MSNBC Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR JACK REED (D-RI)

SUBJECTS: HEALTHCARE REFORM, IRAN

INTERVIEWER: ANDREA MITCHELL

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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA (From video): Healthcare now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes.

If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy and get our federal budget under control, then we have to address the crushing costs of healthcare this year in this administration.

MS. MITCHELL: President Obama says that making investments in healthcare reform now is one of the best ways to reduce budget deficits in the long run.

Let's go right to Democratic Senator Jack Reed. He serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee overseeing healthcare. Senator Reed is also a member of Armed Services, Appropriations and Banking Committees. You are a busy man indeed, Senator.

Why now? Why this year? Why will it happen when it has never been able to come together before?

SEN. REED: Well, the president articulated it very well. This is not only a social issue; we have millions of Americans who don't have healthcare, but it's also an issue of the economy. This is the most significant cost to most small businesses. It is, in many respects, the most significant burden that families have to bear and so if we don't get it right, not only will we deny people access to healthcare, we will not provide a basis for economic recovery in this country over the long term.

MS. MITCHELL: I wanted to ask you also about a rebellion of sorts; at least Senator Evan Bayh in The Wall Street Journal, the current budget, not the Obama budget, but the current budget and all of the earmarks, President Obama has said he will sign it. He won't fight the pork in this budget that he's inherited. But it does go against a basic campaign commitment.

Why not take on the current spending as well?

SEN. REED: Well, this legislation has been pending for months now. This appropriations bill passed on a bipartisan basis, and, in fact, I think there's bipartisan support for the overall measure.

One thing that has done and President Obama will continue to insist to be done is that this process is much more transparent. All of these requests for funding have been posted on the Internet for months and the other factor that has to be made clear is that at the zenith, the Republican administration, President Bush and the Republican Congress, about five percent of these bills -- this type of directed spending and now that's less than one percent and I can see that getting even less and less as we move forward.

So I believe that the president is serious about reform.

MS. MITCHELL: Let me ask you to put on your foreign policy hat. Hillary Clinton is in Brussels at NATO today and has confirmed that the administration is inviting Iran to an Afghan stakeholders conference. Let's play a little bit from her news conference and I want to ask you about it on the other side.

SEN. REED: Sure.

SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON (From video): We have presented this idea, which is being discussed; nothing has been decided as a way of bringing all the stakeholders and interested parties together. If we move forward with such a meeting, it is expected that Iran would be invited as a neighbor of Afghanistan.

MS. MITCHELL: Iran has been very negative about these overtures from the administration, but do you see hope or any expectation that Iran can be active player in a positive sense, which it was, frankly, back in 2001 on the Afghan front before things really went south?

SEN. REED: Well, you're absolutely right, Andrea. They were constructive in 2001 in terms of our initial operations in Afghanistan and that was a result of many things, but particularly, their profound conflict with the Taliban government. There was no love lost between the Taliban and the government in Tehran.

I think this is a prudent step. They are regional forces. They share a long border with the government of Afghanistan and unless we engage diplomatically, I think, we're not going to make the progress we need to make. And the other point is that I sense that every time the Iranians reject sensible, prudent suggestions that we talk is that they lose ground internationally. For many, many years they could make the claim that they were being ostracized, that the United States wouldn't talk to them and now when they simply refuse to even have a simple dialogue, I think they lose ground diplomatically and I saw the effort and I think it's more than worth it.

MS. MITCHELL: Especially doing it in Europe, exactly the audience that you want to do that to in terms of Iran.

Thank you very much, Jack Reed. Good to see you.

SEN. REED: Thank you.

END.

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