MSNBC "Interview With Senator Charles Grassley" - Transcript

Interview

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MS. O'DONNELL: Also, in other news, in her first time testifying on Capitol Hill as Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius said right now there is unprecedented bipartisan support that could actually make health care reform a reality this year.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS (secretary of Health and Human Services): (From video.) Health care reform cannot wait and will not wait another year.

As we're fixing the economy, we have to fix health care as part of that overall economic strategy.

MS. O'DONNELL: Joining us now live from Capitol Hill is Republican Senator Charles Grassley, ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, which means probably one of the most important Republicans up there when it comes to health care reform.

Senator, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Thank you, Norah. I'm glad to be with you.

MS. O'DONNELL: You got quite an invite today, to have lunch with the president of the United States. I know you talked about health care reform. Tell us what you discussed.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Okay. I also tweeted on this as I left the White House, if you're interested in that.

MS. O'DONNELL: We'll talk about your tweeting in a moment.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Okay.

MS. O'DONNELL: But first I want to get to the real meat of the discussion --

SEN. GRASSLEY: Sure.

MS. O'DONNELL: -- and that's on health care.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Yes. And I -- vice president was there. Senator Baucus was there. Senator Baucus and I are the two negotiators for the Republican and Democrat on the Finance Committee, and we have the lead role on health care finance and also on reform. And we did not talk too much about substance, but about 90 percent of the discussion dealt with the process of health care reform. And most --

MS. O'DONNELL: Well, what do you think are the biggest sticking points, Senator?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Oh, I'll be glad to tell you.

Number one: financing, probably the biggest.

Number two is the extent to which we have a government-run plan in competition with private plans, or just do more regulation of private plans and do away with the discrimination that comes from preexisting conditions and the rating system that they presently use; and then also whether to mandate individually -- or let's start over again -- mandate at all -- health care coverage. And if you do, do you do it individually, or individual and business; and whether or not businesses that don't comply, they pay, if don't go along with it, some sort of a tax.

And we want to change reimbursement of health care from where there's perverse incentives to overutilize -- from quantity from quality.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator, I know those are big issues. It will be interesting to see whether in fact you can get health care done this year, given all those challenges.

I love that you're tweeting and that you tweeted about the fact that you had a hamburger at lunch at the White House. Are you a ketchup, mustard or mayonnaise kind of guy?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, in this particular case, with nothing, because Iowa beef is such high quality that I don't --

MS. O'DONNELL: How do you know it was Iowa beef?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Well --

MS. O'DONNELL: Was Iowa beef at the White House?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, what you got to do is, you got to figure that Iowa's fifth in beef production, so somewheres along the line 20 percent of it's got to come from Iowa. And any beef I eat comes from Iowa.

MS. O'DONNELL: (Laughs.) And what did the president and the vice president have? Because they had burgers yesterday.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, I don't think that I should tell you what they ate, but they ate a little more -- how would you say it -- a little more up-to-date diet than I do, probably one that would cause them to not gain a lot of weight.

MS. O'DONNELL: (Laughs.) Okay.

Senator Charles Grassley, the point man on health care reform, also sharing what he had for lunch at the White House.

Senator, good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Thank you.

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