'This Week' Transcript: Jack Lew, Paul Ryan and Rick Santorum

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2012— -- STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning, everyone. Many of you have been following that breaking news overnight that the singer, Whitney Houston, died yesterday in Los Angeles. Just 48, she sold more than 100 million albums, and we're going to remember her later in the show.

But we do begin in Washington with the president's new chief of staff, Jack Lew. Welcome back to "This Week."

LEW: Good to be with you, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Now, this is your first time as White House chief of staff on "This Week." And, boy, you're starting out with a little bit of a controversy over this contraception coverage. The president announced his compromise on Friday, saying that Catholic institutions will not have to directly provide this contraception coverage, but that the insurance companies will.

That wasn't good enough for the Catholic bishops. I want to read you what they said yesterday. "No government has the right to intrude into the affairs of the church, much less coerce the church faithful individuals to engage in or cooperate in any way with immoral practices."

They are going to fight this. They are going to continue to fight this.

LEW: You know, George, from the very beginning, the president had two important goals here. One is to guarantee that every woman has a right to all forms of preventive health care, including contraception, secondly, that we do it in a way that respects the legitimate religious differences and the religious liberties that are so important in our country.

I think what the president announced on Friday struck the kind of balance to reconcile those two very important values. I think the fact that on Friday groups ranging from Catholic charities and the Catholic Health Association to Planned Parenthood all embraced what the president proposed speak to the fact that it is where that reconciliation is.

We didn't expect that there would be universal support, but we do think this is the right way to go, and it's a plan that we're going to pursue.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But there are a lot of questions yet to answer. I know you believe that over time this coverage will be revenue-neutral, will save money, perhaps, in the long run, but there are some upfront costs for contraceptive coverage. Who's going to pay for that?

LEW: See, now, it's interesting, George. As somebody who's done budgets for a lot of years, when people tell me things don't cost money, I ask a lot of questions. This is actually one of those exceptions to the rule. If you look at the overall cost of providing health care to a woman, the cost goes up, not down, if you take contraceptives out. This is not going to cost the insurance companies money, because on the overall health care cost basis, it won't cost more.

But most importantly, this will guarantee that every woman has a right to preventive care, including contraceptives, and no church will be required to provide the benefit, and no Catholic university or Catholic hospital will either have to pay or facilitate the provision of the benefit. It will come from the insurance companies.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you're just saying -- but the insurance companies then will just have to eat those upfront costs and get the savings over time?