'This Week' Transcript: Vicki Kennedy, Jack Lew and Paul Ryan

NEW YORK, July 1, 2012— -- (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS (voice-over): Good morning, and welcome to "This Week." Supreme Court history on health care.

(UNKNOWN): Today is a tragic day for this republic.

STEPHANOPOULOS: A defining moment for the court.

OBAMA: Today's decision was a victory for people all over this country.

STEPHANOPOULOS: A huge win for President Obama.

OBAMA: I didn't do this because it was good politics. I did it because I believed it was good for the country.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And a new rallying cry for Mitt Romney.

ROMNEY: If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we're going to have to replace President Obama.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The big questions: Why did Chief Justice Roberts cast that surprising vote? How will it shape the presidential race? And what does it mean for your health care? We'll ask our headliners, White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and the chair of the House Budget Committee, Paul Ryan. Plus, our special exclusive guest.

OBAMA: I'm signing this bill for all of the leaders who took up this cause through the generations, and it's fitting that Ted's widow, Vicki, is here.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Vicki Kennedy. Health care was the cause of her late husband's career. Her reaction here first.

And debate and analysis on our powerhouse roundtable, with George Will, Donna Brazile, Terry Moran, Artur Davis, and Keith Olbermann.

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos. It's your voice, your vote. Reporting from ABC News election headquarters, George Stephanopoulos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hello again.

Chief Justice Roberts has escaped to what he calls the impregnable forest of Malta after delivering a landmark decision on health care that blindsided so many Supreme Court watchers and energized both presidential campaigns. It will also shape America's health care system and constitutional law for years to come. We're going to get into all that this morning.

But we begin with something special, the first reaction to the ruling from Vicki Kennedy, the widow of Senator Ted Kennedy, who fought for universal health care throughout a Senate career that spanned almost half a century, a commitment captured in his final convention speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

T. KENNEDY: This is the cause of my life, new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American -- north, south, east, west, young, old -- will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: And Vicki Kennedy joins us now.

Thank you so much for coming in this morning.

V. KENNEDY: Thank you, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I can only imagine what it must have been like for you at the moment you heard what the Supreme Court had decided.

V. KENNEDY: You know, George, as you just heard in that wonderful clip, this health care reform was the cause of my husband's life. He believed that it was a moral issue, that it defined the character of who we were as a society, who we were as a country, and that decent, quality, affordable health care should be a fundamental right and not a privilege. And now all three branches of our federal government have affirmed that right. And I think if Teddy were here, he would tell us now it's time to roll up our sleeves, get to work, fully implement the law, and move on with the business of our country.