MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

Interviewer: Ed Schultz

Senator Barrasso, good to have you with us tonight.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO ®, WYOMING: Great to be back with you, Ed.

SCHULTZ: What do you make of-how do you defend a company that's gouging the American people like this? Does this call for reform, in your opinion?

BARRASSO: You know, there ought to be insurance reform in the health care bills debating in the Senate and the House right now. There is very little health insurance reform in those bills. That's the problem, Ed.

I like what the president says. What I don't like are the words that are printed in the bills.

And, you know, the president, when he was in the Senate, voted against allowing people to buy insurance across state lines. He voted against allowing people to write off the cost of their health care if they didn't get insurance through work. He voted against small businesses when he was a Senator, against small businesses being able to get together and combine and negotiate and get their rates down.

We need insurance reform. We need health care reform. We need a bipartisan program to get that reform, Ed.

SCHULTZ: All right.

Talking about this bipartisan thing, a development today in the Senate Finance Committee, this coalition of the willing. Senator Orrin Hatch has walked out of that committee saying that he can't support anything they're talking about.

How big of a step back is this, in your opinion, in getting a bipartisan agreement? Not that I'm for that, but your opinion on getting that and Orrin Hatch stepping away from it?

BARRASSO: I'm not aware of that, but I am aware that every Tuesday morning over the last several months, about 16 senators sit down in a bipartisan way. I'm part of that group-eight Republicans, eight Democrats. The senator from your area, Minnesota, Al Franken, has started to participate in those meetings the last couple of weeks.

We are looking for a bipartisan solution to cover more people. But when the Mayo Clinic comes out, as they did this week, and say the president's proposal, the House proposal, costs too much, will cover too few people, would be bad for the health of the American people and actually makes matters worse, that says that the president's words aren't matching up with the bill that the country is looking at.

You asked Senator Rockefeller if he was ready to stay here all the way through August. I'm ready to work for the people of Wyoming all through August, but the people of Wyoming want to read this bill, they want to see this bill.

You talk about the show "The Senate Doctors." We're getting e-mails, twitters, we're hearing from Facebook.

SCHULTZ: Absolutely.

BARRASSO: And they're saying we want to see what's in the bill. Don't vote on that bill until the people of America get a chance to read it, Ed.

SCHULTZ: I totally agree. Well, you know what? I understand they (ph) didn't read the Patriot Act, so, I mean, there's a pattern here. And I don't think it takes that long to read 1,000 pages in a bill and then debate it.

And I'm glad that you'll stay in Washington until we get this thing done, because I haven't heard-I haven't had one elected official tell me on this program that, no, I want to go home. So I hope the president tonight asks the leadership to hold everybody in the Congress.

BARRASSO: What I said is people have a right to visit with their legislators at home before they vote.

SCHULTZ: Oh, come on, Senator.

BARRASSO: The people have an absolutely right and an expectation...

SCHULTZ: Senator, please.

BARRASSO: ... to talk to their elected representatives before they cast a vote that's going to affect everybody's life and one-sixth of the economy of this great country, Ed.

SCHULTZ: All right. Senator, please. If the people in Washington haven't figured out what the people in the heartland want when it comes to health care, then there is a serious disconnect.

BARRASSO: They don't want this bill.

SCHULTZ: This has got...

BARRASSO: They don't want this bill, Ed.

SCHULTZ: Oh, yes. Well, actually, it's got a public option. I do want it, and I wish you would go along with it.

BARRASSO: You do, but the people across the country are expressing significant doubts.

SCHULTZ: No, they're not. No they're not, Senator.

(CROSSTALK)

BARRASSO: They say the cost is too high. We like what the president is proposing in words when he speaks, but not what's in this bill.

SCHULTZ: All right.

Well, it's got a public option in there, and it deals with pre-existing conditions. And that's what the American people want. And they also want real reform.

Now, on this network a few days ago, you were on with Senator Coburn. And Senator Coburn said that we have the best health care system in the world.

Do you agree with that?

BARRASSO: I think in many parts of our health care system, it is the best in the world, but we need absolute improvement. There's a lot more we need to do to help people, to make sure we have a health system instead of a sickness system. And Ed, right now we still have a sickness system in this country, not a health system.

SCHULTZ: OK.

And again, do you think that the Congress should address the gross profits that this company has put forward in the second quarter of 155 percent increase? Can you defend that?

BARRASSO: I'm telling you that insurance reform needs to be a part of health care reform, but it's not being done in these bills.

SCHULTZ: And what is that? But what reform are we talking about that would reel in profit like that so the American people don't have double-digit increases in their health care premiums? I mean, that's what we're looking at.

BARRASSO: Competition that allows people to buy insurance across state lines. President Obama voted against it when he was in the Senate.

Opportunities for small businesses to group together, to get better deals. President Obama, when he was in the Senate, voted against that.

The ability for people to get a tax deduction if they're buying their insurance individually. President Obama was not in favor of that either.

So, there are a number of things we can do for health care reform, Ed, but I don't see them in the 1,000-page proposal that we're looking at now in Congress.

SCHULTZ: OK. Well, that's what you want, and I respect you for that.

So, a public option is out of the question for the Republicans, correct?

BARRASSO: Well, it is for me. I think that that leads to a government takeover of health care here, Ed.

SCHULTZ: There's no takeover here, Senator. Come on now. That's a right wing bullet point that's put out by Frank Luntz, and it's worn out. And you know that no one is going to take over anything. It's going to give the American people an option.

I really appreciate your time tonight, Senator. Good to have you with us. We just agree to disagree.

BARRASSO: Government medicine has never worked. It's not going to work now, Ed. Hey, thanks for having me.

SCHULTZ: Well, the VA system works well, and so does Medicare.

BARRASSO: Well, I've worked in those VA hospitals for a number of years in my residency training, and that's not where I would want to go for my health care.

SCHULTZ: OK. Well, that's a personal-but you have health care insurance, Senator. There's 50 million people in this country that would love to have that kind of access, and they don't have it. And that's the key.

BARRASSO: And they need a lot of choices. I get 15 programs to choose from, and none of them is a government option. They're all private choices.

SCHULTZ: I believe you work for the government, don't you?

BARRASSO: That's why none of these-no, I have Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHULTZ: And I believe Senator Grassley told somebody to go get a job with the federal government.

Senator, good to have you with us.

BARRASSO: Well, I was practicing medicine, the people that were working for me, the nurses and the secretaries, they had better insurance than what my staff and what I have right now.

SCHULTZ: All right. Senator, good to have you with us. We'll visit again.

BARRASSO: Thanks, Ed.

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