MSNBC Hardball-Transcript

MSNBC Hardball-Transcript

MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.

In less than two hours, President Bush will deliver the State of the Union address in the House or Representatives. It will be the first time he speaks to a Congress totally controlled by Democrats.

U.S. Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland is the House Democratic leader, the majority leader of the House of Representatives.

Congressman Hoyer, have you guys got any plans to applaud at different times tonight and to sit on your keisters at other times?

REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), MAJORITY LEADER: There‘s no set plan, no.

(LAUGHTER)

HOYER: We talked about that today. There seems to be this game of up and down. But we‘re going to be respectful to the president of the United States, as we ought to be. We‘re going to listen. We hope we hear a message that we want to work together. And we hope to hear some new directions for our country. But we will applaud, hopefully, at appropriate times, and not at others.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about something that seems to be changing.

You and I know that, for years, that Ted Kennedy dominated health care discussions. And then Hillary Clinton did for a while. It seems now that the Republicans are honestly trying to break into that field of doing something for the uninsured working people out there—in Massachusetts with Mitt Romney, with Arnold Schwarzenegger in California.

Is there a deal that could be struck between the two parties to give millions more people a shot at decent health care?

HOYER: Chris, I think the—and the answer is, I hope so. And I think there may well be.

You‘re correct. There are Republican governors, working with Democratic legislators, making definite steps forward toward that end. And it is an end that we need to achieve. We know we have 46-plus million Americans with no insurance and some very badly underinsured. So, we need to move forward together to do that.

MATTHEWS: And they‘re the working people.

HOYER: Yes.

MATTHEWS: They‘re not the people on relief. They‘re the people who work every day that don‘t have health insurance.

HOYER: Absolutely. Absolutely.

You know, we talked about the minimum wage. And most of the people on the minimum wage don‘t have health insurance. We need to make efforts, and hopefully in a bipartisan way, working with the president. He‘s going to talk about that tonight.

We will analyze his proposals to see whether or not they help get us to that end. If not, we will have further discussions. And, if so, we will try to support him where we agree.

MATTHEWS: Can you do something on global warming that limits the emissions problem, or deals with the emissions problem, the carbon emissions and all that—we all know something about it—and still keep John Dingell happy, the chairman of the Energy Committee?

He‘s from Michigan. He‘s got a primary responsibility to look out for the auto industry. But the auto industry doesn‘t have the same interest, exactly, as the people do. We want clean air. They want cars that don‘t cost quite as much to make. We all want heavier cars. They give us heavier cars. But that means a lot more emissions.

HOYER: Yes.

Chris, I think the answer to that question—I don‘t want to sound corny—John Dingell‘s first responsibility is to the people he represents, his constituents, obviously to the industries that create jobs that are important to his state and to our nation. But his responsibility is also to the country.

And John Dingell is, I think, going to move ahead with a responsible energy policy, in cooperation with Speaker Pelosi and others in the Congress. It is clear the American public expect us to move forward to meet the challenge of global warming. And, if we don‘t, they‘re going to penalize us for that. So, I think the answer to your question is yes.

MATTHEWS: I was watching the Al Gore movie the other night. I know you have seen it at least once...

HOYER: Yes.

MATTHEWS: ... "An Inconvenient Truth." Al Gore makes quite a good sort of Mr. Wizard. He‘s pretty good at it.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: Do you think the president believes—with your conversation with the president, does he believe that global warming, climate change, is a problem?

HOYER: Chris, my conversations with him have—have not been extensive enough on this issue to give you an answer to that.

However, it is clear that he believes, and his administration believes, that they have got to make initiatives and make proposals to deal with global warming, because they know the American public believes this is a real problem, and a lot of their experts, as—as experts are all over this globe, saying this is a problem that the industrialized world has got to deal with, or we‘re going to be in real trouble.

MATTHEWS: Let‘s talk about Iraq for a minute. It is going to be part of the speech tonight.

The polling that we are doing at NBC and "The Wall Street Journal" says that the public wants you in Congress to take the lead. How do you take the lead, if the president says: I‘m putting troops into Iraq, 20,000 more, and you can‘t stop me?

HOYER: Well, he‘s probably right in the short term. In the long term, he‘s not right.

We—we can stop him in the long term. The first step, as you know, that we are taking is, the Senate is leading on a resolution which says, Mr. President, we don‘t agree with you.

We have just heard a number of generals who were in theater, were in charge of the—the effort over there, have come back and said, this will not work. This is not a policy we ought to be pursuing.

I have articulated great skepticism, along with others. The military doesn‘t agree. Apparently, the—the Maliki government doesn‘t agree. The Iraq Study Group did not agree. The president, frankly, is on his own, because the American public don‘t agree either.

We will listen to what he has to say tonight. We‘re conducted hearings. We‘re going to—we‘re going to pass a resolution through the House in a bipartisan way in the not-too-distant future which says, Mr. President, we don‘t agree that this is policy that is either change or will lead to success.

MATTHEWS: OK, thank you very much, U.S. Congressman Steny Hoyer, who is the House majority leader.

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