MSNBC - "Morning Joe" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC - "Morning Joe" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Maxine Waters - Health Care Reform

Interviewers: Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, Donny Deutsch

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MS. BRZEZINSKI: With us now, Democratic representative from California and member of the House Financial Services Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

Thanks very much for being on the show this morning. It's good to have you on.

REP. WATERS: You're welcome. How're you doing, Mika?

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Oh, we're good. We're powering through. Right, Willie?

MR. GEIST: I would say we're doing more than powering through.

Could I ask her a question --

(Cross talk.)

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Good morning, Willie. Good morning.

MR. GEIST: Just off the top -- Congresswoman Waters, we want to get to the health care in a moment.

REP. WATERS: Yes.

MR. GEIST: But obviously, (top ?) of mine and your great state this morning, chaos, as Donald Trump has asked Miss California to step down.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: What? No --

MR. DEUTSCH: A crisis --

(Cross talk.)

MR. GEIST: There's a crisis in your state. How will the vacuum of power be filled there, and what role will you play?

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Ehn.

REP. WATERS: Well, let me just say this. We have a real serious problem in my state.

The state of California has a deficit of about $24 billion. We're not going to have summer school. We're cutting all levels of education, from K through 12, right up through the university.

We're cutting our medical -- Medi-Cal. We're just about to lose some of the services for in-home supportive services. On and on and on.

This is serious.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Thank you.

REP. WATERS: We have run out of money.

MR. GEIST: So you're not concerned about Miss California?

MS. BRZEZINSKI: No. No, she's not.

REP. WATERS: I don't know anything about it.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Thatta girl.

REP. WATERS: (Laughs.)

MR. DEUTSCH: Wow. That was a smackdown. (Laughter.)

MS. BRZEZINSKI: All right. (Cross talk) -- here, let me tell you --

Congresswoman Waters, it's Mika again. Willie, I don't even know -- I apologize for that.

MR. GEIST: I do not.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: And actually, you just gave me a great idea. Whenever some silly little news thing like that comes across, we ought to take the state and look at the bigger story there and say, there's something with Miss California, but we're not going to cover it. There's a budget crisis in California. We're going to cover that. Right?

REP. WATERS: I love that. I -- that's great.

MR. : You go, Mika. Look at you go!

MS. BRZEZINSKI: And I -- you know what, that's why we have Maxine Waters on this morning.

So please tell us more. Kids not getting summer school --

REP. WATERS: Yes.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: How are you guys going to get through this crisis? What are you going to do?

REP. WATERS: I don't know how we're going to get through the crisis. Unfortunately, there's a big divide between the Democrats and the Republicans.

Schwarzenegger has come up with a plan to make deep, deep cuts. Those plans are not agreed to, not supported by many in the legislature.

They're saying that they need to take another look at alternative ways by which to reduce that budget. I just don't know how it's going to be resolved.

They have come to the federal government and they've asked us to guarantee some bonds for them. I don't see any movement on that at this time.

So it's a serious dilemma that we have.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: All right.

MR. GEIST: Congresswoman Waters, in all seriousness --

By the way, I was kidding about Miss California.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: I know you were.

MR. GEIST: You evaded it very nicely.

MR. DEUTSCH: I was not, by the way. I was not.

(Cross talk.)

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Donny!

MR. GEIST: I want to ask you about health care.

Joe writes in his book, The Last Best Hope, about how --

He has a funny passage in there about you working with him -- obviously, on two polar opposite sides of the aisle, but saying that you guys were able to work together to get some important things done.

How important will bipartisanship be in getting real health care reform passed, and how realistic is it for us to expect that you all will work together?

REP. WATERS: Well, I think it's very realistic to expect that we are going to have cooperation on health care reform.

I think there has been a growing consensus that we have to have universal, comprehensive health care for all Americans.

We have 45 million people without health insurance. We're spending $2.5 trillion dollars on health care in this country.

We have got to reduce those costs. We have got to expand the opportunities for all Americans.

And I heard some earlier discussion right here on the show this morning about prevention. That's extremely important.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: That's right. Donny, you were talking about that.

MR. DEUTSCH: Yeah. I have a tax plan, also. I think we take --

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Tort reform.

MR. DEUTSCH: Tort -- here's the -- clean it up tomorrow. Tort reform, education on prevention, tax the wealthy 100,000 Americans an extra 100,000 (dollars) a year: we'd pay for it. That's it. It's a business solution.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Congresswoman Waters, are you willing to discuss tort reform in all this?

REP. WATERS: Well, we're always willing to discuss tort reform. We may not come out on the same side of the issue, but I am open to discussion any time, any place, anywhere, with any of my colleagues.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: And that's exactly what you were reading out of Joe's book. Because that's -- we have Maxine Waters on our radio show.

And actually, Congresswoman Waters, it was funny; our listeners on Joe's radio show were surprised that you were a guest. (Laughs.)

REP. WATERS: I know. I know. People are often surprised, because they don't know about the relationships.

They see only the sound bites about how far apart we are, how confrontational we are.

But there are many of us who get along quite well across the aisle. We not only talk with each other, we have dinner with each other. We share stories about what's going on in our families, our grandchildren.

But that's not seen and talked about.

MR. DEUTSCH: Mika, that's an interesting -- I think what Maxine is talking about with her and Joe is very symbolic of what is the reality in America, but that we don't get in the media --

Is that 90 percent of Americans, I think, agree on most things and genuinely like each other. But obviously, we cover the fringes.

REP. WATERS: That's right.

MR. DEUTSCH: So it is nice to hear that, and I think that's kind of a microcosm of what really does go on in this country, which is a great thing.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Well, and I -- we love having you on and we love having the conversation. And that's what this show is about, and our radio show as well. I think people are beginning to catch on to that.

Do we have the sound bite, Chris, of Barney Frank?

MR. LICHT: Yes, we do.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: All right.

Congresswoman Waters, I'd like to play for you a sound bite. Barney Frank yesterday, talking about executive pay. Take a listen.

REP. WATERS: Oh.

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D-MA): (From videotape.) I do think you have to go further and say, for example, if you take a risk and it pays off and -- you get an extra bonus.

But if two months later it turns out that that was a very temporary payoff, and now the company's losing money, there has to be what we call a callback, and you have to return the money that you got.

If you make a big bet and it loses money, then you ought to lose money.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Seems to make sense, Congresswoman Waters. That was from Andrea Mitchell's show.

REP. WATERS: That's simple responsibility. You can't have a system where you are taking all of these risks and then when it backfires on you, and people are losing money, that you stand aside and say, well, I want my bonuses; I want to be compensated.

That's not right. You have to accept responsibility for the way you manage the portfolio.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: I can't agree with you more.

MR. DEUTSCH: As a guy who has run a business, the entire compensation system has got to be rejiggered. We pay not for performance; we pay for failure today.

REP. WATERS: That's right. That's right.

MR. DEUTSCH: And there is such a built-in entitlement on Wall Street. The expectation is that I get 5 million (dollars) a year; I get 10 million (dollars) a year.

Morons. I've worked with people --

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Now, those are idiots.

MR. DEUTSCH: No, they're morons. But corporate --

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Oh, morons. Okay.

MR. DEUTSCH: -- across the board, we just are an entitled business community, bloated. I can't agree with Frank enough.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Greed and a couple of other words I won't use.

Congresswoman Waters, thank you so much for being on the show. Please come back.

REP. WATERS: You're welcome. Tell Joe I said hello. And I've got to read the book to find out what he said about me.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: I think you should. (Laughter.) We will get you a copy.

Thanks very much.

REP. WATERS: (Laughs.) Thank you.

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