MSNBC "Morning Joe" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "Morning Joe" - Transcript

MSNBC "MORNING JOE" INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN)

SUBJECT: PROPOSED BUDGET, MINNESOTA SENATE SEAT

INTERVIEWERS: JOE SCARBOROUGH, MIKA BRZEZINSKI

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MR. SCARBOROUGH: All right. Let's bring in right now Democratic senator from Minnesota, Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Senator, good to see you.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Nice to see you.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Good to see you guys.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: In the studio this time.

(Cross talk.)

MR. SCARBOROUGH: This is the first time that you've seen Mika when she wasn't in a bar, right?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, yes, Inauguration morning.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Everyone says that to me.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: You guys were in a bar, yeah.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. Where else were you going to be, right?

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, seriously. The smartest people in town.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: So are you comfortable -- coming from Minnesota, good German stock, conservative people -- are you concerned with all the spending that's going on right now?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, I've been concerned about the budget for a long time. And let me say this about President Obama's budget.

For the first time, he's honest. And our state likes people that are straightforward and honest.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Okay. Okay.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: He's talked about the fact that the AMT was never reflected in the budget.

He's talked about the fact that the budget would be designed to act like there were no disasters happening in the country, no funding for Iraq and Afghanistan in the actual budget. So I think the fact that he's honest about the budget goes a long way.

Also, the people in our state are hurting, like everywhere else. I was just in Hibbing, Minnesota. Five hundred fifty people laid off of one mine on one day, in a tiny town. Think about that.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: God.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: I think those people may see that this budget has a safety net in there. They are not whining that much that it may mean some tax -- the tax changes that go to the Clinton levels for the people making over $250,000 a year. That's not them.

So I think the fact that --

MR. SCARBOROUGH: What about the deficits, though? What about the debt? Don't -- there have to be some people in Minnesota that are concerned about how we pay this back.

Because even as Michael Kinsley said this morning in The Washington Post, even if this works, the United States may be facing 20 percent inflation or possible default.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, remember what President Obama and our Congress inherited here -- an over-trillion-dollar deficit. I mean -- (inaudible).

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Oh, and I've been saying that.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Right.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: But at the same time, he's taking a bad problem and making it a lot worse --

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Ooh, I don't know. When you look at what --

MR. SCARBOROUGH: -- if you talk about deficit spending.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Look at what he's done. He's said he's basically acknowledged we're in a huge mess, and we're not going to be able to turn this around overnight. So what he's done is look to the long term -- 10-year budgeting.

He's said in four years we'll get the deficit in half. That's what he's telling --

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Do you believe that?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Yes, I actually do. Because I do come from a state where we do save money, and when he talks about all the savings you can get in Medicare funding, he is right.

Mayo Clinic -- if all the hospitals in the country used the protocol they use for chronically sick patients for the last four years, a Dartmouth study showed you would save $50 billion every four years in Medicare taxpayer money. Fifty billion dollars.

Just because multiple tests are ordered, it's not organized, the quality's low. Mayo Clinic does it with a team of doctors. So he's looking at actual cost savings. I believe it.

He said he's identified over $2 trillion in cost savings already. I don't think that's a surprise to anyone.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: He talks about cost savings, but we're also talking about spending, what is it, $630 billion more on health care.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: But he's showing how he's going to get that money, with some of the changes in -- the tax changes and also with --

MR. SCARBOROUGH: And that's half -- it's half from cuts in Medicare and half from tax increases from the wealthy, right?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: But let's look at what the health care system --

(Cross talk.)

MR. SCARBOROUGH: No, no --

MS. BRZEZINSKI: And let's talk about what is wealthy.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Again, that's not a political statement. I'm just -- again, you say he's paying for it. Is that how he pays for it, half in cuts in Medicare and then half in tax increases, right?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: I'm going to take your word on the exact -- (inaudible) --

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Vaguely. I think that's --

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: But what I'm saying here is this health care system is such a weight on our competitiveness across the world.

You look at us compared to other countries, to turn around 10 percent of the economy, to make it more efficient, I don't think it's a surprise that he's going to have to invest to be able to do this.

What I look at is the long term. What are we going to get out of it in the long term? If we get higher-quality health care at less cost, that's a good thing.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: I want to talk now about all of these bailouts, because our show, I think, has worked over the past year and a half, because Mika usually will take one side on an issue and I'll take another side on an issue. And maybe she's a little center-left --

MS. BRZEZINSKI: We'll hash it out.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: But what -- we've noticed this strange dynamic over the -- well, actually, since the fall.

We've all been against these bailouts, and I've got to believe that this is not ideological. People in Minnesota are angry about bank bailouts and mortgage bailouts and Wall Street bailouts and you name it -- GM bailouts.

How do you go to your voters and say, I know you hate this, but this is necessary?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, first of all, I did an article today -- this week -- on this issue, because we have some healthy banks in Minnesota, some big, healthy banks and a lot of small, healthy banks.

And what has bothered me about what's going on here is they've been tainted, just the way this thing has rolled out, by all of this.

I said the other day that there's these Midwestern bankers with their sensible briefcases, feet planted firmly in the ground with the debris swirling around them, saying, Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.

We need to bring them home and make clear that while there may be some banks that shouldn't be allowed to fail, that the government is buying stock in and trying to prop up here, with the hope that they will get better, because to let the whole credit crisis go, to let the whole credit market go down will hurt our entire economy.

But what I want to make clear is there are some other banks and other financial institutions and credit unions that are doing as well as they can in this environment.

And we want to make clear that there's a difference here in how this stress test. That it's not pass-fail, that there's -- grading on a curve. It's not like (FIAD ?).

MS. BRZEZINSKI: I'm worried about the results of the stress test. If these banks, many of them, do -- I don't know what they do with the results of that and how they handle that being translated even to the markets.

But you bring up a fundamental point that people are feeling about the housing bailout. These banks that were well-behaved, that are good banks, I still think there are ultimate ramifications to funneling tons of money into these big banks that are apparently too big to fail that are still asking for more.

I just don't see this working out well.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, I think when you look at what's going on all across the world, a lot of the governments have made the same decision and then said, we can't let this just -- this credit market tank. It's not just going to hurt these big banks; it's going to hurt homeowners that can't get a mortgage and it's going to hurt people that want to buy a car or families that want to get a student loan for their kid going to college.

So I do think there's some merit in making sure we don't let this whole thing collapse, but at some point we're going to have to separate the banks that can make it from the banks that can't.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: And the banks that can't. At some point soon.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: And that's -- I think -- remember what the administration inherited here, and I think at some point the stress test is about trying to do that.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Is about doing that.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: All right. Senator, great to see you again.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Okay. It was good to be on again, as your only senator from Minnesota.

(Cross talk.)

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: You know, I thought the Voting Rights Act, they should have given me two votes.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: I know. They should give you two votes.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: See, we have some taxation without representation.

(Cross talk.)

MR. SCARBOROUGH: We can do that. When's that going to end?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: I hope by the time the ice melts on Lake Minnetonka. (Laughter.) That's April 11th. But do know it has lasted longer now than the Stokes Money Trial and the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.

(Laughter.)

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Oh, my God!

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Hey, just between us, who are you pulling for?

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Got someone in mind?

SEN. KLOBUCHAR: I am supporting Franken, but I will let our courts do their job.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Of course. All right. Thank you, Senator. Great to see you, always. Say hi to your husband.

(Cross talk.)

END.

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