. Will that be in the plan that the Finance Committee puts forward?

SNOWE: It's not on the table. And it won't be. We'll be using the co-op as an option at this point, as the means for injecting competition in the process.

SCHIEFFER: Senator Snowe, you of course are a key vote in all of this, maybe the only Republican that will wind up being for it.

SCHIEFFER: Will you vote for it if you're the only Republican because Senator Grassley, another key Republican, said he's not going to vote for it if he has to be the only Republican. It has to be a broader plan than that. Would you be willing to vote if you're the only Republican that's for this?

SNOWE: Well, I'm focusing on getting the best strategy so we can maximize the support among Republicans and Democrats and of course the American people. We're working mightily within this group of six. The only bipartisan effort I might add in either committee of the House or Senate that's working for more than three months to exhaustively examine all of the issues. We debate the issues, we don't debate political philosophies.

Frankly we have to take the time to do that. That's what the American people expect us to do. I view time as our ally, not as an enemy so we can build that support. That's the key here. I want to be able to craft the very best policy for access, affordability and addressing costs both to the consumer and to the government.

SCHIEFFER: But would you vote for a bill that you believed in even if you were the only one?

SNOWE: I'll do what's right based on what is the right policy. But I think it is important to build support. And that's what I'm looking for. And that's what we're all looking for. Both Senator Grassley and Senator Ensign and the other members, Chairman Baucus and Senator Conrad and Senator Bingaman. I think it's a real tribute to Chairman Baucus, by the way, and Senator Grassley for engaging in this effort that has truly been bipartisan.

We have been working, as I said, deliberately and intensively to maximize the potential for a bipartisan agreement. That would engender broader support in the Senate, in the Congress and in America.

SCHIEFFER: You do not believe at this point a public option, a plan that included a public option could pass the Senate.

SNOWE: Correct, I do not.

SCHIEFFER: This morning, Kathleen Sebelius , the secretary of health and human services said that the president would specifically support language that prohibits using money for abortion.

SNOWE: That's an important statement. We certainly are working on that issue within the group of six. And I think that there should be a specific prohibition similar to what is in current law. The amendment applies currently to the Medicaid funding. They should be explicit that funding isn't provided for tax subsidies and other benefits within the health insurance and those ones should be segregated.

SCHIEFFER: Let me change the subject just slightly to these demonstrations that we saw yesterday, this back bencher congressman who got up on the floor the other night during the joint session and shouted out "you lie" to the president. What is your sense of what's going on here?

SNOWE: Well, you know, it's a good question, Bob. It was an unfortunate and disgraceful incident that occurred in the House of Representatives. I've served 16 years here and I've never witnessed that.

So I think it is unfortunate that it brings disrespect to the institutions and to elected officials. I think it's, you know, for the American people to express themselves is appropriate. I think the question is how we conduct ourselves as elected officials within the legislative process.

And frankly, if there was more civility, we perhaps could get more done for the American people. And that would set an example for everybody else. That's what I like about this group of six. I wish the American people had a chance to see, have a window into our daily deliberations. It's what the legislative process should be all about in bringing Republicans and Democrats together to discuss real ideas irrespective of our differences.

We could, I think, so much better off in addressing the major issues of our time. We have to demonstrate to the American people we have the capacity to address the major issues of our time.

SCHIEFFER: Senator Snowe, it's always a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you for coming by.

SNOWE: Thank you, Bob.