MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Amy Klobuchar

Interview

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Senator Amy Klobuchar is a Democrat in Minnesota. Earlier this year, she reintroduced legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. And she joins me now. You know, Senator, I think -- I think of you both based on your, you know, official political science voting score, and the campaign that you ran for president in the primary is as sort of in the center of the Democratic Caucus if you`re, you know, mapping it ideologically.

What do you say to people who are opposing this provision to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Well, first, let`s get to the facts. We have 46 million seniors that would benefit from this, and actually the entire country would benefit. Right now, there`s no other country that pays more for prescription drugs and we do, yet it is our taxpayers that have funded so much of this research and they should be sharing in the success of these companies.

[20:25:09]

And so, that is my argument. There is a ban in legislation. A lot of people don`t see why this is so ridiculous. A ban on negotiating for Medicare to negotiate cheaper drug prices on behalf of the seniors of this country. That is simply what we are trying to change.

And I would note, this is not really a liberal, moderate divide. Yes, there are a few members that we hope we`re going to be able to work with to get them to the right place here. But for the most part, liberal Democrats, moderate Democrats, conservative Democrats, and yes, over 85 percent of Republicans in this country actually support Medicare negotiation for prices for seniors. Why? 20 percent of seniors are actually not taking drugs they should take because they`re too expensive. And we continue to see escalation of prices that simply feeds the profits of big pharma.

HAYES: Yes. In terms of the three members and the opposition. I mean, pharma, of course, is dead set against this. And they`re lobbying very hard. And one of the things that ends up happening, and you know this very well, and I`ve covered this on Capitol Hill is people be like, oh, no, no, we`re not against that. We just have our own bill. It`s a little different, because everyone wants this.

And that`s what`s happening here. I mean, how do you -- how do you deal with that sort of, I think, somewhat disingenuous argument?

KLOBUCHAR: We have bills that have been vetted that some of these people have actually voted for in the past. And we know that it will bring in hundreds of billions of dollars to help people in this country and bring costs down. We know that it`s going to save lives. They know that. And people can negotiate things. Sure.

And I do know that President Biden in his State of the Union, I was sitting right up there in the front row, he made this one of the centerpieces of his agenda for bringing cost down for families. I know it was genuine. And so, right now, a number of these members are in meeting with him through the day, through tomorrow. And I believe we`re going to get this done.

Because I just think enough is enough. Failure is not an option here. We have to bring down the cost of prescription drugs for the people of this country. Symbicort up nearly 50 percent. Lyrica, that nerve pain drug up nearly 50 percent in just the last five years. Seniors saving insulin drops in a vial because they can`t afford it, trying to ration their drugs. This shouldn`t be happening in the United States of America where we funded the vast majority of this research.

HAYES: One thing that`s striking about this debate is I`ve been covering this for 15 years, I want to say. I mean, I can`t believe it hasn`t happened yet. And the reason it hasn`t happened yet is basically the pharmaceutical companies don`t want it to happen. I can`t come up with another reason. Am I wrong?

KLOBUCHAR: You look at the numbers. This isn`t one of those where one side says one side says. When you look at the numbers of where people are on this, they don`t buy these bogus counter arguments. They know that there`s actually Congressional Budget Office score. They may not know this, but they`re actually shows that this would not reduce new drugs coming out, or innovation, or jobs.

People intuitively understand that we are paying too much for these drugs, and that it`s going to the coffers of the drug companies. So, this is long overdue. It should have been included in the Affordable Care Act. It was too hard to get the votes. Now is the time. We have to stop admiring this problem and tweeting about it and actually do something about it. And we have a unique opportunity to do that.

HAYES: All right, Senator Amy Klobuchar, thank you so much for your time tonight.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Chris.

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